2. ID4 Miniatures
The most conflicting image on this list is at once jaw-droppingly impressive and also somewhat depressing. In the age of CGI, it's staggering to believe that a shot as complicated as this was ever achieved through practical effects, let alone that any filmmaking team was crazy enough to even attempt it. The shot, of a jet fighter bounding through a cavern as explosions go off around it in Roland Emmerich's Independence Day, was somehow achieved with practical miniatures, though at the same time, it reveals the complete artifice of even the most striking shots cinema has to offer. It's not like many expected Emmerich to
actually fly a fighter jet through an explosion-filled cavern, yet at the same time, seeing this effect achieved with dozens of crew members standing idly by will forever ensure I cannot look at it the same way again.