One of the cleverest and most practical use of Lego in movies would be in the Danish comedic crime series, the “Olsen Gang” movies. A group of hapless thieves led by Egon Olsen, the Olsen Gang never use weapons or violence, and often use everyday items in clever ways in their robberies, like lego or balloons.
In “Olsen-banden overgiver sig aldrig” (1979), the Olsen Gang create a Lego device that is able to go up stairs and even open a door from the other side, created by the production team entirely out of real Lego toy parts, with no movie trickery whatsoever. The entire sequence is worth watching in its entirety.
Perhaps because of this astonishing sequence, and also because the Olsen Gang movies come from Denmark, home of Lego (and share Lego’s whimsical and nonviolent ethos), the Lego community has a strange affection for the Olsen Gang films, often producing custom kits and figures of Egon Olsen, Benny, Kjeld, and Yvonne, along with his 1959 Chevrolet, and recreate entire scenes from the 14 movies in the series.
