Top 10 Practical Movie Effects of All Time

[@HerrMeier007]

The thing I love the most about practical effects is that the effects don't really age. You can clearly see 10 years old CGI and won't get impressed by it anymore but even 50,60 or 70 years old practical effects can feel pretty realistic because they are. You never can beat the real feel of a practical effect with CGI. That's why I think you should do a good mix of CG and Practicals to make your effects look timeless, like T2 did for example.

[@JanneSala]

I think Mad Max: Fury Road nailed it pretty well.

[@HerrMeier007]

+ThePopStarDude productions true! I'm also thinking the new Star Wars movie did a pretty good job combining CG and Practical Effects. If every blockbuster would use such a good mix, I would be pretty happy!

[@JanneSala]

HerrMeier007 Yeah. I think a mixture of both is best.

[@yudela1]

For real man. Mad Max Fury Road did the same thing. The only thing that wasn't practical was what couldn't be realistically achieved through practical effects.

[@SkiDaBird]

Part of it is that CGI has come a lot farther in the last 10 years than practical effects did in any 10 yr period. I absolutely agree with you point about mixing the 2 though, something Fury Road, Nolan and Star Wars all nailed.

[@MichaelLeroi]

No Jurassic Park? That giant robot T-Rex was genius

[@jaman585]

YES! A fucking full size Trex robot was built.Why is this not on this list!?

[@Happymali10]

Maybe they skipped it since that huge robot malfunctioned ON CAMERA (he breaks the car's roof and pushes it down on two actors, which was NOT meant to happen).

[@xuemeng5996]

somehow puppetry(and stop motion) is considered special effects (in contrary to practical effects)..that's what I'm guessing why it's not showing here

[@FizzleFX]

MichaelLeroi the T1000 is a bigger predator

[@FizzleFX]

Xue Meng any thing beyond,just filming, can be considered a special effect.

[@elizabethbeneck2709]

The Thing scene in the beginning was insane.

[@bailieboo6502]

Watch the movie it's fucking fantastic.

[@SagaofaCrew]

here's a 2020 Documentary about a little known 1984 vintage Science Fiction Film! kzbin.info/www/bejne/oWioi3Vme7Vgn8k

[@southlondon86]

Dog scene?

[@Nick930]

Where's Jurassic park?

[@ardentmuskrat1361]

That’s 95% cgi. It’s famous as the first movie to fully embrace CGI and use it to its current potential

[@simoneguazzi6994]

@@ardentmuskrat1361 Actually no, in Jurassic Park many of the shots with disosaurs were made with animatronics, the CGI was used only in the shots were the dinosaurs used to run, or in the kitchen velociraptor scene for example

[@sKY-pg8ut]

@@ardentmuskrat1361 they built multiple rex models for the first films

[@iambiggus]

No chest burster from Alien? It still looks just as horrifyingly real as it did back in 1979. C'mon man, at least an honorable mention, ffs.

[@theterrywillett]

iambiggus fully agree

[@YYFGGUKYGJSHBJSHBJLS]

iambiggus Where *is* that slimy little penis head in this Top Ten?

[@rideroundandstuff]

iambiggus You can totally see the device underneath the actor’s shirt. It works well the first time you see it, but it gets cheap after at least the third time.

[@theterrywillett]

its still a really good effect tho

[@rideroundandstuff]

tez The idea is good (thing bursting out of chest), but the effect itself isn’t good because you shouldn’t see that it’s an effect. It should seem as if there really was something bursting out of his chest.

[@miguelpereira9859]

The most midblowing effect i've seen was the rotating zero gravity pen from 2001:A Space Odissey. It's amazing how simple that effect is, yet so convincing

[@peterbrown3608]

That's a nice little effect, they used a similar one in 2010, they used a pane of glass and just stuck the pen to it, quite effective.

[@AWPWN1]

Whoa! I didn't know about the twin sister. That's awesome.

[@SinKimishima]

In the factory scene at the end of T2, the Sarah Connor-disguised T-1000 gets shot by the real Sarah Connor. But in fact, the "real Sarah" is acted out by the twin sister as well.

[@INCDZONE]

Sin Kimishima I knew about the mirror didnt know that was her sister in the factory scene

[@AWPWN1]

INCDZONE Turns out the security guard was also played by twins (when the T-1000 disguised himself as the guard and killed the real one).

[@INCDZONE]

yeah that's correct i do remember reading that

[@dametalone]

Awpwn The same twins were also in the film "Good Morning Vietnam".

[@captainawesome830]

What about the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park? They built a life size T-Rex.

[@captainawesome830]

That doesn't really change the fact that a life sized T-Rex was built.

[@amyvanhouten7579]

***** this list has several films that have a blend of cgi and practical effects. Lord of the Rings, the dark knight rises, and Terminator 2 all used that combination, and aside from the cgi, Jurassic Park was also praised for Stan Winston's robotic dinosaurs. All the close-ups in Jurassic Park were all done practical.

