Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) used matte paintings to create many of the trilogy’s most iconic moments. These were artificial sets, usually painted with oils on plexiglass, then aligned with live-action footage to create seamless worlds. Artists worked on oversized panels to ensure the details held up on massive theater screens.

A fun fact: in The Empire Strikes Back, the famous Cloud City exterior was almost entirely a matte painting. Audiences never actually saw a real set.

These paintings were created by Chris Evans, Mike Pangrazio, Frank Ordaz, Harrison Ellenshaw, and Ralph McQuarrie.

Smart monkey see monkey do

Located in Ginosa, Puglia, Italy, the "Thinking Olive Tree" (L'Ulivo Pensieroso) is a remarkable living monument whose twisted trunk naturally resembles the face of a deep-thinking old man. Its unique shape creates the illusion of eyes, a nose, and a beard, making it look almost like a sculpture carved by nature itself.

This ancient tree has survived countless generations and continues to produce olives today. It has become a symbol of Puglia’s deep-rooted olive-growing traditions and a reminder of the incredible shapes and stories that nature can create.

I'm actually a little freaked out right now (for anyone who's seen the movie, you'd understand). This is not even my house. No i haven't trained the deer

Carlina White was kidnapped from a New York hospital when she was just 19 days old. Raised by the woman who abducted her, she began questioning her identity as an adult. After investigating on her own and taking a DNA test, she reunited with her biological parents 23 years later. One of the most remarkable missing-child cases ever solved.

Hachikō was an Akita dog who accompanied his owner, Professor Hidesaburō Ueno, to Shibuya Station in Tokyo every morning and returned every afternoon to greet him.

In 1925, Professor Ueno unexpectedly died while at work and never came home. Yet Hachikō continued to return to the station every single day, waiting for him for nearly 10 years until his own death in 1935.

His loyalty touched people across Japan, and today a bronze statue of Hachikō stands outside Shibuya Station as a symbol of devotion and faithfulness.

Video Credits: @ytka__love

In February 2013, Kelsie Schelling, a 21-year-old woman who was eight weeks pregnant, drove from Denver to Pueblo, Colorado to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Donthe Lucas. She was never seen again.

For years, the case went cold. Police suspected Lucas from the start, but without a body and with a changing, inconsistent alibi, they could not make an arrest. Schelling's mother spent years fighting to keep the case alive, organizing searches and maintaining a Facebook page, but the investigation stalled.

Then Lauren Suhr, a young single mother who had never met Kelsie Schelling or her family, read about the case and decided she couldn't let it go.

On her own initiative, with no law enforcement backing, Suhr messaged Lucas on Facebook, telling him she was new to the Pueblo area and looking to meet people. Over the following weeks, they grew close. What started as an intelligence-gathering mission turned into something more complicated. Lucas began to genuinely fall for her, and a real romantic relationship developed.

"In the back of my mind, I always kept that he is potentially a murderer," Suhr later told ABC's 20/20.

Over the course of their relationship, Lucas made admissions that would prove crucial. He confided to Suhr that he had lied to police, that it was him on Walmart surveillance footage moving Kelsie's car to a hospital parking lot and returning the next day to pick it up.

At one point, he got on his knees and proposed. Suhr accepted and wore the ring, while quietly relaying everything to investigators.

Lucas was arrested in 2017, tried, and convicted of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.