30 of the Coolest Movie and Television Gadgets of All Time

It’s no secret that science fiction has paved the way for technology. Sci-fi authors are scientifically-inclined by design and they often introduce the world to concepts that they know will come to fruition at some point down the road. What’s always fascinated us, however, are all the things that science fiction has promised that haven’t come to fruition. It’s just human nature to want what you can’t have and books, television shows, and especially movies have introduced us to a host of must-have toys, if only they existed.

These gadgets aren’t strictly science fiction, some aren’t even “gadgets” per se, and some of them even exist in some form or the other, but everything listed here – mainly from movies, some from television – appeals to the geek in all of us.

Batman’s Batarang

Full disclosure: I’m a huge Batman nerd. That said, batarangs are objectively awesome. Whether using them to pin a creep’s jacket to the wall or just showing off your accuracy on the dartboard at the local watering hole, batarangs are multi-purpose. Heck, some of them even come back to you, just like a boomerang. I mean, the “arang” is right there in the name.

Now, when I list the batarang, I’m going all-inclusive. I’m talking about the explosive batarangs, tracker batarangs, shocker batarangs, the works. In Batman Returns (and various videogames), Batman even uses a remote controlled batarang. But while all of these variations are cool, there’s something so elegant and appealing about the simplicity of the standard batarang. Cut to perfection, thrown with precision. There were a lot of bat-gadgets to choose from, but I had to go with the classic, even though it’s not really a gadget in the classic sense.

Star Wars Lightsaber

While the concept of an unstoppable blade of energy can be traced back to sci-fi pulp from the early 1900s, it was Star Wars that brought the weapon to prominence, displaying it visually for the first time. Jedi knights have been known to use blue, green, yellow, orange, and even purple sabers, the latter thanks to Samuel L. Jackson’s Mace Windu. The color of the blade comes from the crystal used in the creation of the lightsaber. Sith lightsabers are always red, due to the synthetic crystals they use in their weapons.

Over the years, the Star Wars films, television shows, videogames, and novels have introduced different builds of lightsaber, most notably Darth Maul’s lightsaber staff from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Kylo Ren, one of the antagonists from Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, wields a lightsaber that sports what appears to be a cross-hilt, though some have speculated that they’re in fact exhaust ports to let out excess crystal energy.

Iron Man’s Arc Reactor

The arc reactor was invented by Howard Stark as an alternative energy source, but Tony Stark wears a miniaturized version in his chest to keep himself alive. Arc reactors also power the various Iron Man suits and a larger model powers the Stark Tower itself. The arc reactor in Stark’s chest required the chemical palladium to keep it running, but in time the palladium began to poison Tony Stark. Stark invented a safer alternative, said in the Iron Man 2 novelization to be Vibranium, before eventually having the arc reactor surgically removed after no longer needing it.

In the comics, the Hulkbuster Iron Man suit (which is the suit Tony wears in Avengers: Age of Ultron when fighting the Hulk) requires seven arc reactors to power. Compare that to the standard Iron Man suit’s one arc reactor. Maybe Tony’s overcompensating but hey, the Hulk’s a scary dude.

Men in Black Neuralyzer

The Men in Black neuralyzer looks like an innocent silver cigar tube, but the red light on top emits a flash that, when looked directly into, can erase hours, days, weeks, months, or even years of memory. The Men in Black use them to keep alien secrets under wraps, but Will Smith’s Agent Jay feels that using the device is unethical. That is until Men in Black II, in which Jay uses it on other agents so often that he garners himself a reputation for it.

While the neuralyzer in the first Men in Black film emitted a red light, the color was changed to blue for the two sequels. Men in Black III featured a time travel plot and a young Agent Kay (played by Josh Brolin, whose impression of Tommy Lee Jones was spot on) used an early portable neuralyzer that attached to a battery pack he wore on his belt. We also saw the very first neuralyzer, which was a large machine that the subject had to be strapped into.

