We have treated the James Bond movie series as a worldwide epic, not just featured the exotic escapades of the mighty spy but also gawked our fill of its out of the ordinary gadgets. The popsci.com collected the ever famous Bond gadgets of all time so we’ll know which of them we can also have to feel some Bond action.
15. Car Magnet
You Only Live Twice features a number of over-the-top gadgets—trapdoors that lead to sliding chutes, exploding cufflinks, cigarette guns, bogus bridges that pass over a shark-infested tank—but the best gadget of the bunch would have to be the oversize, helicopter-carried car magnet.
14. Water Exhaust
To foil the bad guys in the beginning of Thunderball, Bond raises a bulletproof shield over his car’s rear window and converts his two exhaust pipes into fire hoses. A huge blast of water knocks over Bond’s pursuers, leaving them looking wet and silly.
13. Walther PPK
The first Bond gadget ever used was the Walther PPK automatic pistol used in Dr. No. In the first-ever onscreen meeting between Bond, M and Q, Bond is told to relinquish his Beretta in exchange for the Walther PPK.
12. Vital-Sign-Reading Cellphone
007's new mobile phone in Casino Royale acts as a personal media hub and on-call M.D. This modification of the latest Sony Ericsson has an MP3 player, Bluetooth, an RSS newsreader and a 3.2-megapixel camera with image stabilization. It’s one of only a few Bond gadgets that you and I can actually buy, although the sale model may not include the injectable sensor that monitors vital signs and transmits them back to HQ for emergency diagnostic testing.
11. Deadly Briefcase
In From Russia with Love, Bond is presented with “an ordinary black leather case,” according to the Q branch equipment officer—except, of course, for the 40 rounds of ammunition stored in containers that pop out from the bottom, a throwing knife that projects from the side, 50 gold sovereigns hidden in the lining and a bottle of tear gas disguised as talcum powder, magnetized to cling to the exterior. It will also explode if not opened properly. “A smart-looking piece of luggage,” remarks M.
10. Full-Scale Remote-Control Car
Q shows up in Tomorrow Never Dies as a worker at a car-rental agency, ready to present Bond with his new and improved ride. It’s a BMW 750iL with “the usual refinements” and one not-so-usual customization: Not only can it be turned on by a cellphone, it’s controlled by a touch-sensor directional pad.
9. Camera Gun
In a crucial scene in the 1989 License to Kill, Bond (played by Timothy Dalton) has a plastic explosive that looks like a pack of cigarette but actually is a camera but is converted into a long-range sniper rifle and is customized, through a sensor on the grip, to fire for only one person: James Bond.
8. Robot Dog
In A View to a Kill, walking in for his customary briefing in M’s office, Bond, played this time by Roger Moore, finds Q steering a “prototype for a highly sophisticated surveillance machine.” By the looks of the bulky, ’80s remote control, we have a different definition for “sophisticated” technology nowadays, but this robotic dog is still a Bond-gadget classic.
7. Alligator Conveyance
Bond has the unenviable task of sneaking onto the secret all-female island run by a woman known only as Octopussy, in the eponymous film. His method of getting there, it turns out, is by hiding inside an underwater mechanical alligator, which is successful in getting him both there and back.
6. Aston Martin DBS
In Goldfinger, Q reveals the Aston Martin DBS, “with modifications.” Its windows are bulletproof, and the number plates, as they’re known in England, are revolving. Then there are the controls within the armrest that can produce a smokescreen and an oil slick and raise a bulletproof shield (over the already bulletproof window). There are also front-wing machine guns and a rotating flower of blades that extend from the hubcaps. Finally, the top of the gear shifter flips to reveal a button, which Q tells Bond never to press as it is connected to the ejector seat.
5. Little Nellie
Little Nellie, Bond tells Tiger Tanaka in You Only Live Twice, is “a wonderful girl, very small, quite fast, can do anything—just your type.” Tiger is not impressed. After seeing it constructed, he asks, “A toy helicopter? This can only be used for children.” But Q explains the features: two fixed machine guns, two rocket launchers, two heat-seeking missiles and, in the back, two flame guns and two smoke ejectors; also some mines that can be dropped from the air.
4. Venom Boot
A favored gadget in From Russia with Love is the shoe with a spontaneously revealed venom-injector jutting out from the toe.
3. Laser Watch
In Goldeneye, things don’t look good for Bond (Pierce Brosnan) and Natalya Fyodorovna Simonova when they find themselves locked in a room on a train that’s set to explode imminently, but fortunately Bond has on his Omega Seamaster Pro, customized with lasers that cut through metal and detonate bombs remotely. He cuts a hole in the floor, and the two climb out, run, and jump from the explosion, much to the chagrin of 006.
2. Jetpack
After an extended brawl with (and the subsequent murder of) Col. Duvall in the opening sequence of the 1965 Thunderball, Bond escapes Duvall’s henchmen on a balcony by taking off in a jetpack.
1. Lotus Esprit
In The Spy Who Loved Me, Bond faces off with Karl Stromberg, a self-described recluse who lives in an underwater lair. Naturally, this means Bond needs a submarine car—a vehicle so worthy of envy that we’ve deemed it our favorite Bond gadget of all time. The Lotus Esprit features wheels that turn inward to reveal four lateral fins and a periscope from the roof.
