9 Movie Special Effects Nobody Believed

[@Torvaun]

The more unbelievable effect in Terminator 2 was the helicopter flying under a freeway overpass. The secret to this was that Chuck Tamburro flew a goddamn helicopter under a goddamn overpass. He's not crazy, he did roll it under on wheels first so that he could check the clearance, and he had a full five feet of vertical wiggle room (and four feet on each side). Also, he did it at 70 miles per hour because if he went slower the ground effect would have come into play. Also, the close-up camera crew wasn't willing to take that kind of risk, so James Cameron is holding the camera.

[@RCAvhstape]

A lot of movies and TV shows from that era have cool helicopter scenes thanks to the Vietnam vets who flew crazier than that while getting shot at. I think every one of my favorite 80s TV shows has helicopters in it. Airwolf, Blue Thunder, Riptide, The A-Team, etc.

[@jannepeltonen2036]

Airspeed, altitude, and brains - you need two of these at all times to survive...

[@Stromhammar]

The Fountain is such an awesome film. Knowing how they did it just makes it even cooler.

[@RadomirSVK]

I always wondered how was that effect created because it is unreal beauty! Is it even possible to create something like that on PC program? And here we are. Now I know. .. Btw.: that last scene, that combination of pictures, music and story, I always cry like a river. It is so strong and powerfull moment of everything.

[@happyninja42]

Yeah that movie is in that small list of "films that changed the way I see the world."

[@bryanbryan2968]

In some universe where ai is in charge they are debating how can they afford to make a scene in a movie with 50 million dollars worth of yeast.

[@Maykay524]

I love the edited “9” when he says the title

[@AdamTelly]

I noticed that - not enough to comment but as your comment was at the top...

[@nathankoren]

I'd have added Apollo 13 to the list. I've seen so many reaction videos where people are trying figure out how the zero-g scenes were filmed, and nobody who isn't already in on it even suspects that the way they did it was by FILMING IN ZERO-G.

[@CaritasGothKaraoke]

How did you miss possibly the biggest one? The opening scene with early hominids discovering fire in 2001: A Space Odyssey was denied a nomination for best makeup _because the Academy didn’t believe Kubrick didn’t use trained chimpanzees_ . They were seriously denied an Oscar for best makeup because the makeup was so well done nobody believed it was makeup.

[@Sd-w8g-u8l]

Kubrick messed up badly by making the hind legs of the apes much too long. /s

[@IntyMichael]

@@Sd-w8g-u8l after all that are not apes but hominids.

[@WillN2Go1]

I don't remember being puzzled by the gravity ring in 2001. Anyone at that time knew about Fred Astaire's scene from Royal Wedding 1951 where he dances on the walls and ceiling of a room immediately knew how it was done. The only surprise I think was later, learning how difficult (the huge set) it had turned out to be.

[@RCAvhstape]

@@WillN2Go1 The scene in 2001 that blew me away was the scene where Bowman blows the hatch to enter Discovery's airlock. That seriously looked so real I couldn't imagine how Kubrick did it without actually building a set in orbit and just doing it for real.

[@aldenwilner3300]

Arthur C Clarke wrote, AIR, in “The Lost Worlds of 2001” that he and Stanley Kubrick joked that the Academy must have thought they used real apes, not that they *actually* thought that. If you can find a citation to support your claim, I would love to see it. But I think you’ve been taken in, like so many others, by an out-of-control joke.

[@mediawolf1]

How about the mirror scene from Contact. Even VFX guys were wondering, how tf did they do that?! Such a simple, subtle effect.

[@ab-yc2tc]

An diese Szene musste ich auch denken und habe sie hier vermisst. Wirklich grandiose Kunst!

[@marciosilva5697]

I could not believe what I was seeing when I watched The Fountain for the first time. The special effects are absolutely mind blowing. Together with a magnificent story. The greatest movie of all time together with interstellar. IMHO.

[@jahmd8377]

The dragon in Dragonslayer was great for its time and still holds up.

[@Shorty_Lickens]

Yeah. Shame the story is bad.

[@Galgomite]

Thank you for mentioning The Fountain. One of my favorite movies!

[@AgravepasmonK]

Overly underrated

[@psybin]

@@AgravepasmonK So is your comment.

