There are many fantastic SFX shots in cinema history that are artistically awesome without qualifying here.
Only one shot is allowed per film.
Gigers stunning creature design.
48:The Day After Tomorrow(2004) Manhattanfloods.
Depicting water is one area of SFX where the CGI luddites tend, wisely, to shut up.
47:Saving Private Ryan(1998) Bullets in the water.
46:The Fifth Element(1997) Bruce Williss air-taxi pulls out of the garage.
Thats ironic, since its turning in zero-gravity and should have no weight.
But then, theres no sound in space either.
44:Brazil(1985) Harry Tuttle makes a dramatic exit.
43:Dune(1984) Worm attack.
Find out more about the worm SFXhere.
42:The Abyss(1989) loss of tension.
artificial) element and the real world.
One wonders what his third-stage would have been ifJurassicParkhad not taken up the lead.
41:Howard The Duck(1986) The Dark Overlord rises.
Star turkeyHoward The Duckbenefited from go-motion with an impressively animated finale.
The thing is, its very hard to tell how that organic aperture is actually working.
Is it an iris of some kind or are the petals actually changing shape?
Truth is that the gate segments are actually cones spinning in unison.
Since the camera remains perpendicular to the circular bases of the cones, the secret is hard to guess.
39:Invasion Of The Body Snatchers(1978) The spores spread.
Very small-scale prop-work with moving parts is an incredible challenge often overcome by using an oversized environment.
38:When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth(1970) Leading the dinosaur.
However, thats not why this shot is in here.
Its a challenging piece of matting, particularly on one of Hammers notoriously penny-pinching budgets.
37:The Fearless Vampire Killers(1967) The party-crashers revealed.
Sometimes the oldest trick in the book is all you need.
36:Dragonslayer(1981) Vermithrax Pejorative rises.
35:Transformers(2007) Slow-motion motorway pursuit.
34:Fantastic Voyage(1966) Journey into thealveoli.
33:Jason and the Argonauts(1963) Fighting the skeletal warriors.
The shot seen in the video is a composite of one single set-up with the inserts removed.
32:Apollo 13(1995) Blast off.
31:Diary Of The Dead(2007) Acid to the head.
30:Dead Ringers(1988) Track in on the twins.
29:2001: A Space Odyssey(1968) Entering the airlock without a space-helmet.
There are too many other SFX shot contenders from2001to even begin to list them here.
28:Gladiator(2000)- Entering the coliseum.
27:Blade Runner(1982) Spinners in the rain.
Such a shot should not have been possible in the days of photo-chemical SFX.
26:Forbidden Planet(1956) Entering the Krell underground.
25:Aliens(1986) Express elevator to hell.
James Cameron brought old Corman colleagues the Skotak brothers on to his production of the much lauded sequel toAlien.
Its almost a shame to look at it out of context.
24:Terminator 3(2003) Arnies ruined terminator face.
The camera lingers on it, and it can afford to.
Here there are no such issues.
Can you see the join?
22:Dawn Of The Dead(2004) The chaos sets in.
21:The Ten Commandments(1956) Moses parts the sea.
20:Things To Come(1936) Everytown.
William Cameron Menzies loose adaptation of H.G.
19:Back To The Future Part II(1989) Landing the DeLorean at night.
Here the ever-ingenious Robert Zemeckis uses a street-lamp to mask the transition between model and real DeLorean.
18:Total Recall(1990) Doing her nails.
Its an elegant and not terribly expensive SFX shot that is 100% convincing.
17:The Road To Perdition(2002) EnteringChicago.
16:War Of The Worlds(2005) Destroying the bridge.
This ILM shot was used to sell Spielbergs reimagining of both the 1953 George Pal production and H.G.
No-one could afford to make a film with very many labour-intensive shots like this, butWoTWcouldve used another 10-15.
Nonetheless, you might really see where the money went in this footage.
15:The Last Starfighter(1984) Starfighter leaves orbit.
14:King Kong(1933) Kong wrecks the subway.
Note also that fleeing crowds pass both in front of and behind Kong.
13:Forrest Gump(1994) Picking up Lt. Dan Taylor.
12:Excalibur(1981) Sword withdrawal.
10:Metropolis(1926) View down onto the main street.
9:TRON(1982) Escape on the light-beam.
8:Cloverfield(2008) First look at the devastation.
Oddly, its only the head of the statue of liberty that looks fake*.
*Thanks to VFX artist Riddick 1 for pointing out to me that the head was not a prop.
7:Hannibal(2001) Brains for dinner.
6:The Birds(1963) Destruction of Capitol Oil garage.
5:The Spy Who Loved Me(1977) Heading for Strombergs Lair.
4:The Lost World(1997) T-Rex takes a drink.
Selling an element so incongruous in an environment so familiar represents an extraordinary work of lighting and movement.
3:Star Wars(1977) Into the trench.
2:Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan(1982) The Genesis project.
1:JurassicPark(1992) T-Rex investigates the light.
The Matrix(1999) Bullet-Time.