[@ClayMann]

+Marinette Dupain-Cheng and boom Marinette nukes the competition with that comment. I'm literally getting radiation poisoning adding my comment here :)

[@ndgambella]

+Kristófer Kristófer all together 10% of the dinosaurs are cgi

[@ClayMann]

ndgambella that doesn't really do the movie justice though as far as computer graphics go. The fact is the world wide public image of dinosaurs was shaped and influenced by Jurassic Park. When you think of a T-Rex, most people imagine the one from that movie despite it not being what a real T-Rex would look like, its very much a movie monster influenced by reality and the few precious minutes of compute time really was ground breaking for the time. The T-Rex chase, the swarm of Emu whatever they were things flocking and stampeding, these were for the time, very impressive and have become iconic. It's very sad that the absolutely amazing practical work done was ignored by the public. It was all CG as far as they were concerned. The more educated movie watchers know its a mix but still, the team behind it all are not remembered, but then, the effects guys never are. I'd love to see them brought forward like we do with actors. The geekier amongst us already do this with the web and specialist sites, youtube channels and so on so maybe I should just say meh to mainstream media, leave it to do what it does.

[@bradlbe]

For that shot in The Thing they hired a double who actually had no forearms.

[@Floormat212]

Seriously, where did you learn that?

[@victimology7761]

@@Floormat212 I heard that as well. No CGI and small budget = creativity. If memory serves, the double was a Vietnam vet that had tragically lost his forearms during his tour of duty.

[@Floormat212]

@@victimology7761 that is amazing. So cool.

[@dyveira]

@@Floormat212 Anyone who's a fan of the film knows that. It's a double-amputee wearing a mask of Richard Dysart's face.

[@Johnny-rx4hs]

Jason and the Argonauts is a great movie, but my favorite Harryhausen effects were in Clash of the Titans. The scene with Medusa is just an iconic use of stop-motion.

[@LuisSierra42]

I was waiting for that movie to appear here

[@awakeningcry]

I immediately thought of Clash of the Titans when they mentioned Argonauts

[@ExtrackterYT]

The dinosaur being lassoed by cowboys in "Valley of Gwangi" is really up there as well.

[@pibbitybibbity6599]

The tornado from "The Wizard of Oz". An amazing, believable effect, with no CGI of course, in 1939. Very realistic!

[@Balthazar2242]

The practical effects in Carpenter's The Thing are so terrifying that I still refuse to look at them because I know I'll have nightmares. That film is hands down the most disturbing and terrifying film I've ever seen.

[@Balthazar2242]

Nikolas Purba Hey, the film is _supposed_ to be scary, that's the point. So I guess I'm just satisfying John Carpenter's mission. Mission accomplished--it was a scary movie, my hat's off to him.

[@theleninistplaysgames1682]

+Steven Bowser Some of the best effects for sure. Day of the dead has some epic effects too with people being eaten alive and torn to pieces by zombies. It looks so real its crazy.

[@ClayMann]

+Steven Bowser the really sad thing is that after I watched the remake of the thing, Carpenters version, I was so pumped for what horror movies would bring us next but really The Thing was the peak. It didn't open the flood gates to quality, the best examples after that were pretty lame things like zombie movies with bodies getting pulled apart without any real effort, like a body just naturally splits in two if you pull on it lol Off the top of my head only American Werewolf, Re-animator and the Fly did anything that decade to stand up to The Thing. I'm probably missing something though.

[@Balthazar2242]

Clay Mann The remake was actually supposed to have a lot of amazing practical effects work, and the crew actually finished a lot of amazing puppets (look them up, they're pretty incredible and complex) but the producers just said "eh, we're going CG it'll sell better" and they made it all CG instead. It's such a bad thing for those guys, and I feel horrible for them. All that work basically for nothing and they were ready to film.

[@ClayMann]

Steven Bowser wow I didn't know that. That's a damn shame

[@haltopen12]

and now mad max fury road is out with practically all practical effects.

[@kkknotcool]

haltopen12 the machines yeah but they still used lots of scenery compositing from what I heard.

[@haltopen12]

kkknotcool they did use some cgi obviously, most of it was touch up work to remove the strings metaphorically speaking, and some shots were artificially brightened or had the color contrast raised to make the shot pop more. There were a few things they inevitably had to CGI, not because they were lazy mind, but because theres only so much danger you can put a stunt double or extra in before you have the actors guild going for your throat. Point being they used CGI in the correct way, ie. touching up or improving practical effects, and doing things you cant reasonably do with practical effects.

[@kkknotcool]

haltopen12 I mean they used matting to make cliffs and stuff instead of going to a different location but yeah well done special effects.

[@Solarstar10]

You'd be surprised how much CGI was in Mad Max Fury Road. It was quite a lot.

[@Pronoc1]

+Solarstar10 The fact you'd be surprised pretty much shows that they used it effectively, as the lines between practical and cgi were effectively blurred. That's what I liked about that film, sometimes it was hard to tell which was which.

[@willemverheij3412]

It's a good list, I'd like to add Metropolis (1927) to it. Just wow. Never imagined a silent movie to be that advanced in its special effects, but theres a flood, a detailed humanoid robot suit, a futuristic city and much more. Before movies even had sound or color!

[@yudela1]

At least someone else here remembers that movie. Although the city was actually painted stop motion imagery. Too bad that to this day not all of the footage of the movie has been rediscovered.

[@forbes646]

+James Lewis what do you mean by rediscovered? was the footage lost?

[@yudela1]

forbes646 a lot of footage was lost during world war 2. Much of it was hidden, some lost forever. Remember, the director was a Jew in Germany.

[@IntyMichael]

Bullshit, Fritz Lang was not jewish. Nowadays most of Metropolis is found. There is only about 5 minutes missing. The cuts where made to shorten the film and show it more often at the cinemas.

[@rogerflaps36]

Only one dislike, it must be Michael bay.