[@seanbigay1042]

The macrophotography used to create the nebula in The Fountain sounds a lot like the technique used to create the stunning shots of colliding stars seen during the wormhole passage in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Speaking of which, close inspection will show you that the alien hellscape at the climax of Dave Bowman's trip down the rabbit hole is actually the sweeping view of the Tyrolean Alps from the beginning of The Sound of Music, but recolorized to give it that surreal, unearthly look.

[@Hayden1969-ws4vy]

That's also what they used for baby Kal-El's journey to Earth from Krypton in Superman The Movie.

[@Yonkage-ik5qb]

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan has a fun little double-whammy inversion of expectations. The trippy swirling clouds of the Mutara Nebula were not animated, but created as a practical effect by filming oils and paints and water on a glass tank, similar to what was in The Fountain. But the Genesis Device demonstration was not animated either; it was _pure CGI_ made as a "tech demo" by the artists who would later go on to form Pixar.

[@RCAvhstape]

When I was growing up I thought I heard that the computer graphics on the bridge displays in Wrath of Khan were all made by Atari.

[@spacecadet35]

A lot of people assumed that Ricardo Montalban was wearing a prosthetic to make chest and abs look so sculpted. But according to to director, even at the age of 65, that was all Ricardo. No effects required.

[@davidyoung5114]

What about the hallway fight scene from INCEPTION? Watching it, you would swear that it was CGI, but it was inspired by 2001's revolving set!

[@kev3d]

It's amazing and a tribute to the director's skill that David Fincher managed to make Armie Hammer seem like a normal person.

[@franck3279]

The cool thing about BB8 il that they made a remote control toy version of it and it works fine, proving the design is realistic.

[@WillN2Go1]

BB8 was very cool. A technological marvel, but not that difficult when it was done. Gyroscope, computer control made it possible. And yes you could by a radio controlled one. Quentin Tarantino made Death Proof using a live Zoe Bell hanging on to the hood of a racing car instead of CGI because he thought the Fast and Furious movies and CGI were over used, misused and not that exciting. Bell did have safety wires that were retouched out, but that was her on the hood. Just thinking about that movie still gives me the willies. Fast and Furious? Yawn. I liked a lot of the tricks in the first one, I stopped bothering when they were juggling tanks on a bridge.

[@franck3279]

@WillN2Go1 I agree on everything except 1 detail: BB8 doesn’t even use a gyro: the thing inside the ball is just a variant of a RC car with a counterweight at the bottom and special wheels (placed in cross with diagonal pattern tires) depending on how each wheel pulls, that allows it to move in any direction. And for the head, it’s just a pair of magnets on an articulate mast.

[@Zaruf]

Imagine putting all your blood sweat and tears into making a practical effect and people just say it's CGI. Or now, when graphic artists put in hours of work, people say it's AI

[@Maykay524]

7:36 I had no idea! That’s freaking awesome!!!

[@Gravuun]

A cameraman disguised as a car seat..... brilliant

[@peterratter6603]

Shout out for the airport scene in Casablanca: little people in boiler suits working around a miniature plane.

[@richardbaylis9150]

If you watch carefully at the 1:40 mark you can see that Sir Ian bumps the part of the table that is actually in front of him and everything on it moves slightly, but the section that is further away and part of the forced perspective trick stays rock solid. Whoops.

[@Somnogenesis]

Great catch! I may never be able to unsee that from now on, though...

[@kev3d]

Good eye.

[@teenygozer]

Bill Irwin is a national treasure. I have one of his Broadway shows on DVD and watch it all the time.

[@NickRoman]

A guy disguised as a car seat. LOL I like that one.

[@jimmyzhao2673]

Him: I'm sort of an actor, I was in a movie once. Her: Cool, what role did you play ? Him: Well, 2 roles actually, it's complicated...

[@thafy1]

Did you know: The Fountain used similar/same techniques (macro photography using inks and dyes) as Stanley Kubrick for the trippy scenes after the intermission in 2001: A Space Odyssey

[@etiennebrownlee4071]

I love the Fountain, even before Aranofsky it's such a fantastic mesmerizing film. The time it was released there were so much bad reviews, I just didnt understand how such a masterpiece could be received like that. And then Darren made the Black Swan and then all those so called critics got silenced.

