Famous Movies Without Special Effects…

[00:00] This is what movies look like without

[00:02] special effects, like the

[00:03] behind-the-scenes footage of The

[00:04] Avengers, Man of Steel, Pirates of the

[00:06] Caribbean, and so much more. Long before

[00:09] Johnny Depp's live-action courtroom

[00:11] drama, he and Orlando Bloom were busy

[00:13] fighting off zombie sharks on a sinking

[00:14] boat. The only problem is zombie sharks

[00:17] are a little hard to come by, so the

[00:18] Pirates of the Caribbean VFX team made

[00:20] do with a massive blue screen set.

[00:22] My dog stepped on a bee,

[00:24] a hydraulic powered boat, and plenty of

[00:26] imagination.

[00:32] Tom Holland starred in the video game

[00:34] remake Uncharted, whose opening scene is

[00:36] a high octane fall from a cargo plane

[00:38] without a parachute.

[00:40] You'd think Spider-Man would be okay

[00:42] doing his own aerial stunts, but they've

[00:44] brought in wires, a giant hydraulic arm,

[00:46] and a blue set to help producers pull

[00:48] off the deathdeying scenes. You don't

[00:50] even need to use real cars in movies

[00:51] anymore.

[00:54] [Music]

[00:56] This iconic scene from X-Men: Days of

[00:58] Future Past has Quicksilver rushing in

[01:00] to save his colleagues from an explosion

[01:02] at 2,000 m per second. To create this

[01:04] faster than sound sequence, filmmakers

[01:06] filmed Evan Peters running on a

[01:08] treadmill and blended it with a rotating

[01:10] shot that had been slowed down.

[01:12] Tasty.

[01:13] The result was this slow-mo masterpiece.

[01:15] Yeah boy.

[01:16] This scene in John Wick 3 just couldn't

[01:18] have been filmed on a real street.

[01:20] Instead, fake motorbikes, green carts, a

[01:22] complex winch system, and a whole bunch

[01:24] of dudes in green morph suits all helped

[01:26] Keanu Reeves fight off his attackers in

[01:28] slow motion.

[01:31] They even had a guy blowing wind on

[01:32] Keanu's hair to make it look like the

[01:34] bike was moving. Speaking of Spider-Man,

[01:36] ever wondered how they make your

[01:38] friendly neighborhood Spidey look so

[01:39] good? It's mostly blue screens

[01:42] [Music]

[01:46] and a whole lot of fighting that only

[01:48] really looks good from a certain angle.

[01:50] Despite all the help, some of Tom's

[01:52] acrobatics are actually quite

[01:53] impressive. This scene from Supergirl

[01:55] looks a little different without the

[01:57] post effects added in. I'm just going to

[01:58] go ahead and say it. Superheroes without

[02:00] their powers just look like mimes and

[02:02] fancy leotards.

[02:04] We're not going to win this today.

[02:08] When the cast returned to Jumanji, the

[02:10] majority of their jungle adventures were

[02:12] way too dangerous to film for real.

[02:14] Plus, where are you going to find a herd

[02:16] of angry ostriches at short notice?

[02:20] [Music]

[02:22] The film and effects crew utilized some

[02:24] inventive blue screen sets and high-end

[02:26] CGI to create a visual masterpiece.

[02:31] And now head for the rhombus. Come on,

[02:33] hurry up, rhombus. Rhombus. One of the

[02:36] biggest movies of all time, Avengers

[02:38] Endgame was an absolute masterpiece in

[02:41] terms of visual effects and

[02:42] computerenerated backdrops. Not only did

[02:44] teams have to render special abilities

[02:46] and costumes onto hundreds of

[02:48] superheroes, but all this with an

[02:49] apocalyptic wasteland as the backdrop. I

[02:52] have to say though, I thought Thanos

[02:53] would have been taller.

