10 Incredible CGI Scenes You Won't Believe Aren't Real

5. Bathtub Water - A Beautiful Mind

Talk to any animator and they'll tell you that the hardest thing to create other than a photo-realistic human being is either fire or water; the elements are so dynamic that bringing them to the screen without a single imperfection is extremely challenging. However, the geniuses who worked on A Beautiful Mind struck gold by rendering some wholly convincing CGI water after the fact, even if it was likely a digital composite rather than an outright rendering from scratch. The scene is a pivotal one, as John Nash is in the thrall of his mental illness and almost ends up drowning his own child by placing it in the bathtub with the taps turned on full. Jennifer Connelly - this time fully expressing her distress - pulls the baby out, but not before we get a decent look in at the tub, with the baby almost completely submerged in water. While this could have been achieved practically, the risk of putting the child under unnecessary stress seemed too great, so they opted for the more expensive approach instead! Still, the end result is completely seamless.