50 CGI Scenes You Didn't Notice

Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005)

CGI Scenes: Worried about alienating their pre-teen audience, Disney reportedly spent a huge amount of cash having Lindsay Lohan's boobs digitally reduced for this family adventure.

Why It's Special: Audiences were allowed to concentrate on Herbie 's fun-filled storyline, as opposed to Lindsay's jugs. Dads in the audience must have been thrilled.

Star Trek (2009)

CGI Scene: Kirk toys with a salt cellar shaped like a tiny model Enterprise, tipping it to spill a stream of CGI salt.

Why It's Special: It's a cute moment, and one that was clearly more practical to film digitally than with an actual salt-cellar.

Return Of The Jedi (1983)

CGI Scene: In the 2004 DVD re-release, Sebastian Shaw's de-helmeted Vader has his eyebrows digitally removed to reflect the burns suffered by the younger version of his character in Revenge Of The Sith .

Why It's Special: It's a rare example of George Lucas tinkering with his original creation for the better.

Les Miserables (2012)

CGI Scene: The entire film owes a massive debt to CGI wizardry, with which the actors' radio mikes were neatly removed in post-production.

Why It's Special: Without it, it would have been impossible for the actors to sing live. A fairly major one, then…

Ghost Rider (2007)

CGI Scene: Nic Cage might be trim for a middle-aged guy, but those abs in Ghost Rider ? Not his.

Why It's Special: It's Nic Cage's CGI abs for heaven's sake! There's your team name for the next pub quiz…

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

CGI Scene: Part of the Normandy landings sequence, in which CGI bullets whizz into the water, burying themselves into the luckless soldiers below the surface.

Why It's Special: Those foamy bullet trails are totally convincing, and utterly terrifying.

Lincoln (2012)

CGI Scene: A dash of CGI tinkering allows Richmond Virginia's Capitol Building to double for the White House.

Why It's Special: It looks the part, and doesn't distract from the film's general aesthetic, in which practical effects are more prevalent.

Spider-Man 2 (2004)

CGI Scene: Doc Ock meets his end, sinking into the CGI depths in extreme close-up.

Why It's Special: Obviously you'll have guessed it's CGI in that Alfred Molina didn't actually chuck himself into an abyss, but in terms of realism, you really can't see the joins!

E.T. (1982)

CGI Scene: In the 2002 re-release, the Feds who chase Elliot and E.T. are no longer armed with shotguns, with their heavy weaponry replaced by walkie-talkies.

Why It's Special: It's a seamless swap and makes the Federal Agents seem a little less psychotic.

Forrest Gump #1 (1994)

CGI Scene: The post-war sequences featuring Gary Sinise's double amputee, whose legs were digitally removed to create the effect.

Why It's Special: It was a pioneering effect that showed how CGI could be hugely effective in hiding elements of a picture, as well as adding things in.

Forrest Gump #2 (1994)

CGI Scene: The digitised feather that bookends the film, floating whimsically across the screen.

Why It's Special: It's an eerily beautiful way to open and close the film, and looks rather snazzy to boot.

Blood Diamond (2006)

CGI Scene: The gut-wrenching phone call scene at the film's climax, in which digital tears were added to Jennifer Connelly's face.

Why It's Special: Who needs an actual performance when you can just CGI all the emotion in in post!

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)

CGI Scene: Most of the exterior shots in Hedestad, where the wintery landscape is made even more chilling with the addition of some CGI weather.

Why It's Special: Fincher's take on this nordic tale is a visual treat throughout, but his exterior shots are truly gorgeous.

300 (2006)

CGI Scene: Call us naive, but on first viewing, we assumed that the cast had really been working out. Turns out, those six-packs weren't what they seemed…

Why It's Special: They do look pretty badass, don't they?

Gladiator #1 (2000)

CGI Scene: Maximus enters the Colosseum for the first time, and the effect is enough to make even the most hardened warrior check his step.

Why It's Special: Of course we know that the Colosseum no longer looks like it does here, but without that prior knowledge, this shot would be more than enough to convince you otherwise.

Gladiator #2 (2000)

CGI Scene: Some of Oliver Reed's scenes needed to be completed after the actor's sad death during filming. Thanks to the wonders of CGI, his performance remains intact.

Why It's Special: Reed is excellent in Gladiator , and it would have been a terrible shame not to complete his character's story arc.

The Change-Up #1 (2011)

CGI Scene: Leslie Mann goes topless in this ryan Reynolds comedy vehicle, but wait… those aren't her boobs.