[@CineFix]

he trolls us so hard

[@SpookySkellyGurl]

CineFix You might be surprised how many practical effects he uses. For the first Transformers, they actually made a full-sized Bumblebee and the top half of Megatron for certain scenes, and that little guy that sneaks onto Air Force One. Bay's commentary track on the film is actually quite interesting and has a lot of neat tidbits like that.

[@anirudhmenon4234]

CineFix I liked the first Transformers movie actually. He did some really cool stuff in it with practical effects.

[@ArnaudTHIRY]

i liked the floating pen in 2001... glued on a glass panel ^^

[@rozza1903]

I personally felt the 360 degree single shot running scene was amazing but something so simple is just.... cute more than anything else

[@miguelpereira9859]

Rozza So simple? They built a whole full scale rotating set to do that! The pen effect is incredibly simple compared to that

[@nuttymcsquirrel]

Wow I didn’t know that, good shit

[@mathematics5573]

not glued on. stuck on with tape.

[@JacquelineMoleski]

There is a hilarious bit on the DVD for 2010 where Roy Schneider keeps trying to balance the pen on glass and it keeps falling off. When it finally works he's so astonished - he forgets his lines.

[@johnnycage6729]

#1 the thing #2 the thing #3 the thing #4 the thing

[@johnbarrie447]

Johnny Cage I was just getting ready to comment something to the same effect--I think all of these practical effects are awesome, but The Thing is a clear cut above all of them.

[@thescatologistcopromancer3936]

Fun fact: Blair from the Thing is the diabeetus guy.

[@tiagocampos9824]

EXACTLY !!!!!!

[@Xplainn93]

#5-100: The Thing

[@shaunbowlby]

I feel like just using her twin sister is cheating... Somehow.

[@CineFix]

+Shaun Bowlby It's very "pracitcal" though ;)

[@ic.xc.]

+Shaun Bowlby Is CGI cheating too then? Just because it's practical? Then everything on a set is practical if you think about it

[@AzerothLatinoamerica]

+Shaun Bowlby i honestly didnt know that one, but hey, you cant get more practical than that

[@ghostbirdofprey]

+Leonardo Gabriel I thought they did the bog standard compositing they usually use for clones/twins/etc. where they film the same scene multiple times with the actor in different spots then combine the frames.

[@shaunbowlby]

It feels like doing a card trick. Pick a card, (2 of hearts) put it back in the deck, shuffle, then magically he pulls the 2 of hearts out of his back pocket. You try and figure out how he could have known you would have picked the 2 of hearts or somehow slipped your card out of the deck and put it in his back pocket. Then you find out that it was just a deck of all 2 of hearts... "oh okay." Very clever use of what was available for the movie though.

[@manthasagittarius1]

Just a little humble one -- but they should have looked at The Wizard of Oz for some things. That was full of ingenious things -- for example, the way the Kansas farmhouse is seen falling out of the twister and dropping into Oz, and how they did that with a model and a reverse-film action technique. And everyone's eyes were so fresh then -- the audience was relatively naive to effects in those days, and everything was delightfully believable.

[@scifieric]

manthasagittarius1 The tornado is my favorite effect in that movie. It was a solid object but LOOKS like a tornado!

[@Tr0nzoid]

Eric Reinholt Have you seen the behind-the-scenes footage of that tornado? It looks really imposing just inactive on the set.

[@scifieric]

Galaxatron Yes, I saw it many years ago! Very impressive!

[@aaronjg682]

manthasagittarius1 Don't forget the Wicked Witch disappearing in a cloud of smoke by falling through an elevator in the floor!

[@Nothing_serious]

manthasagittarius1 People back then are so creative but now CGI make things easier

[@BATHEMEINYOURGLORY7]

where the fuck is alien and the fly

[@MegaCrocosaurus92]

Honestly, I think Tremors had some amazing practical effects. The rec room shootout scene alone had me totally convinced a glove puppet on a sound stage was trying to eat Michael Gross and Reba McEntire. And when the Graboids weren't on screen, clever use of environment disturbance for their underground traversal, occasional POV shots (despite the animals having no eyes) for what each creature targeted and subtle ques in between all made me believe the presence of these quirky movie monsters.

[@iangalley3464]

XenoKaiju Remind me of seeing this great film when it came out. In a small cinema a few rows behind a large man with a huge tub of popcorn, which went flying during the night time/buried generator scene. Been years since I saw it but was read that the whole town set was built up on hydraulics. Should have been a big hit that film.

[@Phil8sheo]

I was 6 when it was released and around that age when I first saw it. I very distinctly remember being afraid to step off of our couch in fear. I referenced an elephant gun and this movie for the next 10 years of my life.

[@PondOfGlue]

Super irrelevant and uninteresting but my Aunt worked on the lighting for Tremors. :)

[@ketchupkatsup9805]

crappy list...Dark Knight Rises shouldn't be in there just for a few guys jumping out of a plane...not when they built a life size T Rex in Jurassic Park, a full size Alien Queen in Aliens, Lawrence of Arabia had vast scenes with no CGI, Tarsem Singh's The Fall had incredibly imagery all done naturally with no CGI, Blade Runner was all done with models, and a whole movie made entirely of puppets in The Dark Crystal

[@GrandmasterBeef]

why can't every movie be T2?

[@CineFix]

sigh....

[@iidirectxii7545]

The Howling, The Thing, Jaws, Aliens, oh my, oh my. We don't get monster effects like that anymore.

