10 Facts About The Iconic James Bond Film Gadgets
Cars with two steering wheels, a pocket-sized firearm and toothpaste that could blow your head off.
From the well-known Walther PPK to the lesser-appreciated self-driving BMW 750iL, every James Bond film features some pretty innovative and sometimes crazy gadgets. Over the years, Q has come up with some whacky ideas to help 007 accomplish his missions. His explosive toothpaste and acid-holding fountain pens are all pretty great but some take the cake in terms of interesting backstories. From human-sized submarines in the shape of a crocodile to flamethrower bagpipes, we saw some real funky gadgets during the pre-Craig era.
From Casino Royale (2006) onwards, the gadgets became a lot more high-tech and a lot stealthier, which some people have complained about due to the lack of pizzazz. The lack of pizzazz comes as a relief to most of the film crew because a lot of the time, the showier the gadget was, the bigger the team and the more complicated the filming became. Ian Fleming certainly had a very active imagination.
Bond's gadgets never fail him, but is that because he is an A-class agent or because he has a whole stunt team behind the scenes? We're going to look at some of 007's tech and how they actually managed to pull off the stunts behind the scenes.
10. Microchip Implant - Casino Royale
This microchip is one of the more practical gadgets to make it onto this list. The microchip used to track Bonds's vitals and location in Casino Royale (2006) deserved its own mention because this technology does actually exist and has saved the lives of many civilians, not just top secret MI6 agents while they're playing a game of poker with their enemies.
Before Q came up with the idea of "Smart" Blood, he used another kind of nano-technology to track Bond's whereabouts and bodily functions. The microchip is put to the test during the film as 007 is spiked with an almost-lethal amount of poison snuck into his shaken martini by the cunning Valenka. Thanks to the microchip, Bond is warned of the unwanted mixer in his drink and excuses himself to chug saltwater until his body rejects all of the liquid, and he throws it all back up.
Perhaps a gadget that is less preventative and more curing, the microchip deserved an honourable mention as this technology is more accessible than most others featured in the film series