The imagery would not look out of place in Sci-fi movie such is it's scope and clarity. Who'd have thought dangling the lander from a sky-crane would be the way to go? Even now while it's sitting there sending these sounds and images back to earth it's charging the batteries of it's flying drone... Boom... Mind blown.
Yeah, the Skycrane is real innovation, the product of solid thinking, rigorous testing - and risk taking, it's arguably one of the most technologically impressive things humanity has every produced. I can imagine people at NASA spitballing at whiteboards over mechanisms for getting the rover down safely, and some mad idea about a hovering platform that lowers the rover down on a cable, being laughed at... then when people thought about it and started making models and prototypes, it turned into a real thing.
I also like to think about how machines like this will influence future propulsion systems, guidance tech, and other stuff... Remarkable.