Batmobiles, Gremlins and 'Matrix' Villains: Inside Warner Bros.' Chamber of Secrets

Leith Adams With 'Matrix's' Agent Smith

Leith Adams stands with one of more than 70 Agent Smiths — or, rather, actor Hugo Weaving — made for the Matrix sequels. The heads are made of a rubber and latex composite and can rotate. In the box to the right are sculptures made by Catherine O’Hara’s character in Tim Burton’s 1988 classic, Beetlejuice.

Staring Competition

Adams and his team of eight have been collecting and preserving everything from letters between William Faulkner and Jack Warner to costumes from such movies as The Matrix and, yes, The Adventures of Pluto Nash.

A Career in Preservation

When he was a teen, Adams mowed the lawn at a drive-in in Paris, Ill. When he came into the manager’s office to beat the heat one summer day, he saw a stack of movie posters. He learned the one-sheets were going to be burned the next day and asked whether he could have them. A career in preservation (and a side gig selling vintage posters) was born.

'Batman Begins'

Christian Bale's batsuit from 2005's Batman Begins.

'Batman & Robin' Costume

Even duds get the archival treatment, but Batman is a special case for the studio. “Even if it’s from Batman & Robin, we’ll save it because it’s Batman,” notes Adams. “The film may not be well-remembered, but at the end of the day, Batman will always be Batman.”

Adam's Philosophy: 'Save Heavy'

“My philosophy is, you need to save heavy once a film wraps because you can never go back and recover anything,” says Adams, photographed Oct. 8 among decades of costumes. “Then in five years we’ll relook at that film or TV show and ask, ‘Do we need to have all these items?’ ”

Batmobiles Through the Years

Bruce Wayne would approve: The facility houses nine Batmobiles, not counting two from a Batman stage show. Four are on exhibit elsewhere, and the five stored include (from left) a car from 1992's Batman Forever, one each from 1989's Batman and Batman Returns and the armor-plated car from Batman Returns.

'Corpse Bride' Puppets

Puppets from Tim Burton’s 2005 stop-motion film Corpse Bride are stored in a giant refrigerator at 46 degrees to optimize preservation. “The rise and lowering of the temperature would cause them to expand and contract, expand and contract,” says Adams, “and so it would break down the materials a lot faster.”

'Gremlins' Puppet

Kept in the refrigerator with figures from Corpse Bride are six puppets from Warners’ 1984 horror comedy Gremlins and its 1990 sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

'Corpse Bride' Collection

The Corpse Bride collection consists of 289 puppets.

Tagged Costumes

Classics collide in the wardrobe section, which stores more than 20,000 meticulously tagged costumes from Caddyshack to Giant. Adams curated and oversaw the Warner Bros. Museum on the Burbank lot. The museum is part of the studio tour — this past August, it averaged 2,000 visitors a day.

John Wayne's Saddle

A saddle once owned by John Wayne sits on a temporary horse. The saddle, which is inscribed with a “JW” on its pommel and is intricate in its design, was donated to the Archive by Gretchen and Michael Wayne (the Duke’s daughter-in-law and son). About 5 percent of what is stored comes from donations. “It was too fancy for [Wayne],” says Adams of the saddle’s history. “He liked something that was less ostentatious.”

Wardrobe Sketch From 'Giant'

Rock Hudson’s wardrobe sketch from the 1956 classic Giant. Director George Stevens approved the look by signing, “OK.”

'The Sopranos' Strip Club Sign

The archive holds the sign from the strip club that served as Tony Soprano’s HQ in HBO’s The Sopranos. While Warners' Corporate Archive initially only preserved films, it started saving memorabilia from notable TV shows in 1994.