Movie And Show Special Effects That Nobody Even Notices

7

Watchmen -- Looking Glass' Mask was Often a Digital Creation

One of the most memorable costumed characters in HBO's Watchmen series was Looking Glass, the police interrogator who basically looked if Spider-Man had been bitten by a radioactive aluminum foil salesman.

HBOUnlike most superheros, his arch nemesis is smudging.

Of course a lot of superhero costumes would be somewhat impractical in the real world; Wonder Woman might choose something other than a mini-skirt to wear while battling evil, and it's doubtful that Superman would want his greatest foes staring at the outline of his junk in tight red briefs. Not unlike the original Watchmen's Rorschach, Looking Glass has no real way to see properly. So for many of his scenes, Looking Glass' mask was computer-generated.

The production had "five different masks", some with "a special print that would aid with motion capture and tracking" and some were just green spandex. They did have one made of a metallic fabric that looked similar to the finished product. The visual effects route also meant that the reflections in the mask could be created digitally so we wouldn't see, say, Dr. Manhattan grabbing a bagel at the craft service table.

6

Knives Out -- The Lights Were Shaped Like Optical Illusions

Rian Johnson's Knives Out, the hit murder mystery/terrible adaptation of a Radiohead song featured several characters wearing glasses, which is how you know it's a smart movie. Rather than hiring Industrial Light & Magic to digitally remove any pesky reflections (or, come to think of it, simply pop the lenses out) key grip Matt Mania created elaborate lighting diffusers to match the characters' surroundings. That way, inside of a giant lightbulb, the reflections in Jamie Lee Curtis' glasses just looked like the windows in the Thrombey estate:

Steve Yedlin/Lionsgate

Lionsgate

5

Avengers: Endgame -- Captain America's Helmet was CGI When He Fought Himself

The Avengers movies use a ton of visual effects, otherwise we wouldn't have the Hulk, Tony Stark's Iron Man suit, or the ability to trick people into thinking Jeremy Renner looks cool. The recent Avengers: Endgame was chock full of big-budget effects, but one you might not have noticed one that was created purely to fix a screw-up. In a memorable scene Captain America has to fight himself, either as a potent metaphor for modern political polarization, or because it just looked super-cool.

4

Parasite -- There Was No Second Floor On That (Fake) House

One of the most memorable elements of the Oscar-winning Parasite is the luxurious Kim residence, the disgustingly beautiful house in which the Park family end up working. Instead of contriving an elaborate con to trick some rich dopes into letting the movie film there, director Bong Joon-ho had the house "built from scratch". So the lighting would look natural, the entire set was built outdoors.

3

Game of Thrones -- Missandei's Death was Shot on a Soundstage

In the final season of Game of Thrones (SPOILERS for people who were holding out for the fan remake) Daenerys' closest pal Missandei is brutally executed right in front of her eyes -- which is awful, but also spared her the indignity of appearing in those last few clunky episodes. Even though half the actors are supposed to be atop the gates of King's Landing, the production built an 8 foot tall replica of the gate next to the full-sized version so the actors could actually hear each other.

HBOAs fun as ending this convoluted drama with a Monty Python wall yelling scene would've been.

2

Mindhunter Even CGIs the Greenery

Acclaimed director David Fincher is known for his stealthy use of computer effects in movies; from digital blood to whatever effects wizardry they used to erase all the jars of urine on the set of Zodiac. His Netflix series Mindhunter, about the FBI's initial research into serial killers, is no exception. Even for a scene with a bunch of old TVs in a department store window, they just created that image on a computer which is apparently easier than tracking down a handful of antique televisions.

Netflix

Netflix"Just BUY the TVs? Our production budget isn't made out of thrift store runs!"

And the show even CGIs the natural environment for mood and accuracy, whether that's adding some trees--

Netflix

Netflix

1

Gemini Man Didn't De-age Will Smith, it Recreated Him

Since Will Smith blockbusters have been struggling at the box office as of late, some Hollywood genius concluded that the best way to fix to that problem was ... two Will Smiths! That didn't exactly pan out. While you might assume Gemini Man is about a dude who's super-into astrology, it's actually the story of an aging hit-man forced to battle a younger clone of himself.