In the two-part miniseries “Houdini” (2014), actor Adrien Brody performed most of the escape stunts himself — without stunt doubles or special effects. He became so immersed in the role that during one underwater scene, he nearly passed out from lack of air, just like the real Houdini sometimes did during his acts.

Since its release 11 years ago, just one hour and 31 minutes have passed on Miller's planet in Interstellar

Squid Game’s director, Hwang Dong-hyuk, wrote the script back in 2009, but no studio wanted to produce it for over a decade, considering it too violent and risky. When Netflix finally agreed, the series became the most-watched show in the platform's history, with over 1.65 billion hours viewed in its first 28 days.

For the film "Interstellar", theoretical physicist Kip Thorne calculated such an accurate model of a black hole that the visual effects team’s rendering helped scientists better understand how an accretion disk might actually appear around a real black hole.
A scientific paper was even published based on those calculations and visualizations!

During The Wolf of Wall Street, in the scene where Margot Robbie’s character Naomi meets Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Jordan, the script called for her to slap him. But Margot, fully in character, improvised by hitting DiCaprio hard across the face. There was a brief stunned silence on set, followed by everyone bursting into laughter. DiCaprio loved it, and Scorsese was so impressed by her boldness that he decided to keep the moment in the film.
Fun side note: this role was Margot Robbie’s big breakout in Hollywood — her career took off after this.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Thanos was entirely CGI — with incredible facial detailWeta Digital (the same studio behind The Lord of the Rings) created Thanos using advanced motion capture. Josh Brolin's performance was digitally captured down to the smallest facial muscles, some of which are barely visible to the human eye — all to make Thanos feel real and emotionally expressive.Iron Man’s nanotech suit was fully computer-generatedIn most scenes, Robert Downey Jr. wore just a motion capture suit, and his Iron Man armor was added in post-production. This was especially evident in the fight on Titan, where the nanotech suit "builds" itself around his body in real-time — all CGI.The planet Titan was 100% digital The entire Titan battle was filmed on green screen stages, with only minimal physical props. All the craters, ruined architecture, floating debris — completely digital. Even the camera movement was done virtually in 3D space to make it feel more dynamic and cinematic.The “dusting” effect took hundreds of hours per characterWhen characters turned to dust after Thanos’ snap, each sequence involved complex physics simulations. The visual effects team calculated how dust would move, where it would fall, and how light would interact with it — unique for every hero.Some characters’ disintegration scenes took 200+ hours of render time each.Over 2,500 VFX shots were used in the film, involving 3,000+ digital artists worldwide. From battles to portals, costumes to entire planets — the film is one of the most VFX-heavy productions in cinema history.

During the filming of The Lord of the Rings, Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) was so dedicated to his role that he carried his sword with him at all times—even during lunch! In the scene where he kicks an orc helmet and screams, his pain was real because he actually broke two toes. Instead of stopping, he finished the scene, and that very take made it into the final film.

During the filming of the opening car chase, Samy Naceri, who played the lead role, got so carried away with driving that he actually exceeded the speed limit on set. As a result, the police issued a real fine to the film crew for breaking traffic laws! 🚔😆The movie became so popular that it spawned multiple sequels, and the iconic Peugeot 406 remains a symbol of French action-comedies.

During the filming of "Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), Harrison Ford was supposed to perform a complex fight scene with a swordsman. However, suffering from food poisoning, he lacked the strength for the choreography. Instead, he simply pulled out his gun and "in character" shot the opponent. Director Steven Spielberg loved the improvisation so much that he kept the scene in the film, making it one of the most iconic moments in the franchise.

In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, most of Jack Sparrow's scenes (played by Johnny Depp) were filmed without a strict adherence to the script! Depp improvised so much that the filmmakers initially worried whether his eccentric portrayal would be well received. However, his performance became iconic and defined the entire franchise.