9 Bond Gadgets That Now Exist In Real Life

In the first of our ‘007 Weeks Of SPECTRE’ series, where we celebrate all things James Bond, we take a look at the gadgets.

The toys that 007 gets to play with in the movie series always look cool and thankfully, there are some on-screen gadgets that have made their way to the real world.

Jet pack (‘Thunderball’)

It’s safe to say that this is one of the niftiest gadgets that James has ever used and we would love to get our hands on one (think about how easy that commute would be?!)

There are lots of DIY ones out there, but most companies who researched the technology have admitted that at the moment they are generally too inefficient to be mass-produced.

Nevertheless, there are several real-life versions (powered generally by either hydrogen peroxide or water), including the Bell Rocket Belt, the Go Fast! Jet Pack and one personally built by aerial stuntman Troy Hartman.

Underwater car (‘The Spy Who Loved Me’)

This car is awesomely named the Squba – a nod to Bond’s quartermaster colleague (played first by Desmond Llewellyn, before John Cleese and then Ben Whishaw took over).

Presented to the public in 2008 by Swiss company Rinseed, its creator was inspired by the movie. Slightly bizarrely, it’s a convertible, which means that its occupants have to wear wetsuits and breathing equipment when submerged. Though I’m sure you’re encouraged to wear a tuxedo underneath.

Mini-helicopter (‘You Only Live Twice’)

Everyone remembers Little Nellie, don’t they? Bond’s faithful mini-copter helped him scope out the dodgy volcano that turned out to be Blofeld’s secret underground lair.

The vehicle is actually known as an autogyro and was created by former WWII pilot, Wing Commander Ken Wallis.

Wallis, who died in 2013 aged 97, doubled for Sean Connery during the movie flying his own craft, which was the WA-116.

Spinning licence plate (‘Goldfinger’)

There’s not much use for this in the real world (unless you want to be very naughty in your car) but it does exist. It’s mostly been created for those who like speeding and then getting away with it.

Which we don’t condone.

Rover-style robot (‘A View To A Kill’)

Q developed this little remote-controlled robot seemingly to spy on 007, as the dog-inspired creation ends up with a towel on its head when it rolls in on Bond and Stacey Sutton getting it on in the shower at the end of the movie.

Of course, now these kinds of robots are everywhere, whether it’s taking pictures on Mars, or defusing bombs in warzones.

Fingerprint scanner (‘Diamonds Are Forever’)

Look down at your phone. Is yours locked with a fingerprint sensor and only opens when you press your thumb to it?

Add to that the security they use in airports and you’ve got the modern-day equivalent of Tiffany Case’s biometric scanner, which of course Bond fools by using fake fingerprints.

Shoe knife (‘From Russia With Love’)

Thanks to recently declassified documents, we can see that Bond creator Ian Fleming was in correspondence with the CIA and the agency even went to so far as to copy some of the author’s weapons ideas.

The poisonous dagger which flips out of a shoe is one of them, but has also been co-opted by real-life inventors who sell them online.

Facial recognition software (‘For Your Eyes Only’)

When 007 creates a computer graphic of the scary henchman with octagonal glasses he’s spotted and then prints it out on a dot matrix printer in order to find out who he is, it looks a bit dated.

But of course, a modern-day version of that exists and is in constant use by the security forces, tracking terrorists. There’s also the good old-fashioned police sketch artist, but one suspects he wouldn’t be as accurate as James.

GPS (‘Goldfinger’ and more)

Er, who doesn’t have a tracker now, thanks to the rise of smartphones, which all contain (much to some teenagers’ annoyance) a way of finding out exactly where it is in the world at any time.

This technology was a lot more primitive in ‘Goldfinger’, where Bond had one in his Aston Martin.