Picture the Millennium Falcon speeding toward hyperspace or Indy’s narrow escape from the Temple of Doom. What makes these iconic scenes convincing?
Exploding planes, collapsing temples, a wall of water rushing through a warren of miniature mining tunnels—hear tales of visual effects adventure behind Lorne Peterson’s Academy Award–winning work on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and other films in the series.

Lorne Peterson is a visual effects artist who worked as a model maker for Industrial Light & Magic on the first six Star Wars films. In addition, he is the author of the 2006 book Sculpting a Galaxy: Inside the Star Wars Model Shop. Since being hired by George Lucas in 1975, he worked on many of Lucas's films, as well as several of Steven Spielberg's. In 1984, Peterson received an Academy Award and a British Academy Award for Visual Effects for his work on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Additional film credits include E.T., Jurassic Park, Men in Black, Wild Wild West, and two Pirates of the Caribbean films.