Penny’s Watch in Inspector Gadget

A lot of people point to Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek for pioneering a lot of modern technology, at least in a conceptual form, but what about Inspector Gadget? While we don’t currently have any cyborg detectives driving around and solving crimes (that I know of, at least), we do have smartwatches, similar to the one Penny wore. Like modern day smartwatches, Penny’s watch could send and receive messages calls and messages and even sync with other devices!

Of course, our smartwatches can’t make video calls. They can’t pick locks, they don’t have flashlights on them, and they can’t be used to track people, though those last two don’t seem out of the realm of possibility. That being said, our smartwatches will likely never detect radiation or feature giant magnets for pulling in metal objects just out of reach, and they certainly won’t be equipped with lasers.

James Bond Submarine Car

Arguably the most iconic Bond gadget of all time, Wet Nellie is a custom-built submarine made to resemble a Lotus Esprit S1 sportscar. You know, because Bond always has to have a cool car. It’s not unlike Doc Brown building a time machine out of a Delorean. You need to have style, for crying out loud.

Wet Nellie (named after Little Nellie, an autogyro in You Only Live Twice) is an actual functioning wet sub. A wet sub is a submarine that doesn’t feature a dry environment (like the inside of a traditional submarine) and requires occupants to wear wet suits. Wet Nellie was built by Perry Oceanographic, Inc out of Riviera Beach, Florida for only about $100,000 in mid-70s money. That’s a lot less than the $1M Elon Musk spent to purchase one of the actual Lotus Esprit S1 sport cars, which he intends on modifying so that it can actually transform into a submarine.

Ghostbusters Proton Pack

There’s a scene in Ghostbusters II in which Bobby Brown, in a cameo role as a doorman, asks the Ghostbusters if he can get a proton pack for his little brother. Egon shoots him down, commenting that they aren’t toys, and I like to imagine that exchange was a nod at the staggering popularity that Ghostbusters toys had experienced in the five years since the first film. I’m probably wrong, though.

The proton pack is an energy weapon designed by Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) and Dr. Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) to weaken and immobilize ghosts by polarizing their negatively charged energy using protons. The proton pack consists of a hand-held “neutrino wand” connected to a backpack-sized particle accelerator. In the 2009 Ghostbusters videogame, Ray further elaborates on how they work, explaining that the energy in the proton stream helps to dissipate the psychokinetic energy that ghosts use to manifest themselves.

I need Egon to make a Twinkie metaphor to help me understand all that.

Star Trek Phaser

Even if you aren’t a Star Trek fan, there’s a good chance that you’ve heard the phrase “set phasers to stun” at one point or another. Phasers are energy weapons commonly used in Starfleet arsenals, both in personal combat and equipped on starships. Most of them are particle weapons that fire nadion particle beams.

Phasers have been a staple of Star Trek since the original 1960s television show and have since been either referenced or seen in just about every incarnation of the long-running sci-fi series. The power settings of a phaser can go so low that they merely daze a target while they can be turned up so high that anything caught in the beam will be disintegrated.

For the 2009 Star Trek reboot, the phaser’s functions were to reduced to simple “stun” and “kill” settings, with the barrel needing to be physically rotated to switch between the two. Who has time for that with the Borg breathing down your neck?

Back to the Future Hoverboard

Never before have so many kids wanted a toy they could so easily break their neck with. If you could have a hoverboard, would you even want one of the Mattel ones? They don’t even work on water! Still, out of the promising inventions that the Back to the Future films gave us – self-tying shoes, self-drying clothes, a time machine made out of a Delorean – the hoverboard is the one that seemed to appeal the most.

And we do have hoverboards! Well, sort of? It’s brand-new, barely-functional technology and it’s far from perfected, but that doesn’t make it any less amazing. One of the biggest drawbacks of the magnetic levitation tech used in the hoverboards being produced is that it limits what the board will actually hover over, so Back to the Future II was right: hoverboards won’t work on water.

Unless you’ve got power.