Why It's Special: Bizarrely, the studio decided to give Mann some surgical enhancement, courtesy of their digital team, although according to the actress it was all her own work. "It was really hard, but some people can do that, and I can,"laughs Mann. "It’s a strange talent I have."

The Change-Up #2 (2011)

CGI Scene: The Change-Up wasn't big on real boobs, with Olivia Wilde sporting CGI nipples in her topless scene. Whatever next…

Why It's Special: We just wanted to type "CGI nipples" really. Ah, progress.

The Fighter #1 (2010)

CGI Scene: Mickey holds up a napkin with Charlene's number on it. However, the number had to be digitally altered to confirm with broadcast laws, so that entire napkin is a CGI composition.

Why It's Special: It's the perfect example of non-intrusive CGI you would never have known was there.

Fight Club (1999)

CGI Scene: The Narrator's apartment explodes, in a beautiful example of photogrammetery. That's the use of photographs to create wire-frame 3D models of a set. Just FYI.

Why It's Special: David Fincher employed the technique so as to avoid the reflection of the camera being seen in the stove's shiny surface. That's attention to detail...

Skyfall (2012)

CGI Scene: Silva reveals the full extent of his battle scars, removing a plate from his cheek to reveal the effects of eating a cyanide capsule.

Why It's Special: The scene is so shocking, you'll be too distracted to question whether it was CGI or not. But it was…

Amelie (2001)

CGI Scene: When Amelie plays doctor with a stuffed animal… that animal is a computer-generated imposter!

Why It's Special: The animal's movement is nearly imperceptible… but it's there if you look for it.

Black Swan #1 (2010)

CGI Scene: As Nina dances her way off stage, you might not have noticed that all the ballerinas she passes have the same face as her.

Why It's Special: It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it effect, but it's one of the creepier ones. No wonder Nina looks behind her in bemusement.

Waterworld (1995)

CGI Scene: Apparently the CGI water wasn't the only visual trick, with Kev Costner requesting his hairline be digitally altered in the final edit. Only a rumour, but a persistent one.

Why It's Special: It's hard to root for a balding hero. Sorry.

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

CGI Scene: When Ennis is herding all those sheep, there are only actually a couple there. The rest were added in later.

Why It's Special: There are hundreds and hundreds of them! Except there aren't. Clever, right?

Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of The Clones (2002)

CGI Scene: The early scenes featuring C3P0 on Tattooine were initially shot with a skeletal, pre-plating version of the camp rust-bucket. The scene in which he is eventually plated up was cut, so Lucas had ILM graft a digital version over the original figure.

Why It's Special: It doesn't jar even half as much as some of George's digital "upgrades" to the original trilogy!

Children Of Men (2006)

CGI Scene: The climactic birth scene in which a little CGI sprog clambers out of his mother, Kee.

Why It's Special: It's unquestionably the most lifelike digital baby we've ever seen on the big screen.

Titanic (1997)

CGI Scene: No, not the boat, rather the effect of the rushing water filling the inside of the Titanic, much of which was computer generated. Clever old Cameron.

Why It's Special: It ramps up the claustrophobia and sense of peril something chronic!

Shutter Island (2010)

CGI Scene: As the boat approaches the titular island, the landmass looms out of the murk looking just about as ominous as an island can manage… with the aid of CGI of course.

Why It's Special: The pre-CGI island actually looks quite cheery. This one positively brims with menace, without looking fake.

Superman Returns (2006)

CGI Scene: Allegedly, Brandon Routh's "equipment" was deemed too distracting for the final cut, with some discreet digital editing lessening the spandex bulge.

Why It's Special: Routh didn't come out of that movie with a lot of credit, so let him have this one…

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (1998)

CGI Scene: Tobey Maguire is just sporting a horrendous combo of bald-cap and wig, right? Wrong. That's CGI all the way.

Why It's Special: There's less risk of it blowing out of place when he's riding in an open-top car...

The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

CGI Scene: As Matt Damon and Emily Blunt tear through various crowded streets at the film's big finale, you could be forgiven for not noticing that most of the backdrops are computer-generated.

Why It's Special: The bustling cityscape they're running through is utterly convincing. Marvellous stuff.

Cast Away (2000)

CGI Scene: Tom Hanks sits waiting for the wind to change, a moment hailed by some digital trees suddenly blowing in the opposite direction.

Why It's Special: It's an oddly beautiful sequence, and pleasingly subtle too. You will believe that a tree can blow…

Monsters (2010)

CGI Scene: The post-apocalyptic backdrops, including barricades, ruined buildings, warning signs etc. were all added in post-production.

