now i know we already have a thread aobut favorites or best, but this isn't about best, or favorites, this is stricktly about most realistic. not also that these can be fantasy type sequences, in other words)
my picks
2001, the first "blue danbue" sequence. esspecially the floating pen
a new hope, the final battle"
bad boys 2 the macaurther freeway chase
battle royale the squib work (cgi i think) looked brutally realisitc

Gotta go with the airplane crash in "Alive!"

I agree with 2001, Bad Boys 2, but would also like to add:

Pearl Harbor (Say what you will of the movie...but the attack sequence is flawless!)
Return of the King (CGI Horses moved very realistically)
Master and Commander
Attack of the Clones
Temple of Doom (Mine Car chase)

I think the helicopter sequence on the side of the cliff at the end of CLIFFHANGER is fantastic looking.

Most recently, Master and Commander.

Starship Troopers is still one of the best

Jurassic Park.... it still looks so perfect in my eyes.

The T2 nuke was frightenly realistic.

I too was thinking of a plane crash, but I was going to say "Castaway." Come to think of it, both of those are scary as hell because they look so real.

Pretty much anything "real world" that Zemeckis does i.e. CastAway and Contact.

another great very subtle one from Zemeckis is forrest gump where gary sinese doesn't have any legs via cgi.

Good call, it looked damn good.

Shelob

Everything about Contact was flawless to me - being so wrapped up in the premise of the film that you dont even realize CGI sequences are actually just that until its over. A film definitely capable of forcing someone to suspend disbelief whether they want to or not, simply due to its ability to captivate.

The suicide in Full Metal Jacket

I agree with everything except for the Sea of Japan sequence and the crowd scene around the Reflecting Pool.

you got me there - but as I said, forced disbelief....didnt even pay attention to the crowd in the reflecting pool scene because of all the "possibility" that the film instilled up to that point - I just kept reflecting (pardon the pun) at how possible any of that could be. Thank the heavens for the visionary Carl Sagan.

the "white feather" sequence at the opening of Forrest Gump...the single longest cg effect in cinema history.

whoa, that was cg? never realized that.

It's more of a gore sequence but the part in Irreversible where the guy gets his head beaten to a pulp by a fire extinguisher - you can't tell where the cut is between the real guy's head and the fake one. It's just brutal.

I also agree with the above poster about Jurassic Park, it still blows me away (especially on a big screen).

Also, I must admit that the small spaceships in *batteries not included still look pretty good in the way they appear to react & affect the environment around them.

Not a "big" special effect but realistic nonetheless was the way James Cameron CG'ed a different shirt onto Dana (Eliza Dushku) in True Lies to fix a continuity problem (wearing 2 different shirts on what was supposed to be a continuous scene). I look for it every time and I still can't tell it's fake.


Edited to state the name of a movie

My pick too. Though they had the benefit of extreme darkness, but it was utterly convincing.

I think the CG work in TROY was wonderful as well, and they did it all under the unforgiving and blazing sun.

never knew she was in true lies.

Yep, she plays Arnold's kid.

I'd also like to add the the exterior ship effects (flying, etc.) in Firefly were extraordinary, especially considering it was a TV show without a huge budget.

since you didn't give the movie title, i had to look it up on imdb.

Baby in the bathtub in A Beautiful Mind.

"Charles is watchin'!"