Edison's The Great Train Robbery

Thomas Edison's 1903 short silent film The Great Train Robbery was one of the earliest films to utilize several various special effects and techniques birthing at the time.. such as cameras being placed on top of trains, cross cutting and double exposures. Even though the piece wasn't original to any of its effects, its assumed to be the earliest film that combined several of these techniques into a 12 minute long film.

Although hard to imagine now, its said that viewers/audiences of the time would find themselves in fear of being ran over by the train or horses because of the camera angle or perspective, as if the objects were coming straight toward them... imagine their reaction if they had 3D glasses on and personal headphones!