The poster for Ang Lee’s “Gemini Man” has a youthful Will Smith staring down a much older, gray-hair-speckled Will Smith, with a 26-year movie career seemingly filling the space between them. The film navigates some complicated technology to pit a man against his younger, “Bad Boys”-ier self. Just how complicated? And why does it look hyperrealistic? We offer a little bit more clarity on both below.

Is Will Smith de-aged in “Gemini Man”?

The filmmakers and actor do not consider this de-aging, which is a visual effects process that digitally alters actors’ features actor to make them look younger. Here, the effects team created a “100-percent fully digital character,” as Smith referred to him in a recent interview. Weta Digital, the effects house that brought to life characters like Gollum in the “Lord of the Rings” movies, was enlisted to help build a digital human using old images, movie clips and of course Smith himself as a reference.