4. The "Hades Landscape" Was Achieved Using Thousands Of Tiny Lightbulbs (Blade Runner)
Blade Runner sucks you into its world from the moment it starts, mainly because the "Hades Landscape" (as it's been nicknamed) is such a mind-blowing achievement in special effects. But how the hell did they manage to do something like that? Though you probably guessed that it was done with miniatures it's kind of amazing to see how the cityscape in the movie looks when it
isn't being filmed close-up and covered in layers of artificial fog. The city's sweeping light show was made possible using literally thousands and thousands of tiny fiber-optic lights and lightbulbs. These were attached to acid-etched brass miniatures, and the effect - as you'll no doubt agree - came out looking even better than most of the stuff that we can do with actual computers nowadays. As for the gas tower explosions? They were shot for real in a desert and superimposed over what you can see here.