[@chimedemon]

Dude I just watched The Hallow, and if you love visual effects... ahh it was so fucking refreshing and terrifying, the banche is still burned into my head!

[@HipsterBlackMetalOfficial]

The thing was way way too low on the list

[@darthstarkiller1912]

The twister in "The Wizard of Oz", the burning of Atlanta in "Gone with the Wind", the attack on Pearl Harbor in "Tora! Tora! Tora!", the Glass Tower in "The Towering Inferno", and Stan Winston's animatronic dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park".

[@blartsampsin8633]

Don't forget lord of the rings perspective thing which is so fucking difficult to visualize and do

[@ThierryLeYeti]

lord of the rings perspective thing? what are you talking about?

[@Lario64]

darthstarkiller1912 the Graboïds in "Tremors"

[@joya4077]

Aliens. The queen is a masterpiece.

[@mancamiatipoola]

Yes, i wrote a comment about that. It was incredible to me that Aliens (1986) was not #1. All the miniatures, scale sets, puppeteering, animatronics and other amazing particle effects culminated to make that one of hte best sci-fi movie of all time. If you wanna learn more, watch the documentary "Superior firepower "Making of Aliens" (2003)". It is a doozy!

[@Tjomi]

Best effect shot: Blade runner, when they are flying infront of the pyramid building

[@Grifftinderpals]

A bloke in a black rubber suit, jumping out the shadows in the first two Alien films turned my pants brown, sadly the rest of the series used CGI and were complete twaddle. Computer animation is the ruination of special effects.

[@XTVking333]

Hows the Thing not #1 tho?

[@martijnvanweele6204]

The Lego Movie trailer looked so well that it actually convinced me that the thing was entirely Lego stop-motion. If that were true, that would make the entire movie one big practical effect.

[@fletchy40]

nope, its all cgi

[@martijnvanweele6204]

ZeroGamer Indeed it is. Too bad.

[@martijnvanweele6204]

***** Indeed.

[@GuitarrAssassin]

martijn van weele The best part about that movie is that every single piece that appears in the movie exists in real life. So, with that in mind, if you have the money to afford all of said pieces (lego is expensive as hell these days) the patience for the project, and the time to do it, you could actually remake the entire movie shot for shot.

[@martijnvanweele6204]

***** You, sir, might just have given a lot of lives purpose right there...

[@sirderpington7704]

it has to be the rolling hallway for me. inception is fucking epic

[@MaxFrisch84]

Army of Darkness, anyone?

[@CineFix]

lol yeah :)

[@lukeo8407]

The whole evil dead franchise

[@AlanPostScript]

I finally saw it last year and was blown away at the miniature Ashes scene.

[@magburner]

2001 has to be one of the greatest films ever made. The depiction of the future, and the quality of effects before the age of computer generated imagery, is truly breathtaking.

[@lawrencefrost9063]

I think it's the best movie of all time because of the story. It literally tells the entire history of humanity from the beginning (being given consciousness) to the end (becoming a godlike species in the star child). It touches on our beginnings as a primitive species who finally discover tools and weapons to the discovery of space travel and artificial general intelligence which will most surely be our final invention (there is even a book called AI: The final invention)

[@theroyalseal2466]

They wanted to make a 50 foot star destroyer? If they new how big star wars would get they probably could have made the rest of the series with the profits from auctioning it off.

[@tranceformerfx]

No Jurassic Park.......? Probably the single finest example of a movie withstanding the test of time and you don't even mention the movie... *facepalm*

[@allcoolmrdon]

Playstation Elation its more known for its groundbreaking CGI which is probably why it's not on this list even though it does still have amazing practical effects, will probably be no1 if they do a CGI one

[@FrancisXLord]

It's unfortunate that everyone only associates Jurassic Park with CGI, when actually the fewest shots were CGI and they used the best animatronics ever. When Stan Winston died the era of animatronics kind of ended. It was nice to see its return for The Force Awakens, we'll see how long this renaissence continues.

[@dareka9425]

To this day I am still amazed at the skeleton army stop motion effects in The Argonauts.

[@josephlowry4320]

I agree with you Dare ka, my dad loves that part and the whole film itself.

[@LASooner]

Close Encounters gets no love, but the clouds and model work is pretty spectacular for it's time. The cloud effect was done with paint and clear liquids with multiple densities shot from below in a clear tank.

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

LASooner Not to mention the giant set they used for the underside of the flying saucer.

[@StoicTheGeek]

I guess that's because they just wanted to stick with one Doug Trumbull piece, but that and the opening shot of Blade Runner could have got a me tion

[@Ragitsu]

No Jurassic Park? For shame...

[@hazonku]

Ragitsu Simply because Stan Winston Studios already took the number one slot with T2. Likewise, "No Aliens?" could also be argued.

[@imokas]

hazonku well everyone knows that jurassic park was shot with real dinosaurs. As for aliens, it's just a crossbreed of roaches ;oD

[@joshvswild949]

Ragitsu Its more that the effects in the video where unique. Jurassic parks dinosaurs where better then the ones on the list but they are animatronics and fairly simple.

[@PiLLbOt100]

Jurassic Park is left out because, while they did use a lot of practical effects, nearly every shot with the dinosaurs is computer aided.

[@eamonnca1]

Holy intrusive annotations, Batman!

