Gadgets that were popularized by films

squinha/May 07, 2015

While various devices we have seen in movies over the years are now a reality, here is a selection of some popular devices that are every nerd's dream come true.

 

 

Clark Kent's spectacles from the Superman movies and Man of Steel

This one is an unlikeliest gadget but if you think about it, it's probably the most subtle of them all. His spectacles weren't meant to correct his sight, after all Superman has perfect vision (duh!) but according to comic lore, they were made out of a special material from his spacescraft to protect people from accidental bursts of his deadly heat vision.

Apart from that, this ordinary device also hid his identity from those who couldn't tell the difference.

(Image Couresty: suilynn.wordpress.com)

 

Invisibility camouflage from Predator, Predator 2 and Predators

Who at some point didn't wish they could become invisible, even if just for a day?

Apart from being the secret wish of many a teenagers, especially when it comes to certain voyeuristic tendencies, this ability was used to deadly effect by the titular character himself in the Predator, Predator 2 and Predators.

On a far more innocuous note, we also got to see Harry Potter and his friends use an invisibility cloak in various parts of the series.

(Image Courtesy: livescience.com)

 

The tricorders seen in early and latter Star Trek

These devices were purely the product of someone's colourful imagination when they debuted in the earliest version of the TV series.

They were also used by Captain Kirk and gang as a multipurpose scanner, sensor and data recorder. There were three versions of this device -- a medical version, an engineering version and environmental scanners.

They could acquire information about anything close by. What's not to love about that?

(Image Courtesy: moviesicollector.com)

 

The neuralizer in the Men In Black movies

This device enabled Tommy Lee Jones' character (and later on, Will Smith too) to wipe the short term memories of ordinary Earthlings after they had just witnessed the Men In Black in action against various aliens who had gone berserk.

Additionally, the device could also replace that memory gap with a suggested memory.

(Image Courtesy: youtube.com)

 

Thor's hammer Mjolnir

Okay, you might be thinking 'hang on a second, this isn't a gadget...' but given that most super heroes have some kind of built-in power, this hammer of the Gods, so to speak, can bring forth thunder from the skies and most importantly, will only work in Thor's hands.

(Image Courtesy: marvel.wikia.com)

 

Green Lantern's power ring

For all of us, a ring symbolises marriage and good luck. For the Green Lantern, it gives him the ability to fly and zoom around between dimensions.And of course, granting the wearer some serious chops when it comes to kicking ass.

(Image Courtesy: greenlantern.wikia.com)

 

The lightsaber from all the Star Wars movie series

This is perhaps the most recognisable devices in the Star Wars series and so unique is it that it is even patented. The device is pretty deadly but just for the heck of it, it would be amazing if it moved beyond mythic boundaries into reality -- in the right hands, of course.

(Image Courtesy: spinoff.comicbookresources.com)

 

Babel fish from A Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Author Douglas Adams' book is legendary by itself. While the movie based on the book was unremarkable, the literature itself is full of all kinds of imaginative devices. The Babel fish was a know-it-all when it came to languages.

The 'fish' could translate any language in the known galaxy into the language of the bearer of this fish, thereby solving at least one problem of intergalactic travel.

(Image Courtesy: hitchhikers.wikia.com)