The movie diligence has always push the terminus ad quem of technology to create those unbelievable visual effects we see on the big screen . Specially plan cameras , state - of - the - art computers , and punctilious animatronics are just a few of the prick at the electric pig of director looking to bring their vision to liveliness . But over the years , some of the most iconic effects have been completed using much more modest means , including a footling pigment , some bare prosthetics , and … a wind cone ? Check out how some of Hollywood ’s most memorable special effects jibe were create .
1. THE SPEEDER BIKE CHASE //RETURN OF THE JEDI(1983)
The originalStar Warstrilogy utilized nearly every john in the exceptional effects book to realize George Lucas ’s vision of a wandflower far , far out . There were elaborate role model for intergalactic dog competitiveness , stop - motion study for the famousBattle of Hoth , and groundbreaking creature purpose for Jabba the Hutt and the other aliens that populated the universe . But one of the most difficult succession to crock up was the speed demon bicycle chase fromReturn of the Jedi .
You would think it was simple : get Carrie Fisher , Mark Hamill , and some Stormtroopers on airscrew cycle , put them in front of some fake Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , and get shoot . Well , the problem is the swiftness Lucas want was nearly impossible to convey with matte painting or models — audiences needed to see trees whiz by for finger how tight these wheel were go .
To achieve this , the team at ILM walked through a disguise path in the wood of Cheatham Grove , California with a Steadicam shooting one frame per second base . Projecting that footage back at24 frames - per - secondmakes it add up out — you hazard it—24 fourth dimension faster . Special effect guru Dennis Muren , who put to work on the shoot , guess the cameraman was walk 5 mph , so when you play back that 24 times quicker , you ’re over 100 miles per hour . When that sped - up footage was projected behind Hamill and Fisher on their airscrew bikes — along with some clever redaction , first - person shots , and even a few models — it made for one of the most memorable sequence of the integral trilogy .
2. THE TORNADO //THE WIZARD OF OZ(1939)
While a twister might not vocalize too daunting for today ’s especial effects squad , in the 1930s the crowd ofThe Wizard of Ozneeded to get creative to bring the movie ’s cruller to living . Special effects music director Arnold Gillespie first tried to film a rubber cone to simulate the tornado , but it was too rigid to be believable . He then took inhalation from the wind air-sleeve found at airports and useda cloth muslin sockfor the effect . The brand gauntry that held the fabric from above the exercise set cost more than the budget for the full scene , but because of thesock ’s pliability , it made for a unadulterated cyclone . To top off the effect , compressed air hoses shot sand and dirt at , and through , the air-sleeve , pass on the conjuring trick of elephantine clumps of earth being kicked up in the tempest ’s way .
3. NAZI FACE MELTING //RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK(1981)
There are a lot of prosthetic head that have been blown up , mangle , and crushed throughout the high-minded history of the movie business , but few have been toss away of in more gruesome fashion than the thawing face of Nazi Arnold Toht inRaiders of the Lost Ark. For the picture show ’s climax , Steven Spielberg needed Toht ’s whole head to melt on - screen in a full gory display , and to do this , a gelatin mould of actor Ronald Lacey ’s top dog had to be made .
The head was create in different biased bed to get flesh , brawn , bone , and blood in there ; then the whole gadget wasmelted using curb heat . To get the effect just right , the head was melted gradually , but it was blast at less than a physical body per second , so it unfold apace on screen when it is projected back at standard velocity . Think of it asface - melting sentence - lapse .
4. THE EXPLODING HEAD //SCANNERS(1981)
Even if you’veonly ascertain the GIF , chances are you ’re familiar with Louis Del Grande ’s blow up head from David Cronenberg’sScanners . For this scene , Cronenberg desire a prosthetic head to explode without the use of pyrotechnics , since a pyrotechnical burst would cause a electric discharge or a flash on photographic camera , which would n’t make sense since the head was supposed to explode due to psychokinesis in the film .
For the actual head , the work party try out with adhesive plaster and wax models before finally actualize that a gelatin mould of Del Grande ’s header , lined with a plasterwork " skull , " would attain the desired effect of a real head and skin . The mold was then filled with fake rakehell , wax routine , and " remnant beefburger " to get that gray matter just right .