[02:59] [Music]

[03:01] Rather than trying to teach Jason Mimoa

[03:03] how to breathe underwater, the team

[03:05] behind Aquaman used some pretty

[03:06] inventive visual effects to bring the DC

[03:09] superhero comic to life. Lighting,

[03:11] wires, and motion capture were all

[03:13] employed to take this above ground set

[03:15] straight to Atlantis.

[03:16] Superman's Man of Steel makes every kid

[03:19] want to fly. But the secret to this

[03:20] superhero's flight ability all comes

[03:22] down to wires, pulleys, and a team of

[03:24] people pulling the strings. He's not

[03:26] really faster than a speeding bullet. It

[03:28] just looks like it when you speed up the

[03:29] tape. The powers might be fake, but the

[03:31] man of steel's abs are 100% real.

[03:34] [Music]

[03:39] You're probably not shocked to find out

[03:40] that the dinosaurs in Jurassic World

[03:42] aren't real. That's right. They're

[03:44] almost completely CGI. Wait, almost.

[03:51] We hate to ruin the mystery behind these

[03:53] fierce velociraptors, but they're

[03:55] actually just guys in gray leotards and

[03:57] raptor helmets. For the most part, Chris

[03:59] Pratt just has to pretend there's a

[04:00] vicious predator standing in front of

[04:02] him.

[04:03] Easy.

[04:04] What about the T-Rex?

[04:08] Nope. Completely computerenerated. In

[04:10] this scene from World War Z, Brad Pitt's

[04:12] character throws a live grenade inside

[04:14] an airplane to save himself from a

[04:16] frenzied zombie herd. Rather than

[04:18] sacrifice 100 extras at 30,000 ft, the

[04:21] special effects team used a prop plane,

[04:23] wind cannons, wires, and a giant green

[04:25] screen set to create the epic scene.

[04:34] In the liveaction reboot of the Disney

[04:36] classic Aladdin, it was always going to

[04:38] be a challenge to bring all the magical

[04:39] elements to life. From flying the magic

[04:41] carpet to running through the cave of

[04:43] wonders, producers used blue screens,

[04:45] hidden supports,

[04:49] and specially designed motion capture

[04:51] suits for Will Smith's Genie.

[04:55] Oh, that's hot. If you wanted me to

[04:56] describe the plot of Alice in

[04:58] Wonderland, I'd probably say it's two

[05:00] parts fever dream mixed with three parts

[05:01] of whatever the caterpillars got. True

[05:03] to the surreal nature of the novel, the

[05:05] 2010 remake relied on whimsical CGI,

[05:08] green suits, and stilts to create

[05:10] characters of all sizes and

[05:11] perspectives.

[05:14] [Music]

[05:21] The logistics of building a massive wall

[05:23] are way beyond most film companies. It's

[05:25] even beyond most presidents. That's the

[05:27] reason why producers working on

[05:29] Mazerunner used incredibly realistic CGI

[05:32] to render these massive maze walls.

[05:33] There's only small constructions used

[05:35] for reference. The rest is a complete

[05:37] fabrication.

[05:42] In Disney's Beauty and the Beast remake,

[05:44] the fearsome prince turned monster is a

[05:46] terribly intimidating creature. In

[05:48] reality, it's just a guy in a motion

[05:50] capture suit. I'm not sure if that's

[05:52] padding he's got there or if the guy

[05:53] only does leg day, but those are some

[05:55] beastly quads. This river rapid scene in

[05:58] The Hobbit had so much going on all at

[06:00] once. There's a raging river, orcs

[06:02] firing arrows and swinging swords, as

[06:04] well as making sure all the dwarves stay

[06:05] in their barrels. Swap out weapons for

[06:07] green pool noodles. Add in some

[06:09] welltimed splashes of water and you've

[06:11] got yourself an authentic indoor river

[06:13] rapid adventure

[06:19] behind the silky smooth animation of the

[06:21] Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

[06:26] Who knew there were actually four ninjas

[06:28] underneath it all wearing motion capture

[06:30] suits and fake shell backpacks made out

[06:31] of foam? Cowabunga.

