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When I was a wee pup, my favourite thing about James Bond movies were the scenes with Q. Back then, getting a peek behind the laboratory of insane gadgets and wild weapons was just as cool as killing bad guys in a tuxedo and sleeping with women without one. But how real were those movie-world gadgets? Giz favorite Neil deGrasse Tyson analysed and fact-checked Bond weapons to see which were scientifically viable.
In an interview with NPR (you can listen to it here), Neil deGrasse Tyson shows us what weapons could theoretically be real (like, actually exist in the real world) and which gadgets could only exist in the Movie world. Could a ring, when twisted, emit a high enough frequency to break glass? Maybe! What about a watch that could emit a magnetic field so strong it could deflect a bullet? Nope! Bullets are made out of lead.
So what could be real? According to Neil deGrasse Tyson, not much. But that’s not a bad thing:
“What made the Bond gadgets attractive is that they used a little bit of what you already knew was out there, and just took it to some extreme, forcing you to say, ‘Yeah, that could happen,’ even if it had to violate a few laws of physics along the way.”
We all just want them to be real. That’s probably because we all just want to be James Bond, too. [NPR]
What about ‘that’ car. That was possible, right?
Of course it’s possible, I’ve got one parked outside somewhere.
Ah Neil deGrasse Tyson, could you be any more awesome?
I don’t think James Bonds gadgets should be real, as where would Apple get idea’s to patent for their future products from?
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Ba Da Boom……… TISH
Never mind the Guns and Gadgets, how realistic is it that a supposed evil genius would hire hundreds of goons, none of whom can shoot straight.
Yeah but they do have special training in hearing an odd noise from a prisoners cell and walking in alone…
How exactly does an evil genius recruit anyway? It’s not like he can put an ad in the jobcentre. I know this as I used to work for them and they had rules against it, though whether this is true under the current government I don’t know.
They use G4S.
It’s why some key areas of their HQ are woefully understaffed.
Recruit? He simply usurps the previous Evil geniuses henchmen and workers.
Yes, but assuming he isn’t killed soon after taking over (and if he doesn’t have several escape routes from his secret base he isn’t much of an evil genius) he’s going to run into staffing issues. Asside from those killed/Invalided in the line of duty there are people reaching retirement age, people slipping in a puddle of secret formula x and breaking their hips and disciplinary issues (like people who leave puddles of secret formula x about). You have to be able to fill the gaps somewhere.
My Jedi sense tells me think about this too much, you do.
HenchmenRus.com?
I heard Steve Jobs was making an appearance in this one as Q?
Oh wait maybe I shouldn’t have said that because it is 1 year since… yeah…awkward….
Weird isn’t it, I bought the iPhone 4 which Steve raved about as being next generation 2 years ago, in that time he passes, tim cook releases iPhone 5 and i’m suddenly moving to Android because my new phone arrived today.
I think bond gadgets have to be within the realms of believability ideally if they cant make them for real they shouldn’t be in a bond movie, the movie studio should have an actual Q branch in a secret location in London preferably hidden behind a bookcase door with iris and fingerprint recognition lock where they make the gadgets for real
The gadgets in Die another death (intentional mis naming it was a terrible movie) were just ludicrous completely invisible cars, a power rangers suit which shot electricity from a nintendo power clove, jet wings and the cartoon bond villain car with bright red rockets pocking out of the grill, lazy ideas based on youtube videos and not real research and by no means anywhere near the level of sophisticated we expect from bond