Fascinating & Unique Fun Facts about Movies & Movie Industry

Gilderoy Lockhart boasted about his brave feats in "Chamber of Secrets," but it was all a bunch of hot air. Want to see real bravery? Check out quiet Neville Longbottom, who mustered up the courage to stand up to his friends in the beginning and to help take down big bad Voldemort in the end.

Within the first 15 minutes of this anime, we become lost in the enchanted realm with 10-year-old Chihiro, her world ruled by spells and spirits. On their move to a new home, Chihiro's parents have taken an alternative route and are charmed by the unexpected surroundings. Chihiro finds it disturbing.

Two decades since the original release, Spirited Away keeps its power into anime.

“All my films are all my children.”

“I can't stand modern movies. The images are too weird and eccentric for me.”

“I would like to make a film to tell children ‘it's good to be alive.’”

"In order to grow your audience, you must betray their expectations."

So many of the best lessons are in Dumbledore's words, including his words about where wisdom is often found: "Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth."

• It's conscious​ detachment from real life.
• The forms it can take: watching television or movies, listening to music, reading books, playing games and sports, daydreaming, etc.

In the 80s, Blade Runner featured a futuristic city with flying cars and floating advertisements.,

Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan was the first film to feature a computer-generated scene. Immediately after, the first computer graphics elements were featured.

Whether it was as simple as saying a frightful name to take away its power or facing one giant spider — and a thousand little ones — confronting fears proved powerful in the Potterverse.

Dune is the best-selling SF novel of all time. Created by Frank Herbert in the 1960s, it changed SF forever with its deeply philosophical flavor of science fiction. The story takes place in a distant future where humanity is divided into a feudal system, ruled by an emperor and armies that fight using blades. There is no technology except for a magical drug called "spice" that can only be found on the planet Arrakis, home of the giant sand worms.

Paul is a prince from House Atreides who leads the Fremen, the natives of Arrakis, against the enemies of his house and then the empire at large.

The movie revolves around an arrogant and sullen young girl Chihiro, who, through a series of events, had to rescue her parents who had turned into giant pigs.

When the story begins, Chihiro is a morose, whiny, girl who complains about almost everything around but on the completion of her mission she transforms into a brave, strong, and confident girl who knows her way to life. 

In 1955, jeweller Lucienne Lazon created the Palme d’Or or Golden Palm. Since 1997, Swiss company Chopard has been in charge of manufacturing the award. The Golden Palm branch is made of 18-carat gold and is valued at about 20.000 Euros. Each year, two reserve awards are made in the event of two winners or an accident.

Woody Allen has never taken part in the competition for the Palme d’Or, even though his films have repeatedly opened the Cannes Festival.

Sci-fi is a genre of fiction literature that is based on scientific facts, theories, and principles. While the storylines and some parts are imaginary, they are plausible according to science.

Science fiction became popular for both writers and audiences with technological developments over the past 150 years, such as electricity, space exploration, medical advances, etc.

Hogwarts had plenty of amazing teachers who put their students' needs and safety first. And just like their real-world counterparts, we're sure they never made enough galleons, sickles, and knuts to compensate them for all their hard work. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" brought magic to the big screen in 2001.Warner Bros.

Sirius Black said it best in "Goblet of Fire": “If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."

This is no regular Diamond-robbery, and the whodunit is an absolute delight.. Not to mention the 'Hamburger' scene, which we Indians can completely relate to..

Movies about law, having heroic or ferocious lawyers often strike gold in Hollywood, giving good competition to big-ticket movies.

To Kill A Mockingbird, a 1962 adaptation of a book by Harper Lee, had the character Atticus Finch, a fictional lawyer who became the greatest hero of all American cinema in a list ‘100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains’ by the American Film Institute.

An unlikely trio, to begin with, Harry, Ron, and Hermione proved time and time again that real friendship forges an unbreakable bond. Together they managed to face Dementors and Death Eaters, Dolores Umbridge and Horcruxes. Not to mention the truly horrifying pitfalls of teenage life: relationship problems, jealousy, and school exams. With true friends, it doesn’t matter if you argue over a possibly jinxed new broomstick or accidentally swallow a love potion because, at the end of the day, they’ll always have your back.

Frank Herbert's Sources of Inspiration:

• Studying sand dunes for work
• Experimentation with psychedelic drugs in the 60s
• Basing Paul on historical figures like Alexander the Great or Lawrence of Arabia
• Comparing the fremen to Arab bedouins and the Harkonens to Soviets

In Dune, Herbert weaves historical lessons through an allegorical tale that is both complex and intriguing.

