VFX From 90's Movies That Still Hold Up In 2021!

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VFX will always be at the cutting edge, pushing the limits of hardware and software to make the impossible a reality. But what was cutting edge in the 90's was done on computers with less power than your smartphone! This is why it's so surprising to find VFX from that era, that are still actually pretty good! Like the music in this video?
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1. Total Recall, 1990
Although a lot of miniature models and landscapes were built and used in this movie a surprising amount of VFX were too. One of the most iconic scenes was the X-ray scene. The original idea was to do a "motion capture", so Arnold acted out the scene wearing 24 light reflecting balls, whilst 6 different Black and white video cameras captured the movement. Weeks later it was discovered that this wasn't enough to get perfect motion. Luckily they had filmed the scene from the other side of the scene for reference and were able to rotoscope Arnold's performance, flip it and match the motion of their CG skeleton to it.
2. Terminator 2, 1991
The T-1000 was a masterpiece that still looks remarkable even by today's standards.
ILM was in charge of the liquid metal T-1000, and in order to reduce pressure on them, wherever possible T-1000 shots were done practically:
For the helicopter pilot's reaction shot, a chrome bust was used and raised into frame by hand, Quick shots in the fight against Arnold in the steel mill were done by a stuntman in a foil suit, and the reforming of the T-1000 was done by blowing mercury with a hairdryer. ILM's main task was T-1000's morphing abilities and each shot, even though only around 5 seconds of screen time, would take 8 weeks to complete. ILM pushed the limits of their computer's memory and CPUs and it took a team of around 300, 6 months, to produce 50 shots.
4. Jurassic Park, 1993
Of course, Jurassic Park had to be in this video, not only because it was a game-changer that shaped the future of VFX, but it has also stood the test of time. Ironically Spielberg wasn't originally planning to use any major CGI in the film.
He hired Stop-motion expert Phil Tippett, to create stop-motion test sequences, for the Velociraptor kitchen fight scene and the T-Rex truck attack scene, and was planning for ILM to add motion blur to make the sequences appear more realistic. ILM told Spielberg that they could actually create and render the dinosaurs completely digitally and when Spielberg saw the difference between the two, he chose CGI.
5. Forrest Gump 1994
It may not be a film you'd think of as having many VFX, but as we often say "The best VFX are the ones you don't C.....FX". The falling feather, erasing Lieutenant Dan's legs, war scenes and napalm in Vietnam, Gump shaking hands with Nixon, Kennedy, and Johnson, a CG ping pong ball and creating crowds in the national mall and the Alabama Football stadium, in fact, (apart from the lip movements done on JFK, Nixon, John Lennon, and Lyndon B Johnson), most of the VFX go completely unnoticed. In Forrest Gump, VFX stopped just being used for what couldn't be done with practical effects and started to be used in preference of practical effects.
Please give us a like if you enjoyed this video, don't forget the links to the music in this video are in the video description and be sure to let us know, in the comments, which movie VFX you'd like to see behind next!
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[@claytons8067]

30 years later and Terminator 2 remains incredible

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

Agreed. T2 and Jurassic Park stand out as the best to hold up after all these years.

[@dannyr2976]

Damn straight. T2 is my favourite film. Bought it on Bluray and the picture quality makes it look brand new!

[@aldunlop4622]

I took a sick day from work just to watch it on opening day

[@SpartanX360]

Always the best all these years still never gets old.

[@jimmy21584]

It’s still my favourite movie for sfx. The limitations of the technology of the time, plus the team being able to approach the project free from preconceptions, made it really creative and exciting. No movie today would have a scene where someone gets slammed into a wall face-first, then melts through themselves to recover.

[@peterlenham6904]

T2 revolutionized CGI forever. A legendary classic.

[@fourcgames7568]

I feel like the true revolution stemmed from Jurrasic Park, but they both definitelly contributed.

[@almafuertegmailcom]

@@fourcgames7568 Terminator 2 came out a few years before Jurassic Park, so it's certainly the other way around. But the revolution came before both. Jurassic Park wouldn't have dared used CGI were it not for T2, and Cameron decided to use CGI for T2 because of his work on The Abyss, so I'd say the real CGI revolution came with The Abyss.

