50 Miniature Movie Sets That Will Blow You Away

In the pre-digital days, filmmakers had to build it if they wanted to shoot a scene in a fantastic environment. For wide shots, a very specific art form was born; the art of the miniature. Filmmakers would hire prop makers skilled in architecture, and visual design was hired to create tiny scale models of all kinds of spaces. The miniature sets were used for several purposes and were virtually indistinguishable from the real thing. Miniature sets are still used today and sometimes are even preferable to all-digital approaches. The most important part of visual effects is to make viewers believe what they see on screen is real.

In all of the Harry Potter films, a miniature model of Hogwarts was used. The model was huge, stretching fifty feet across, and is modeled after Durham Cathedral with little bits of Alnwick Castle mixed in. The model is so detailed that doors even have hinges and tiny replica owls perch in the owlery.

The film Poltergeist is a masterpiece of old-school effects, creating a tale of a family being driven to madness by a very upset spirit. The film features the Cuesta Verde house, which is built on top of an Indian burial ground.

The film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom used several miniature sets while filming. The mine-cart sequence in the second Indy film is a cinematic classic, a high-adrenaline chase through the Thugee temple with the Sankara stones in tow. 

Tim Burton and Anton Furst created a cinematic Gotham City in the film Batman that was unlike anywhere else on Earth. They used many different techniques, including the use of ridiculously detailed miniatures. 

There is plenty of CGI in Peter Jackson's film, The Lord of the Rings, along with several miniatures. The New Zealand workshop built a wide array of what they called Bigatures for some of Middle-earth's most notable landmarks. 

King Kong is another film that used miniatures during filming. O'Brien and his crew also found a way to use rear projection in miniature sets. They built a tiny screen into the miniature onto which live-action footage would then be projected. 

In John Carpenter's classic Escape from New York, they weren't allowed to film in the Big Apple and instead filmed it in St. Louis. However, they needed an establishing shot to sell Snake Plissken hand-gliding into the city. 

Miniatures were also used in the film Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. At the end of the film, Jedediah flies Savannah and the other children away from Bartertown. They fly over the ruins of Sydney, Australia, which was decimated by some unknown holocaust. 

The Grand Budapest Hotel is another film that uses miniatures, especially since Wes Anderson is a notorious control freak. He hired a studio in Potsdam to build the titular building for The Grand Budapest Hotel. 

The Ghostbusters movie is jam-packed full of visual shenanigans, but the rampage of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man through the streets of New York City was tricky. They did the sequence partially through blue-screening the huge costume, which was operated by four people, onto footage of real streets. 

Christopher Nolan was the director of the mind-bending film Inception. He used plenty of CGI, but for the Snow Fortress scene where the mountaintop hospital explodes, miniatures were used. 

The film Superman Returns included miniatures and was the first film to have been shot with digital Panavision Genesis cameras and to have used a daunting dozen Avid systems in post-production. 

The film Braindead has effects that are outstanding, including miniatures. The film has all kinds of models, most made out of wax and other pliable materials. 

In the film ParaNorman, there were forty-five animators, modelers, and riggers. There were also more than thirty-one thousand props used. The Town Hall consisted of two full sets, including twenty thousand miniature cast books, and the model shop made twenty-six vehicles with all of the features. 

In the film Alien, the Nostromo was constructed from styrene, acrylic, and ABS plastics. It was made by visual effects miniatures artist Jon Sorensen. He also created the miniature engine room that was featured in the shot of Nostromo to show Ripley setting the ship to self-destruct to eliminate the alien while she and Jones the cat escape in the ship's shuttle lifeboat. 

The film Independence Day has several alien attacks, which end up obliterating landmarks. All of the destroyed landmarks are actually just miniature models of real landmarks. They used a miniature model of the plane and the buildings. 

In the film Back to the Future: Part III, both the locomotive and DeLorean time machine were miniatures. They are miniatures, but there are very large miniatures. The train was too impractical and the last few moments of the Sierra pushing the DeLorean toward the canyon were actually large miniatures. 

The film Goldeneye used a lot of miniature effects to make the shots that were required to complete the film. They used a lot of miniatures because of budget constraints.

The film Titanic was one of the most expensive films to make, and it was directed by James Cameron. Cameron and his team built a number of large models, including a 1/8-scale replica of the titular ship's stern jutting up from the water. 

In the film Jurassic Park, Mike Trcic sculpted a 1/16th scale of a Tyrannosaurus and also a 1/5th scale T-Rex. "I had to sculpt the model in a neutral position so that Phil Tippett could put an armature inside it and animate it, so the legs were splayed out. 

In the film Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Barad-Dur is only shown a few times and is depicted as a castle-like fortress on the side of the mountain. Richard Taylor and his team built a nine-foot-high miniature bigature of Barad-Dur for the film. 

Independence Day is another film that used several miniatures and models during production. Most of the spaceships were computer generated, and the film relied on practical effects for the explosions. The most iconic scene from the film is the White House and when it is blown up. 

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is another film that used miniature submarines and boats, a miniature set for the aftermath of the ark ceremony on the plateau, and matte paintings. 

The Return of the Jedi film did a great job of making everything look good. When you see the "full-size" rancor on screen, you are actually seeing an eighteen-inch puppet. 

