5. Jurassic Park (1993)
By 1993 Computer Generate Images (CGI) effects were still in their infancy. While James Cameron had used the new technology to terrific effect in The Abyss and Terminator 2: Judgment day, CGI hadn't begun to approach the realism that practical effects could create. The limits of then modern CGI did not dissuade blockbuster kingpin Steven Spielberg from attempting to bridge the gap and utilize the new technology to its full extent. Spielberg had set his sights on adapting Michael Creighton's cautionary science fiction parable about the dangers of genetic engineering, Jurassic Park, to the big screen but this would require Spielberg to create the illusion that life-size dinosaurs were running amok in an isolated island theme park. Initially, Spielberg wanted to employ Go Motion, a process that makes stop motion animation more believable by creating a blurring effect that mimics motion blur, to animate the dinosaurs but found the results too unsatisfactory. Phil Tippet, who Spielberg hired for his Go Motion expertise, believed that CGI could meet Spielberg's lofty expectations. Tippet's team animated a T-Rex to demonstrate to Spielberg how CGI would look on the big screen and Spielberg gave the green light to use the process on his feature. Jurassic Park's cutting edge effects wowed audiences and made it one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. Audiences had been put on notice that CGI was here to stay and been giving a glimpse of the mind-blowing spectacles that would follow in Jurassic Park's wake.