20 Things You Somehow Missed In Forrest Gump
10. The Ping-Pong Ball Was CGI
The film's Oscar-winning VFX work is primarily attributed to the removal of Gary Sinise's legs to play an amputee Lt. Dan later in the film, an effect so ingeniously executed that it might prevent you from realising the other extremely impressive effects shots throughout.
While you might be forgiven for assuming that Tom Hanks actually put in the man hours to deliver some truly ridiculous ping-pong rallies, that's actually not the case at all - basically every single ping-pong ball seen in the movie is CGI.
Instead of having Hanks rally the ball for real, he simply faked the motion with a paddle while set to a click track in order to maintain his timing, and the ball was instead added in post-production.
It's a totally seamless effect, and therefore a pitch perfect example of invisible VFX at play.