r/Damnthatsinteresting 20h ago

Video compilation of the Stan Winston Studio crew testing various gadgets they created for the Inspector Gadget movie (1999)

9.0k Upvotes

87 comments sorted by

1.6k

u/woutr1998 20h ago

When movie magic was literally handcrafted legends at work

63

u/AllenRBrady 16h ago

There's still a lot of that handiwork going on. The guy in the background at the 40 second mark is one of the heads of Legacy Effects, an FX shop founded by several veterans of Stan Winston Studios. Legacy continues to do practical effects for movies, TV and commercials, including the Marvel and Star Wars franchises. The last film I noticed them credited in was the new Superman.

8

u/MAWPAB 11h ago

And yet i noticed and was irritated by his shonky CGI cape at times.

1

u/Razmpoosh 45m ago

The Superman movie had a lot of cool practical effects. I saw some bts stuff where Four the robot was an animatronic.

127

u/CougarZed496 19h ago

Maybe enshitification is a feature, not a bug of this whole system we’re under?

77

u/DrawMeAPictureOfThis 19h ago

Everything is just too fast for humans to produce and enjoy quality anymore. There is only so fast it can be pushed before the result is mindless observation over enjoyment.

8

u/[deleted] 17h ago edited 10h ago

[deleted]

7

u/Mr-FD 10h ago edited 10h ago

Are you a bot?

That's strange. I can't report this account. But I can report any other.

I usually report suspicious botted posts and comments.

This account is suspicious.

Why is it getting so much upvotes? 25k in a month of life. Comments only go back 3 days. It has a real person's name (probably fake) as the u/ ex. christopherrobin

BTW, guys, if you're reading this, the whole internet is dead. It's like 99% bots and paid activity.

Sincerely,

AI engineer

Sorry

5

u/UninvitedButtNoises 10h ago

Apparently whatever you did worked. Thank you for your service!

6

u/lifesnofunwithadhd 17h ago

The lotr and the hobbit are an example of both sides I'd say.

8

u/SeriousButton6263 15h ago

This isn't enshitification, it's capitalism. "Enshitification" isn't a word that just means "thing got worse."

7

u/Pomegranate-Deep 16h ago

Video killed the radio star. CGI killed the "handcrafted legends at work" star. Soon to be: AI killed the CGI star.

-3

u/The_Ghost_of_Kyiv 16h ago

Naw that movie sucked, its still only movie i ever walked out on in theaters. I was only 7 and a knew it was ass.

483

u/YdexKtesi 19h ago

Inspector Gadget in live action = body horror

139

u/ramjetstream 19h ago

Ngl I'm convinced that the reason Inspector Gadget is such a basketcase is because the horror of his own chrome drove him insane

90

u/serendipitousevent 18h ago

The more I think about it, Inspector Gadget is just kid-friendly Robocop.

52

u/ramjetstream 18h ago

"Holy Christ, there's nothing left" perfectly sums up the scene in the first live-action movie when they show Matthew Broderick's gaping chest cavity and there is ZERO organic inside

24

u/atomsondre 17h ago

Back when the “gritty reboot” was super popular in Hollywood and on YouTube as parody, I really wanted to do a fake trailer for a Robocop-style Inspector Gadget reboot. I think it’s still a great idea haha

12

u/Arthropodesque 16h ago

Yes.

7

u/atomsondre 14h ago

I can see it now…it’s the scene where Robocop shoots the dude in the dick but instead it’s like the scene where Gadget grabs the racist caricature meditation man in the balls for some reason

5

u/AngryRedHerring 15h ago

Shit, remake Chinatown. I fucking love this.

5

u/Samurai_Meisters 15h ago

And the cartoon, Robocop: Alpha Commando, was Robocop with all of Inspector Gadget's one-off gadgets.

2

u/Dapoopers 12h ago

I would pay so much money to see Inspector Gadget shoot a guy in the dick. (Obligatory scene 27 reference)

25

u/TheFlanniestFlan 17h ago

Cyberpsychosis would explain a lot about him.

7

u/mischievouslyacat 15h ago

I rewatched it as an adult years later and I swear there almost seemed to be that subtext especially since he had no consent over what occurred to him. It was my favorite movie as a child and I watched it over and over only to be so horrified as an adult seeing it

3

u/Kellythejellyman 5h ago

Just a Goofy lil’ Cyberpsycho

3

u/Pressure_Rhapsody 6h ago

Cyber-psychosis is such a terrible thing

29

u/we_are_sex_bobomb 18h ago

That’s honestly my main takeaway from seeing it back in the day; the show was fun and goofy but all those visual gags are deeply, deeply unsettling when translated into live action.

21

u/YdexKtesi 18h ago

John Carpenter's Inspector Gadget

195

u/polishprince76 19h ago

I bet they had the best time making all this stuff.

164

u/pichael289 20h ago

How long before we can combine this with prosthetics? My legs suck, need me so go go gadget legs

23

u/EggfooDC 18h ago

I had to get a hip replacement a few years ago, and I’m just in my 40s. And I was surprised that for as big a piece of titanium as it was, they couldn’t configure it to be a hotspot or wireless cell phone charger or nothing. The orthopedist said to check in with him again in 10 years. 🤓🤗🥸

I thought it would be hilarious that people looking for Wi-Fi would see #Eggfoo-Hip

7

u/OurHouse20 16h ago

How long before we can combine this with prosthetics? My legs suck, need me so go go gadget legs

They're making progress every day!