[@jasonblalock4429]

Meanwhile, Flight Of The Navigator did CGI liquid metal in 1986 (complete with working reflection maps) and no one remembers it...

[@storywala88]

T2 and Jurassic Park stand the test of time even today...

[@judgeberry6071]

I sneaked into the cinema to watch T2 and it is still to this day one of the best sci-fi movies ever made. It should be shown in film school as an example of how to make the perfect action movie.

[@MrJeffcoley1]

Especially the director's cut with extended and deleted scenes. I saw it in the theater and it really bugged me when Arnold begins grinning and acting goofy for no reason; it was so out of character it almost ruined the film for me. The director's cut includes the scene where Sarah and John power down the T800 and reset a jumper to put it into LEARN mode. That one little bit of story and character development fills the gap and then everything that follows make sense.

[@MrJeffcoley1]

The CGI effects from the 1990's are so good precisely because it was expensive and difficult and therefore was not OVERUSED. So many movies today look like crappy video games due to overuse of CGI. Terminator 2 is a masterpiece, using CGI to complement practical effects. Thirty years later, Terminator: Dark Fate showed just how badly overuse of CGI can ruin the illusion. The car crashes looked like GTA or Gran Turismo; and that awful, awful fight sequence in the burning plane as it fell out of the sky was like a level on Super Mario Brothers. (Why bother trying to kill people inside of a burning crashing plane?)

[@o.k.2968]

'effects... was not OVERUSED' - that's the key!

[@librab103]

Which is why I think the 1990s were the best years for special effects in movies.

[@tetsi0815]

Sorry, but the reason why you think that is that if you can see CGI it's mostly bad CGI... good CGI is basically invisible and literally used everywhere these days. Look at things like Mad Max Fury Road. A film highly praised for their practical effects. There is essentially no shot without CGI (watch their VFX breakdown). And I'm not only talking color grading and stuff.

[@nelsontubehun]

T-1000 effects are still hold up remarkably

[@chocciechippie4770]

I still can't get my head around how they did the helicopter scene where the T-1000 seamlessly morphs with the reflections of the helicopter's interior on its chrome body. What an AMAZING sequence! Great vid too!

[@odinsplaygrounds]

Jurassic Park is such a good example, because of how much practical effects were used in the movie as well. CGI was only used where necessarily, and sparingly! Every close up used practical effects, and most shots of the T-rex in this video was the full sized mechanical one as well, not CGI. Newer movies just can't help themselves and go completely overboard with CGI for everything as it's easier, but it often just looks fake and uncanny.

[@le_maxarus]

lieutenant dan's legs always blew my mind for how good and real it looks.

[@Kotka67]

I wondered how they did it. I thought they just bound up his bent backwards legs...

[@le_maxarus]

@@Kotka67 before i researched the actor, i thought he actually had his legs like that.

[@fourcgames7568]

I mean the effect isn't really hard to do at all. Especially thanks to his knees beeing wrapped in that medical bandages and thus hiding the transition between his real leg and the blue screen. The only impressive thing about it is that it was done in 90's and that's actually really impressive.

[@derk4737]

Thats what happens when film makers take their time and work with very talented people!!!😊

[@derk4737]

@@Kotka67 i was told that along time ago and it turned out to be false!!

[@NicMG]

People always seem to forget the excellent CGI from Flight of the Navigator, especially when the ship changes shape and fly's off that was in 1986!

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

Phil Tippet, who did the stop motion animation in previous LucasFilm movies like the 3D chess pieces in the original Star Wars, was used to stop motion and was going to do some of the dinosaur scenes using that method. But animation software in many respects was pretty lacking in some ways so they found a compromise that ended up working perfectly: Phil would animate a special stop motion rig of the dinosaur and the angle and direction of each joint would be recorded via special sensors on each joint. Then, the software would build in-between movements and smooth out any irregularities. The result was the best of both worlds. To me, the original Jurassic Park actually looks superior to the more recent sequels.

[@dreamzdziner8484]

That's why those people will always be remembered as The Masters of VFX. With their limited technology they produced very convincing effects that amazes anyone who watch it even today. Jurassic Park remains to be an all time favorite.

