Inanimate objects as secondary movie characters

Been a while! I guess I have to espouse some random movie musings after over a month-long hiatus.

I've got to say I really enjoy watching movies, even if the movie really isn't that good, involving stories making inanimate objects secondary characters in a film. Even if the object in question just sits there and doesn't talk, as most random objects don't, they can move along a story, add key plot elements, or be just as important as one of the paid actors, if you have a filmmaker(s) that knows what they are doing. Cases in point...

Winchester '73, Mystic River, Running Scared , and Stray Dog all involve the use of a certain firearm as a plot device, with characters making a mad dash for the prized shooter. "Winchester" involves the titular rifle stolen from James Stewart after a marksmanship contest, "Mystic River" involves a gun used in a robbery/prank gone awry, with lawmen and outlaws alike looking for the pistol, and "Scared" involves the same two groups of people looking for a beautiful pearl-handled .38 revolver. "Stray Dog", as is my opinion with ANY Kurosawa film, is the best in this category, spinning the yarn of a rookie detective hot on the lookout for his pickpocketed handgun, which is then used in several robberies and a murder.

Runners-up in the "gun" category include Disturbing Behavior, where a Government .45, although not necessarily a true plot device, trades hands among several key characters throughout the film. I also note The Dark Knight, where Batman takes Two-Face's gun into his possession, thereby implicating himself in the the latter's vigilante murders and giving Gotham City their "true hero" in the form of Harvey Dent. Oh yeah, U.S. Marshals uses a certain gun in a twist ending as well.

In the organic matter category we've got Return of the Living Dead, where the poison gas Trioxin turns corpses into the walking, or should I say running and screaming (!), dead. Although not the greatest zombie movie ever made, in my opinion, writer/director Dan O'Bannon had the foresight to make the Trioxin gas a character all in its own. Upon being released from the containers, we follow the gas' path through pipes, ventilation systems, a morgue, and finally a cremation chamber, where the gas turns into toxic rain and falls over a graveyard. You can guess what happens next.

WALL-E also has a plant as a plot device. Our three-foot-tall trash compacting hero lives a solitary and boring life until he finds a sprout which he puts in an army boot to take care of, setting in motion a pretty wild adventure for the little guy and his precious cargo.