Special effects are constantly evolving. They’re just one of the many challenges that filmmakers must overcome in crafting their visions. When it comes to monsters, they’ve employed a number of tricks. Suits, puppets, and miniatures were just a few of the practical techniques used to bring these fantastic creatures to life. While these methods aren’t perfect, they actually have something in front of the camera, thereby making these fictional figures feel more real. However, advancing technology heralded a radical change.

More and more filmmakers opt for computer-generated imagery, rendering the monsters in a digital landscape. This innovation obviously yields new possibilities. Creators can now craft anything imaginable and place it in existing footage. It’s a chance for old icons to gain the fluidity that they never had before. The catch is that such retrofitting doesn’t always work out. Some digital updates actually look worse due to inferior textures, unnatural movements, or lazy presentation. Like the practical effects of old, these CG creatures require immense passion and attention to detail. Otherwise, audiences will reject the fakery and go back to the immersive originals.

Related: 10 Mind-Blowing Special Effects behind Iconic Movie Scenes

10 King Kong

How ironic that a giant like King Kong is really a tiny action figure. Standing dozens of feet tall, this big ape dwarfs all other primates. He uses that size and strength to reign over Skull Island, regularly combatting the prehistoric creatures roaming the remote locale. In the 1933 classic, these explosive brawls came down to stop motion: photographing small models frame-by-frame and stitching them together into a fight sequence. Later takes in the ’60s and ’70s opted for animatronics and placing actors in gorilla suits. It wasn’t until the new millennium that things changed.

The 2000s revived Kong for several projects. The most notable was a 2005 remake of the 1933 film, but subsequent appearances were blockbuster crossovers with other monsters. What these takes had in common was the wealth of CGI. Namely, Kong was a product of motion capture—recording an actor’s movements and transferring them to a digital character. Although he lost some of his prior tangibility, the king was now capable of incredible nuance. That increased expression lets you empathize with him like never before, which was ultimately the point of the character.^[1]

9 Godzilla

The king of the monsters has had a similarly storied history. Godzilla is a colossal saurian awakened by nuclear radiation. Big enough to trample cities and impervious to most weapons, he’s an unstoppable force of destruction. His grand finale is his atomic breath, which reduces targets to fiery, irradiated rubble. Such wanton ruin required a new strategy to shoot.

The filmmakers had neither the time nor the budget for stop motion, so they placed an actor in a rubber suit amid a miniature city. This innovation pioneered kaiju flicks, defining the franchise for decades. It wasn’t until recently that things changed.

With the 2000 Godzilla movie, they began rendering the radioactive reptile on the computer. Though they initially limited this swap to a few shots, the creators eventually forewent the rubber suits entirely. That’s not to say the creators forgot their roots. Godzilla’s proportions and movements still echoed those of an upright human. Films like Shin Godzilla even used motion capture to emulate the lumbering visuals of old. Combined with the detailed textures, these techniques allowed the movies to up the spectacle while matching the slow menace of yesteryear.^[2]

8 Xenomorphs

In space, no one can see the seams in the suit. The xenomorph is an extraterrestrial life form said to be a perfect species. It lays eggs in its victims, which then burst out of the prey’s chest, grow at an exponential rate, and slaughter everything in sight. Not only is the xenomorph incredibly cunning in its predatory tactics, but its acidic blood means you can’t kill it without sustaining wounds yourself. The first two Alien movies brought these parasites to life through puppets and suits, hiding any shortcomings through shadows or close-ups. They couldn’t remain shrouded forever, though.

Later Alien movies had entire armies of xenomorphs. As the series progressed, the practical effects faded away and were replaced by CGI. The quality ebbed and flowed, with the well-lit environments and flashy set pieces often destroying the illusion. This decision prevented the xenomorphs from ever regaining the tangible terror of their early incarnations.^[3]

7 The Thing

Sometimes, our neighbors are the greatest monsters. The Thing is a movie about an alien lying dormant in the Arctic. Once awakened, it possesses and absorbs any organism within reach. It can morph its host to grotesque degrees as a defense mechanism, but it prefers to stay hidden as a doppelganger. This tactic meant that most of the 1982 movie consisted of normal-looking actors. On rare occasions where the creature revealed itself, it did so through horrifying animatronics. Before you could spot any seams, it retreated into the night. Apparently, that restraint was relatively recent.