[@abdizur8765]

What I find baffling is how they managed these effects with computers that had the processing power of a potato. 😳

[@phoenixamaranth]

And time. A lot of this is about time. If you have 6 months to a year to render a few scenes with a team of potatoes breaking up the work, it eventually gets done.

[@sambou6286]

It had to do less with excellent computers and more with using proper softwares

[@najibm4693]

todays pc will become potato next 30 years and our grand childrens will comment just like your comment on next gen high tech youtube alike media sharing decentralized website

[@Bartoc1988]

@@najibm4693 Yes, but our grandchildren will laugh at this time when you compare it to earlier movies.

[@AirwolfThemes]

@@najibm4693 your grand children will be laughing from the Ready Player One’ meta-verse.

[@fettlefish8935]

There are some movies which one continue to watch no matter how many times they have been watched ! T2 is one of them.

[@wavelogic8471]

The thumbnails on this channel cracks me up every time.

[@hazonku]

You forgot the most important part of the ILM Jurassic story. When Dennis Muren dropped a funny so good it ended up in the movie. When Phil saw the 1st test animation with Stephen he said, "looks like I'm out of a job. To Which Dennis Muren turned & said, "Don't you mean extinct?" Yeah that line in the movie came from a real conversation. Phil was still super important to the production though & stayed on to help to build the WALDOs (robo input puppets) they'd use to animate & teaching them how to animate like a stop motion artist or puppeteer would. Hence his credit as Dinosaur Supervisor & one of the funniest Twitter jokes ever.

[@Joshua_N-A]

Dinosaurs running around killing people, Tippet supposed to supervise them, the "you had one job" meme.

[@dannyr2976]

All but one of the vfx examples were ILM. The practical effect doll for _Death Becomes Her_ looked her the stuff of nightmares! As for other vfx to showcase, Marvel's digital de-ageing techniques, digital Sean Young in _Blade Runner 2048_ and _Hollow Man_ alongside Davy Jones in the _POTC_ films. Very well put together!

[@kennylex]

Music videos are often forgotten when folk talk about the development off movies, I think even Alan Jackson's song "Little Bitty" was before the Matrix with the bullet time and even a old video as Elvis Costello's “Accidents Will Happen” used computers to create images that later was inked for the video, this was also the inspiration for A-ha's rotoscoped video "Take On Me". The diference is the time, a movie can spend years to make things look good, but for a music video you have only the time from you see a song start to become popular until it is so popular that it will be played on TV to make a video, that is sometime weeks or month if they where lucky. But the VFX shown here are impressive and some of my favorites, but I am a bit sad that so many see VFX as CGI and that mostly computer generate VFX was shown, for one of my favorite VFX that I think holdup even today come from Westworld that was made 1973 and show an AI robot use a pixelated image to analyze the environment and find targets.

[@rgerber]

3:02 "get out" Pilot: I was gonna do that anyway ;)

[@Barvyon]

Jurassic Park should go down as the greatest movie ever made, it revolutionized film production, and all because one guy wanted to play with computers, and it is still entertaining after nearly 30 years, spawned multiple sequels that are also entertaining (3 was great until the end don't @me)

[@teemuleppa3347]

im mindblown everytime i see some good CGI from the early 90s or so...i mean the computers back in those days....i just cant wrap my head around it

[@designercaolho]

Yeah. The VFX artists back then were also the ones coding their own software, so they new exactly what they were looking for and what the technology was able to accomplish... and even create new technology from scratch. That's the very maximum effectiveness you can wish for, but not much efficient, given it used to take several months or even years to do a few seconds of footage (of course processing power was a huge issue as well).

[@wildman2012]

Bro, your soundtrack is practically drowning out your narrative!

[@MrMaltavius]

Yeah I quit 1 minute in

[@maboleth]

Not sure why they think music makes it more interesting? Nope. It's only annoying af.

[@jasonvoorhees5640]

its a copyright trick

[@j.vonhogen9650]

Please make a video on the VFX of Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers!

[@Kotka67]

...and Aliens

[@mediaman1346]

The Movies featured in this video are vintage CGI reference standards despite their age!!

[@Re88eN]

Back in the 90's if you wanted CGI you went to Industrial light and magic.

