If I were in charge of the universe, I’d create a Visual Effects Hall of Fame and induct this amazing shot from "Die Hard" (1988).

Visual effects by Boss Film, visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund.

Actor Alan Rickman was hanging forty feet above a blue airbag and was dropped earlier than he was expecting (hence his amazing performance). The background is full-scale live-action photography from the Fox Plaza location. https://twitter.com/tvaziri/status/688990530508697600

Technically, it's a stunning shot on many levels. The lighting on Rickman, particularly as he falls out of his beauty lighting, feels very natural and unforced. Both the Rickman element and the live-action background element were filmed static without a moving camera...

... but in the compositing stage, a slight pan/tilt drift was added to the background element, as if the camera operator was slightly reframing as Gruber lost his grip. This super-subtle camera move is barely noticeable, yet really helps sell the illusion.

Gamma'd up, speeded up and rock and roll'd, you can see the camera move more clearly. Also notice the subtle rack focus on the background (probably added during compositing) to match focus of a falling character.

Now to show off the seams of this amazing shot... literally!

Notice in the GIF some artifacts of the seams of the blue airbag that were only partially extracted, and how it remains locked to camera while the background is panning and tilting. Something new never to unsee!

Right now on Netflix (U.S.) there's a fun episode of The Movies That Made Us all about "Die Hard", which actually does a great job discussing the visual effects of the movie.

To do a deep dive into the effects, just read Cinefex #36.
https://cinefex.com/backissues/issue36.htm @cinefexNOW