Summary

• Hollywood has grown more reliant on special effects, but practical effects can provide an authentic feel.
• Classic movies like Jurassic Park balance practical and CGI effects for incredible scenes.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey, Independence Day, and IT used practical effects for iconic moments, boosting realism.

Older and more recent movies alike occasionally utilize practical effects that might as well be CGI with how realistic they look. Since this technology became more widely available, Hollywood has arguably become too dependent on special effects. Some movies are completely overwhelmed by green screen settings and motion capture characters, resulting in an overall feeling of it being fake, even if nothing in particular looks all that bad. The best way to avoid weird CGI moments people can't unsee is to stick to practical effects.

However, some best movie action sequences filmed without CGI and introduce other filmmakers to a radical new technique.

10 Triceratops & Raptors

Jurassic Park (1993)

The first Jurassic Park movie accomplished its then-never-before-seen spectacle of living dinosaurs with a combination of practical and special effects. The T-Rex required the most use of CGI, standing out as the most memorable moment in the movie. However, other famous scenes relied on "dinosaurs" that were actually there for the actors to interact with. The sick Triceratops is a detailed animatronic created for the movie, whose movements are relatively simple.

Meanwhile, Jurassic Park's Velociraptors are bigger than in real life (real Raptors were only a foot and a half tall, while they are nearly six feet in the movies) because they were portrayed by human actors. A lot of work went into creating the realistic costumes, which were then donned by dexterous actors for key action scenes. Jurassic Park was clever with how it balanced different effects techniques, and the practical effects are just as good as the CGI.

9 Cooper In The Tesseract

Interstellar (2014)

The Tesseract Cooper enters in Interstellar's ending looks completely surreal, and did use some CGI to enhance it. However, Christopher Nolan opted for building a real Tesseract set for this sequence rather than relying completely on green screens. In this scene, Cooper tries to communicate with his young daughter and does manage to her as an adult as he navigates time as a physical dimension. VFX artist Paul Franklin said (via IndieWire):

"Chris came up with the idea of an alternating lattice where each of the rooms has two sets of world lines coming in and the third axis alternates along the routes. If you look carefully at the Tesseract, you have these world lines that stretch through the lattice and the rooms are embedded as a series of moments in time along the world lines. It’s either a moment in the future or a moment in the past, depending on which way you go."

In addition to working with production designer Nathan Crowley, Nolan consulted theoretical physicist Kip Thorne about creating the Tesseract; Thorne was also an executive producer of the movie. Interstellar is renowned for the amount of scientific research that went into its story, which is dependent upon special effects throughout. However, one of its most visually stunning sequences is a real set, elevating the point of Cooper being able to physically interact with time.

8 Entering Another World Through A Bathtub

Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

Like in the original movie, Mary Poppins takes the children in her care to a fantastical otherworld in Mary Poppins Returns. Julie Andrews instructs Jane and Michael on how to jump into a sidewalk drawing, while Emily Blunt takes the new generation of Banks children on a nautical voyage. Mary and the children enter a new world through a bathtub, where they sail through a magical sea using a bathtub as their vessel.

The moment when they enter this new world is practical effects; the top of the bath is covered in a thick layer of bubbles to conceal the slide built into the bottom.

The moment when they enter this new world is practical effects; the top of the bath is covered in a thick layer of bubbles to conceal the slide built into the bottom. The actors only needed to dive straight into the bath and down the slide, and the captured movement looked completely magical. "[Mary Poppins] has this ability to bring magic to these children's lives," said Blunt in a behind-the-scenes feature (via YouTube). Indeed, the child actors involved looked like they were having the time of their lives filming this moment.

7 Stewardess Picks Up Floating Pen

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the most famous instances in Hollywood history of a sci-fi movie breaking ground over and over again with its effects and setting up many of the conventions of the genre. However, 2001: A Space Odyssey's effects were done without CGI, predating this kind of technology in cinema. Stanley Kubrick and his team used things including models, massive rotating sets, wires, and slow-motion capture to render the scenes of ships traveling through space and the engers experiencing weightlessness.

One of the most simple moments in the movie illustrates the strange norm for the people on board this spaceship. A sleeping enger's pen has floated away from him when a stewardess comes in, picks it up out of the air, and secures it again. This moment was created by taping the pen to a glass circle for the actress to pull it away and set it down.

6 Engineer's Severed Head

Prometheus (2012)

The divisive legacy sequel Prometheus opens with a being later known as an Engineer's death. Years later, his skull is studied by a team of scientists, who briefly reactivate its neural pathways, causing it to move before it explodes. A lot of CGI was used for Prometheus, but the filmmakers also utilized practical effects in the longstanding tradition of the Alien franchise, which first used a real costume for the original Xenomorph that terrorized Ripley and her crew.