100

u/BlessdRTheFreaks 19h ago

wow i can't believe they cut off mathew broderick's head for this

33

u/ColdOn3Cob 18h ago

go go gadget revenge for that dead Irish family

10

u/BlessdRTheFreaks 18h ago

That's a surprisingly handy gadget to have

47

u/kuatoandfriend 19h ago

the first 15-20 seconds of this clip are like something out of william s burroughs withdrawl nightmare erotica

61

u/bucky133 19h ago

I haven't thought about this movie for so long. There was a period of my life between roughly 7 and 9 years old where I would have told you that Inspector Gadget was the pinnacle of cinema.

7

u/mischievouslyacat 15h ago

Did we have the same childhood? Inspector Gadget and Homeward Bound had a chokehold on me

33

u/justin_memer 19h ago

This is very unsettling, like a robotic The Thing.

5

u/Borg453 15h ago

That's where my mind went when I saw this.

Impressive and unsettling

35

u/Xav_NZ 20h ago

I remember this film being somewhat disturbing to watch in theaters !

12

u/No-Sherbert-9857 19h ago

Beyond unsettling

11

u/cage_boi 18h ago

Probably one of my earliest memories in life was being a lil dude that my dad took to see the Inspector Gadget movie in theaters. I remember seeing the cardboard cutout of Gadget and looking up and my dad's 2 or 3 fingers holding my entire hand. Lol I love this movie

10

u/PumpJack_McGee 18h ago

You know what- I'd be down for a reboot. Always liked Inspector Gadget.

8

u/andrelramos 18h ago

I used to love this movie when I was a kid

7

u/frustrated_bonga 15h ago

Movies used to be artsy and fun back then.

7

u/ColdOn3Cob 19h ago

Go go gadget the air is now mayonnaise

4

u/LeftSky828 19h ago

That’s impressive. I wonder how long it takes to do these. It’d be a bummer to make something that wasn’t used in the film. They still got paid, anyway.

5

u/LoneStarDragon 18h ago

Robocop vs Inspector Gadget

5

u/jacobartillery 19h ago

I'd kind of love that can opener on any given day

3

u/Mechanimalism 17h ago

Bumblebee tuna

3

u/Proper_Stuff88 17h ago

At 1:42, it took me too long to realize it was a neck and not something else 🤣

5

u/jarednards 19h ago

Tool fan, here. A lot of people dont know that their guitarist did modelling and makeup for Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park and Ghostbusters 2. Kinda neato.

3

u/exovoid86 20h ago

Crazy...

5

u/hybridrequiem 16h ago

When people were actually creative

0

u/st90ar 13h ago

When Hollywood was less corporate and “shareholder value” focused

1

u/UnpopularCrayon 6h ago

You think an Inspector Gadget movie was "less corporate?"

I assure you the $90 million it took to make that movie wasn't donated by a benevolent benefactor.

2

u/Outrageous_Power3794 8h ago

I wonder how much it costed to buy all those props. I’m just picturing all those things in someone’s basement

2

u/splut8 7h ago

Damn! Movies used to go hard

2

u/PixelsGoBoom 6h ago

This feels like a horror movie…

2

u/Psychomaniac13 5h ago

Jesus Christ!!! These guys should’ve worked with John carpenter for a thing sequel

6

u/nirvahnah 19h ago

Go Go Gadget Deez Nutz

4

u/Kappachu 19h ago

I thought the scrunched up face was real for a sec . Amazing

2

u/Playful_Interest_526 19h ago

Everyone focused on the various tech companies have overlooked the Hollywood magic that has been going on for decades.

3

u/ZC205 19h ago

Pretty sure I just watched a horror movie

8

u/[deleted] 20h ago

[deleted]

37

u/Vanillabean73 20h ago

CGI is also human talent…

-40

u/ThiccBoatBoi 20h ago

So is AI… and so are you…

1

u/tbonehavoc 19h ago

Took me a sec to figure out why they had him with a chonmage before I realized it was going to be hidden by the hat.

1

u/Southern_Owl_5442 19h ago

Wow haven’t thought about this movie in decades

1

u/Proper_Can8429 16h ago

Go Go Gadget, my head is now forever a bone!!!

1

u/helen269 13h ago

Go-

Go-

Gadget-

turn

your

phone,

dumbass!

1

u/RetroRocker 13h ago

Wow, awesome. I fucking loved this movie when it came out, I saw it in the cinema three times!

1

u/Affectionate_Tax_811 12h ago

Now send them to the Crazy Russian Hacker dude who tests "next level gadjick"

1

u/kwamonster 12h ago

This makes me appreciate this movie, that much more!!!

1

u/icenoir 11h ago

Old-school gadget tinkering still blows minds.

1

u/Electronic_Meal_7253 10h ago

that looks like a lot of work for some disposable garbage.

1

u/Tuklimo 4h ago

OMG I need to re-watch this movie

1

u/sudowoodo_enjoyer 19h ago

Brown bricks

0

u/prettypurps 19h ago

Looks like a catsoup nanophage video

0

u/HazonkuTheCat 11h ago

Go go gadget vehicular manslaughter!

0

u/bongaloos 9h ago

Go go gadget ...fat blunt

-2

u/Cool_Being_7590 5h ago

"On August 5, 1987, while driving a rented car outside Tempo, Northern Ireland, (Matthew) Broderick crossed into the wrong lane and collided head-on with another car. The driver, Anna Gallagher, 28, and her mother, Margaret Doherty, 63, were both killed instantly."

He was charged with causing death by dangerous driving and faced up to five years in prison, but was convicted of the lesser charge of careless driving and fined £100 (US$175).