Forrest Gump's Special Effects

    or, "Does Gary have legs?"

    Yes, of course he does...

    However, a lot of people seem to think otherwise, so maybe this page will help explain things.

    Gary's legs were digitally removed in the second part of "Forrest Gump" with the help of specially designed props and special-effects magic.
     
    		Gary at the beginning of the Vietnam scenes. Those are his real live legs!

    In some scenes, Gary sat in a specially designed wheelchair. The chair was designed by special effects wizard Ricky Jay, and featured a thin, slanting seat, so that Gary's legs were folded underneath and not visible.

    In the most amazing scenes, though, the fine folks at George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic (who can be really proud of themselves that so many people believe Gary is legless) removed Gary's legs with the help of computers.
     

      "Computers were ... used to "erase" Sinise's calves and feet. The computer engineers then created the background imagery that would have been on the screen - the rug, the ground, shadows, etc. - if Sinise had no legs. The result is the most realistic shots of an amputee ever put on film, (at least among those involving an actor who has his limbs).

      Though "Forrest Gump" used the erasing technique more extensively than ever been used before, the film didn't necessarily pioneer the trick. Computers have been used to erase elements from images in several recent films. Wires holding Clint Eastwood to the roof in "In the Line of Fire" were erased. The technique also can be used, for example, to erase a jet plane flying over an 1880s western setting." (Excerpt from Jack Garner, "How Did They do Gump?"  Gannett News Service, July 19, 1994).
       

      This enlargement of video, taken during filming one of the scene's on Forrest's shrimp boat, shows the blue socks that Gary wore.  The blue socks helped to guide the visual effects artists' digital "amputation".
    If you're interested in this topic generally, check out the Visual Effects Headquarters web site. The Forrest Gump DVD also includes documentary information on the visual effects techniques used in the film -- look under "Seeing is Believing" on the special features menu.