[@bailieboo6502]

Holy I'm on the mobile app so I don't have to deal with it, Batman! 😜

[@thatLukeKneller]

the music is way too loud i care barely hear you at times :(

[@thatLukeKneller]

StrawB0ss no. They're newish but onboard for my Surface. I don't have a problem with any other video, so I thought I would say something that the balance is off .

[@bastje]

StrawB0ss I'm having the same problem, and my sound system + sound card are very good.

[@Rezorrand]

Dorjan24 BDS Do you happen to have volume normalization on? I have no problems with the music with onboard audio.

[@thatLukeKneller]

Even with my expensive headphones, there are parts where his voice is just drained out. The video is good, but the sound editing kinda ruined it imo.

[@Rezorrand]

Dorjan24 Hmm.. I have really cheap Sony headphones, RealTek integrated card and I have no trouble at all hearing everything on the video. I tried playing with sound card settings and only Loudness Equalization occasionally made the music somewhat louder. :S

[@rafalopez6618]

what about Titanic? they built a huge and sinkable set

[@FlixSkate]

Thumbs up if you prefer theatrical practical effects over the fake CGI compiter game reminding animations anyday

[@Omnipotentmonkey]

No mention for Titanic? like the movie or hate it, the practical effects were absolutely fucking stunning.

[@WittyDroog]

Just like 2001, Aronofsky's "The Fountain" used macrophotography of deep sea bacteria to create the incredible shots of space nebula. This was to reduce the cost of using a CGI star scene which the film's budget couldn't handle.

[@CineFix]

that movie was beautiful... iffy in most other ways, but beautiful!

[@WittyDroog]

CineFix I've argued at length about the film, it's one of those movies that you need to read up on the production history to fully understand what the hell is going on. Once you do, however, The Fountain becomes the piece of work that makes Aronofsky a true "auteur"

[@papabear1971]

WittyDroog Aronofsky is the man!! Not as big a man as John Williams but he deserves the title nonetheless..

[@benhinton4613]

Okay just because Star Wars is popular doesn’t mean that the effects are better than the Thing

[@EdLillywhiteNorton]

That's why the original Star Wars was great and the new 99% cgi ones sucked. They should use computer effects but also miniatures, puppets, costumes, painted scenery..and all the other visual effects. Not just cgi crapola.

[@shoopoop21]

EdLillywhiteNorton which is too bad, because JJ Abrams has a CGI fetish, and his canned directing style sucks balls.

[@shoopoop21]

***** I've already seen hallmarks of Abrams directing style. The stupid fucking news camera blurred zoom effect in the scene with the MF entering a cave, rotating the camera at 100mph back and forth to hide the fact that the shot is dull where its listing left and right, miscegenous romance to pander to the crowds liberal sensibilities, and gratuitous use of CGI in released footage. Go be a fanboy, yes man, snake in the grass somewhere else. The Force Awakens will be dog shit.

[@shoopoop21]

***** You're insinuating that I won't like it no matter what, in order to discredit me. Abram's films all have a very identifiable, very canned directing style, that recycles about eight or nine shots, almost frame for frame, in every movie he's ever done. There's a focus zoom shot, the top down transposition shot, pan out vertically shot, ect. If you really liked the new Star Trek movies that ultimately never even attempted to capture the feel of Star Trek, then sure, you'll love it. I'm sure you can't wait for "duh awesum lightsaber batuls WOOT WOOT" like the shitty nerd you are. When disney and the press tell everyone everythings all fine, you shouldn't take that for granted, when everybody involved has a huge profit motive keeping even the most disgruntled people from saying that anything might be wrong with the project. If, say, Mark Hamill felt like the script was weak, or that the scatalogical pacing and ultra quick cuts destroy the audiences ability to digest a scene (something JJ abrams is known for, because he can't direct for shit), he wouldn't say anything because his money is on the line. Everyones money is riding on this, so nobody is going to be stupid enough to say anything that might antagonize the audience, at least before its released. Just as you're accuse me of hating it for the sake of hating it, I think you're going to eat whatever dogshit you find goes on the big screen. It won't matter one bit if its just a JJ film with a Star Wars coat of paint. Instead of lapping up whatever profit motivated denial the press is giving you, you look up the past work of the people involved, and come to your own conclusions. The only member of crucial staff I trust is Lawrence Kasdan, because he apparently actually worked on the original, and he's one of two editors. Everyone else hired by disney has a filmography filled with bad action movies and children's shit. www.imdb.com/title/tt2488496/fullcredits/

[@EdLillywhiteNorton]

George Lucas directed the good ones and the bad ones, so I will give any director a chance. Just hope it doesnt look like a 200 million dollar video game.

[@shoopoop21]

EdLillywhiteNorton Lucas directed Star Wars, not Empire, and not Jedi. Those were Irvin Keshner and Richard Marquand, respectively. He was a screenwriter for those two entries. Lucas has used smoke and mirrors to become the defacto creator of star wars, when its simply not true. Personally I find the videogame critique to be a literary one, not of effects, but I guess the nature of that one can change from person to person. To me, its more about how scenes are constructed.

[@m_hat5782]

The thing to this day is one of the most terrifying movies I've seen.

[@flaxlyackosama]

What about Georges Méliès and any of his work? After all he was the one who inspired people to pursue these types of effects in films. I think this video should have given some credit to a true pioneer of the film industry!

[@racewiththefalcons1]

TDKR is a stunt, not an effect.

[@aslakkolding]

+racewiththefalcons1 That's still practical effects dumbass.