The 2011 prequel repeated the same beats as its predecessor. The difference was that the titular Thing was far more visible. Not only was it in brighter locations, but it repeatedly burst forth in all its tentacled glory. It was now a digital demon, and it looked atrocious. You didn’t believe it could even touch the characters, let alone kill them.^[4]

6 Dracula

One of the oldest movie monsters required few effects. Dracula is the quintessential vampire. His enigmatic allure draws in unsuspecting victims, enabling him to drink their blood and retain his youth. If seduction doesn’t work, his superhuman strength and dominion over animals are enough to thwart most enemies. Most 20th-century interpretations used simple tricks to portray these gifts, ranging from fake fangs to bats on strings. Of course, these scare tactics weren’t big enough.

Modern filmmakers wanted to show the full extent of Dracula’s vampiric gifts. That’s why relatively recent takes like Dracula Untold had him morph into bat swarms and single-handedly slaughter whole armies. Most of these set pieces look formidable, with the chaotic visuals making it difficult to discern the CGI. Unfortunately, such bombastic effects diminished the subtle scares that defined the character.^[5]

5 The Mummy

Despite its gruesome roots, the mummy should be one of the easier horror icons to adapt. An Egyptian priest comes back to life thanks to an ancient curse. His decayed remains are still wrapped in ritualistic bandages, but he can withstand virtually any attack as he slowly walks toward his targets. That inevitability was enough for early entries as the actors lumbered around in bandaged bodysuits. They were essentially Egyptian zombies. That said, future films wanted to expand that image.

The Mummy remakes in 1999 and 2017 both bestowed catastrophic gifts to their undead antagonists. The bandages were gone in lieu of grisly flesh stretching to unpleasant lengths. In addition, the villains could control swarms of scarabs, conjure massive walls of sand, and bring forth disastrous plagues. All of it amounted to CGI layered over the actors. The glossy textures and exaggerated movements weren’t particularly convincing, but the ’90s flick was excusable. It opted for high-flying adventure over creeping horror, so it didn’t have to be scary.^[6]

4 The Wolfman

Nearly as infamous as Dracula is the Wolfman. Portraying him was similarly simple in the 1941 film. As a guy suffering a canine curse, he’s a humanoid figure even after transforming. The difference is the wolflike head, killer claws, and hairy body. These accompany a feral desire to kill, making for an unpredictable foe. That said, all that you needed to create this animalistic adversary were masks, gloves, and prosthetics. Those days are long gone.

Filmmakers soon prioritized the wolf over the man. Werewolves continued appearing in fantasy franchises like Harry Potter and Twilight, where they became increasingly malformed. Some depictions just had them transform into giant dogs. Obviously, these renditions were computerized creations, the quality varying with the movie. As ever, the well-lit examples looked the worst. The poetic justice came with the 2010 Wolfman remake. This project resurrected the masked approach and blew its competition out of the water.^[7]

3 The Terminator

There is no fake but what we make. Terminators are cyborg assassins. They may look human, but beneath their skin are metallic endoskeletons. They use their fleshy disguises to infiltrate human societies and get close to their targets. Upon locating their quarry, these robotic villains execute their programming with unparalleled precision.

The Terminator films all used real actors to convey that deadly precision, but early entries had to improvise whenever these cyborgs sustained damage. Prosthetics worked for light wounds, but heavier injuries call for animatronics and stop motion. Filmmakers eventually began mixing in CGI, but practical effects were always present in some capacity.

Terminator Genisys and Dark Fate changed that by going all-in on digital imagery. The cyborgs in these flicks leaned heavily into liquid metal and nanotech. Combined with ever-more explosive chase scenes, these aspects left little room for practical tricks. Even the partial damage on the fleshy Terminators was now CGI. Sadly, it all looked utterly weightless and failed to blend with the organic bits at all. There’s a tragic irony in killer robots being made entirely on the computer.^[8]

2 The Kraken

The ocean holds many unseen calamities, but the greatest one is the Kraken. This giant squid has haunted sailors’ nightmares for centuries, and movie-goers easily could see why. Films like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea depicted this creature as a colossal killer preying on unsuspecting vessels. Long tentacles could pull an entire ship to the depths, and its submerged body made it nearly impossible to fight. That also meant that early filmmakers could get away with not showing the monster. The most that viewers got were the tentacles, which were a combination of stop motion and wirework. Of course, this workaround couldn’t last forever.

