10 Facts About The Iconic James Bond Film Gadgets
6. The Jetpack - Thunderball
Initially designed for the US military, producers of Thunderball employed the JB-9 Jetpack for themselves so that Jame Bond could make his dramatic escape from assassin Jacques Boitier's chateau during the pre-credit scene.
The military rejected the Jetpack due to its dangerous nature and ability to only stay airborne for 20 seconds. The stuntman, Bill Suitor, tasked with shooting the scene, refused to do the scene without a helmet due to the dangerous nature of the Jetpack. This forced producers to shoot the scene with Connery wearing a rather dorky helmet that so didn't fit the blue steel Bond usually emulates.
There were only two people in the world qualified for flying the Jetpack, one of them being an actual Pilot. They weren't cutting any corners with this film, and the budget was more than all three of the budgets of the first films combined. The Jetpack was actually the idea of Director Terence Young as he wanted to avoid adding another Bond gadget to the series of gag gadgets they had already accumulated. Do you think it worked? Bond's helmet certainly doesn't help.