The most unusual use I've seen for an SEM was as a special-effects generator for the fifth Star Trek movie, “The Final Frontier”, William Shatner directed the film as well as starring in it. He chose Bran Ferren of Associates and Ferren, now part of Disney Imagineering, to do the special effects. Ferren had the idea of using SEM imagery for the “eerie planet in the center of the galaxy”, because the large in-focus depth of field gave an unearthly feel to the scene. Shatner was fascinated by the technology and the resulting images.

When you hear that a film cost $50 million to make, here's how it happens. They bought a Zeiss 960 SEM and a PGT IMIX system just for that one sequence in the movie! A mainstay of movie effects is model animation, in which miniatures are dragged along suspended wires while one or more cameras (mounted on articulated robotic booms) also move to produce She complex and realistic action you see on the screen.