• The Excitation Transfer Process. How you feel AFTER the movie.  When watching frightening films, the heart rate, blood pressure and respiration increases. After the film, the physiological arousal lingers. If you had fun with friends, these positive emotions are intensified. If you did not enjoy the company, negative feelings are intensified.
• People are wired differently. About 10 percent of the population enjoys the adrenaline rush.
• Novelty. Everyone pays attention to anomalies in our environment.
• Gender Socialization. Men often like [scary films] as date movies because women are more likely to seek physical closeness when they’re scared, and men can show off their strength and bravery.
• Some people enjoy the adrenaline rush of being scared while being safe.

• The French Association of Artistic Action Director (AFAA), Philippe Erlanger and the film critics Emile Vuillermoz and Rene Jeanne came up with the idea of the Cannes Festival.
• From 1946 to 1959, the jury of the Cannes Festival was only chaired by Frenchmen.
• Since the mid-1990s, the jury meetings have been taken place at the Domergue Villa, in the California quarter.
• The 24 steps require 60 metres of carpet and are changed three times a day during the film festival.

The goal of the Cannes Film Festival is to promote and draw public attention to the works of French and international filmmakers. Since the first festival in 1946, Cannes, the small French seaside town, has become an international luxury destination and attracts the top film stars from across the globe.

The Cannes Festival has been a setting in about 12 films, including Mr Bean in the second series of his adventures.

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that focuses on imaginary elements such as superheroes, alternate worlds, aliens, etc. Science fiction may include elements of fantasy but always have a basis in science, whereas fantasy is only imaginative.

Space opera is a form of science fiction where the story takes place in outer space. Space operas are action or adventure-themed and include space travel, interstellar wars or heroes trying to save the world.

The fictional world that holiday movies bring to the viewers provides them solace, courage and reaffirmation to move past the obstacles in their real life.

Though watching Christmas movies during holiday season is a ‘ritual’, the movies themselves do not bend towards christaniity or God, but towards true love, the power of family, the meaning of home and relationships.

Harry's mother died defending him, but her love lived on — and continued to protect him long after she was gone.

In the 30s and the 40s, Disney movies had artists and animators manually working on sketches and colouring. Drawings were redrawn with every changing movement, with originally created colours mixed and put on the animated characters, creating authentic effects.

Some movies, like Sleeping Beauty, required nearly a million drawings, followed by a tedious colouring process.

• Every movie is a unique product with its own potential. Just because one film was a hit doesn't mean the next one will be.
• Movie marketers try to deal with this risk by heavily promoting expensive films, which significantly increases the expenses.
• Movies are also marketed to the widest audience. The lack of focus means millions of dollars are lost on the wrong audience.
• Moviegoers are quick to recognize a publicity blitz and are becoming less susceptible to advertising campaigns.

Part of the magic in Spirited Away is the depth of detail and its heroine Chihiro, as she helps us relate to the other characters. Miyazaki has thought about what the world would look like if he was only 4ft tall and used that knowledge to portray his world.

Ultimately, Spirited Away taps into themes such as care for the environment, reverence for nature, and a belief that the energy of the good spirits within us will help young people change the world for the better.

The Star Wars films are probably the most well-known example of science fiction in popular culture.

The Matrix is another sci-fi film that tells the story of a world where humans are completely controlled, and life on Earth is a simulation occurring in the mind. Neo, the protagonist, is shown that his life is an illusion and he is tasked with saving humanity.

Popcorn is admittedly sold at a huge markup in movies, as they make about 85 percent profits through its sales.

They are cheap to make at scale and are sold at prices that make them a primary profit machine for movie theatres.

If you fall off a bike, you'll probably have a cinematic memory of the experience: the wind in your hair, the pebbles on the road, then the pain.

Researchers have identified cells in the human brain that makes this episodic memory possible. The cells are called time cells that place a sort of time stamp on memories as they are being formed. This allows us to recall sequences of events or experiences in the right order.

• Human beings, right from childhood are predisposed to pay attention to threats, making it hold our attention.
• Threat takes hold of our visual attention, cognition, memory, learning, and our words and actions.
• Someone already feeling anxious will get ‘sucked’ into the plot of a horror movie easily.
• The purpose of the inevitable ‘monster’ in any horror movie is to induce this anxiety and fear among the audience.