[@niceguy191]

I don't think that's how the knife worked... Adam Savage does of build and it's the tip that's able to swing out of the way on a little spring. That would also mean the part about not knowing which edge is not true (plus, why would they risk that mistake??)

[@PeterMoore66]

^ Came here to say this. When you slow down the footage you can see that the knife moves directly away from the nose without being pulled down first - which is what Polanski would have had to do if the whole blade was solid, as per the incorrect graphic in this video.

[@rixx46]

And nobody anywhere thought it was real. Why would a big star like Nicholson than anyone (especially the director) stick a real knife of his nose and cut him!?

[@darkkrenaissance42]

The Fountain effects truly proves, As Above so Below

[@NumptyMcNumptyface]

If you haven't seen it already, check out "John Carpenter's 'The thing': Terror takes shape" - a great documentary with some hilarious anecdotes. (And if you don't have a physical copy of the movie, the whole documentary is on KZbin.)

[@robgronotte1]

Did people really "not believe" these scenes? I've never even once wondered how the makers of a film created any particular effect. And how would anyone have not guessed how the scene in 2001 was filmed? The same trick was used 17 years earlier in a movie with Fred Astaire.

[@pvanukoff]

Keep in mind that half the population is below average intelligence. By definition.

[@Dhakadice]

And when the camera follows him, it's even more obvious he's just running in a big hamster wheel.

[@QuarrellaDeVil]

Go all the way back to 1923 for Harold Lloyd's iconic clock scene for a bit of camera trickery and perspective shots. Even more points for Lloyd, who was missing the thumb and part of a finger on his right hand, all concealed by a special prosthesis. 1923.

[@robertnewell5057]

Terminator 2 was the best, and thank you so much for revealing that scene.

[@trevorbrown6654]

Those effects in The Fountain are awesome and must have fooled almost everyone. That they were done so cheaply is just amazing.

[@Jamesssssssssssssss]

I remember watching the original Terminator as a kid and the eye scene just felt so real to me.

[@Iggystar71]

Wow! Making The Fountain even more unique!

[@Kingdom_Of_Dreams]

I'm surprised that the Avatar: Way of Water clip didn't make it to this list. It baffled even special effects artists who debated about whether or not it was practical or CGI. It wasn't until a special effects artist who actually worked on the film stepped in to clear the air, showing that most of the clip was in fact CGI, with only a tiny portion being real.

[@MontagoDK]

The Foundtain is is a god damn masterpiece - i've watched it multple times and just love it. The music and the story gives me the chills just thinking about it. The power of love and the sadness of loss.

[@zedirich7]

I thought the title meant effects that didn't convince anybody such as obvious rubber heads and smooth cgi.

[@flippert0]

Knew about most of the scenes discussed here except for the macro photography used in "The Fountain". And yes, my mind is properly blown! Of course this had to be expensive CGI, right?

[@bulkvanderhuge9006]

I'm surprised about the scene used from 2001: A Space Odyssey, rather than the Scene where Dave enters the airlock with zero gravity. That was much more spectacular than the hamster wheel.

[@michaelcarbone6101]

Harry Houdini tried to have a film career but people didn’t believe his stunts were real🤷‍♂

[@ab-yc2tc]

Zum Glück. Ist das Buster Keaton nicht. Passiert

[@guillaumepare9651]

The fountain is a hidden gem.

[@sogggy]

Christopher Nolan actually created a black hole instead of using a CGI black hole.

[@Cau_No]

No, he just filmed on location … like Kubrick did for his movies. But they actually made a set for the tesseract and just put a filter on the scenes. So basically, yes, they built the inside of the black hole.

[@christianwestling2019]

Coppolas "Bram Stokers Dracula" from 1992 should have an honourable mention since everything was made practical in that one.

[@Mobus_]

I often think about the trip to the nebula in the tree of life bubble, so memorable, so fantastic.

