Apollo 13 was one of those movies.

When I was seven years old, my mother took me to see it at a Sunday matinee. And I was hooked. I just knew – when I grew up, I’d be an astronaut. The movie held that much power for me.

While pursuing a career in the space industry was short-lived, I never lost the love for these types of movies. You know, the big ones — Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Lord of the Rings — filled with epic scenes, usually created from special effects.

But when these effects are made right, they are more than just entertaining. They can transform the experience of a movie.

In a recent TED talk, a man by the name of Rob Legato invites us into his world of wizardry. The man behind capturing the launching of Apollo 13‘s rockets and exploring Titanic’s wreckage shows us how these scenes transport us to a completely different place and time, where spectacle and awe are just as important as love and hope.

You can see what I mean in Legato’s TED talk below.

— Stew

(Photo Credit: TED)