[@DOI_ARTS]

Dude ILM is still the go to studio till this day a lot of Marvel movie was post produced in ILM.

[@Re88eN]

@@DOI_ARTS but they are no longer the only ones. I'm not saying it's their fault spawn and the mummy returns look like they do but ILM made them.

[@watttv1388]

And Animal Logic and Banned From the Ranch and Blue Sky Studios and Blur Studio and BUF Compagnie and C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures and Cinesite and CIS Hollywood and The Computer Film Company and Digiscope and Digital Domain and Dream Quest Images and Hammerhead Productions and Kleiser-Walczak and Mac Guff and Matte World Digital and Pacific Title/Mirage and PDI/DreamWorks and POP Film and Rainmaker Digital Pictures and Rhythm & Hues Studios and Santa Barbara Studios and Sony Pictures Imageworks and Tippett Studio and Todd-AO and Weta Digital

[@Joshua_N-A]

@@watttv1388 Avatar was mostly Weta, right? Cameron is like the guy who melts your CPU and GPU.

[@FudgeYeahLinusLAN]

Now you go to Fiver

[@paradox9603]

incredible vfx 30 years ago. Good vid

[@peterlenham6904]

There STILL incredible 30 years on!

[@HeroKy9939]

It is amazing that in jurassic world the dinosaurs look nowhere near as good as the original

[@liza6021]

I recently watched the Event Horizon film produced in 1997. Of course it's almost 2000 but not quite yet. And the guys there also did a great job with the CGI part. And as for me, the exampl of a stunning CGI work is King Kong of 2005 year. Even in 22 it looks better than most of films from 22.

[@amattcastley]

One of the best thumbnails yet?

[@visakhamproductions8985]

Great work guys :)

[@magnuskallas]

I'm still surprised Death Becomes Her got somewhat "meh" response. It's quite amazing actually. When I first saw it I truly admired how seamless it was, both story, style, effects, crazy acting etc.

[@MrJeffcoley1]

"It's a miracle! It's ANOTHER miracle!"

[@Re88eN]

ditto

[@VishwaJay]

"Less power than your smart phone" .... Yes, but more like "less than 10% the power of your smart phone, with 5% the amount of RAM and 1% of the storage space, with screen resolutions that weren't quite 1080p yet". CGI computers were also quite often networked, with dozens (if not, as was the case in T2, hundreds) of them on a local network, each rendering a single frame, which could take as much as an hour each. With around 8 minutes of CGI shots, T2 really did push the envelope of the time. It was among the most expensive films ever made, at its release. Of course, today's blockbusters blow their miniscule US$100 million budget away. But then, we don't charge US$140 000 per second of footage these days, either. Real-time ray-tracing was a fantastic dream in those days. Your phone can do it whilest barely heating up. That's just really amazing, especially considering how well these effects have withstood the test of time. Great video!

[@burningb2439]

Death becomes Her is a total hoot , Terminator you wont get better for when it came out and it still Rocks ..great Vid and music.

[@z3pedro]

Lost in space 1998 would be an honorable mention.

[@robotone2812]

When you think about the impact that Spielberg and his pal Lucas have had on modern filmmaking, it’s truly incalculable. Star Wars, ILM, Pixar, THX, skywalker sound, all the result of Lucas. Without Spielberg there would be no Zemeckis. Without Zemeckis, there’d be no Peter Jackson. Without Star Wars, there’d be no James Cameron. And on and on.

[@phoenixamaranth]

Kind of, but remember it's really just their names drew in the top artists and effects wizards to them. All those names in the credits that we don't know are the real heroes that made modern cinema possible.

[@designercaolho]

T2 and Jurassic Park were jaw-dropping back then and still hold up, but you can tell it's VFX. Forrest Gump in the other hand... you can't separate real from not real. It's just freaking insane.

[@chrisw4997]

The Forrest gump ones were clever

[@crazyivan030983]

Love movie magic! Greetings from Poland :)

[@thee_interest9641]

Forrest Gumb was amazing!

[@racirdosoares1048]

Sou fascinado por efeitos … um dia vou conseguir chegar num patamar bacana .