[@ericabbott9128]

I think The Poseidon Adventure ) needs to be on this list. the scene inside the ballroom is amazing

[@DjVortex-w]

Almost nobody likes the 2001 film Planet of the Apes, directed by Tim Burton. Yet, in my case, it's one of my favorite films, and one of the reasons for it is the sheer amount of practical effects. There's surprisingly little CGI used (almost exclusively in space scenes and to create some backgrounds, but that's it). The practical effects are shown and discussed in the "making of" documentaries. Some of the practical effects are of the "nobody believes it" level, such as the "apes" outrunning galloping horses. No CGI, no compositing, no split screen, no computer nor camera trickery, just practical effects.

[@sirussid3671]

Special effects in movies are like SPEED limits enforced by a SNIPPER... Don't even try it mate!!🥶

[@SilntObsvr]

Kubrick didn't keep the 2001 centrifuge sequence *that* secret -- I recall reading in *Popular Science* magazine (while the movie was still current, if not in first run) about the hamster wheel -- including that there was also a camera that ran on a track in the central floor groove to follow the runner(s), as well as multiple fixed cameras for the warped perspective shots.

[@Mark73]

When the Lord of the Rings movies first came out, there was a massive amount of talk about all the practical effects, about how they use perspective tricks to make the hobbits look shorter than everyone else.

[@Melayahm01]

One effect it took me years to find out about was how the shower scene in Psycho was shot. The camera is looking straight up at the shower head, yet has no water on it. I wondered if it had been shot upside down, but then I thought you would see the water falling backwards after it had shot upwards. I did find the answer, I was just surprised that the technology was available so early.

[@riffrff]

I 100% thought BB-8 was CGI until now and was even annoyed they made such an impractical design :)

[@roberthughes7237]

The robots in Real Steel are real. The director wanted actors to have something real to interact with. I know the fight scenes are CGI, but not the rest.

[@osuuma6935]

For the BB-8 sequence your sample at 8:39 clearly shows BB-8's head going from a practical effect, then being overlaid by CGI, and then back to a practical effect.

[@jackparsons2308]

BB8 was mostly manipulated by a guy in a greenscreen body suit.

[@bryanc1984]

0:34 I definitely didn't believe that ADR.

[@fancykarlmarx]

Ian did “reportedly” breakdown, you can watch it happen in a behind the scenes video. It’s very sad.

[@gerardgeiran5706]

the dance scene with Matt Smith, Thomasin Mckenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy in Last Night in Soho

[@ChrisEllorris]

Ian McKellen didn't allegedly have a breakdown on set. It was filmed and included with the special features.

[@paulgrove1407]

Linda and Lisa was not the only twins Cameron used during the making of Terminator Two. The scene where the T2000 kills the hospital orderly in the bathroom was also shot with twin brothers.

[@Darth.Shredder]

When LOTR's came out I remember the early scene of Gandalf arriving in the Shire and thinking he looks like a giant. not that Frodo looked small.

[@zacmumblethunder7466]

Best makeup wasn't a category until 1981, after complaints that the previous year's "The Elephant Man" wasn't awarded anything for the makeup. Prior to that, makeup artists were only eligible to be considered for a "Special achievement" award, which rarely happened.

[@coobalt]

WOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW that fact about Linda Hamilton in Terminator 02 .... Fantastic video ....

[@eyreaus2736]

Jules, could you do a series with just your pep talks from videos. Friend was down, but I couldn't figure out which videos had which advice. Would be nice!

[@oingpla]

The $140k was for the rare bottle of baby oil.

[@tj10777]

Who knows? It could have been a freebie from a diddy party

[@jimmyzhao2673]

@@tj10777 👀

[@keyesy9]

Top shelf

[@paulfranklin7161]

TARS is mostly practical in Interstellar (as is his buddy CASE, which is the robot on the water planet), puppetteered for the most part by Bill Irwin, but also by some of the stunt performers. However, most of the clips you play are the full digital shots, especially the ones where CASE is running through the water - the water in those shots is also mostly CG for the interactions with the robot as the SFX rig didn't move quickly enough on the day. The shot of CASE running through the water, carrying Brand, is partly practical (the arms holding Anne Hathaway's stunt double) with the rest of the robot made in CG - the water being pushed along in front of the robot is a combinaton of in-camera SFX and complex water simulation. The couple of shots of TARS in zero G are CG. All of the fine manipulator shots - where the robot's arm folds out to pick something up or do fine work - use CG for the arm. Pretty much any shot of TARS on the surface of the ice planet is CG - it was far too dangerous to use the puppet on the glacier as there were crevasses all over the place and the ice surface was very slippy!