CGI eventually showed the Kraken in all its glory. The results predictably varied. Films like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest kept the creature somewhat obscured underwater, thereby sparing the FX artists from rendering the details and retaining the fear through mystery. Unfortunately, works like the Clash of the Titans remake had the Kraken leave the sea. At that point, it looked like any other semi-convincing monster. Long story short, it should have stayed in the depths.^[9]

1 Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs may have been real, but that didn’t make them any less spectacular. Thus, they’re Hollywood’s most enduring movie monsters. Since the dawn of cinema, these prehistoric lizards have terrified audiences through sheer size and crushing strength. A plethora of tricks have gone into recreating these titans. They range from stop motion to animatronics to costumes. One movie, however, changed everything.

That movie was Jurassic Park. Although it retained the animatronic approach for close-ups, it used revolutionary digital effects for wide shots. The detailed skin and fluid musculature created living, breathing animals. This achievement meant that subsequent filmmakers never looked back. Digital dinosaurs were soon running all over movies, TV shows, and documentaries. While these effects were rarely terrible, the best examples were those that mixed in the animatronics of old. You felt like you could touch them without waiting for rendering. ^[10]

We’ve come a long way since the computer generated ‘flying cow’ in Twister and the truly terrible creatures in the Stephen King movie, Sleepwalkers. Well, let’s just say we’ve actually come a long way since the disturbing CGI baby in Twilight freaked out audiences worldwide. Not to mention the plastic-looking dinosaurs in the short-lived Terra Nova and the Joker’s transformation in Gotham. Sadly however, creepy and downright weird CGI is still with us, and rears its head every now and then, even in recent TV series and movies (we’re looking at you Justice League).

10 Keeping a beloved character on screen

When Paul Walker died during the filming of Furious 7, the filmmakers had to decide between starting from scratch or somehow keeping Brian O’Connor alive. James Wan wanted to honor Walker’s legacy and hired a fantastic digital effects studio that eventually paired 350 CGI shots of Walker with distant shots of his brother. The result was mostly great, with most fans not even noticing the difference for the majority of the film.

However, there are a handful of scenes that are pretty startling, especially when watching the film a second time. During once scene, all of the characters are standing in a line, looking out over Los Angeles. Brian stands at one end and looks over at Dom but as his face turns, the CGI becomes clear. It is most apparent at the end of the film, when Brian stops next to Dom before they both drive off, with the character almost ‘glowing’ inside the car.

9 Cartoonish horror

CW series, Supernatural, finally concluded its 15-season run in November 2020 after an impressive 327 episodes. As it entered it’s 11th season, it became the longest-running America fantasy TV series and remained hugely popular throughout all its seasons. Sam and Dean Winchester fought monsters, demons and ghosts of all kinds and found themselves in several life and death situations throughout.

During the 7th season of the show, the Leviathan was introduced in a scene meant to scare the pants off audiences. Instead, the CGI used to bring the creature to life went horribly wrong somehow, and the sharp teeth and forked tongue had a cringeworthy, cartoonish effect which led to laughter instead of fear.

8 007 surfing a tidal wave

Die Another Day marked the 40th anniversary of the James Bond franchise and despite mixed reviews, was the highest-grossing 007 film at the time. And, even though the movie made a lot of money, some fans of the franchise view it as the weakest entry. The invisible car didn’t help this view much and neither did the over-the-top scene which sees terrible CGI implemented in order to get Pierce Brosnan surfing a tidal wave.

The scene follows 007 as he travels in a rocket car on a glacier that is about to break apart. As the glacier does exactly that, Bond pulls a piece off the rocket car and proceeds to use it as a surfboard to surf the ensuing tidal wave. He also uses the car’s parachute to help him navigate the wave and strange-looking chunks of ice.

7 Terrible horror movie reveal

There are some truly terrifying moments in the horror movie, Mama. The film has a bleak beginning depicting a father taking his two young daughters into the woods with the intention of killing them, after he’d already murdered his estranged wife and colleagues. He is prevented from doing this by a shadowy figure that proceeds to kill him, before he can harm his children. When the children are eventually found five years later, many chilling scenes ensue, especially the jump scenes involving the youngest, Lily.