However , acquire the whole thing to explode was another challenge — nothing seemed to process . Well , the best answer is usually the most obvious , and special effects supervisor Gary Zeller resolve to get the burst right the only way he knew how : he sat behind the dummy , turned on all the photographic camera , and shot the back of the skull with a shotgun . typeface closed in .
5. WALKING ON THE CEILING //2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY(1968)
To value the special effects from Stanley Kubrick’s2001 : A Space Odyssey , you have to sympathise where we were as a planet when it premier in 1968 . Not only had we not yet landed on the moonlight ( that would happen the next twelvemonth ) ; we had never even seen a full picture of Earth from blank — that would n’t happenuntil 1972 . Yet despite that , Kubrick managed to give audiences a imaginativeness of the synodic month and extinct quad that ’s so reliable , it has really becomethe field of conspiracy theories . And one of the theatre director ’s crowning achievements in space photography ? soberness — or the deficiency thereof .
To realistically copy life aboardDiscovery One , Kubrick paid special attention to the artificial gravitational force that would have been necessary to aid astronaut live comfortably , including how they go about their physical exercise . In one of the film ’s most impressive scene , audiences observe cosmonaut Frank Poole jogging in theship ’s rotate centrifuge , on the face of it operate upside down at point .
The movie is meant to show the ship ’s rotation model gravity in space , yet to achieve the effect on - screen Kubrick hada mammoth $ 750,000 setbuilt that would rotate like a Ferris wheel . Actor Gary Lockwood was n’t in reality course at all ; he was simply go in place at the same upper opposite the set ’s rotation . Some inventive camera angles were then used to cap off the phantasy .
The other , perhaps more telling , use of this same proficiency came when a stewardess is seen seemingly walking upside down while take a tray of food to the cockpit of theAries . Despite all appearances to the contrary , the actress actuallyremained upright the integral meter — to an audience , though , she search to be a twenty-first - centuryFred Astaire . This burden , again , implemented a rotating curing and camera that moved along with it .
6. THE RIPPLING WATER CUP //JURASSIC PARK(1993)
By this peak , any motion-picture show buff knows how the dinosaurs fromJurassic Parkwere achieved — a picayune chip of animatronics and CGI andvoila!—but what about the movie ’s most far-famed non - dino scene : the undulate water cup . It seems simple enough , especially compare to the rest of the picture show ’s gigantic effects , but it took a little Earth , Wind , and fervor to inspire Spielberg to even do the tantrum in the first stead .
On a drive , the director was heed to the iconic funk group when he notice his mirror were stimulate along with the basso . He then called force supervisor Michael Lantieri and told him , " We take to shake the mirror , and then I wanna do something with the water supply . " To get the rearview mirror to shake accept nothing more than a small motor , but the water was a different narration . It was n’t until Lantieri experimented withdifferent musical note on a guitarthat he lastly find the right oftenness to get Spielberg ’s water system tremble with the pure rings .
Recreating this happy chance event on solidifying ask a guitar strand to be run underneath the truck where the cup of water system was being contain . Someone would have to consist under the truck and actually pluck the string to get it just right for the cover . In a movie dependent on bringing prehistoric animate being back to life , it was a few urine ripple that proved to be one of the moreunique particular effects problemsto solve .
7. THE CHESTBURSTER //ALIEN(1979)
The brute effects design for Ridley Scott’sAlienwere a cutting above what the sci - fi literary genre had to proffer at the time , but the one moment that sticks out most is the infamous chestburster scene . To get the extraterrestrial fetus to burst from John Hurt ’s chest cavity just right — and to get a licitly terrify reaction from the actors along the way — Scott bet on two things : concealment and a butcher store .
To simulate a human trunk , Hurt had to slip underneatha prosthetic bodywith only his real arms , neck , and head flummox out from beneath a table . Then , the crew filled a fake chest cavity with all manner of fauna organs have from a local butcher shop , along with tiny hosepipe to spray fake blood when the time was proper . This whole time , the rest of the casting was keep in the dark about the panorama — the only thing written in the book was " This thing emerges " from Hurt ’s character ’s chest .
" This affair " take place to be a rabid exotic puppet with acuate teeth , vomit up blood and entrails all over the other characters when it finally emerged . The stream of origin was so violent that mavin Veronica Cartwright pass out when she got a side full of the stuff . This proficiency of pure shock absorber was Scott ’s doing , who did n’t want any of the actors to " act " frightened . He wanted the real raft .
