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Curated playlist

Films using motion capture

  • Avengers: DoomsdayAvengers: Doomsday revealed its villain when a masked Doctor Doom removed his mask. Underneath was Robert Downey Jr.
  • Avengers: EndgameAvengers: Endgame opens with Clint Barton losing his family to Thanos's snap. It was moved from Infinity War.
  • Justice League (film)Justice League used visual effects to erase Henry Cavill's mustache from its own footage.
  • Avengers: Age of UltronAvengers: Age of Ultron cut Loki out completely after test audiences thought he controlled Ultron.
  • Avengers: Infinity WarAvengers: Infinity War ends with Thanos watching a sunrise after erasing half of all life.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the RingMany stars turned down Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring. Sean Connery said he did not understand the plot.
  • The Avengers (2012 film)Joss Whedon read the first Avengers script and said to pretend it never happened.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the KingThe Return of the King won all eleven Oscars it was nominated for. No fantasy film had won Best Picture before it.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Two TowersGollum was first planned as a voice only, played by Andy Serkis. Actors did better with him on set.
  • Avatar: Fire and AshAvatar: Fire and Ash is the third film in James Cameron's Avatar series. In December 2022, word spread that its first cut ran nine hours. Cameron later clarified the figure. The nine hours covered three films of about three hours each:…
  • Thor (film)Chris Hemsworth gained 20 lb for Thor and then outgrew his costume.
  • Star Wars: The Last JediIn Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Luke hesitates to burn the Jedi library, so Yoda's spirit does it.
  • Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom MenaceA sudden sandstorm wrecked the Tunisian set of The Phantom Menace. The shoot still left Tunisia on schedule.
  • Rogue OneRogue One first had an ending where the heroes lived. Director Gareth Edwards wrote it, but it was never filmed.
  • Star Wars: The Rise of SkywalkerJohn Boyega left a Rise of Skywalker script in a hotel room, and it turned up on eBay.
  • Avatar (2009 film)Avatar, the 2009 science fiction film from director James Cameron, began with a dream he had when he was 19 years old. In the dream, he saw a bioluminescent forest. Its trees were made of fiber-optic strands, fan lizards moved through the…
  • Avatar: The Way of WaterAvatar: The Way of Water, James Cameron's 2022 science fiction sequel, contains an underwater scene for which Kate Winslet held her breath for more than seven minutes. That broke the record for a breath hold during a filmed scene, which…
  • Titanic (1997 film)Rather than cut Titanic, James Cameron gave up his $8 million director's salary.
  • Star Wars: The Force AwakensIn early drafts of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Luke took over every scene. So he became the one being sought.
  • The Fantastic Four: First StepsThe Fantastic Four: First Steps opens in 1964 on a world called Earth-828. Crowds are marking four years since a space mission gave four astronauts extraordinary powers. Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm are celebrities…
  • Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the ClonesAttack of the Clones was the first Star Wars film not to be its year's top earner. It grossed $653.8 million worldwide.
  • Final Fantasy VII: Advent ChildrenAdvent Children first screened only for registered members of a Square Enix fan club.
  • Final Fantasy: The Spirits WithinThe film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within named its heroine Aki after the director's mother.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars (film)George Lucas liked early footage of a Clone Wars TV series so much that he made it a movie.
  • Solo: A Star Wars StoryRon Howard reshot around 70 percent of Solo: A Star Wars Story after taking over.
  • Alita: Battle AngelAlita: Battle Angel began as a website address registered around June 2000. The film did not arrive until 2019.
  • Death Note (2017 film)A train crash in Netflix's Death Note was real footage. It showed a 2010 collision in Buizingen, Belgium.
  • Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XVThe climax of Kingsglaive was an invasion scene cut from the game Final Fantasy XV.

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