[@racewiththefalcons1]

+Romestamo So martial arts scenes qualify as special effects, too? No, they are stunts. Stunts are different. Stunts are real. A practical effect is meant to give the *illusion* of something being real, like a dinosaur or a space station. If it's actually real, then it is not, by definition, a special effect, practical or otherwise. Also, no need to be insulting. We are all here for fun. The world can do with less conflict, so let's not default to our more debased and primitive qualities, and instead understand that it's okay to disagree. :)

[@aslakkolding]

racewiththefalcons1 Dang. Haven't been burnt this hard since yesterday.

[@landonbangerter]

I see your point, but I think it still qualifies for practical effect, probably a mixture of that and stunt. It could've been so easy for them to CGI that whole plane scene, and they didn't.

[@aslakkolding]

What he said ^

[@jasonknightmagic1]

He pronounced rob bottins name wrong lol

[@nigelcarren]

Also, when we remember that Ray Harryhausen's 'studio'/creature shop was a spare bedroom, baking the foam-latex in the family oven it is even more of a remarkable feat! Truly an incredible imagineer. His legendary skeleton battle is why I do what I do. 🏆

[@FollowingGhost]

Good list guys. One of the coolest things I had happen was Ray Harryhausen coming to my display at a show and complimenting my work and then hanging out for a bit to talk. I made sure I got a pic with him, too. He had the original stop motion King Kong there minus the latex skin.

[@borizovskimilan]

WatchMojo listed Terminator in their video "most horrible effects" ,the eye scene,that's why I unsubscried them

[@mrblonde609]

+Milan Borizovski One should never sub them in the first place. They either tell the viewers what the want to hear or they tell people things, that every true flmbuff should already know in the first place.

[@RisingBeast00]

I was hoping Jurassic Park made it to the list but half of it was indeed CGI. Good CGI mind you. But still the film utilizes both effects seemingly well.

[@MrSirFluffy]

RisingVictor Lost World has my favorite practical effect. Where they use a giant robotic T-rex to bite off the top of a car while someone was inside. Then proceed to jam the T-rex's head into the vehicle to drag out and pick up an actual person inside of it's mouth which is capable of biting the guys limbs off like it was made of marshmellows.

[@RisingBeast00]

MrSirFluffy Good one. mate.

[@quentinbryantart5684]

RisingVictor 65% of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were practical Stan Winston dinosaurs

[@RisingBeast00]

Fuckin right, bro! :D

[@insertgoodname4809]

I was a kid in the 90's and even then it looked fake as hell. They were all just trying to copy T2. and failing.

[@garysloan9793]

Best reverse shot- Frank coming out of the floorboards in Hellraiser, literally melting wax models in reverse. So gooey

[@BlackSaturnRecords]

I'm kinda surprised that the chestburster from the first Alien didn't make the list.

[@CineFix]

that's a good one

[@Hydrotoxic]

Practical effects may be brilliant but sometimes it just look like shit... and expensive

[@CineFix]

omarijackson1234 CGI is the exact same. It's not that either tool is bad, it's just how you use it.

[@Hydrotoxic]

CineFix Overuse of CGI looks terrible also.

[@manybeatz]

omarijackson1234 that's what he sayed....

[@Hydrotoxic]

manybeatz Said*

[@Nothing_serious]

omarijackson1234 Yeah but practical effects are still better and being creative on how to do practical effects and make it realistic

[@UberNeuman]

Love this! A very enjoyable look back on film history.

[@CineFix]

:)

[@saintwcf]

The American Werewolf in London transformation was decades ahead of its time. totally amazing. Also, it was the first time that sort of transformation had ever been shown in full light in film.

[@qhunt24]

Love it man!

[@CineFix]

thanks quentin!

[@Stephen-iw8wb]

For me, The Thing would be #1 on this list just for the shock and awe affect it had on me as a kid.

[@BlakeMcTavishe]

I'm a huge fan of practical effects.

[@getlostlser]

Where's the scenes from Blade runner?

[@TheServal01]

My favorite is..The Alien Queen of Aliens: The Return. and The Predators of Predator 2.

[@ARGAtheropodfan]

Are you kidding me? No Jurassic Park? Is it a Joke? That movie has hands down some of the best practical work ever put on film.

[@FreakieFan]

No not really... Only the Trex is excellent

[@ARGAtheropodfan]

Lt. Col. Frank Slade And the Raptors, and the brachiosaurus, and THE TRICERTOPS, and even the raptor hatchling. Jurassic Park stands tall in practical effects, and is a disgrace that it doesn't make it to the list.

[@FreakieFan]

Arturo García out of the 3 you mentioned only the raptors were practical, the others were CG, and that's a different discussion for another time

[@ARGAtheropodfan]

Lt. Col. Frank Slade "out of the 3 you mentioned only the raptors were practical, the others were CG, and that's a different discussion for another time" Is laughable how stupid that was. All of them I mentioned have practical effects. Now they also have CGI in certain scenes, but the practicality is there. See it again and come back when you actually know what are you talking about.

[@ARGAtheropodfan]

Lt. Col. Frank Slade Again, you show a lack of understanding of what JP actually means. For one, JP is great not only because of the revolutionary CGI, but also the great story, great characters, great theme, really great writting, superb score, blend of wondement and terror, and more. And again, your argument is Bullshit in all ways. I feel sorry for you. You really don't understand a thing of Jurassic park. The triceratops had a really great animatronic, the raptor hatchling had an animatronic, the raptors, the t rex and one brachiosaur, PLUS more that weren't shown. And all of those practicals are fantastic. Wich makes this video very insulting. Your argument holds no water at all. I'm sorry. I think you will have to eat all your words, because you seem to have little to no idea what are you talking about.

