The hoverboards in the Back to the Future trilogy are so awesome that we’re still waiting for them to become reality. I mean, you watch that movie and wonder: how the hell did they do that!? That’s a real hoverboard! Where’s the CG!?

There isn’t CG, my friends. They used a whole lotta string and harnesses to make the actors look like they were hoverboarding. I mean, look at this test footage. It still looks like it works, even though there’s a glorious lack of editing here. My best guess is that they used a crane system of some kind to whiz the actors around.

http://youtu.be/6xDoGKGeGvo

It’s amazing how much better practical effects are than CG. The hoverboard stuff in Back to the Future looks just as good as anything released in quite a while. [via /Film]

back to the future, hoverboard