The Fifth Element Makeup Camera

For most, putting on makeup is a long, tedious process. I’m sure some enjoy the finesse and grace it requires, as well as the satisfaction you undoubtedly get when you apply it well, but regardless, it’s a hurdle when you want to get up and go. It’s especially annoying when you only plan to be out for a short period of time, shorter than the time it takes to apply the actual makeup.

Lke Back to the Future, The Fifth Element gives us plenty of futuristic gadgets. There are your standard flying cars, many more than in Back to the Future II. There are what appear to be seeds that, when thrown into a microwave-like device, produce an entire roasted chicken, complete with vegetables. Then there’s something resembling a camera, or maybe more a virtual reality headset, and when LeeLoo puts it to her face, it lights up and leaves her with perfectly-applied eye shadow. Let’s see that device on Shark Tank.

Click Universal Remote Control

There have been a few movies and television shows that have presented powerful remote controls that do much more than just change the settings on the TV, but the most notable among them is 2006’s Click with Adam Sandler. In the film, Michael Newman (Sandler) is given a “universal” remote control by a man named Morty (Christopher Walken) who works in the “Beyond” section of Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I’ve never been to the Beyond section myself, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find Christopher Walken there.

Michael learns that the remote control can perform several functions, the most powerful of which being the ability to control time, which Michael abuses repeatedly. I don’t want to give the whole movie away for those who haven’t seen it, but I’m sure you can expect that things don’t go exactly as planned. We can hardly judge though, can we? If we got our hands on that remote control, what sort of hijinks would we get up to?

District 9 Exosuit

Wikus van de Merwe, District 9’s leading man, is hardly an imposing figure, especially when set against the backdrop of an alien-infested Earth. He’s really nothing more than a bumbling bureaucrat who gets in over his head and he looks even weaker when he’s put up against a team of sadistic mercenaries. Until he gets the exosuit, that is. That’s when everything changes.

The exosuit, which is alien in origin, is essentially a tank with arms and legs. It protects the wearer while giving them unparalleled strength, not to mention an array of destructive weaponry, including a rocket launcher. Battle mechs are nothing new in science fiction, but there’s just something about the one in District 9 that makes it stick out like an awesome sore thumb. If it can turn a dweeb like Wikus into an unstoppable juggernaut, imagine what it could do for you!

Mission Impossible III Mask Printer

Realistic face masks have always played a big part in Mission: Impossible, going all the way back to the original television series. Of course, the 1996 film upped the ante in regards to special effects, and the image of an operative ripping a life-like mask off to reveal another face is now an iconic moment that makes an appearance in every movie.

Mission: Impossible III took the concept even deeper by showing the process in which the masks are made. The audience got to see Philip Seymour Hoffman’s likeness recreated in front of their eyes, with the help of a few camera tricks. There were a few clever switcheroos that took place, but we saw enough of the creation and application of the mask that it looked very real and very cool. Tom Cruise’s voice coming out of Hoffman’s mouth is what sealed the deal.

Elysium Med-Bay

Healthcare has been a hot-button issue in the United States for quite some time now, but we could just avoid the whole kerfuffle altogether if we all had med-bays in our homes. In the film Elysium, the med-bays can cure all diseases, reverse the aging process, and even restore lost limbs. They’re also reserved for the mega-rich who live on luxurious space station orbiting a ruined Earth, no doubt a commentary on the one-percent.

The idea of a machine that can instantly and completely repair wounds isn’t new to science fiction, but Elysium presented the idea in a more realistic light than most and made us long for a day when such medical science exists. Not only would we be able to eradicate the world’s diseases, but we could do more fun, reckless stuff with no fear of getting permanently injured!

Aliens Power Loader

Forget bulldozers and forklifts, those ancient relics. If I’m going to tighten my belt and participate in some honest blue-collar work, I want a Caterpillar P-5000 Powered Work Loader. While it’s designed to move cargo around, it’s also quite handy at taking out Xenomorph queens if you find yourself in a situation where you have to do just that.

