10 Famous Things That Were Invented By Movie Time Travellers

7. Scotty Brings Transparent Aluminum To 1986 - Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Whenever a mysterious Scottish engineer comes up to you with a crazy idea, it's usually a good idea to listen to him. In the case of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, such a foolhardy move paid off, giving us one of our greatest inventions: transparent aluminum. It's pretty much like plexiglass on steroids, much stronger and lighter than anything we currently have. The nerds over at Memory Alpha say that a one inch thick piece of transparent aluminum can withstand the pressure of over 10000 cubic feet of water. It's hard to get an exact estimate though, on account of it, you know, not being real. But anyway, how did we get such a technological marvel? Oh, no big deal, Scotty just popped back in time to 1986. He needed some plexiglass at the time, so he was pretty much like, "Hey, give me some plexiglass and I'll give you the formula for something way better than plexiglass." But in a Scottish accent. One of the things that's awesome about this subplot is they actually address the fact that he went and tampered with time, but Scotty just kind of shrugs it off and points out that the guy he gave the formula to might have always been the one who invented transparent aluminum. Because Scotty does what needs to be done and anyone who doesn't like that can go find another starship.