15. Car Magnet
You Only Live Twice features a number of over-the-top gadgets—trapdoors that lead to sliding chutes, exploding cufflinks, cigarette guns, bogus bridges that pass over a shark-infested tank—but the best gadget of the bunch would have to be the oversize, helicopter-carried car magnet.
14. Water Exhaust
To foil the bad guys in the beginning of Thunderball, Bond raises a bulletproof shield over his car’s rear window and converts his two exhaust pipes into fire hoses. A huge blast of water knocks over Bond’s pursuers, leaving them looking wet and silly.
13. Walther PPK
The first Bond gadget ever used was the Walther PPK automatic pistol used in Dr. No. In the first-ever onscreen meeting between Bond, M and Q, Bond is told to relinquish his Beretta in exchange for the Walther PPK.
12. Vital-Sign-Reading Cellphone
007's new mobile phone in Casino Royale acts as a personal media hub and on-call M.D. This modification of the latest Sony Ericsson has an MP3 player, Bluetooth, an RSS newsreader and a 3.2-megapixel camera with image stabilization. It’s one of only a few Bond gadgets that you and I can actually buy, although the sale model may not include the injectable sensor that monitors vital signs and transmits them back to HQ for emergency diagnostic testing.
11. Deadly Briefcase
In From Russia with Love, Bond is presented with “an ordinary black leather case,” according to the Q branch equipment officer—except, of course, for the 40 rounds of ammunition stored in containers that pop out from the bottom, a throwing knife that projects from the side, 50 gold sovereigns hidden in the lining and a bottle of tear gas disguised as talcum powder, magnetized to cling to the exterior. It will also explode if not opened properly. “A smart-looking piece of luggage,” remarks M.
10. Full-Scale Remote-Control Car
Q shows up in Tomorrow Never Dies as a worker at a car-rental agency, ready to present Bond with his new and improved ride. It’s a BMW 750iL with “the usual refinements” and one not-so-usual customization: Not only can it be turned on by a cellphone, it’s controlled by a touch-sensor directional pad.
9. Camera Gun
In a crucial scene in the 1989 License to Kill, Bond (played by Timothy Dalton) has a plastic explosive that looks like a pack of cigarette but actually is a camera but is converted into a long-range sniper rifle and is customized, through a sensor on the grip, to fire for only one person: James Bond.
8. Robot Dog
In A View to a Kill, walking in for his customary briefing in M’s office, Bond, played this time by Roger Moore, finds Q steering a “prototype for a highly sophisticated surveillance machine.” By the looks of the bulky, ’80s remote control, we have a different definition for “sophisticated” technology nowadays, but this robotic dog is still a Bond-gadget classic.
7. Alligator Conveyance
Bond has the unenviable task of sneaking onto the secret all-female island run by a woman known only as Octopussy, in the eponymous film. His method of getting there, it turns out, is by hiding inside an underwater mechanical alligator, which is successful in getting him both there and back.
6. Aston Martin DBS
In Goldfinger, Q reveals the Aston Martin DBS, “with modifications.” Its windows are bulletproof, and the number plates, as they’re known in England, are revolving. Then there are the controls within the armrest that can produce a smokescreen and an oil slick and raise a bulletproof shield (over the already bulletproof window). There are also front-wing machine guns and a rotating flower of blades that extend from the hubcaps. Finally, the top of the gear shifter flips to reveal a button, which Q tells Bond never to press as it is connected to the ejector seat.
5. Little Nellie
Little Nellie, Bond tells Tiger Tanaka in You Only Live Twice, is “a wonderful girl, very small, quite fast, can do anything—just your type.” Tiger is not impressed. After seeing it constructed, he asks, “A toy helicopter? This can only be used for children.” But Q explains the features: two fixed machine guns, two rocket launchers, two heat-seeking missiles and, in the back, two flame guns and two smoke ejectors; also some mines that can be dropped from the air.
4. Venom Boot
A favored gadget in From Russia with Love is the shoe with a spontaneously revealed venom-injector jutting out from the toe.
3. Laser Watch
In Goldeneye, things don’t look good for Bond (Pierce Brosnan) and Natalya Fyodorovna Simonova when they find themselves locked in a room on a train that’s set to explode imminently, but fortunately Bond has on his Omega Seamaster Pro, customized with lasers that cut through metal and detonate bombs remotely. He cuts a hole in the floor, and the two climb out, run, and jump from the explosion, much to the chagrin of 006.
2. Jetpack
After an extended brawl with (and the subsequent murder of) Col. Duvall in the opening sequence of the 1965 Thunderball, Bond escapes Duvall’s henchmen on a balcony by taking off in a jetpack.
1. Lotus Esprit
In The Spy Who Loved Me, Bond faces off with Karl Stromberg, a self-described recluse who lives in an underwater lair. Naturally, this means Bond needs a submarine car—a vehicle so worthy of envy that we’ve deemed it our favorite Bond gadget of all time. The Lotus Esprit features wheels that turn inward to reveal four lateral fins and a periscope from the roof.