Certain songs in holiday movies become etched in the consciousness of people, providing a glimpse of the ideal world which has no dark side, no war, no conflict, no poverty, and no evil.

The movies and the accompanying music create positive emotions, nostalgia and a feeling that all's right with the world, even though it is a constructed, alternative reality.

Eventually, the idea of a blockbuster movie became associated with summer action movies, especially after Steven Spielberg's thriller, Jaws, released in the summer of 1975.

When Star Wars came out two years later, blockbuster became a synonym for the summer blockbuster genre.

When faced with a mirror that brought one's ultimate fantasies into focus, Dumbledore told Harry: "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."

Japan is famous for its animated movies. Ghibli, meaning "desert wind" in Libyan, is one of a kind, and its beautiful painted visions set the stage for many more subsequent movies.

Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and have produced 21 movies to date. Those who have seen the films love them with all their heart.

Big Tech has realized a critical flaw in most of us: 

We prefer stuff that confirms our existing belief(the affirmation feed) and dislike stuff that provides us with new, challenging, complex and counterintuitive views of reality(the confronting feed).

By narrowing down our attention to what big tech wants us to see, we also end up narrowing our morality, unable to see real, genuine perspectives.

Oscar-winner John Wayne, better known as “The Duke” to his fans, appeared in nearly 250 movies throughout his career, oftentimes playing the swaggering, macho hero of westerns and war epics.

His first featured film was Men Without Women (1930). After more than 70 low-budget westerns and adventures, mostly routine, Wayne's career was stuck in a rut until Ford cast him in Stagecoach (1939), the movie that made him a star.

We crave the adrenalin and excitement that goes along with being scared and in scaring.

Horror movies and hide-and-seek have a similar sensorial experience.

Movies have significant earning power because they're sold so effectively.

Even though the movie industry earns billions of dollars a year, only a handful of Hollywood movies make a profit. Hollywood relies on its few runaway hits to make up for the rest of the films that fail to break even, making the job of the movie marketer even more important.

TV and other media eventually lived alongside the movie-going experience.

Popcorn is tied to movies as a ritualistic experience, and many luxury theatre owners provide gourmet-style popcorn to its patrons, along with other high-end snacks(with huge markups, of course) to make the movie-watching experience a complete one.

This movie has often introduced people to Ghibli. It won the best-animated feature trophy at the 2003 Academy Awards.

The story is of a 10-year-old girl, Chihiro, who moves with her parents to a new home. When her father takes a shortcut, she ends up lost and alone in the spirit world and has to navigate a landscape to save her parents.

• Whisper of the Heart (1995) is a story about a bookish girl, Shizuku, who finds that all the books she borrows from the library have been checked out by a boy, and she sets out to find him.
• Only Yesterday (1991) is about a 27-year-old woman recollecting her life and the choices she's made.
• From up on Poppy Hill (2011) is the recurring Ghibli theme of supposed progress replacing tradition. Two young people fight to save a school clubhouse from demolition.

1. The two-kilometer long red carpet is changed thrice a day.
2. People fund the festival's budget, which is roughly 20 million Euros.
3. Movies from six new languages were added in 2010 to broaden the international appeal.
4. The first Cannes film festival was proposed in 1939, but was cancelled due to World War II.
5. Critics Emile Vuillermoz, Rene Jeanne along with writer Philippe Erlanger cooked up the idea of the Cannes Festival.

Visual effects were created using in-camera effects, such as jump-cuts or superimpositions, miniatures, back projection, and matte paintings.

• A precursor of animation was by Briton Eadweard Maybridge, who photographed The Horse in Motion in 1878. He photographed frame by frame how a horse's hoofs were off the ground at the same time.
• In 1902, magician George Melies developed the art of magical special effects that he perfected and used in later films.

Science fiction tends to turn real scientific theories into stories about what is possible.

• The stories use facts of sciences to suggest a real possible future.
• It explores what could happen if specific events came to pass.
• It suggests possible consequences of scientific advancements.

Science fiction is a mixture of hard and soft science fiction.

• Hard science fiction strictly follows natural scientific facts and principles like physics, astronomy, chemistry, etc. For example, Gravity, the story of an astronaut whose spacecraft is damaged while she repairs a satellite, was known for its scientific accuracy.
• Soft science fiction is focused on social sciences, like anthropology, sociology, psychology, etc. For example, the film Wall-E is science fiction about the end of life on Earth due to man's disregard for nature.