How cool is it that James Cameron actually gave his fictional exoskeleton the Caterpillar branding? Aliens is one of the best science fiction films of all time and little details like that are what really add to the world. And just like Back to the Future II featuring a Mattel hoverboard, it’s the inclusion of real-world brands that make us want these products so bad. If power loaders like the one in Aliens actually existed, I might actually get off my butt and get a real job.

The Teleporter from The Fly

Now hear me out! I’ve seen The Fly, I know what can go wrong if you’re not careful. Seth Brundle may have had one bad experience, but it’s a teleporter for crying out loud! How hard is it to make sure there are no bugs in it? Get some bug spray, or maybe hang a few of those fly strips on the outside, and you’re good to go. You now have the power to teleport from one location to anywhere you choose to place the other machine with no detriment to your personal health.

That is, if you’re against becoming half-human/half-fly. There are some downsides, sure, but there were pretty great perks, too. You get super strength. Well, you’ll be strong enough to snap someone’s arm anyway. He had a lot of stamina, too, as well as, let’s say, increased libido. Being half-fly was pretty sweet, if we’re being honest.

The Rocketeer Jet Pack

Jet packs scare me for a variety reasons ranging from accidentally flying into the sun to dying horrifically in a crash landing to blowing my own butt off and never even leaving the ground. Despite all these fears, I can’t deny the fact that I would be over the moon (maybe literally!) if I owned one. Keep in mind that I sometimes stumble when I walk just because of how bad my balance is, but I want a backpack that will propel into the air. I also want the cool helmet, don’t forget that part.

The Rocketeer was initially envisioned as a trilogy, but despite positive critical reaction it failed to take off (pun intended) at the box office, destroying any chances of future films. Talk of a remake began in 2012 but nothing official was ever announced. It’s been long enough that we can probably safely wave off the rumors as just talk.

Total Recall’s Johnny Cab

We’re heading towards a driver-less future whether we like it or not. Several companies are already testing automated cars and it’s only a matter of time before they become standard. With that in mind, and with vehicle-for-hire services like Uber becoming so popular that they’re threatening to put taxi companies out of business, we’re headed towards a very possible outcome: Johnny Cab.

When you think of sci-fi films that predicted the future, Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 Total Recall isn’t exactly the first film that comes to mind, but Johnny Cabs feel like something we may see some version of in the not-too-distant future. Of course, if you want to take one, all you have to do is give him a destination. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Douglas Quaid apparently didn’t get the memo. When he hops into a Johnny Cab, he quickly rips the driver off of its base and assumes manual control. Let’s hope people are nicer to driverless cars.

Pacific Rim’s Jaegar

I live in the United States, where it’s not unusual to spend over half-a-trillion dollars on the military. My question is this: where are our giant mechs? We clearly have the funds, so instead of another fleet of M1 Abrams tanks, why not a couple of beefed up, pilot-able exosuits? I’m sure we have plenty of fine men and women more than capable of leading our forces to victory behind the “wheel” of a 300 foot suit of armor. Let’s not wait until we have a Kaiju problem.

A lot of people felt that we didn’t get enough robot-on-monster action in Pacific Rim, but everyone can probably agree that what action was there was pretty breathtaking. The Jaegers will hopefully return in Pacific Rim 2, which both writer/director Guillermo del Toro and Universal Pictures want to do, but as of this writing, it’s still not on Universal’s release calendar.

Minority Report’s Gesture-Based Monitor

I’ll admit that this is a bit of a weird addition seeing as how touchscreen technology has gotten to a point where this barely qualifies as a fantasy, but even the most advanced touchscreens pale in comparison to the setup used by the Washington, D.C. PreCrime police. The way Tom Cruise effortlessly browsed, flicked, and flipped through pictures, videos, and documents was nothing short of mesmerizing.