The shadowy figure, which followed them to their new home, is affectionately called ‘Mama’ by the children and mostly hidden for much of the film. However, when she is finally revealed the moment is overshadowed by bad CGI and the terrific buildup of suspense and terror evaporates in an instant.

6 The Hulkbuster

Marvel films are exceptionally popular around the world, but even this franchise hasn’t escaped the curse of bad CGI. Captain Marvel has the ‘floating Goose’, Bucky falls weirdly from a train in Captain America: The First Avenger, and a New York alley is turned into Norway in Thor: Ragnarok.

Some of the most notable CGI blunders in the Marvel multiverse comes in Avengers: Infinity War, which is unfortunate since many of the scenes feature excellent special effects. During the big fight scene in Wakanda, Bruce Banner uses the Hulkbuster suit which looks awesome right up until the suit opens and Banner’s head sticks out of the top. Because Banner’s head looks so small compared to the rest of the suit, it seems almost like he’s floating above it, instead of being secured inside it.

5 Is that a real bear?

TV shows typically have far less in the budget when it comes to special effects. And this is probably why the helicopters in Grey’s Anatomy always look so blurry and why explosions and fire in many shows look extremely fake.

Speaking of fire, in the popular Grey’s spinoff, Station 19, the characters face fire in just about every episode. But sometimes, just like Grey’s, they stand off against a different type of threat. The doctors of Grey Sloan Memorial had a run-in with a lion while the firefighters on Station 19 have had to contend with a tiger as well as bears.

While the CGI tiger wasn’t ‘as bad’, fans couldn’t get over how terrible the special effects were when it came to the bears. Words can’t really explain it, so it might be best to watch the video clip to experience the horror first-hand.

4 The problem with ageing

The recently remade IT films were kind of a swing-and-a-miss for hardcore horror fans who couldn’t take Pennywise seriously with his high-pitched voice and lame insults. And then there are the monsters who are ridiculous-looking instead of scary because of the CGI behind their design.

One of the biggest problems the filmmakers faced was Finn Wolfhard’s growth spurt between films. This led to the de-aging of his character, Richie Tozier’s face in the second film which makes for some unsettling viewing. His skin is unnaturally smooth and his airbrushed cheeks and thick glasses make for a very strange combination.

3 Oh deer

Post-apocalyptic TV show, The Walking Dead, has never really been known for strong CGI effects. But the series is so popular that fans willingly overlook the cheesiness of the special effects. However, during one episode even the most loyal fans took to Twitter to voice their disgust about a particularly bad CGI moment.

Rick Grimes is being chased by a horde of zombies in one scene and he needs a distraction, so he decides to take down a deer. The deer that appears in the scene looks like something that wandered out of a bad dream. Apart from looking almost translucent, it’s body is weirdly elongated in the middle. Suffice it to say, the memes on Twitter were as over-the-top as that scene.

2 Technology gone wrong

If ever there was a universally hated movie, Cats is it. Despite starring big Hollywood names, it received brutal reviews with some reviewers bluntly stating that it is the worst movie ever made. Most criticized were the special effects which left the ‘cats’ looking like they indulged into too much makeup while trying to keeping warm in furry costumes. It certainly didn’t help that the movie features dancing cockroaches and mice sporting human faces. The sloppy ‘digital fur technology’ remains the biggest gripe however, with fans fixating on the cat-people’s human feet and all the gaffes which saw some character’s ears CGI’d out.

Some reviewers went even further, saying that the musical wasn’t that great to begin with, therefore the movie should never have been made.

1 Chucky baby

While it is understandable that real live babies couldn’t be used for TV show scenes during the coronavirus lockdowns, it is still quite disturbing to see the lengths that some shows went to in order to include infants in episodes.

Fans of Bull were excited for the show’s fifth season, only to be completely freaked out while watching the first episode. The beginning of the episode gave viewers a glimpse of Jason Bull’s baby girl, Astrid, who unfortunately resembled a creepy Chucky doll. Twitter quickly flooded with memes, with fans describing the obviously CGI baby as a zombie and quipping that it sounded like a cat.

Clearly, Bull hasn’t learned anything from the Renesmee fiasco.

