20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek: First Contact
11. Shooting Started Just 7 Months Before Release
This fact is scarcely believable considering how polished and well-aged the movie is, but First Contact didn't start shooting until April 8, 1996, just seven-and-a-half months before the film ended up releasing in cinemas.
This truncated production schedule, comprised of three months of shooting and almost five months of post-production, forced visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic to rush to complete the effects on time.
The most complicated effect in the film, of the Borg Queen's (Alice Krige) head being lowered onto her torso, alone took five months to satisfactorily finish.
The prospect of a sci-fi tentpole film hitting cinemas less than five months after the last piece of principal footage was shot is absolutely mind-boggling to consider today, where it's not unheard of for glossy tentpoles to spend 18 months in post-production.