[@ManusfilmStudios]

Star Wars should be higher, but still, great list. It's funny how so many years later, practical effects look waaaaay more realistic than CGI. But I'm optimistic, and I believe that in a few years, CGI will reach the ultimate level of realism and won't make us even notice. When that time comes, all will be possible in movie industry, even CGI actors.

[@ettifire655]

What about avatar? :3

[@INCDZONE]

Well i think they coming close look at Tron Legacy

[@scootasticmc3744]

Tintin was very realistic

[@VincentStevenStudio]

Actually the plane heist from the dark knight rises is a combination of real footage and miniatures. There was never a plane really hanging off another plane. They shot the big plane first then a miniature for the small jet then combined the shots in post. Still practical but not actually shot like you said.

[@PaulBFarrell]

+Vinny Banana James Bond did this for real in Licence to Kill

[@aronisink1]

its great that the computer can dp so much but it loses the how did they do that appeal..love true in camera fx....especially stop motion....

[@CineFix]

yeah for sure

[@harpodjangorose9696]

Del Torro does it best. "The camera loves what's real," I've heard him utter in the Hellboy commentaries, but when it's time to enhance it with CG he won't hold back. A true artist.

[@OldSilentHill8]

Jurassic Park should first and is not even on the list. What a FAIL.

[@textthing]

Bottin's name is actually pronounced "Boh-teen".

[@ChristopherPayneMUA]

Will a reply give this comment a bump? I'm going to try it anyway, because Rob's amazing work deserves the correct pronunciation of his name.

[@WarblesOnALot]

G'day, You missed the 007 James Bond Scene where the Carchase involves a Ramp-Jump up a Helical Ramp, barrell-rolling the Car over a Canal, and then revovering onto another Helically-twisted Ramp on the other side... Also, you missed the original of Flight of The Phoenix, wherein they actually built and flew a single-engined 2,200 Hp Aeroplane from bits of a twin-engined Cargo Plane, flew it on camera, and then finished the Movie despite the Contracted Stunt-Pilot having died while flying it when he was drunk, before all the scripted scenes had been shot... ;-p Ciao !

[@wobedraggled]

Can't forget the slide whistle either...

[@zombiecupcakes01]

Cronenberg's The Fly! Also the dance sequence from Dames is incredible FX from the 1930s.

[@Guitarfollower22]

Christopher Nolan is the fucking man. Interstellar - No green screens, and he used the least amount of CGI as possible

[@tropetrinitytrilogy8533]

+Guitarfollower22 That guy is crazy! (I meant that as a compliment) I'd love to be on one of his sets!

[@Guitarfollower22]

Laura Fielder i was thinking the same, even if i had to haul heavy shit around the set.

[@tropetrinitytrilogy8533]

Guitarfollower22 Just look where you're going or you might blow up!

[@FreakieFan]

No green screens? Are you serious... XD He used many green screens... Just as little as possible but still alot

[@Guitarfollower22]

Lt. Col. Frank Slade where lol. watch behind the scenes of interstellar

[@aethertech]

No mention of the "biggatures" of LOTR?

[@doubleot1984]

Mrw great CGI- yeah, looks real. Mrw great practical effect- how the fuck did they do that

[@SuperZarrabal]

The thing. That movie is awesome.

[@starblue6tv]

Rob Bottin's effects in the thing

[@Tokiofritz]

All masterful techniques, but Harryhausen's skeleton battle really stands out. That era's technological stage, him working alone and the sheer nightmare of making every skeleton interact with the actors. Brilliant. The only weak point is Nolan's mid-air sequence. Less practical effect, more brilliant stunt work.

[@retsila4750]

I think the hospital explosion from the dark knight should have beat out the plane sequence from the dark knight rises.

[@samuraikitty18]

I remember being seven years old, sitting in a dark theater, and watching that Star Destroyer just going and going...mind instantly blown.

[@methanbreather]

another time you missed Metropolis. And then used Terminator. Sad.

[@ToyboatToyboat]

I'd put The Thing at #1.

[@BggProductions]

5:08 "All without the help of a computer" should read "all without the help of CGI" Those pioneers at what would later become ILM INVENTED their own computers in order to shoot the FX shots in Star Wars.

[@Lewigicfc99]

Alien chestbuster scene?????

[@DanManDanManDan]

Jurassic park should have been number one but it wasnt even on the list

[@JoeCubicle]

Brings back memories. The Thing blew me away when I was a kid.

[@thebionicshrub4677]

My uncle made me blow his thing when I was a kid./.

[@Hagemann666]

You guys at CineFix do such a great job, I have to assume you're interested in details. Because of that assumption, you probably would like to know that Rob Bottin (the SFX artist who worked on "The Thing" actually pronounces his name like bo-teen, not bot-tin. Also, he seems to have utterly disappeared from the SFX industry after 2002. He has a credit for a single "Game of Thrones" episode in 2014 and he worked on a short film called "Cindy's New Boyfriend" which looks like it was a favor for a friend rather than a comeback. It's too bad because he was one of the most creative, influential practical FX guys to ever work in the business.