[@dandanthesoundman7607]

Love the video & music

[@abdulmuhit3156]

Well done. Indonesia watching

[@quakecon2009]

T2 still blows my mind, it should NOT have been possible to do waht they did back then, jesus I was still playing on a commodore 64!

[@CelentAle]

Amiga and LightWave 3D using for Terminator 2 and various TV series! 👍 😎

[@CosPerformer]

*Кукла всегда будет Лучше Графики, но если совместно и с умом - то будет Бомба!* 👍🏼

[@Spartanhero51]

Some of the best movies ever made.

[@flashpoint_09]

I'm not sure about the vfx. But your thumbnail edits are god level😂

[@DarkW1zard]

2:08 все почувствовали себя нейросетью опознавая походку Роберта Патрика в любой ситуации xD

[@whoohaaXL]

The t1000 reforming was taking Frozen Mercury and putting it on a hot plate, not a hair dryer

[@peterloohunt]

Great video, but the music is really intrusive, needs pushing right back.

[@fcojavier142]

Forrest Gump and Lenon is a historic set.

[@allegraph]

Perhaps in few years, movie can be made without any actors at all, judging by how the vfx evolved in a decade.

[@Ognyan397]

Final Fantasy

[@blowc1612]

Then you worn have movie studios with their actors promoting the film and have that connection of a fan and stars interaction that is important to the film’s promotion.

[@norman4908]

Cough animated movies/series technically have no people in it "acting"

[@pamparam4637]

We call it animation, we already have it, but we won't get rid of actors at all, people like them to much.

[@Artist_apu_drawing_world]

nice video bro,, be with you,

[@AmericanCarioca]

How about the 80s? Now there's a challenge. 2010 (sequel to 2001) gets a nod for the fantastic Jupiter and space scenes.

[@JOHNSEYHA]

Very good

[@andromedaone3640]

The reason why these effects still hold up is because they are better than the extreme rubbish they put out today.

[@JD-py7ek]

T2 is the best sci-fi movie in comparison to year made with technology available and also holding a stong story. The rest after that are garbage.

[@Kotka67]

Yep, story gets forgotten for the CGI fest now....

[@Joshua_N-A]

Oversaturation of CGI that done properly was Cameron's Avatar. From the vehicles to the planet's flora and fauna.

[@hampsteadstudios4827]

Terminator 2 gave rise to VFX technology

[@redbearddan2000]

That's weird that 1990s' computers had the power of calculator, but it was possible to make such effects like in "T2" and "Jurassic Park". Meanwhile, we have superpowerful computers, but people massed up with Superman's CGI lip in "Justice League"😄

[@jisellesharmaignequintao5804]

Part II 6. Babe: The Gallant Pig (1995) 7. Independence Day (1996) 8. Titanic (1997) 9. What Dreams May Come (1998) 10. The Matrix (1999)

[@pekinobo]

Yes yes yes, Babe: The Gallant Pig.

[@Vindix007]

The Independence Day VFX has aged badly.

[@gabahungle568]

Matrix

[@tonyjoseph173]

Terminator 💙

[@bankoleogundero9446]

Oh wow!!! All the vfx are attributed to Industrial Light & Magic.

[@Joshua_N-A]

Lucas and his franchise

[@varunv.p.7180]

Hey can you make one on the battle of Endor, in Star Wars return of the Jedi? Especially the sequences inside the death Star, where they are flying at high speeds inside the tunnels.

[@mikcnmvedmsfonoteka]

Corridor Crew on one of their CGI reaction videos was talking about it.

[@Reyesnino8763]

The background music a little bit too loud compared with your voice

[@muhammadfarooqi]

okay.. What happens behind the scene of Elections. Please if you can !

[@Rambleon444]

Amazing at what goes into these movies... " ILM's main task was T-1000's morphing abilities and each shot, even though only around 5 seconds of screen time, would take 8 weeks to complete. ILM pushed the limits of their computer's memory and CPUs and it took a team of around 300, 6 months, to produce 50 shots."

[@HunGerMovies]

I think back then a good director had the time to make a movie, now it is like a conveyor belt where vfx slaves work 0-24.

[@vikramkurbur2638]

Old is gold

[@MrZillas]

Ghostbusters, Alien 2 and Burton's Batman-movies are interesting

[@gabahungle568]

Video & music 👍

[@wenjiemu5730]

what's the background music?