Modern film fans are familiar with extravagant stunts and crazy action scenes. From exploding skyscrapers to flying cars, there is no shortage of eye-boggling moments in blockbuster cinema. Unsurprisingly, and unfortunately, these scenes are mostly created with Computer Generated Imagery, better known as CGI.

However, nothing quite beats practical effects. The human eye is incredibly perceptive and can easily detect when something did not actually happen. So here are ten amazing movie moments that were created entirely using practical effects. They are increasingly rare, but large-scale stunts performed for real can provide the wow factor that makes blockbuster cinema so special.

Related: 10 Early Special Effects That Made Movie Magic

10 The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

The production team behind James Bond is famous for preferring practical effects where possible. Although there have been some blips in this impressive track record—Pierce Brosnan surfing down a huge CGI wave on a painfully obvious green screen being one example—they have done some remarkable things.

1974’s The Man with the Golden Gun, starring Roger Moore, features one of the most improbable car stunts of all time. A conveniently broken bridge provided the location for this frankly outrageous trick: the corkscrew spin. This required Bond to ramp up one side of the bridge, twist 360 degrees in mid-air, and land safely on the far side. It had been theorized before by a computer simulation, but nobody had ever attempted the real thing.

The production team, using precise mathematical calculations, figured out that the car had to be traveling at exactly 77kpm (48mph). Stunt driver Loren Willert, who performed the trick, was given a $30,000 bonus on the spot, and the press were brought from all around the world to witness it. In 2008, the television show Top Gear unsuccessfully tried to recreate the stunt, which shows just how impressive the original achievement was.^[1]

9 The Dark Knight (2008)

It is well known that Christopher Nolan prefers practical effects to CGI, and the film which really kickstarted this trend was The Dark Knight in 2008. There are countless stunts in The Dark Knight which could be listed here, not least the building that they actually blew up. However, in terms of sheer awe, the truck flip is perhaps the most noteworthy. The Joker, wreaking havoc in a freight truck, is thwarted by Batman. How? Batman uses steel cables to flip it upside down.

It would have been much easier for Nolan to ask a team of CGI artists to create this scene digitally. Instead, Nolan wanted the real thing. So the crew set up this stunt in the middle of Chicago, using a carefully placed piston to launch the truck upside down. This procedure was fraught with danger—not least the presence of actual bank vaults beneath the street. Ultimately the stunt was successful, the driver was safe, and audiences were treated to one of the most breath-taking scenes in recent cinematic history.^[2]

8 Fitzcarraldo (1982)

Werner Herzog is not a well-known director outside of film schools, but his cinematic achievements are pretty remarkable. Many of his sixty feature films are considered masterpieces, though none of them are quite as ambitious as Fitzcarraldo from 1982.

Fitzcarraldo was inspired by the real story of a Peruvian-Irish rubber baron named Carlos Fitzcarrald, who transported a disassembled steamship over land in the late 1890s. If such a film were made in 2022, no doubt the whole thing would be done with green screens and CGI. But Herzog wanted realism. His film crew went to the Amazon and hauled a 320-ton steamship over a hill. Several crew members were injured, and the wreck of the steamship can still be seen to this day. Production was, understandably, fraught with difficulties and drama, but the film did get made.

Herzog famously quipped after the release of Fitzcarraldo that “every man should pull a boat over a mountain at some point in his life.” Easier said than done, but it made for magnificent viewing.^[3]

7 Dunkirk (2017)

Christopher Nolan did not just stop at flipping trucks. His Oscar-nominated 2017 war film Dunkirk, which was widely praised for its immersive qualities, took practical effects to the skies. Dunkirk’s sound editing and set design gave audiences a visceral impression of the Second World War, but what really wowed filmgoers were the scenes of Spitfires dogfighting over the English Channel.

Audiences have become so accustomed to CGI that they assumed these scenes were done using digital trickery. No—they were real. Nolan borrowed Spitfires from the Imperial War Museum and got pilots from the Royal Air Force to fly them. The planes made up to twelve flights per day over the English Channel, simulating combat and flying in formation. Just to make it clear: these were planes that had been built in the 1940s for the actual Second World War. Not only that, but Nolan filmed Dunkirk in the very place where the events of the film had taken place seventy years earlier.^[4]

6 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Australian director George Miller has had an interesting career. He burst onto the scene in the 1970s with the cult classic Mad Max and followed it up with two sequels. Afterward, however, Miller surprised everybody by making films about talking pigs (Babe) and dancing penguins (Happy Feet). Back in 2015, he returned to the franchise that made him famous.