When Microsoft began working on PixelSense, their interactive surface computing platform, they even promoted it by comparing it to the computers in Minority Report. And then when the gesture-based Kinect was released, again by Microsoft, multiple programmers built user interfaces inspired by the film. It will be a good, long while before such an interface is a practical purchase for consumer use, but large touchscreens are already being developed and targeted for corporate use. How long until they’re being used by law enforcement?

Tron Legacy’s Light Cycle

Nobody would argue that Tron is a better movie than the poorly-received Tron Legacy, but we’re just talking about gadgets here, and the Light Cycles in Tron Legacy not only look cooler, but they have more functionality too. The Light Cycles in the original film didn’t even have headlights, so say goodbye to those late-night drives across the grid. The new models can also toggle their light ribbons on and off, so you’re not always leaving a beautiful mess behind you.

The way the Light Cycles operate makes them sound like a lot of fun to drive. The front wheel is locked in place, so to turn you have to tilt the actual vehicle. And acceleration is achieved by pushing the front and rear ends of the bike further apart, while pulling them in together will slow you down. If you’re a shoddy driver, a small pair of fins can fold out to help with balance or braking.

Total Recall Remake’s Hand Phone

The Total Recall remake, which hit theaters in 2012 with Colin Farrell as Douglas Quaid, was not a smash hit with audiences. That’s not a surprise when you consider Hollywood’s track record when it comes to remaking classic cinema. However, one thing that the remake did offer was a variety of new future technologies, and one of those technologies happened to make our list: the hand phone.

This didn’t seem to be readily-available on a consumer lever, but certain characters in the 2012 Total Recall had a phone implanted in the palms of their hand. Making a phone call was as simple as holding your hand to your ear, but where it got really cool was the ability to turn any piece of glass into a screen. Modern (and future) phones do a lot more than make phone calls, so if you need to send a text or watch a YouTube video with a hand phone, just place your palm against the nearest window.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – The Point of View Gun

It’s always a good idea to figuratively walk a mile in someone’s shoes before criticizing them, but that’s often easier said than done. We’re all different people who have had different experiences, all of which we handle and interpret differently. Sometimes it’s just impossible to understand where someone is coming from in any given situation. That’s why we need the Point of View Gun, which conveniently does precisely as its name suggests.

This is science fiction in the loosest sense of the term. Shooting someone with the Point of View Gun allows them to experience things from the point of view of whoever fired the gun. The gun was created specifically for the movie, never appearing in the books, but before you purists start a riot, know that it was Douglas Adams himself who created the device for the movie. Now we can all get along, hopefully without the need for extraterrestrial weaponry.

Wall-E

The list of movie robots that we’d like to own is practically never-ending. Off the top of my head I can think of R2-D2, Johnny 5, the Iron Giant, and Teddy from A.I. Artificial Intelligence, but there are countless others. Notice how I didn’t mention C-3PO on that list? Nobody needs his negativity.

Out of all the robots, Wall-E seems like he would be the most useful. He’s just as adorable as the rest (though that’s clearly subjective) and he could clean your house, making him the most practical choice. The Iron Giant and R2-D2 can be invaluable in certain situations, but unless you’re battling the army or making a run at the Death Star, Wall-E seems like he would be more help.

That is, until the inevitable day when you find out he’s been keeping half of your trash and storing it somewhere in your house.

Blade Runner’s Flying Cars

You can’t write a list of awesome science fiction technologies without mentioning the one thing everyone mentions when talking about science fiction technologies – flying cars. “Where are our flying cars” seems to be a question that pops up all the time and given the frequency in which they show up in sci-fi, it’s not an unfair question.

We had the option of choosing from countless television shows and movies, from The Fifth Element to Back to the Future to The Jetsons for crying out loud, but for such an iconic sci-fi staple we went with an equally iconic sci-fi movie. The flying cars in Blade Runner are referred to as “spinners” and are piloted mainly by law enforcement and the wealthy. Blade Runner takes place in 2019, which is only three short years away, so you better start saving!