The optical printer was an important innovation in special effects photography. It was first used to make copies of films for distribution, but Linwood G. Dunn refined the design and showed that it could be used to combine images to create new illusions.

Colour enabled matte techniques such as bluescreen and the sodium vapour process. The 1939 Wizard of Oz is considered the first colour film.

Soulmates are only an artificial construct in our minds as a result of the movies we see and the songs we listen to.

Horror is a genre that has a reputation of being a low, somewhat trashy, titillating genre that appeals to our basest instincts. 
"Its also a wonderful, popular art form through which very complex ideas and creative techniques can manifest themselves—and if you can get past that very cliched view, you realize there’s an embarrassment of riches in the genre.” Malcolm Turney

You have to get out of your comfort zone and face your fears to stretch your boundaries and level up in your life.

In Ron’s case, “following the spiders” meant finding the answer to rescuing Hermione from her stunned state “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”.

'The Killer' provides some principles regarding executing a task. These principles resonates in the movie. Let's discuss the four principles that resonated in the entire film.The Killer Movie

Research has found that willing exposure to that which scares us can provide a counterbalance to life's stresses:

• It may be an effective way to undermine anxiety and even bolster our resilience.
• It is intentionally triggering our fight-or-flight response in an environment where we control the variables.
• Manageable bouts of "good stress" can generate an immune response that strengthens the immune system against bigger threats.
• The scary movies offer social-bonding benefits when we talk about the movie afterwards to our friends.

• The number of effects in Star Wars was staggering.
• 1973s Westworld was the first to use 2D computer animation.
• Superman from 1978 used bluescreen and smart camerawork that took filmmaking to another level.
• Visual effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull developed his own motion system and created an intentional "lens flare" to make shapes of flying saucers.

Harry's bank vault was filled with mounds of gold galleons, while his best friend, Ron, barely scraped by. But Ron had family, and Harry considered him much richer for it.

• We consciously disapprove of what the monster is doing, but deep down part of us enjoys seeing the mayhem the monster unleashes.
• We enjoy rooting for the protagonists as they battle the monster.
• We might not endorse the monster’s actions, but we may find it captivating. 
• Findind the nature of the monster - its powers, its weaknesses, where it came from  - is a process of discovery that we enjoy.
• The thrill that fear offers, particularly for “sensation seekers" - especially in a context where there’s no real threat to us.
• It contains symbolic representations of real fears. 

"Stick to the plan" underscores the idea that a well-thought-out strategy or course of action has been carefully considered in advance. It suggests that, despite potential challenges or distractions, it's crucial to stay focused on the original plan. This mindset promotes consistency, discipline, and the belief that the planned approach is the most effective path toward achieving the desired outcome. It discourages impulsive deviations and encourages individuals or groups to remain committed to the established framework.

There are no computers in Dune. The interstellar ships are operated by humans and the fighting is done with blades, not lasers. Before the events in the books, Herbert imagined a war between humans and AI, after which technology became banned. Personal shields, immune to projectile weapons, elevated the use of swords.

Herbert was distrustful of technology. After experimenting with psychedelic drugs, he became convinced that our progress relied more on the expansion of our consciousness. That's why the spice plays such a key role in his books.

• When Marnie was There (2014) is based on Joan G Robinson's 1967 novel about a 12-year-old girl who starts a friendship with Marnie, who is not all she seems.
• Arrietty (2010) is based on Mary Norton's The Borrowers (1952).
• Tales from Earthsea (2006) is loosely based on Ursula K Le Guin's quartet of novels.
• Howl's Moving Castle (2004) is loosely based on the 1986 Diana Wynne Jones novel and features a strong anti-war message.

Friends can give you happiness but money can't.

Although Harry's parents left lots of gold coins for him. But the Mirror of Erised didn’t show him a landmine of coins, but rather the reason for his inherited wealth – his deceased parents.

• The Cat Returns (2002) is a fantasy story about a young girl who can talk to cats. After she saves an apparent street cat, she gets inducted into the world of the Cat Kingdom.
• Ponyo (2008) is the name of a goldfish found by a young boy, but in reality, she is one of many shape-shifting siblings who live in an underwater community.

Also known as the Festival de Cannes, the annual film festival is a celebration of cinematic works of art, highlighting select movies from France and other countries since 1946.