Despite being a wacky, post-apocalyptic action film, Mad Max: Fury Road grossed hundreds of millions of dollars and won several Oscars. In one of its most exciting scenes, when our heroes try to escape across the desert in a customized oil truck, an army of goons attempts to stop them. The production team managed to achieve this without resorting to CGI or green screens.

Speeding through the Namibian desert, brave stuntmen actually clambered to the ends of poles attached to moving cars and swung back and forth at high speed, leaping from these poles onto the truck. This required eight weeks of preparation and over 150 stuntmen. Perhaps the fact that such scenes were filmed for real, without CGI, is one reason why Mad Max: Fury Road achieved such surprising success.^[5]

5 Apocalypse Now (1979)

Apocalypse Now is famous for its hellish production. A typhoon wrecked the sets, Marlon Brando turned up late, Martin Sheen had a heart attack, and the film ran tens of millions of dollars over budget. Despite these immense difficulties, the film was finished, and Apocalypse Now is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.

One such difficulty was procuring military equipment: Francis Ford Coppola basically hired an army for his film. He had a mutual contact with the President of the Philippines, Fernando Marcos. He used it to help soothe relations with the government, which was understandably concerned about a regular American citizen hiring out hundreds of pieces of expensive military hardware. The result, though, was spectacular.

When Sheen’s character lands on the beaches of Vietnam (it was filmed in the Philippines but set in Vietnam), he finds himself surrounded by a huge battle. Helicopters and fighter jets are hurtling through the sky, hundreds of soldiers are storming around, the sea is filled with battleships, and entire villages are in flames. None of this was done in post-production. Real soldiers, real helicopters, and real flames.^[6]

4 Live and Let Die (1973)

Any list of practical film stunts has to feature James Bond more than once. In Live and Let Die, released in 1973, the film crew accidentally set a Guinness World Record during their attempt to create another remarkable set-piece.

Bond, driving a speedboat, is being hotly pursued by Caribbean drug dealers down a canal in Louisiana. The canal is intersected, however, by a low-lying gravel road. With his odds of escape looking slim, Bond drives his speedboat onto the bank of the gravel road and is thrown into the air. He hurtles through the air, over the road, and lands safely in the canal on the far side.

It should not surprise you to learn that the team behind Bond really did this. But it was not easy, and stunt driver Jerry Comeaux had a very thin margin for failure, as the canal was only fifty feet wide. In his own words, either he made the jump correctly “or else.” Everything went to plan, and Bond fans were given yet another iconic moment to enjoy. It was only realized afterward, however, that this stunt set a World Record for the longest ever speedboat jump, at 110 feet.^[7]

3 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

Fans of Harry Potter will be well acquainted with the brilliant scene in The Prisoner of Azkaban where Harry accidentally inflates his cruel Aunt Marge. Not only does it serve as an excellent moment of comedy—showing the wacky and wonderful possibilities of magic—but it explores the darker side of Harry’s personality.

What might surprise fans is that Pam Ferris, the actor who played Aunt Marge, was actually inflated—sort of. She wore a 23-kilogram (51-pound) costume comprising inflatable rubber, which could be inflated one layer at a time, including layers over her face! Shooting this sequence was a meticulous process involving hidden wires and thirty-eight tweed suits of different sizes. The result, however, is an extraordinary bit of cinema in which audiences can experience the closest thing to somebody actually being inflated. Reflecting on the scene, Pam Ferris recalls that she was four-and-a-half feet wide at her largest and could not eat or walk while wearing the suit.^[8]

2 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Along with Star Wars, Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark basically invented the modern blockbuster. The film is packed with legendary one-liners, thrilling action scenes, and unforgettable music. But one scene, in particular, has come to define the spirit not only of Indiana Jones but also of adventure films as a genre: the boulder chase. It lasts only a few seconds and takes place right at the beginning of the film. However, few movie moments are so instantly recognizable.