Batman 60s TV Show – Shark Repellent Bat-Spray

I couldn’t help myself. I tried, honestly I did. I don’t know if this counts as science fiction gadget, and it certainly isn’t from the future, but who wouldn’t want a can of Shark Repellent Bat-Spray? Some might think it’s silly, but would you be willing to say that to Batman’s face? Of course not, because then you’d get a face full of Shark Repellent Bat-Spray.

What has become a much beloved gag originated in an episode of the old 1960s Adam West Batman. Batman is hanging from a rope ladder with a shark attached to his leg and after he fails to dislodge the shark by punching it, he radios for Robin to pass down the shark repellent. The helicopter has a whole rack of Oceanic Bat-Sprays, including barracuda, manta-ray, and even whale. Moby Dick wouldn’t have stood a chance against Batman.

Inception’s Pasiv Dream Machine

The Portable Automated Somnacin IntraVenous Device, mercifully shortened to the PASIV Device, was the contraption used in Inception to keep dreamers, well, dreaming. It did this by administering the drug Somnacin on a regular basis through IV lines and an LED display allowed you to monitor flow rates. It was housed in a metal briefcase, so I assume just look it would cool as hell when you slammed it down on a table and popped it open.

How cool would it be to hop into someone’s dream? I have no doubt that if PASIV Devices were real, they’d be used for inception purposes just like in the movie, but on a consumer level I think they’d become the ultimate party game. Of course, every now and then you’d probably hop into a nightmare or a night terror and the fun would end in a heartbeat, but the potential for a good time is definitely off the charts.

Battlestar Galactica’s Faster-Than-Light Drive

Battlestar Galactica didn’t invent the FTL drive. We’ve seen them in numerous television shows and motion pictures, most famously in Star Wars whenever they jump into hyperspace and the stars become brilliant white lines. I chose to use the drives in Battlestar Galatica for three reasons. One, I wanted BSG on this list. Two, the way the drives operate in the show seem more realistic than in other media. And three, it just looks so damn cool when they do it.

When they jump in BSG, there are no blurred white lines. The Galactica and its fleet are simply in one place, then Edward James Olmos’s Bill Adama growls “jump” into a phone, then they’re somewhere else. The show has also used the FTL ability in clever ways, which I suppose is just another reason to use Battlestar Galactica as an example.

This isn’t another “wouldn’t it be cool” entry. Faster-than-light transportation would change the world immeasurably. But also: wouldn’t it be cool?

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’s Targeted Memory Erasure 

It’s a common attitude to have no regrets, and it’s no doubt a well-intentioned idea, but is it a realistic one? I think we all have regrets, no matter how hard we may try to make the right decisions. The key is to not get hung up on the things you can’t retroactively change, but sometimes that’s easier said than done.

So what if you could just decide to forget them?

That’s exactly what happens in the brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. When a relationship goes sour, the two individuals have their memories of each other erased as a way of escaping the pain. Anyone who’s been in that position would understand their decision. In the film, broken hearts seem to be the focus of Lacuna Inc., the company behind the mind wipes, but I could see myself erasing all the little stupid things I do that cause me to look back and cringe.

Could you please erase all the times I’ve said “you too” to a theater employee telling me to enjoy the movie?

Doctor Who’s TARDIS

Since the series returned to the air in 2005, everyone is familiar with Doctor Who, even if you’ve never watched an episode. Everyone is familiar with the TARDIS as well, that iconic police box that the good doctor uses to travel through time in space. Like Superman did to phone booths, Doctor Who is such a prominent part of British culture that police boxes are more readily associated with the show than with their actual antiquated purpose.

Of all the things on this list, the TARDIS is by far the most far-fetched, but it’s also easily the most desirable item. You can go anywhere in time and space, and while most of it would probably use it for stupid reasons, like going all Biff Tannen and betting on sporting events we knew the outcome to, a select few of us could actually use it to change the world for the better.

Do you have any favorite ga