The scene involving the destruction of the corporate artwork (where the huge ball crashes into the coffee shop) was the most troublesome scene to shoot in the whole film. Initially, director David Fincher had wanted to the scene to feature an entirely CG ball on live plates, but visual effects supervisor Kevin Tod Haug convinced him to try shooting it as a live special effect instead. As such, special effects coordinator Cliff Wenger was placed in charge of the scene. Problems began to arise when Wenger discovered that the flooring at the location could only take 250 pounds per square foot. As such, a lightweight ball (100 pounds) had to be built to ensure no damage was caused. However, because the ball was so light, it didn't react the way a heavy ball would; for example, when the ball rolls down the steps, it bounced, when it rolled through the water it left no wake, and when it rolls through the pool, rather than sinking and rolling along the surface, it floated. As well as that, the ball couldn't gather enough speed. In the end, Wenger was reduced to having two special effects people running alongside, pulling the ball on wires and trying to hold it down so it didn't float on the surface of the water. There were also problems shooting the scene where the ball crashes through the front of the coffee shop. Wenger had only a 40 foot run up to the front of the shop, but because the ball was 8 feet high, and the ceiling of the area in which they were shooting was 10 feet, it meant the ramp could only rise 2 feet off the ground, leaving virtually no room for the ball to gather momentum prior to smashing into the glass. As such, when the ball would hit the café, it would smash the glass in the front of the shop and then just roll back out instead of crashing on into the counter. In the end, digital effects company Toybox was given the entire scene with orders to do a major cleanup on the live footage. For the rolling shots, they removed the bounces, added furniture which the ball violently knocks out of its way, added pavement cracks in the wake of the ball, added flickering lights, added additional splashes and a wake as the ball moves through the water, and added a digital camera shake. For the café shots, they completed the destruction of the counter, added flying glass and furniture, added flickering lights, and again, added digital vibration to the camera. In the end, although the majority of the actual scene is live photography, almost all of the minor effects in the shots are completely digital.

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