[@captainviggo4575]

Star Wars "all without the help of a computer". Ironically, the first Star Wars used computers to film the different starship models, by the help of motion control technique.

[@theatrixentertainment]

Bram Stoker's Dracula featured dozens of very wild in camera effects

[@al112v4]

The Thing still to this day mindblowing.

[@Dinjur]

I agree!

[@oz_jones]

+al112v5 It's fucking terrifying nightmare fuel.

[@assmatronix]

One of my favourite movies of all time. Seen it over 20 times, can't wait to see it again. Most of the FX are better than cgi today.

[@vksasdgaming9472]

It really feels sad that old-time FX-masters like Rob Bottin, Dick Smith, Tom Savini, Ray Harryhausen Willis O'Brien and Georges Melies are dying breed. All of these effects are great and their magic becomes a bit silly when you know how they were made. Sometimes they are just ridiculously simple.

[@BloodyFlowerFilms]

Um, no Rexy from Jurassic Park? Or the raptors? Missed out there CineFix.

[@chrisshaw1294]

+BloodyFlowerFilms that was CGI

[@BloodyFlowerFilms]

Uh, no. The T-Rex and the Raptors from Jurassic Park were predominantly practical, animatronic effects.

[@chrisshaw1294]

Uh No, The only animatronic dinosaurs they built were wired into the computer. they would move the animatronic dinosaur miniature and it would move the CGI dinosaur on the computer, they stop motion animated the whole thing like that. Its on the blu ray of the movie, Phil Tippet is the one who designed the computer interface.

[@BloodyFlowerFilms]

You missed the point, they're still practical effects.

[@chrisshaw1294]

BloodyFlowerFilms How is CGI practical Effects ? They used the animatronic to control the CGI, then used the CGI in the movie. that is definitely not practical effects.

[@kezadrone]

Ray Harryhausen didn't shoot clay miniatures, They are metal articulated foam covered and rubber latex built up custom engineering jobs that had to be sculpted in clay first, then very complicated moulds were required before the armatures and foam were baked in ovens replacing the original sculpts later removed, and now a flexible rendition around said armature could be painted and detailed for film use. Don't call it claymation, you only sound clueless, and frankly disrespectful to anyone in the field. Better still, research your subject matter before making a video about it, animators in this area of the arts are sick of hearing the word claymation to refer to any aspect of stop motion. The groups are 1: Stop motion ( Used in motion pictures or in short films to create lifelike results and in some cases totally believable. 2: Cartoon: a series of cells with hand painted frames on them to produce moving drawings. 3: Pixelation: The animating of real people a frame at a time. 4: Claymation: The animation of clay / plasticine or any clay like medium with figures . Popular usage was in Return to OZ with the Will Vinton studio. And many more.

[@FreakieFan]

how the hell is Dark Knight Rises above the masterpiece 2001, just because they dropped a fuselage?! 2001 shouldve easily been number 1, if you think of what they did with that fantastic film, that came out in 1968!

[@ClayMann]

+FreakieFan the fact they didn't even include the most impressive movie of all with practical effects, Blade Runner, tells you a lot about the people who made the list. 2001 got space right and pretty much opened the gates for stuff like Star Wars. From watching behind the scenes stuff, all the directors nod to 2001 for showing them what was now possible and so they started wanting that level of look themselves so absolutely 2001 should be right up there in the top 3.

[@FreakieFan]

Clay Mann Yes! Blade Runner, indeed! Shouldve easily been in the top 3 aswell!

[@KenBoldt]

+Lt. Col. Frank Slade I give 2001 full credit for the effects. In that regard, you are right, it is a masterpiece. But damn, I simply can NOT get through that film without falling asleep. Without a word of a lie, despite a solid 5 attempts, I have still not seen the whole film. The back side of eyelids however, I've had a great, thorough viewing of them.

[@FreakieFan]

***** I've seen the movie probably 10+ times and i still dont understand how people can find it boring. IMO its the greatest movie ever made and its easily my favorite movie. It's pure brilliance if you understand the movie completely, which you dont after 1 or 2 viewing. I (think) i fully understand it and as i said ive seen it 10+ times

[@KenBoldt]

+Lt. Col. Frank Slade Different strokes for different folks I suppose. I'm envious that you have a movie that you can call your favourite. If I had to try and nail it down, I'm not sure I could.

[@MLTyler]

If it's not in the film, it doesn't count. No king Kong? No Keaton's The General? No Korda Thief of Baghdad? No Metropolis? Fail.

[@eustacequinlank7418]

Isn't it Rob 'Bo-Teen'? That how everyone seems to pronounce it in the extras and the like anyway.

[@gonesavage]

Yes, you are right.

[@MrNinjq]

Every effect from The Thing gives me nightmares.

[@Elmgren76]

Jurassic Park

[@CineFix]

Top 10 Best CGI Moments from Last Century!

[@FaceUnreality]

Jurassic Park did use real machines for their props, in a shot with the T-Rex running in an open field they really did build a giant remote controlled dinosaur that could run, they then used camera angles and CGI to make it look bigger.

[@MysterySeeker]

FaceUnreality What many dont know is that they used actual dinosaurs for the shooting of the film. Crazy right?

[@WhatIsSanity]

MysterySeeker You made Me convulse in laughter :)

[@WillHirsch]

MysterySeeker The producer was actually eaten and they had to hire a new one.

[@Fullbatteri]

Mad Max Fury Road just came to join the party.