The festival has made Cannes an international luxury destination attracting top celebs from all over the world and is extensively covered by the media.

Past shapes us as people but it is in our hands what we decide to do in our FUTURE.

One example may be Harry himself, who lost his parents as a baby and as a result had to live with his retched uncle, aunt, and cousin afterward. And yet, this all changed his life for the better by him choosing to attend Hogwarts. The rest is magical history.

Movies succeed using roughly the same narrative arc over and over again because we can all relate. If you look at Disney and Pixar movies, they are variations on this same timeless theme, sometimes called the hero’s journey.

You have a hero, a conflict, failed attempts to solve the problem, back-up plans, a breakthrough, a solution that works and finally a conclusion. By the end, we are back where we started, but transformed with new powers and knowledge.

Luna Lovegood was roundly mocked for being fanciful and just plain out-there — even Hermione accidentally called her "Loony" once — but she was also a faithful friend to Harry and a worthy member of Dumbledore's Army.

WW II was depicted on screen in Hollywood movies while it was being fought. Though many filmmakers tried to capture the essence of the tragic period, four movies accurately portray the impact and the experience of WWII, according to Rob Citino, a Senior Historian at the World War II Museum:

• Casablanca (1942)
• The More the Merrier (1943)
• The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
• Stalag 17 (1953)

Charles Chaplin and Adolf Hitler were born within a period of four days apart in the same year(1889)

• My Neighbour Totoro (1988) is the tale of two young girls and their father who move to a new country home near the hospital where their mother is recovering. They meet Totoro and his friends.
• Pom Poko (1994) has a strong environmental message. A tribe of raccoons have to deal with their differences to stop developers from destroying their wooded hillside.

Human beings thrive on stories. From ancient oral storytelling to modern cinema, we have loved a good story.

Through centuries of storytelling through books and movies, it is learned that there are four basic ways of ending a story: Sweet, Bitter, Semi-sweet and Bittersweet.

• Princess Monoke (1997) was Ghibli's most successful movie before Spirited Away. A young prince is caught between the ecologically greedy inhabitants of an industrial town intent on clearing a huge forest to mine for iron, and the diverse spirits who live in the threatened woods.
• The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013) is about a poor couple who find a tiny girl growing inside a bamboo shoot.

The cost to make a movie has little or no correlation to its profitability.

Movies cost so much because of the financial concept known as Parkinson's Law, which means film budgets will continually expand to use the capital available, regardless if the extra cash results in a better product.

• Porco Rosso (1992) is an Italian WWI flying expert who by a curse changed into a humanoid pig. Now he is working as a bounty hunter battling sky pirates over the Adriatic.
• Grave of the Fireflies (1988) tells of Seita and his younger sister fighting to survive in Japan at the end of WWII. Their mother died in a bombing raid, and their father is fighting in the Japanese Navy, leaving the children to fend for themselves.
• The Wind Rises (2013) tells a fictionalised life story of Jiro Horikoshi, the designer of the Mitsubishi Zero that formed the basis of Japan's aerial might in WWII.

• Jason and the Argonauts (1963) depicts the infamous skeleton battle scene.
• In 1968, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the shots of spaceships were combined through hand-drawn rotoscoping and motion-control work, creating elements that combined precisely in the camera.
• Hidden wires, mirror shots, and large-scale rotating sets helped set zero-gravity scenes.
• A new technique termed slit-scan was used for the voyage through hallucinogenic scenery.

• Gore watchers typically have low empathy, high sensation seeking, and a strong identification with the killer.
• Thrill watchers typically have both high empathy and sensation seeking;they identify themselves more with the victims and like the suspense of the film.
• Independent watchers typically have a high empathy for the victim along with a high positive effect for overcoming fear.
• Problem watchers typically have high empathy for the victim but are characterized by negative effect (particularly a sense of helplessness).

Ever since 1950, movies dealing with topics such as climate change, asteroid impacts, nuclear holocausts, pandemic etc have greatly increased in number. Especially between 2010 and 2019, these kind of movies having as main focus apocalyptic subjects kept movie theaters full to their maximum.

One of the greatest such movies was 'Avengers: Infinity War', which immediately after its release became a worldwide blockbuster.

Every year, at this time, there is a surge of rentals and viewerships in the movies related to the holidays, where Christmas stories and family bondings are lapped up by viewers wanting to glimpse a world that could be.