How did they do it? The film crew built a 168-kilogram, 3.6-meter (300-pound, 12-foot) fiberglass boulder. And Harrison Ford had to run away from it down a 36.5-meter (40-yard) track not just once but ten times. Spielberg realized that a stunt double would not be believable enough and somehow convinced the Hollywood star to risk serious injury for the sake of the shot. His decision to recreate a real-life boulder chase rather than resorting to camera trickery or green screen (it was around even then!) is a testament to the power of practical effects. It should also serve as a lesson to modern filmmakers.^[9]

1 Tenet (2020)

Christopher Nolan’s preference for practical effects took on new heights in his most recent film, the controversial and confusing Tenet. It was the first major release after the global outbreak of Covid-19, and many hoped Tenet would be the film to get people back in cinemas.

Well, even if Tenet was met with mixed reviews, nobody could fault its spectacle. Taking center stage among a host of bizarre and incredible sequences is the Oslo airport plane crash. As filmgoers, we are familiar with explosions and disasters involving airplanes. But these are almost always created with CGI. Not Tenet. Christopher Nolan actually bought a retired Boeing 747, crashed it into a building, and filmed the whole thing for our entertainment.

Tenet’s visual effects supervisor, Andrew Jackson, revealed that “all of the flames, all the collapsing” were real events. What is most amazing is that, according to Jackson, Nolan and his team realized it would actually be cheaper to perform this stunt for real than to create it with CGI.^[10]

Over the years, Hollywood’s reliance on CGI has grown along with its ability to successfully execute a good CGI scene—to the point where it has become a staple of most movies less concerned with plot and more driven by action sequences and pecs of steel. Therefore, filmmakers could be forgiven for testing various recipes to success.

Unfortunately, however, they have missed many opportunities to present us with masterful scenes simply because the CGI department took a shortcut. Here are ten climactic scenes in films ruined by questionable CGI.

Related: 10 Startling Cgi Moments In TV And Movie Scenes

10 I Am Legend—Darkseeker Attack

Everyone loves a good dystopian end-of-the-world survival film, and I Am Legend is no exception, having garnered fans from across the globe, with many vying for a sequel. Apart from the fact that the dog dies (cardinal mistake unless you build a movie around taking bloody revenge) and an ending that split audiences to such an extent that an alternate ending exists, I Am Legend nailed it.

The plot, the acting, and the world-building. One small tiny problem—the darkseekers. Why director Francis Lawrence felt it necessary to add CGI to these humanoids in order to alter them so that they more closely resemble video game characters from the ’90s is beyond reason. If only we could get these creatures that were once considered to be human to more closely resemble… well, humans. Perhaps makeup and wardrobe can answer that.^[1]

9 IT: Chapter Two—Paul Bunyan Statue

In this remake of Stephen King’s smash hit IT, there is a justifiable over-reliance on CGI. The story is of such a nature that only CGI could really make it pop, and no amount of Skarsgard stares could replace a good old computer-generated monster face. In the scene where Pennywise gleefully sits atop a Paul Bunyan statue, then brings it to life in a jump scare howl straight from the annals of horrordom, one could argue that the scene had its intended effect. The directors, however, saw fit for the animated statue to chase Richie through the park. A difficult scene to pull off, and although not entirely bad, it leaves a lingering comical feel that would be better suited for a comedy or satire produced by the Wayans brothers.^[2]

8 Matrix Reloaded—Park Fight

In what was once considered the second film of a trilogy, Neo had bested agent Smith one on one on numerous occasions before. So the agent of the Matrix does whatever he can to get the upper hand, throwing everything at him, including the kitchen sink.

In an exciting scene that showcases Neo’s ability to kick ass, but also the lengths to which agent Smith is willing to go to best him, Neo punches and kicks his way through more and more bodies until the majority of the figures appear to be crash test dummies from an early ’90s car safety video. In what was still a marvelous scene, the momentary lapse in CGI prowess doesn’t do it any favors and somewhat ruins its rewatchability now that the bar for CGI has been raised significantly.^[3]

7 Air Force One—Plane Crash

No list involving some form of badly done CGI would be complete without having the plane crash from Air Force One as an honorable guest. It was, far and away, one of the most anti-climactic moments in film history. When the plane crash lands in the ocean, it then inexplicably defies any and all rules of force, momentum, and gravity by spinning and flipping over like a crash scene from the original space invaders arcade game.

