# Movies using Magic Tricks instead of Special Effects **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [November 23, 2023, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-using-magic-tricks-instead-of-special-effects/993591 "2023-11-23T17:33:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-using-magic-tricks-instead-of-special-effects/993591/41 "2023-11-26T08:07:46Z")
Speaking of Star Wars, [I believed they used mirrors to make Luke’s speeder appear to be levitating.](https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/d6h0vb/in_star_wars_a_new_hope_1977_all_the_wide_shots/?rdt=47106) This seems like a practical effect that might be used by a stage magician. These days they might remove the wheels digitally or the entire sequence would be CGI. Someone else mentioned the use of twins in Terminator 2, I think referring to the security guard scene. Linda Hamilton’s twin sister was also used as a sort of variation of the “Transported Man” trick. A variation of the “Sawing a Woman in Half” trick is often used to…well…cut a person in half (Ash in Alien, Kane in Alien, Bishop in Aliens, a bunch of others) ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-using-magic-tricks-instead-of-special-effects/993591/42 "2023-11-26T08:23:38Z")
There’s a technique that is often used in film called the Texas Switch, where a stand-in or stuntperson replaces the actor (or vice versa) within the same unbroken shot, with carefully staged camera angles to mask the transition. The same technique is often used by magicians, and also on Stage productions, to make you think you’re looking at someone, then they suddenly appear elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![FrenchDunadan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frenchdunadan/32/5449_2.png) [@FrenchDunadan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrenchDunadan)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-using-magic-tricks-instead-of-special-effects/993591/43 "2023-11-26T08:26:53Z")
In the Jim Hanson film, “Labyrinth”, David Bowie as Jared often plays with a glass sphere that passes from finger to finger. It was done by a stage magician and in one scene, when we see him entirely, the magician arms are in place of Bowie’s, the magician body’s being hidden by Bowie’s cape. The juggling was done blindly, as the Magicians couldn’t see his own hands. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-using-magic-tricks-instead-of-special-effects/993591/44 "2023-11-26T08:58:49Z")
Okay, you’ve all got me interested. I’m rewatching _The Sting_ from the top. It starts with the numbers runners. I know how that racket works. More later. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-using-magic-tricks-instead-of-special-effects/993591/45 "2023-11-26T09:39:47Z")
> [@JacobSwan](#): > > Does the mirror scene in Terminator 2 count? (only shown in the extended release) Use of twins and a fake reflected scene is sometimes used in magic tricks. The Marx Brothers did this trick in Duck Soup, and I’ve seen Lucille Ball and others do it as well. A routine that requires a great deal of skill and timing, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-using-magic-tricks-instead-of-special-effects/993591/46 "2023-11-26T09:42:50Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Okay, you’ve all got me interested. I’m rewatching _The Sting_ from the top. It starts with the numbers runners. I know how that racket works. We’re on the train. Newman (Gondorff) is playing with “Tally Ho” cards. His first mistake; every card sharp knows that you only play with Bees. If your opponent does not want to play with Bee cards, walk away. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-using-magic-tricks-instead-of-special-effects/993591/47 "2023-11-26T10:01:26Z")
Ha! Very simple tricks. Just saw where Gondorff beat everything. Hey listen, I’ve got 8-5 that says…wait, this is the SDMB, where we don’t do this. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-using-magic-tricks-instead-of-special-effects/993591/48 "2023-11-26T12:49:04Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Is that a theoretical, or is it actually being done, and if so, where? Can you provide more detail? I’m told that it was actually done, but I don’t have much more detail. I do know that my grandfather got ahold of some of the paints used for it, and made himself a sign that displayed either his first or last name. That sign, I’ve seen. Actual road signs using the effect, I haven’t. If such signs existed, they were probably somewhere in Ohio in the 80s or earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-using-magic-tricks-instead-of-special-effects/993591/49 "2023-11-26T17:05:44Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Newman could have learned those shuffles and so on. I did. Perhaps. But my main point is that if he did, in fact, do the shuffles, there would have been no doubt it was him. The director would have made sure we knew. The most plausible explanation (for me), given how it was filmed, is that it was clever movie trickery. There, glad I settled that. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-using-magic-tricks-instead-of-special-effects/993591/50 "2023-11-26T17:45:31Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Then the camera pans up to show that it’s Paulk Newman doing the tricks. Speaking of doing their own stunts, Lillian Gish was in a film in the 60s called _The Unforgiven_, directed by John Huston. Apparently he was debating over whether to teach Gish to fire a rifle, or just film a stuntwoman doing so from behind, when he found out that Gish not only knew how to fire one, but would skeetshoot as a hobby, and was highly ranked. Problem solved. > [@mbh](#): > > > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > > I’m not sure it counts but the B&W [1931 film version of _Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Jekyll_and_Mr._Hyde_(1931_film)) used color makeup and matching color filters to show the transformation on screen. > > I don’t think it quite fits the definition of the OP, but it’s a neat trick. The first stage of the transformation (shadows under the cheekbones, bags under the eyes) was done with red make-up. When lit with red light, they were invisible to the black-and-white camera. When they changed the color of the light, the changes suddenly appeared, in-camera, without interrupting the actor’s performance. I’d say it fits, because it was a stage effect before it was used in films, and specifically it was used in the London stage production of DJ&MH starring Richard Mansfield, in the 1880s, in which he performed so convincingly, that audience members began tipping the police off that Mansfield could be Jack the Ripper-- and the producers decided to suspend production until the case was resolved. > [@FrenchDunadan](#): > > It was done by a stage magician Michael Moschen-- I’d call him more of a juggler than a magician, and he pretty much invented “the rolling ball,” which is called “contact juggling.” He does all sorts of things which are fascinating and combine types of juggling with acrobatics and equilibrism. But no sleight of hand. Sometimes they seem like they must involve tricks because they look so difficult, but not impossible-- other than occasionally gravity-defying. He’s got lots of YouTube videos. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-using-magic-tricks-instead-of-special-effects/993591/51 "2023-11-26T22:57:52Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Speaking of Star Wars, [I believed they used mirrors to make Luke’s speeder appear to be levitating.](https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/d6h0vb/in_star_wars_a_new_hope_1977_all_the_wide_shots/?rdt=47106) > > This seems like a practical effect that might be used by a stage magician. They did, and it worlks reasasonably well. Any weirdness about the appearance can be put down to "turbulence or some such And as soon as Lucas had access to good CGI technology, he DID replace the “mirrored speder” with CGI effects in his Speciual Edition. . ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2023, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-using-magic-tricks-instead-of-special-effects/993591/52 "2023-11-27T03:27:46Z")
In _Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind_, Michel Gondry created the illusion of characters teleporting across a room via (as [Cracked.com](http://Cracked.com) put it) “a technique known as ‘making his actors run and change costume really, really fast.’” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-using-magic-tricks-instead-of-special-effects/993591.md?page=2)