[@foreverpinkf.7603]

Brain will always beat CGI, not mentioning the cost savings.

[@blakespower]

I dont remember that scene of them removing arnolds chip. in Terminator 2, I thought they lowered him in molten metal

[@jimmyzhao2673]

That scene was in the special edition.

[@bheast86]

the Winlevoss twins business was anticipated by DEAD RINGERS

[@vincentwood7036]

Also the alien in Alien 3 which was not CG, it was a puppet (except for one brief CG scene right at the end).

[@markschwarz2137]

What does the title of this video mean?

[@AndrewGamblin-go5oe]

What about the train crash sequence in Extraction 2, or the camera work during the "escaping through the traffic jam" sequence in Spielberg's War of the Worlds. Both fantastic effects shots.

[@CristiNeagu]

Peter Jackson is getting a lot of undeserved flak over The Hobbit. Not only are those movies vastly better than most people make them up to be, but The Hobbit isn't Jackson's project. He was called onto a sinking ship and made the best out of it. He didn't have the privilege of going through the same preparation process he did with The Lord of the Rings. So quit it!

[@Bapuji42]

ok sorry

[@PacesIII]

How about the chase sequence from Extraction 2?

[@johnkeck]

What you say about The Fountain reminds me of Tree of Life.

[@Kevin-wr9um]

The zero-g scenes in Inception. HTF did they pull that off?

[@alejandropadilla6777]

I was waiting for the underwater bar Brawl in topsecret😂

[@ohmydinosare]

this is a very sloppy video, two very jarring lines where a single word has been untidily dubbed in, and an inconsistent theme, with some of these being shots done practically that people thought were cgi, and shots done with cgi that people thought were real, and one done with practical effects that people thought was done for real, these don't feel like nine of the same thing

[@michaelfarrell4824]

How many did you originally have before the ADR of the "9"? 😂

[@rowox]

Based on the intro the Winklevoss twins shouldn't be on this list, because digital effects were used for the effect.

[@petermcgill1315]

So, it was real, except for the guy that was “painted out” to make it look real.

[@nafspark]

Can definitely tell this list wasn't originally 9 items by that clunky edit...

[@melaniemanning2462]

I thonk if I'd known about the macro in the Fountain, I'd have seen it.

[@Ctr1A1tDe1Eat]

0:15 Toxic shrew intensifies

[@MrConverse]

8:22, footballlike? That’s not a football. Oh,… wait. That kind of football.

[@mike18699-e]

What you were thinking of is a handegg.

[@jamesbrice3267]

Welcome to the outside of America.

[@mickwilson99]

Bonza!

[@mcbethstudios]

Cameraman wiki's movie appearance part: the reid 2 - car seat

[@DarioDarrow]

BB-8 has been debunked as normal Disney lies to create an illusion that practical effects are being used. I think "TheMovieRabbitHole" even mentions it in his amazing videos.

[@johnbecher85]

As far as movie twins go, why is Social Network on here but Double Impact is not? No CGI there. And it was made years earlier. And is one of my favorite Van Damme films.

[@ask4kobebeef]

i was ;gonna post the same. The social network one isnt anything special

[@codexdelux]