Why It's Special: Incredibly, Gareth Edwards created most of said effects using Adobe After Effects, a visual effects package available to any wannabe filmmaker with a microscopic budget.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (2009)

CGI Scene: Take your pick from the exterior shots of old London. Your mincers are deceiving you, guv!

Why It's Special: With the use of a few well-placed pixels, you could be in the Big Smoke, circa 1891...

The Departed (2006)

CGI Scene: Just before the final credits roll, a rat scampers across Matt Damon's windowsill. That rat ain't real…

Why It's Special: The image of a scuttling rat brings together all those double-crosses and secret snitching together in a pleasingly simple finale.

Machete (2010)

CGI Scene: Jessica Alba appears to bare all in her shower scene, but alas, those are just pixels you're staring at…

Why It's Special: After years of technological progression, this is what VFX advances have clearly been driving toward...

The Fighter #2 (2010)

CGI Scene: The final fight between Mickey Ward and Shea Neary, in which the crowd was digitally beefed up to create the feeling of a packed-out arena.

Why It's Special: The climactic fight scene is truly gladiatorial, with the baying crowd adding plenty in terms of atmosphere.

Black Swan #2 (2010)

CGI Scene: A shot of Nina using a washbasin, in which her hands have been digitally elongated ever so slightly.

Why It's Special: it's another subtle hint at the change Nina is undergoing, and adds to the general sense of weirdness, without being explicit.

Road To Perdition (2002)

CGI Scene: 1930s Chicago is beautifully evoked in this CGI-tastic opening shot that introduces the viewer to the period city.

Why It's Special: It's a wonderful establishing shot that contextualises the action from the get-go.

A Beautiful Mind (2001)

CGI Scene: The scene with the baby in the bath was filmed in an empty tub, with that perilously deep water added in after the event.

Why It's Special: The effect is so convincing, and the scene so terrifying that you don't even stop to think that filming this naturally would probably have be a bit cruel!

Jarhead (2005)

CGI Scene: The marines crowd round a scorpion fight, in which both participants are CGI creations.

Why It's Special: The movement of both scorpions is incredibly lifelike. Subtle CGI at its best.

Panic Room (2002)

CGI Scene: As the camera pulls back from the bedroom and takes a tour through the various layers of the house, most of what you're seeing has been digitally mapped out using CGI.

Why It's Special: The CGI is totally unobtrusive, but allows for a continuous shot that's dizzying in its complexity.

X-Men: First Class (2011)

CGI Scene: When Magneto swims towards the boat moored out at see, who would have guessed that the whole thing was a CGI fake?

Why It's Special: Obviously there's plenty of CGI in play when Mags starts using his powers, but we had thought the initial shot of the ship was real!

The Da Vinci Code (2006)

CGI Scene: The scenes within St. Sulpice were entirely created by post-production whiz-kids, Rainmaker UK.

Why It's Special: The Vatican doesn't allow film crews to shoot within certain holy locations, but this dodges the problem with some style!

Spider-Man (2002)

CGI Scene: Green Goblin hurls a sequence of razor-bats at Spidey who has to twist and contort his body into some serious shapes to avoid getting hurt.

Why It's Special: Obviously the razor-bats are CGI, but did you realise that Spidey was too? Well now you know…

The Secret In Their Eyes (2009)

CGI Scene: The sequence set inside a football stadium during a heated local derby, in which the majority of the crowd are digitally rendered.

Why It's Special: The scene perfectly captures the febrile atmosphere of the South American football experience.

The Social Network (2010)

CGI Scene: Any of those in which Armie Hammer's head is grafted onto Josh Pence's body to create the illusion of the Winklevoss twins.

Why It's Special: Had we not already known that the trick was being used, there's no way we would have picked it. Those Hammer twins were mighty talented, no? Wait, what?

Jurassic Park (1992)

CGI Scene: When the T-Rex investigates the light coming from the kiddies' car. A prize for anyone who notices the moment when CGI is swapped in for the animatronic head…

Why It's Special: To pull off such a thoroughly convincing piece of CGI without the join being remotely noticeable… well, it's a masterpiece isn't it?

Zodiac (2007)

CGI Scene: Most of the exterior shots of 1970s San Francisco were entirely computer-generated.

Why It's Special: Most directors would attempt to wing their period detail by hoping fancy costumes would distract the viewer's eye. Not Fincher, who instead decided to recreate a period city through an incredibly detailed process of digital rendering.

George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.