10 Movie Scenes That Totally Tricked Your Brain
7. Everyone Believed Gary Sinise Didn't Have Legs - Forrest Gump
Another Robert Zemeckis masterstroke now, with the film that not only won him the Best Director Oscar but also nabbed the gong for Best Visual Effects - and rightly so.
Despite being a noted stage actor, Gary Sinise had just a few screen credits to his name at the time of Forrest Gump's release, such that most audiences simply believed his amputee Lt. Dan was played by an amputee actor.
The world was shocked to learn, then, that Sinise did indeed have legs in real life, and the effect was achieved in the film through extremely complex, state-of-the-art VFX.
Much like Roger Rabbit, Zemeckis knew that people would truly accept the illusion if they could see Sinise moving around the environment in the same tangible way that an amputee actually would, rather than his movements being limited by technological limitations.
What ultimately tricks your brain into completely believing the effect, whether you knew who Sinise was beforehand or not, is those moments where Lt. Dan moves around outside of his wheelchair, moving his stump into physical spaces where we know his legs should be.
Zemeckis and his VFX team went to the lengths of adding CGI objects into the spaces where Sinise's legs would've been, such as a coffee table during the New Year's Eve scene.
In combination with subtle lighting tricks and smart camera placement, this ensured the effect still looks note-perfect today.