OK so lets make a breakdown off all the shots you say, or at least strongly indicate are special effects that would have to be done with a computer. For the record, CGI means computer generated imagery, which is a misleading term, as there are artists creating them using computers as tools... But there is a much more common class of visual effects done to movies, which is to add to or alter an image, using what is called compositing, think of it like photoshop, but 24 frames per second. I'm not saying this to take away from any of the stuff they did with forced perspective. I'm simply saying that technique has its limits, and when you hit a limit on SFX, you need to go VFX instead, and there's nothing wrong with that, as a VFX artist we work hand in hand with SFX all the time to make the best possible effects. But there's a strange narrative that you journalists keep perpetuating that "CGI" is bad, and "Practical" is good that is bordering on silly, especially when you can't tell the difference yourself. So 1:01 "you might look at scenes like this..." that shot with the hobbits on the bed is impossible to do without a greenscreen, because you cannot use forced perspective where the smaller characters overlap with the larger characters (since the larger characters need to be closer to camera for the effect to work) so that shot has been composited. You don't "use CGi to shrink" them, a sentence that makes little sense, you shoot them on bluescreen and composite them in, after carefully making sure the lenses and angles and sizes match up before shooting the two different elements. 1:08 the shot with the barkeep is a composite done digitally, cause the cup passes in front of and behind Frodo and the face of the barkeep enters frame (which makes a big guy less likely). The Tars stuff: Yeah pretty much. basically they had to paint him out anytime he was in front, often "painting" it out by tracking the prop, and adding a CG version on top though. But now the artists have a perfect reference for what it should look like in that spesific scene, so they end up making it look exactly like the prop (with enough time and money, which Nolan has). Obviously nothing to comment on the shots that came before computer graphics. The fountain has more than 87 vfx shots, by far, but ok. BB-8 was completely CG in more than 30% of the shots, and was puppeteered where a rig and guy in green suit had to be comped out in many many shots as well. The remote controlled version couldn't roll up hill, or on sand, because of friction, so while its cool, its obviously not the case that it was "no CGI" on BB-8.

[@johnaweiss]

Dumb premise. The best movie magic is when people DO believe it's real.

[@FrostBird89]

Saying "BB 8" was practical while showing almost only shot where he is 100% cgi.

[@CatManDoom84]

When the social network came out i didnt know who Armie Hammer was, so i legit thought they were twin actors. Just like with lindsey lohan in parent trap hahah! Only found out when i watched behind the scenes stuff hah.From that point on i got way more eagle eyed with vfx/cgi in movies. There can be alot of cgi in movies you dont think would have em.Just goes to show how good they have become.

[@jamesbrice3267]

Try The Great Mouse Detective. It was the first animation to include CGI.

[@CatManDoom84]

@ oh for sure i know about that one too! Amazing cgi for the time! Seen vids about that too

[@jamesbrice3267]

@@CatManDoom84 Treasure Planet? John Silver was half hand-drawn, half CGI.

[@CatManDoom84]

@ not up to snuff with that one, i remember seeing it in theaters but only the one time. I remember liking it though

[@ryanverypogi]

so its not special effect but practical effect

[@ayesnapsnots]

I Really thought William Fichtner played T.A.R.S

[@beetlejuicexx]

Was one of the special effects - over dubbing or poorly editing the speech at 0:33 that says '9 movie special effects no-one believed'

[@Monkofmagnesia]

7"17 - TheClik Bait default phoo.

[@PauloDand]

TARS being real is full Nolan bullshit they had a puppet on set that was entirely replaced by a 3D model in post The only scenes TARS was real are the ones where he either doesn't move or the ones where he's not entirely visible

[@zlobzor]

"TARS is real!" *shows the clips with the CG work* Yup, TARS was real, when it was doing slow movements, or "acting" scenes. Those funky cool ones? No. They shot some reference using puppets for those, yes. But that reference was replaced. And guess what... Same goes for BB8! Many (or even most) of the shots where he's zipping about, the remote controlled puppet was replaced by a CGI version. Again, in the clips shown! 8:44 in the forest - the first part of the shot has a digi BB8, which swaps to a puppet when the tree "wipes" across the shot. Stupid Hollywood and it's devaluing of the artists that make cool stuff. The best way of doing effects for movies is a combination of practical and digital. You use the strengths of each to get the best possible results. And film the puppet, even if you intend to replace it. Lighting reference is essential. ;) /rant. Thanks for the vid, as much as I've spent far too much time whinging, it was good! Just a little more time spent making sure they *actually* only used practical effects. XD

[@computerjantje]

skip to 0:33 to avoid the fast talk none telling anything blabla intro. No need to thank me. edit: forget what I wrote and skip the whole video. Even at 1:04 the narrator was still introducing and not showing a special effect. The video creator just likes to hear himself talk. Channel added to the block list. It probably is AI generated because also what you see has not much relation to the narration.

[@MatthewPreston-el3cq]

Title?

[@javierszapari5836]

I hate so much Jar Jar Abrams and what they did to Star Wars