Top 12 Game-Changers

Every so often, a film comes along that blows the doors off everything that's gone before. A step-change moment that leaves you knowing that nothing will ever be the same again. Such moments are perhaps most identifiable in the special effects dept, and Christopher Nolan's spectacular, mind-bending Inception may be the latest sfx milestone. Welcome to our top 12 game changers...

Top 12 Films

The Lost World (1925)

68 years before Jurassic Park, cinemagoers saw a prehistoric beastie walk the streets of London. Professor Challenger has discovered living dinosaurs on a remote South American plateau. He returns triumphant with a captive Brontosaurus, but the beast escapes, wreaking havoc upon the city.

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Thief of Baghdad (1940)

Clever perspective filming and layering brought eye-popping wonder to the masses, as the rightful Prince of Bagdad tries to reclaim his throne from the wicked Grand Vizier Jaffar in a wild adventure featuring a 50-foot genie, a mechanical flying horse, an all-seeing magic jewel, a flying carpet and a beautiful princess.

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Ten Commandments (1956)

There's actually a 1925 version that's equally impressive for its time, but this spectacular biblical epic from legendary showman Cecil B. DeMille has the ultimate showstopper: Charlton Heston's Moses leading the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt between the mighty, towering waters of the parted Red Sea.

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Jason & the Argonauts (1963)

Ray Harryhausen is, quite rightly, a legend of cinematic special effects. This colourful yarn of Jason's Golden Fleece pursuant adventures boasts many memorable scenes, but the Argonaut's incredible, fearful battle with Harryhausen's stop-motion skeleton warriors is surely the pick of the bunch.

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Star Wars (1977)

Pain-staking in detail and execution, the real genius of George Lucas's sci-fi masterpiece is perhaps that it feels at once futuristic and old - an authentic, lived-in universe, where spaceships needed a whack to get going, robots malfunctioned, and faith, hope and love can still triumph over dark, fascistic technology.

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Tron (1982)

In today's world of near photo-realistic consoles, Tron might seem a little dated (though let's wait for December's sequel to judge properly). In the early 80s, this glassy, neon vision told us just what we suspected it might be like if we were sucked into the game world of an arcade coin-op.

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Terminator 2 – Judgment Day (2005)

It's the film that convinced Steven Spielberg he could finally make his dinosaurs-run-amok story. A cracking sci-fi/actioner in its own right, the show-stealer is Robert Patrick's liquid metal T-1000 Terminator. The only thing able to inspire fear in Arnie's rather analogue cyborg.

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Toy Story (1995)

Pixar had flagged their potential with Luxo Jr, a short about a cheerfully naive angle-poise lamp. And for all their amazing skill in rendering the first feature-length computer animated movie, Pixar's real triumph is their story-telling - imparting as much heart into a bunch of toys as they did into their cheeky desk-lamp.

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Fight Club (1999)

Outstanding performances by Ed Norton and Brad Pitt, a razor-sharp script and a gleefully mischievous story are the reasons Fight Club made such an impact. The extra wow factor came from photogrammetry: first-person CGI modelling that moves the viewer right through buildings, plumbing, circuitry, the brain...

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Matrix (1999)

The first Star Wars prequel was supposed to reset the benchmark in 1999. But that accolade actually went to the Wachowski brothers, as their stunning cyber-noir stole all The Phantom Menace's thunder, and most of its lightning too. A thriller loaded with adrenaline, dripping with style, and introducing 'bullet time' to an awestruck world.

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300 (2006)

Just as the technology was straining for evermore impressive photo-realism, this graphic-novel-inspired war movie rampaged off in another direction, utilising a blue-screen 'chroma key' technique to paint the muscle-bound Spartans into an eerie battlezone hell. Principal photography took 60 days; post-production took more than a year.

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Avatar (2009)

Whatever you think about James Cameron's story, his ability to push the boundaries of cinematic invention are beyond doubt. He made Sam Worthington big and blue, and (mostly) believable. He flew us between floating mountains. He guided us through phosphorescent night jungles. In 3-D. It's a gob-smackingly beautiful thing....

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Tegan Kniveton