VFX artist Gustav Hoegen shared in a reel the animatronics he designed for Prometheus, including the Engineer's head and David's decapitated head (via YouTube). Hoegen also worked on Ex Machina and all the Disney-era Star Wars movies as a props and animatronics designer. People may be surprised at how close studios come to producing the technology seen in certain movies when they are actually robotics capable of the necessary movements for the story.

5 Flame-Throwing Guitar

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Mad Max: Fury Road's flamethrower guitarist is called Coma the Doof Warrior, who has his own backstory preceding the events of the movie. Fury Road presents an incredible, gritty post-apocalyptic setting which is so effective in part because of the use of practical effects and real vehicles and sets. Musician Iota was actually strapped to a moving vehicle during filming, while the guitar and its flame-throwing capabilities are both real.

The guitarist quickly became own of the most memorable images from this movie, naturally inviting questions about how he was created. Iota cited Angus Young and AC/DC as an influence on Coma's character and his costume in Fury Road, blending classic rock with the harsh world for a brilliant aesthetic effect (via MovieWeb). Iota also suggested that the guitar's sound quality was perfect for the movie, complaining that it would be awful to record an album with but worked for the open road.

4 Destruction Of The White House & New York City

Independence Day (1996)

Independence Day's White House explosion was filmed without CGI, accomplished using a model roughly as tall as a person which was then obliterated. The sequence includes the extraterrestrial invaders also destroying the Empire State Building, for which a model was also built. Under the direction of Roland Emmerich, explosives were strategically used for the famous scene of all this destruction in Independence Day.

These practical effects have stood the test of time and are a major part of the movie's marketing of heroes saving the planet from complete decimation. Emmerich convinced the studio to use the shot of the White House being destroyed in the movie's advertising, possibly contributing to its financial success. Ironically, Emmerich went on to direct two more movies featuring the destruction of the White House, The Day After Tomorrow and White House Down.

3 Pennywise's Lazy Eye

IT (2017)

Bill Skarsgård is one of the optimal actors to play any monster in a horror movie, most famous for his portrayal of the killer clown Pennywise in IT. Random talents of Skarsgård's contributed to an even creepier version of one of Stephen King's monsters. Notably, director Andy Muschietti had the idea for Pennywise to have a lazy eye and occasionally appear cross-eyed. Muschietti was planning to add this in digitally until he casually mentioned it to Skarsgård, who said that this was something he could do naturally (via YouTube).

A lot of the terror of IT comes down to Skarsgård's brilliant portrayal of the villain, including his manipulation of his eyes. "What are the chances that the actor that you cast can do that practically?" said Muschietti in the behind-the-scenes feature. Although Tim Curry is also a talented horror actor who gave a strong performance as Pennywise in the 1990s, small things like this brought the remake to the next level.

2 Arthur's Hallway Fight

Inception (2010)

More things in Inception are practical than people would assume. One of the movie's most captivating scenes shows Arthur, Cobb's de facto second-in-command, fighting off assailants in a hotel hallway that is rotating due to the motion of the person having this dream in the next level out. This sequence was accomplished with a massive rotating set, requiring the use of some wires and skilled stunt doubles to execute the choreography.

Nolan's best sci-fi movies all have a thrillingly tangible feel, due to him often turning to extensive production design to accomplish things like this.

StudioBinder's video (via YouTube) showcases Nolan's commentary on how this technique was used in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Nolan's best sci-fi movies all have a thrillingly tangible feel, due to him often turning to extensive production design to accomplish things like this. Even if CGI could have produced a realistic version of Arthur moving through the hallway, it feels just a little bit more real when the cast and crew did the extra work while filming.

1 Trench Run With X-Wings

Star Wars (1977)

The original Star Wars trilogy famously dazzled everyone with its special effects but is also widely known to have used a lot of models due to the constraints of the available technology. Namely, most of the spacecrafts and land vehicles were models, with sets being built of cockpits and interiors in which to film the actors. Perhaps no sequence utilizing this method of filmmaking is more famous than the Rebellion's trench run to destroy the first Death Star, applying these models to high-speed action.

Some of the new editions Star Wars changes that improve the original trilogy pertain to the trench run, with moments of CGI-rendered footage of the X-Wings and TIE fighters being added in. Yet almost everything in the Star Wars trench run sequence looks amazing as is, done with the tools George Lucas had at the time. Feats of filmmaking like this one pushed forward the advancement of CGI, yet are still a testament to the standing value of practical effects.

Source: IndieWire, YouTube, MovieWeb