[@lukimaxvideo]

The thumbnails of this channel are out of control. They make me both upset and giggle at the same time

[@suddhojitgon5929]

Independence Day (1996) VFX breakdown please

[@Hafidh8912]

tq mr.green😏

[@leereWasserflasche]

Someone know the music in the video?

[@jabuci]

What's the music in this video?

[@nikamirmustapha4856]

how is everyone getting over this background music?

[@paulwoodford6229]

Because it is f*cking epic

[@rosarosa3354]

Terminator 2:🔥🔥🔥

[@inaamkhan6516]

That time they Were Marvelous

[@milkcandlejuice892]

WHICH MOVIE IS THIS SHOT FROM, I'VE SEEN IT LOOOOONG AGO AND HAVE BEEN TRYING TO TRACK IT DOWN FOR MORE THAN 10 YEARS!!! 0:04

[@malescan]

Is it just for me that the video skips around 04:01? From T2 to mid-narration about Death Becomes Her.

[@DesignByKirk]

Great video but I find your choice of background music very distracting.

[@tajudaja2222]

wow 👍👍👍👍

[@mikeborowy5809]

Pretty good? They are still better than in most Hollywood movies these days.

[@luizvaz]

Forrest Gump was years ahead what we call now *DeepFakes.* Dodgeball also has one scene where the movie shows a DeepFake inside the movie to mockup Arnold death... That inception blewed my mind as kid.

[@RindaRaz]

good

[@kalamvalleyvlog]

I am watching from Kalam Valley

[@SuperSaiyan3985]

4:54 Nightmare fuel.

[@mikesilva3868]

🤯

[@sombrehero3738]

At that time the cinema is more creative. It was a real industry.

[@chandrakalagreenscreen3879]

💋 Amazing 💋

[@temporalmadness3756]

nice content, but your voice is way lower than the music, so to hear you properly, i have to use a volume that blows up the music when it starts..

[@vilmasoares9315]

Legal!

[@user-yn5sv2kh1b]

منذ زمن وأنا أنتظر هده الحلقة

[@zicomgravity4897]

Its the Terminator Film ever...

[@sarmamadhavan]

Why your thumbnails are always like this?

[@kristelvidhi5038]

Actually there's a difference between 90s CGI and today's CGI. The old CGI from 1997 ended in 2007. And the new CGI used since late 2007 continued until 2017. And 2019 CGI is gorgeaus, just look at Avengers Endgame for example. And let's not forget Zack Snyder's Justice League lately.

[@alanbrito5239]

u forgot The Matrix, The mummy, Dark City and Fight Club those were also groundbreaking CG

[@kinambrasnabalita6104]

wow

[@kotoblokong]

that why nasa so good at CGI🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@Kasiencja85]

Will we ever have a movie with effects like in first "thing"? Too much CGI isn't great.

[@Lumibear.]

Doubt it. The way modern film making works is they want to do all the filming as quickly as possible, as loosely as possible, with as much freedom as possible, perhaps not even following a set script, just loose ideas ad-libbed by the actors against green screen, then take their time making it in the computer later whilst sipping coffee. Practical animatronic effects have to be designed, sculpted, cast, built, tested, every shot story-boarded and carefully choreographed, lit very artfully, a team of well coordinated skilled experienced operators needs to be on set, a set specifically built for the shot with all the operators rods and wires hidden, each shot typically just does a single action, but that takes many takes and sometimes days to get it just right with everybody in the team working together as one, and then onto the next shot. Who is going to do that these days? They gave up a few days into filming The Thing prequel, too slow and they decided to just do it half-assed and fix it with CGI later.

[@Kasiencja85]

@@Lumibear. Some youtube channels have people that are way more skilled and faster in creating mechatronics than the people back then, when they make ED 210 or terminators. That would be awesome to see that kind of movie these days (just dreaming). They'we done Mad Max with less CGI :)

[@Lumibear.]

@@Kasiencja85 there are people doing some amazing work yes, it must be said, it’s stunning what people can do with so little and lots of determination and imagination. Who knows, the way things are going, maybe that’s what we’ll be favouring to watch over all else in the near future, eh?