10 Most Amazing Practical Movie Effects Of The 2010s

Christopher Nolan's love of "old-school" practical effects is illustrated by the bizarre fact that he doesn't have a mobile phone or email address, something he confessed in an interview with THR.

His desire to shoot as many in-camera stunts as possible is something he carries into each of his movies, and The Dark Knight Rises was no different. Of particular note here is the opening scene, which finds the crew of a plane rappelling down onto a smaller plane, attaching cables to it, and dropping the fuselage to the ground from a dizzying height.

And, impressively, everything about this sequence was done for real.

The exterior parts were shot in Scotland, over the picturesque Cairngorm Mountains. The crew rehearsed the scene for several months, but managed to complete it in just two days. A team of stuntmen performed parachute jumps for several shots, while others - like the shot of the wings breaking off - were accomplished using miniatures.

Oh, and this moment? Nolan and his team really did drop that plane to the ground, using dummies to make it appear as though Bane and Pavel were thousands of feet in the air.

The shots that take place within the plane were obviously not done mid-flight. For these, a plane was built and attached to a pivot so it could move, roll and rotate convincingly, allowing the shots of Bane and the other people inside the plane to look realistic.

All-in-all, this combination of in-camera, miniature and set-building work - with few digital enhancements - is hugely impressive, especially considering the fact that it held up to the scrutiny of a giant IMAX screen.