In the film Lord of the Rings, the model of Isengard was sixty feet in diameter. The models of the pits of Isengard were carved out of foam, and the mine workings were put into miniature. 

In the film Lord of the Rings, Helm's Deep is a 1/4th scale model and is used in The Two Towers. Helm's Deep refers to the ravine in which the fortress is located, which consists of the Deeping Wall and a fortress-like tower, the Hornburg. 

In the film Lost in Space, the spaceship was designed by L.B. Abbott and Howard Lydecker. The spacecraft measured forty-eight inches in diameter and featured an articulating landing gear for the landing sequences with the original "Fusion Core Atomic Engine" wired with light bulbs. 

In the film Return of the Jedi, the special effects are in full effect during the Endor chase. They created models of the characters and their futuristic craft to map out the sequence. 

In the film Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the U.S.S. Enterprise was designed by Mathew Jefferies. It was a large miniature with lots of details and special features. He, along with Andrew Probert, gave the ship an interesting texture and added many windows, and they even gave the Enterprise landing gear. 

The Abyss was jam-packed with miniature versions of massive vessels, especially because it was long before the Titanic and Avatar days when they could have a thousand full-scale ships. Most of the vehicle shots in The Abyss feature models, such as the 1/8-scale mini-subs that featured working lights and housed projectors. 

Jamie Lee Curtis and Arnold Schwarzenegger star in the film True Lies as husband and wife. The couple gets caught up in a terrorist plot in Florida, and Schwarzenegger has to save his captured wife in a limo. The scene occurs on the Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys, but they couldn't obviously blow up the real bridge. 

By the time Blade Runner was filmed, the use of miniatures in movies had been well-established. Douglas Trumbull was responsible for creating and building the flying cars and Spinners in 1982's Blade Runner. 

In the film V for Vendetta, V is the anarchist wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, and he goes to great lengths when planning to uproot the regime that has taken over the UK. He gives up his life and is placed in a train car that is sent off to be his final message.

In the 2012 film The Impossible, there is a devastating tsunami sequence inspired by the 2004 tsunami on a Thai resort. Magician GmbH built a handful of 1/3-scale bungalows and surrounding trees, poolside umbrellas, and a nearby pool. 

At the beginning of The Wizard of Oz, a tornado swirls around the empty and deserted landscape of Dorothy's Kansas home. The film was made in 1939 when visual effects weren't great, and there weren't many options. The end result was made with miniatures, including Dorothy's home and farm. 

The film The Fifth Element features a lot of CGI but also practical effects and miniatures. The whole of New York City was a model that took five months to build and a team of eighty workers. 

Ben-Hur is another film that used several miniatures during production. The hero ships were built at a 1/6th scale and had molded rubber figures with posable wire armatures on the decks. 

Ishiro Honda directed the 1954 Japanese film Godzilla, and it made extensive use of miniatures. The Godzilla suit was created using thick bamboo sticks and a frame of wire, along with metal mesh and cushioning over it to pillow its structure, and finally, they applied latex coats. They also added molten rubber coats, strips of latex, and carved indentations. 

The film Hereditary was filmed at Park City Film Studios in Heber City, Utah, and ten crew members built the miniatures in Toronto and shipped them across the border. The structures were meticulously crafted and were built in traditional carpentry fashion. 

A Space Odyssey was directed by Stanley Kubrick, who is considered one of the greatest filmmakers ever. It took three years to complete production due to developing convincing models of spaceships and locations. 

When people think about the film The Terminator, they often think about Arnold Schwarzenegger. What a lot of people don't know is that the film relied heavily on the use of miniatures. In the scene when the skulls were crushed by a tank tread, the skulls were actually about the size of marbles. 

The film Fantastic Mr. Fox was filmed with many puppets; the production team used five hundred and thirty-five in total. Many of the sets used repurposed household materials such as terry cloth for grass and Saran Wrap for a waterfall.

The film Shutter Island created more than one hundred and twenty shots using miniatures, as well as digital effects and photography. Matthew Gratzner was the visual effects supervisor, and with his team, he built a fourteen-foot model lighthouse, the Ashecliffe asylum, and the interior stairwell. 

Martin Scorsese was the director of the film The Aviator, and he used scale models to duplicate many of the flying scenes. The scale models were the Spruce Goose and the XF-11, and they were both created over several months. 

In the film The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan is the director, and he chose to use miniatures during the underground chase scene. In that scene, the Tumbler slams into a garbage truck, swings around, skids and speeds down the tunnel. 

In the film Interstellar, the miniature models were also created by New Deal. They created miniatures of the Endurance, Ranger, and Lander crafts. Docking shots, a scene featuring an explosion, and the descent into the black hole all used significant miniature effects. 

In the film The Ten Commandments, the parting of the Red Sea was accomplished by filming water as it poured down two sides of a U-shaped miniature tank and then running the film backward. 

In the film Casino Royale, it was Daniel Craig's first outing as the 007 agent, who was presented as being more vulnerable. In the scene when the palazzo sinks, it is all done with miniature models.

In the film Back to the Future: Part II, the director used several miniature models during filming. In the 1989 film, the flying DeLorean comes in for a landing with no visible cuts between the car hitting the road and the actors piling out.