10 Special Effects Movie Milestones That Came After Star Wars

7. Jurassic Park (1993)

Directed by: Steven Spielberg Even Spielberg knew it: the star of Jurassic Park wasn't Sam Neill or Jeff Goldblum or Laura Dern or Richard Attenborough, and it certainly wasn't either of those Murphy kids. It was the Tyrannosaurus Rex, and considering the amount of time it took to complete his scenes, T. Rex is one of the most difficult actors in the entire film industry to work with. An animatronic Rex, designed and built by a team led by effects and makeup guru Stan Winston, stood 20 feet tall and measured a colossal 40 feet in length. This life-sized sculpture was equipped with hydraulics that would provide certain movements, but a mixture of these practical effects with digital effects added in post-production provided a realistic dinosaur. Rendering the final product of a living, breathing dinosaur often took two hours of post-production per frame - but the T. Rex scene in the rain took six hours per frame. Despite all of this, Jurassic Park wrapped almost two weeks ahead of schedule, further proving that there's no substitute for an effects guy like Stan Winston (who also worked on Terminator, Aliens, Predator, Iron Man and Avatar) and a director like Spielberg (who made the Best Picture-winning Schindler's List simultaneously with Jurassic Park). Influenced: Any movies that blend practical animatronics with digital effects (like Babe).