Clearly, if we'd had the kind of computer graphics capability then that we have now, the Star Gate sequence would be much more complex than flat planes of light and color.

The film used a number of special effects techniques that Trumbull had helped develop. He is the son of Donald Trumbull who created visual effects for the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz as well as later movies including Silent Running and Star Wars. I ended up in the hospital – it was a major recovery.

Douglas Huntley Trumbull (born April 8 1942) is an American film director special effects supervisor and inventor. He contributed to or was responsible for the special photographic effects of 2001: A Space Odyssey Close Encounters of the Third Kind Star Trek: The Motion Picture Blade Runner and The Tree of Life and directed the movies Silent Running and Brainstorm.