The Aston Martin DB5
The mother of all Bond gadgets – this Q- modeled device was perhaps the best known of 007’s devices after the Walther PPK. The first customized Bond car, the Aston Martin was bullet proofed with revolving English, French and Swiss license plates. The car also sported a pipe that could emit smoke to throw off pursuers and had Ben Hur like tyre deflators on the left-hand side back wheel. More dogged chasers were treated to an oil slick! Hidden behind the parking lights were .30 calibre retractable twin machine guns. Camouflaged underneath the gear stick top was a little red button that fired the passenger ejector, just in case! The car was also equipped with an onboard radar screen for tracking homing devices across the world.

Recently, the US army announced to come out with a ‘SmarTruck’ rigged with bulletproof glass, grenade launcher, a laser gun and the ability to throw off pursuers with oil slicks and smoke screens. "Engineers sat down and watched Goldfinger and Tomorrow Never Dies and some of the other Bond films to create gadgets for this vehicle like the electrified door handle, or the bullet-proof wind screens, or the smoke screens," says John Cork, author of "James Bond, The Legacy."

Attaché case
The first Bond gadget customized by Q’s lab, this innocuous looking suitcase was featured only in From Russia With Love (1963). A standard issue to all 007 agents, the normal sized case included an exploding tear gas canister that went off if the locks were opened normally. Also included in the kit were a flat throwing knife that could pop out of the side of the case, a collapsible AR-7 sniper rifle with an infra-red scope and rifle ammunition concealed in steel tubes and 50 gold sovereigns. In real life, simple exploding suitcases or briefcases with hidden compartments were standard equipment for the CIA during World War II.

The jetpack
In Thunderball (1965), Bond is gets out of a sticky situation by strapping on a jetpack and flying over a mansion to land next to his Aston Martin DB5. In fact, 007 is so pleased with this gadget that he remarks, "No well dressed man should be without one".

The jetpack used during the filming of the movie was a real one manufactured by Bell Textron Laboratories for the US army. During the early 1960’s the U.S. military seriously considered these devices as potential aids to combat soldiers. However, the low duration of the rocket fuel required for the belt was found to be too short-lived for the device to be practical and the idea was abandoned.

The first public demonstration was made by the Army at Fort Eustice, Virginia, on June 8, 1961.
One of these devices was even used at the 1984 Olympic Games but the technology really never took off.

Q’s pet
A remote controlled robot with cameras that acted as its ‘eyes’, Qs pet appeared in A View To A Kill (1985). The head of the robot could also be extended upwards to see what was going on above ground level. It also was also equipped with a microphone. Q uses this to track 007 only to find him in a shower with a woman.

Such robots have only now become common and were used to explore the debris and track down survivors of the World Trade Center last year.

The digital watch
In Live and Let Die (1973), Bond is spotted wearing a digital watch. Big deal, you might say. But considering the fact that the World’s first digital watch was a Hamilton Pulsar, that available for sale in stores only in 1972 for a price of $2100, Bond was really on to the bleeding edge tech. Also, the Pulsar when released had a serious battery problem, which required users to change batteries in a matter of a few minutes. Nobody saw Bond taking a break to do any such thing!

Little Nellie
In You Only Live Twice (1967), Q assembles before a stunned ‘Tiger’ Tanaka a mini helicopter called Little Nellie out of four little suitcases. 007 takes off on the ‘Litte Nellie’, to battle the bad guys over Blofeld’s volcano. Little Nellie is armed to the teeth with twin forward-facing machine guns, rocket launchers, rear-firing flame-throwers, aerial mines, and heat-seeking missiles. In reality, Little Nellie was not a helicopter but an autogyro. It was a Wallis WA-116 also known as a gyroplane. And carrying all that hardware was no problem for little Nellie as it could lift 3.14 times her own weight. For the movie, the inventor of the gyroplane flew for 47 hours, up to heights of 10,000 feet.

The Weird Ones

Underwater breather
Featured in Thunderball (1965), the miniature underwater breather allows the user to breathe underwater for about four minutes. In fact, the device looked so convincing in the movie that the British Royal Navy approached the producers of the movie to know more about it. Unfortunately, till day there is no such miniature device that allows underwater breathing.

Shark attractor
Featured in Never Say Never Again (1983), what it did was rather simple. Attach it to a target, activate it and watch it being devoured by sharks. In theory, this was possible because like whales and dolphins sharks are tuned into very low-frequency electric fields. These devices can confuse the shark to thinking that the target is actually dying or injured fish making low frequency sounds.

X -ray glasses
Featured in The World Is Not Enough (1999), these chic looking glasses use X-rays to allow 007 in viewing concealed weapons and lingerie. The fact of the matter is that are most widely used in medicine to view internal organs and using them to view undergarments is stretching things a bit too far. However, an alternative could be hand-held ultrasound devices, which could help people study the contours.

3-D identigraph
Featured in For Your Eyes Only (1981), the 3D Identigraph enabled a person to type in commands to build up a picture of a person’s face. Once a match was found the details where displayed on the screen and the image was printed out. Weird but possible!

Underwater propulsion unit
Featured in Thunderball (1965), an outrageously over equipped device that had spear guns, a propulsion unit, explosive bottles, yellow ink screen and even headlights! Sad that 007 blows it up to kill some baddies.

Imitation fingerprints
Featured in Diamonds Are Forever (1971), it allows the user to fool a finger print identification device. Nowadays, prints fabricated from household ingredients can beat biometric security systems.

Electro-magnetic RPM controller
Featured in Diamonds Are Forever (1971), its a gambler’s dream comes true! You simply slip this gadget over your finger and then head towards the nearest automatic gambling machine. When pressure is applied on the gadget, it rigs the gambling consoles causing them to throw up jackpots.

XT-7B rockets
Featured in Never Say Never Again (1983), these rockets acted as human missiles. Once they were fired the normal way, the outer casing would fall away to reveal a gas powered platform with a person standing on it. In reality, such speeds would just snap the neck of the person within it.

Miscellaneous

Other famous Bond movie ‘gadgets’ included:
n Poison tipped spiked shoe,
n A watch that had a wire hidden inside and could double up as a garrote
n A snorkel suit which had a stuffed seagull on top
n An edible radioactive device
n A bowler hat that could be used a lethal discus
n A safe cracker that could be used also as a copier
n A flute that could act as a transmitter
n An imitation nipple
n A watch that receive ticker tape messages
n A time bomb pen
n A craft that was designed to look like a crocodile

TV Mahalingam and Sarita Rani