An overall good film with good suspense and a tight enough plot. Not even the black box could provide enough information to explain how that scene could crash and burn magnificently.^[4]

6 Deep Blue Sea—Russell’s Death

In what essentially feels like something never destined to be a big Hollywood blockbuster (yet ended being just that), Samuel L Jackson meets one of his more surprising and unexpected ends. We know now that, unless the starring role is played by Russel Crowe, should a character go off on a tangent about surviving and fighting, they are likely to kick the bucket. But not often so spectacularly as in Deep Blue Sea.

After Russell “Mr. Everest” boosts morale and invigorates everyone’s will to live, one of the sharks takes matters into its own teeth and breaches the surface before ripping a poorly CGI’d Jackson limb from limb. It could have been better. But in their defense, they weren’t shooting for the Oscar.^[5]

5 Black Panther—T’Challa vs. Killmonger Final Fight

Marvel’s sixth highest-grossing film—raking in more than $1.3 billion—sees T’Challa face off against Eric “Killmonger” Stevens for the right to be called the one and only true king of Wakanda. The MCU films are known for their inventive and effective use of CGI, having brought to life some of film’s largest characters by way of computer animation.

The film Black Panther is no exception to the rule. However, the final battle between the foes feels less like the climax of a billion dollar grossing cinematic experience and more like a trip down a 3D rendered wormhole more suitable for a film created a few decades ago. An unfortunate ending to an otherwise MARVELous film. Luckily, it did not appear to have detracted from the success of the release.^[6]

4 Star Wars IV: Special Edition—Jabba the Hutt

Star Wars fans are known to be loyal and, as one can expect, quite critical of change that does not fit the narrative, the world, or the tone of the universe George Lucas has crafted. Therefore, it would be no surprise that the forced moments of CGI in this adaptation of Episode IV were not well received and left many fans scratching their heads.

Jabba the Hutt was done particularly poorly, and considering the scenes that were altered, one is left with a strange wonder as to why they did not go with realistic prosthetics. In a time when CGI was still a fetus in the filming world, this attempt adds nothing to the experience. Instead, it robs the viewer of potentially entertaining sequences.^[7]

3 Blade II—Sword Fight

Blade is the first real R-rated (tax-evading) superhero in my book… and a bloody cool one at that. In his second outing, Blade, the vampire slayer, has sliced and diced his way through the vampire underworld so effectively that they lined up a few ninja assassins to meet him head-on in what could turn out to be a sword-clashing epic scene. The scene is lit with a wall of spotlights for maximum effect and is well choreographed, with the actual human fighting as entertaining and captivating as need be.

Naturally, being a superhero movie of sorts, things had to ascend into the impossible, and that is where the scene loses balance. The movements are sloppy and clearly distinguishable from the real movements of the warm bodies. The marriage of back-and-forth CGI with the realistic fighting does nothing but throw you off guard long enough that the potentially lethal sequence leaves you wondering whether they should have kept to the basics and sliced some off the top.^[8]

2 Justice League—Final Fight

The film was criticized by fans and critics alike and had people clamoring for the Snyder cut, which provided the viewer with more substance and fewer hooky effects. In an era of the superhero, with Marvel setting the golden standard for hero films with their Avengers franchise, one could be forgiven for thinking the DC universe might also have a few tricks up their tight body-fitted sleeve.

Instead, we are treated with a final battle that doesn’t look at all real. It rather serves as a stark reminder that we are looking at actors standing in front of green screens, hoping that their outstanding acting synchronizes well with what is happening to them in the film.^[9]

1 The Mummy Returns—Scorpion King

Considering Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is a realistic-looking CGI character created by the WWE in the early nineties, one can not help but wonder what went wrong with the final climatic scene of The Mummy Returns. The overall film holds up well against its entertaining and successful predecessor, and casting the Rock as the scorpion king could have been a masterstroke. However, the letdown of seeing how a poorly rendered face of Johnson looks on a body generated by the Half Life game engine is the real letdown.

In a move that is as bewildering as the scene was impassable, how the film received the green light and slipped through the final stages of production goes beyond logic, and no amount of timeline pressure should be able to justify it. One has to assume they blew the budget or their time elsewhere, yet I cannot help but wonder what the results would have been had they nailed the scorpion king.^[10]