I’m sure you’ve all enjoyed Q’s amazing James Bond Gadgets over the years. However, have you wondered if any of the amazing gizmos ever made it into the real world?
In You Only Live Twice (1967), Gyrojet rocket guns, which fired small missiles instead bullets, were featured. Around this time, both the British and American military developed working versions of these guns. Unfortunately, they never caught on.
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) had James Bond driving a Lotus Esprit Off a pier to escape trouble. Fortunately for him, it was designed to work underwater. In 2008 Rinspeed developed a working prototype called sQuba. A heavily modified Lotus Elise, it can travel on land and underwater. All electric, The car operates underwater via Seabob water jets and electric-powered propellers.
In For Your Eyes Only (1981) Bond wore a Seiko wristwatch, which he used for voice comunication via a built in 2-way radio transmitter. The AGPtek company now offers a wristwatch walkie-talkie which communicates up to six miles.
A View To A Kill (1985) had the ever resourceful Bond using the skid from a demolished snowmobile as a kind of snowboard. While this Bond film didn’t invent or predict the snowboard, it apparently played a role in helping to turn snowboarding into a popular International sport.
In Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Bond was equipped with a mobile phone designed by the Ericsson company. It had various cool features, including a flip-open capability. Only a handful of years later, the Ericsson R380 smartphone came out, utilizing several of the Bond phone’s features including the flip-open aspect.
We all knew Bond films have always been great entertainment. It’s interesting to see that they served as a form of predictive fiction as well.