7 Futuristic Movie Gadgets That Actually Exist Today

The techno-gadget-freak's homage to the brilliant screenwriters who inspired some ultra-cool devices that we can actually use today.

Science fiction, spy thrillers and fantasy movies fascinate us not just for their offbeat storylines, but also for their awesome gadgetry. Which kid has not drooled over cars that fly or wristwatches that shoot bullets or little gadgets that wipe off people's memory with just a twist?

While most of the futuristic thingamajigs that we saw in movies and television as children, were pretty much only plausible on screen; there's a bunch of super cool contraptions that transitioned from the silver screen into real life.

1. Movie Version - Hoverboard (Back to the Future II & III)

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The Real Thing - Mag Lev Trains

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The 1985 sci-fi classic ‘Back to the Future’ worked on the time tested premise of time travel and inspired two sequels – part 2 and part 3. Parts 2 & 3 had this ‘hoverboard’ – a skateboard that flies - that Marty McFly (the main character) uses to float around town on.

In real life however, scientists thought a tad bigger, more ambitious. Instead of creating just a surf board that coasts above ground, scientists pushed the envelope and created an entire train that floats above ground and travels in midair – the Magnetic Levitation or Mag Lev trains. These are high speed trains that work on the concept of electromagnetism that keeps the carriages suspended above a magnetized track.

While many failed attempts have been made over the years to create a real life hoverboard a la` Back to the Future, the latest turned out to be a hoax called the ‘Huvr’ launched in early 2014.

2. Movie Version - Digital Monocular Camera (Golden Eye)

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The Real thing - Google Glass

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The digital monocular with a camera built-in made its appearance on screen in Golden Eye - Pierce Brosnan’s first outing as 007. It could zoom, autofocus, capture pictures and share them with the MI6 team via satellite. The images could then be analyzed with data shared back with Bond after analysis.

Google Glass – probably the most talked about wearable tech project in recent times - is Google’s reply to James Bond’s digital monocular camera. Google Glass captures images of the things around you while you’re wearing the device and sends you useful information about these things on a little screen that is built-in on the device.

3. Movie Version - The Replicator (Star Trek)

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The Real Thing - 3D Printing

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Star Trek thought of possibly the coolest replacement to cooking – a replicator that can recreate any food item you want in a jiffy. It wasn’t limited to food though, the replicator did an equally fine job of creating phalanges and nuts and bolts that made interstellar travel such a thrill.

While edible items are still a little while away, 3D printers can make everything from model airplanes to real guns that can fire bullets, out of thin air. With the ability to create anything, from furniture to shoes, to actual organs created out of stem cells, 3D Printing does give Spock and company a reason to be envious of poor old 21st century folk like us.

4. Movie Version - Ericsson Mobile Phone with Finger print scanner, car locking system, stun gun (Tomorrow Never Dies)

The Real Thing - Smartphones with fingerprint recognition, car security apps, stun gun apps

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Pierce Brosnan whips out some pretty futuristic tech on his ancient Ericsson cellphone in ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’. The phone contains a finger print scanner, a car locking system and a stun gun. Speak of forward thinking!

Today, every iPhone 5S on the market has fingerprint recognition called Touch ID. A ton of apps exist on the App Store and the Play Store that can remotely control cars like Viper StartSmart, OnStar or Car Security Control. While you can’t really taze or stun someone with a stun gun app on your smartphone, you definitely can prank them into thinking you have a built-in stun gun with fun apps like Electric Stun Gun or StunGun.

5. Movie Version - Seiko TV Wristwatch (Octopussy)

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The Real Thing - Samsung Galaxy Gear

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Roger Moore wowed audiences in the early 80s with his Seiko TV wristwatch in Octopussy, at a time when mobile communication was a faraway pipe dream.

Samsung, Sony, LG, Pebble have all gone down the smart watch road down the years with varying levels of success. Samsung’s Galaxy Gear was the most comprehensive effort in this direction with the watch pairing with the Galaxy S3 or Note mobile devices. Galaxy Gear lets you use about 70 apps on your wrist watch including accessing the camera, weather apps, exercise apps, video calling and more.

6. Movie Version - Invisible Car (Die Another Day)

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The Real Thing - Mercedes Invisible Car

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Pierce Brosnan chases baddies in his invisible car in ‘Die Another Day’ with just tire tracks to show for the presence of a car on screen. Though technically a cool idea, the invisible car pretty much killed the one thing most James Bond fans look forward to in a Bond movie – the drool worthy gizmo loaded Aston Martins that are any car enthusiast’s dream.

Though Bond screwed up with the invisible car, Mercedes Benz used Bond’s invisible car idea as inspiration to promote its zero emission fuel cell car as the ‘Invisible Emissions Car’. Mercedes managed this clever trick using LED mats placed across one side of the vehicle and a digital SLR camera that shot the surroundings to display it on the LEDs on the other side of the car. Watch the real world version of the cool ‘invisible car’ that Pierce Brosnan tried his hand at but ended up with a load of criticism from one of the older Bonds – Roger Moore.

7. Movie Version - Remote Controlled BMW (Tomorrow Never Dies)

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The Real Thing - Google Driverless Cars

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‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ gave Bond fans yet another ridiculously cool toy they could aspire about – a remote controlled BMW car operated via an Ericsson mobile phone. The scene where Q introduces Bond to the new gizmo as well as the car chase with Bond steering the car from the back seat are legendary fan favorites.

Never ones to be left behind, Google takes the remote controlled car from James Bond and steps it up a notch by creating the world’s first self-driving cars – no remote, no driver! The first models were released this year with testing and improvements still underway.

What’s Next?

Hollywood and its creativity has definitely kept real world inventors busy. From aping stuff we see on screen to going one step beyond the imaginary, we are living in exciting times for science and technology. The years to come will probably see stuff like biometric guns to improve gun safety in civilian communities, real life jet packs similar to the ones seen a million times on screen or even robots with artificial intelligence at par with the human brain, like the ones we saw in the movie 'She'.

What can I say but "Great times up ahead folks!"