20 Things You Didn't Know About Forrest Gump

16. The Ping-Pong Balls Were Mostly CGI

It's no secret that Forrest Gump was a pioneer of early photo-realistic CGI, even winning the Best Visual Effects Oscar for its sublime work making Gary Sinise's Lt. Dan convincingly resemble an amputee, and also cleverly integrating Tom Hanks into archive footage of various historical figures.

But one VFX element most audiences take for granted or most likely don't even notice occurs during the sequence where Forrest becomes a ping-pong champion.

During the various ping-pong matches we see, the ball was mostly digital, with the actors simply pretending to hit balls while a metronome clicker was used to time their movements.

Even over 25 years later, the result is virtually seamless, and perhaps the low-key most impressive effect in the entire movie.