Tomb Raider - Cradle of Life, Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft Diving Knife

original movie prop

This hard resin diving knife was custom-made for use by Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft as part of her iconic silver wetsuit look on the poster, in promo shots, and in the film Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life.  This style of knife is worn sheathed on her left leg as she wears the silver wetsuit, and removed when she uses it to pry a gold medallion from an artifact.  It's then used during her escape, as she cuts her own arm through the wetsuit in order to draw blood to attract a shark--which she then punches in the nose and rides to safety while holding its fin, in one of the film's more fantastical action sequences.

Notably, this particular resin knife has had the serrated edges dulled and blunted for safety, whereas on the metal hero they're quite prominent.  This likely implies that it was specially made for use in the scene where Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) uses it to memorably cut herself and attract the shark.  While the scene itself is fantastically improbable, shark-punching does feature in the Tomb Raider games, such as Tomb Raider: Underworld--and the sequence is a pretty iconic moment in Angelina Jolie's turn as Lara Croft, as this commentator points out:

https://moviesfilmsandflix.com/2018/07/28/mff-sea-beast-week-analyzing-the-shark-punching-scene-in-lara-croft-tomb-raider-the-cradle-of-life/

The resin knife itself is in very good overall condition, albeit with a hairline crack along one half of the blade width, where there's a cutout design--the crack was likely caused when the knife was removed from its specialized diving sheath, which contains a safety mechanism to prevent the knife from being removed unless it's either forcefully yanked out, or flexed.  This could easily be repaired and become invisible to casual inspection with a small application of epoxy, but for now I'm leaving it as-is and just avoiding ever placing it in the sheath again.  The paint is in good condition, with some wear and discoloration in the places where it was held by the handle, and is well-adhered with no sign of flaking or deterioration.  The silver paint on the blade looks surprisingly metallic and shimmery under bright lighting, which doesn't come across adequately in still pictures.  The sheath included with this knife is identical to the one used with the hero metal knife in the film, as part of the silver wetsuit costume--except that this one is black with the manufacturer name painted out, whereas the sheath worn on the wetsuit is clear (possibly custom-made, or just another manufacturer color option for use with this knife).  So the sheath itself is just for storage of the prop, but was not itself seen onscreen.

This knife was part of Lot #458 in Propstore of London's December 2020 Live Auction; the original listing this was purchased from can be seen here: 

https://propstoreauction.com/m/lot-details/index/catalog/244/lot/66716/