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4. Sigourney Weaver Pulled Off The "Impossible" Basketball Shot For Real - Alien Resurrection

You probably remember the scene from Alien: Resurrection where, after talking to her fellow crew members, the Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) clone throws a basketball backwards without looking and manages to successfully sink it in the basket.

Considering the way the shot is framed, where the basketball disappears out of view for a second before falling through the net, it seems like a pretty basic filmmaking bait-and-switch - a stage hand catches Weaver's ball out of frame, and another ball is dropped through the net from above. Simple, right?

Except, despite the framing completely failing to make the most of this, the basket was indeed sunk entirely practically by Weaver, with no assistance from stage hands, in-camera trickery or even visual effects.

As the story goes, Weaver trained for three weeks with a basketball coach, and even though director Jean-Pierre Jeunet wanted to simply drop the basketball in from above, he blocked out hours of his schedule for Weaver, who insisted on trying to complete the shot herself.

After countless failed attempts, Jeunet gave Weaver one last try, and miraculously, she pulled it off, much to the shock of co-star Ron Perlman, who immediately broke character and nearly blew the take.

Thankfully some clever editing managed to keep the money shot in tact while cutting just before Perlman excitedly shouted "Oh my god!"

Despite Jeunet rightly noting that audiences would assume the basket was faked due to the framing, Weaver insisted he keep it in the film as it was, and has since called it one of the best moments of her life (after getting married and giving birth to her daughter, of course).

It's just a shame Jeunet didn't think to frame the shot further back, which would've afforded decidedly less doubt - and a lot more awe - over that incredible basket.