[06:35] We're still a few years away from the

[06:37] android servants used in the Kingsman

[06:39] Golden Circle, but the special effects

[06:40] team used an actress in a green morph

[06:42] suit to render a fairly convincing CGI

[06:45] droid. The robot standin even wore

[06:47] roller skates to give the movement some

[06:48] authenticity for the final shot.

[06:52] Please take your shirt off.

[06:53] A movie full of sentient apes is a VFX

[06:56] team's worst nightmare. Even though

[06:57] finding extras that act like monkeys

[06:59] sounds easy enough, adding the computer

[07:01] rendering to a dozen motion capture

[07:03] suits is an exhausting process. But the

[07:05] end result is all worth it. While

[07:06] watching Planet of the Apes, it's hard

[07:08] to tell it's just some guys in gray

[07:10] costumes monkeying around. The Matrix

[07:12] was one of the first movies to really

[07:14] use mindbending VFX and innovative

[07:16] cinema techniques in a way people hadn't

[07:18] seen before. They coined the bullet time

[07:20] shot to create this bullet dodging scene

[07:22] on the rooftop using green screens,

[07:24] multiple moving cameras, and wires to

[07:26] keep Neo from hitting the ground.

[07:31] When it comes to superheroes, there's

[07:33] one you'd definitely call overpowered.

[07:35] With almost every superpower in the book

[07:37] in her arsenal, making Captain Marvel

[07:39] come to life on the big screen was any

[07:41] VFX animator's dream.

[07:45] If climbing Mount Everest is one of

[07:47] life's hardest achievements, it makes

[07:48] sense that a film crew wouldn't be up at

[07:50] the peak of the world's highest

[07:51] mountain. Instead, teams built base

[07:53] camps under a giant green screen

[07:55] backdrop. Treacherous walks across icy

[07:57] caverns and climbs up rock peaks are all

[07:59] done in the comfort of an airconditioned

[08:01] set. America's favorite superhero,

[08:04] Captain America. He needed a little help

[08:06] pulling off the superhuman feats on

[08:08] display during Civil War. And help came

[08:10] courtesy of some cool practical and

[08:11] visual effects. When he's not

[08:13] manhandling helicopters,

[08:17] [Music]

[08:19] he's leaping two stories into an open

[08:22] window. When you're doing a liveaction

[08:24] remake of a story that is only one human

[08:26] character, your VFX team is going to

[08:28] have their work cut out for them. In

[08:29] Disney's 2016 Jungle Book remake, extras

[08:32] in blue morph suits take the place of

[08:34] monkeys, only to be edited in later.

[08:36] Beloo is just John Favro sitting in a

[08:38] pool. What? And Mowgli has to pretend

[08:40] those hand puppets are actually wild

[08:42] animals. Back in the old days of cinema,

[08:44] teams would have to wait until snowfall

[08:46] to shoot classic scenes like this one in

[08:48] Mulan. Now it's all done in

[08:50] post-prouction. Even the horse is fake.

[08:52] Likewise, any of the scenes involving

[08:54] any of the aerial acrobatics,

[08:59] it's all done at half speed with wires

[09:01] to help the actors jump and spin through

[09:03] the air. To perfectly map the behaviors,

[09:06] movement, and actions of a friendly dog

[09:08] in the Call of the Wild, the VFX team

[09:10] used an actor in a motion tracking suit

[09:12] instead of training an actual dog. Good

[09:14] boy.

[09:16] In Disney's Maleficent, Angelina Jolie's

[09:19] portrayal was equal parts amazing and

[09:21] terrifying. But creating her winged

[09:22] flight into battle and aerial acrobatics

[09:24] couldn't have been done without the help

[09:26] of a blue screen set, a complex system

[09:28] of rotating harnesses, and a team of

[09:30] blue suited technicians.

[09:33] My dog stepped on a bee.