Christmas movies offer the ideal world where family values, love and care in the community and a harmonious atmosphere is showcased. Movies like Home Alone, Love Actually, or the 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life provide an alternative, fantasy version of our world.

• Sensation seeking individuals may enjoy scary movies because it will elevate the heart rate and make the body feel as though it needs to expend energy.
• Highly sensitive people can be easily overstimulated by their environment and also tend to be more empathetic. This results in a more intense physiological reaction to violent or scary movies.
• Childhood experiences affect how someone feels about being scared. People who had positive experiences when they were young already have an internal concept that frames certain scary activities in an exciting way.
• Horror movies are enjoyable for some people when they’re shared with loved ones. It can create a social bonding experience.

• My Neighbours the Yamadas (1999) is a tale that starts as a family comedy but then turns into surreal territory.
• Kiki's Delivery Service (2003) A 13-year-old witch, Kiki, hops on her broomstick with her cat to offer her witchy services to the citizens of a town. Things don't go as planned, and Kiki learns from her mistakes.

The Matrix is a cult Sci-Fi movie and refers to a computer-generated dream world where all mankind is suspended, not knowing that they are being farmed by AI(artificial intelligence).

The first film of the Matrix Trilogy is now 20 years old. Apart from being a huge box office smash hit and cultural phenomenon, it has spawned discussions spanning decades about the nature of human life and reality itself.

"Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike," Dumbledore warned in "Order of the Phoenix."

Harry had one flaw throughout every story: His first instinct when facing danger was to face it alone. But along the way, he always found out that a little help from his teachers, the groundskeeper, and the headmaster — and a whole lot of help from his friends — was the only way to win.

From the first story to the last, Harry learned powerful lessons about people he thought he knew. For instance, Professor Quirrell seemed like a well-meaning member of the faculty, until Harry discovered the dark (lord) secret he kept under wraps. And despite seven years of doubting Professor Snape's motives, Harry learned the potions master was fighting for him all along.

"Don't pity the dead," Dumbledore — or Harry's idea of the late headmaster — said in the final film. "Pity the living, and above all, all those who live without love."

Visual effects in the 2000s revolved around trying to be more realistic and believable.

• Films like The Lord of The Rings infused an actor's performance onto a computer-generated creature. Other movies advanced this technology to new heights in facial and body motion capture.
• The Mandalorian used a new virtual camera system, allowing film scenes in a virtual reality environment as if it is filmed with physical cameras.

1. The electronic tablet on 2001: A Space Odyssey.
2. Insect-derived foodstuffs on Snowpiercer. Nowadays there are insect-based flour and protein bars.
3. Smart home devices on the 1999 Disney film Smart House. In the film, a house is run by a robot that can perform most of the functions a digital assistant like Alexa does today.
4. Personalized adverts on Minority Report. The movie had Billboards that identified the passersby and targeted adverts towards them, much like search engines and some actual billboards do today.
5. Autonomous cars on Total Recall. The movie had driverless cabs not very different from the ones we have today.
6. Autonomous military vehicles on Short Circuit. Although we are still far behind on the AI part the rest is already available to the military.
7. Human-looking androids on Metropolis.
8. Video conferencing/calling on Aliens or Bladerunner.
9. Mobile phones/Smartwatches on Star Trek.
10. Wearable technology on Back to the Future Part II. The movie had "smart eyewear" that resembles modern head-mounted virtual reality devices

From the earliest days, films use visual magic to create illusions and trickery.

Special effects in film help to create elements that are unrealistic. Film first relied on practical effects, but now most of the effects are designed with a computer. Whereas visual effects were often seen as decoration, it is now becoming central to many blockbusters.

The many new special effects developed during the 1950s increased the level of realism possibilities in science fiction films. 

Forbidden Planet (1956) used matte paintings, animation, and miniature work to create alien lands. In The Ten Commandments (1956), the crowds in the Exodus scenes were multiplied with careful compositing. The Red Sea was a combination of travelling mattes and water tanks.

• The 90s opened up new possibilities using Computer-generated imagery. It was now possible to insert life-like imagery by creating photo-realistic images of science-fiction/fantasy characters, settings, and objects.
• Motion capture technology featured in the 1990s, first seen in Total Recall (1990). Then Terminator 2:Judgment Day (1991) showed multiple visual effects shots.
• Toy Story (1995) showed that the distinction between live-action films and animated films began to blur.