Think of the last time you went to the movies. Even if you watched a film about slavery or truck drivers, if it wasn’t a documentary, odds are it was filled with visual effects. Hollywood has perfected the art of CGI to where you won’t even realize what you’re looking at is completely faked.
In Life of Pi, the actor wasn’t anywhere near a tiger.
Fox / Life of Pi
He wasn’t even on the ocean.
Fox / Life of Pi
Sandra Bullock looked far above the earth in Gravity.
Framestore
But she was safely in a movie studio.
Framestore
In Wolf of Wall Street, Leonardo DiCaprio looked as if they flew to Italy to shoot one scene.
Vimeo/Brainstorm Digital/”Wolf of Wall Street”
He never left Los Angeles.
Vimeo/Brainstorm Digital/”Wolf of Wall Street”
Scenes of vintage New York City looked too good to be true in The Great Gatsby.
Warner Bros.
They were too awesome to be real.
Warner Bros.
We all knew that Superman wasn’t really flying…
Warner Bros.
But Henry Cavill probably did less than you think.
Warner Bros.
When Robert Downey Jr. looks like he is wearing an Ironman suit…
YouTube
He’s actually just wearing a unitard.
YouTube
Transformers obviously had a lot of CGi.
YouTube
But did you know just how much?
YouTube
Alice in Wonderland was a beautiful movie to watch.
YouTube
Wonderland, though, was pretty much all CGI.
YouTube
James Franco was a wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Sony Pictures Imageworks
He just wasn’t in Oz.
Sony Pictures Imageworks
He wasn’t even close.
Sony Pictures Imageworks
Pacific Rim was full of fighting robots, so of course it was faked.
Industrial Light & Magic
But the entire city of Hong Kong was dreamt up by designers as well.
Industrial Light & Magic
Zachery Quinto’s huge, leaping fight scene in Star Trek was visually impressive.
Industrial Light & Magic
It was actually quite tame to film.
Industrial Light & Magic
One of the last sequences in the Lone Ranger was beautiful and well shot.
Industrial Light & Magic
It was mainly filmed in front of a screen, though.
Industrial Light & Magic
The cool Hunger Games consoles weren’t advanced technology.
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They were just flat, green tables.
YouTube
Mark Ruffalo wore this suit to make the Hulk’s movements look natural.
YouTube
It took a lot of editing…
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But they were able to pull it off.
YouTube
A lot of the scenes, actually, in the Avengers weren’t shot in a real city.
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Instead, the sequences were shot in front of green screen backdrops.
YouTube
Shooting this kind of scene in the real New York City would have been difficult to control.
YouTube
Thankfully, they didn’t have to.
YouTube
And Scarlett Johansson was never in danger while filming this daring scene.
YouTube
Although she still had to jump on some guy’s back.
YouTube
For the Dark Knight Rises, the Pittsburgh football stadium was used.
Warner Bros. / The Dark Knight Rises Blu-Ray screencap
There weren’t 80,000 people in the crowd, though. The crews just filmed smaller groups of people in different locations.
Warner Bros. / The Dark Knight Rises Blu-Ray screencap
They also couldn’t REALLY blow up the field in the movie.
Warner Bros. / The Dark Knight Rises Blu-Ray screencap
This is what it looked like while it was being filmed.
Warner Bros. / The Dark Knight Rises Blu-Ray screencap
Designers added debris to the stadium.
Warner Bros. / The Dark Knight Rises Blu-Ray screencap
Then, they digitally replaced almost the entire surface of the field.
Warner Bros. / The Dark Knight Rises Blu-Ray screencap
Did you know just how much computer generated images you were looking at when you watched those movies? I know to expect some visual effects, but the sheer amount of digital editing in movies is always surprising.
Share this with your friends. See if they know just how much of the movies they watch are completely fake.