Top List Thursday – Top 10 movie gadgets/technology that we want to be real now

When Apple recently unveiled their iWatch, fanboys may have been going gaga, but naysayers were all busy pointing out that other manufacturers like Pebble had already done this years ago. And while they were all feeling smug about themselves, the real informed fans were pointing out that actually Dick Tracy did the smartwatch thing even before that.

Fancy wristwatches is not the only movie gizmo that we’ve made a reality though, but despite many advancements, there are still lots of gadgets/tech that we still wish would just happen now!

• Neuralyzer (Men In Black)

The Men In Black’s memory wiping device would be a tremendous boon to human society. And by “human society”, I actually mean every husband who has ever messed up and earned the ire of their missus and is desperately looking for a way out.

• Holodeck (Star Trek)

Sure ol’ Captain Picard and friends used their holodeck – a fully immersive virtual environment – to do interesting stuff like revisit past eras, but we all know there is a much better application. No, Darryn, not porn. I’m talking about video games. I mean, can you imagine even Skyrim on a holodeck? I would be Fus Roh Dah-ing it up in there forever!

• Invisibility Cloak (Harry Potter)

Yes, sure we would have guys like Nick just using it to sneak into the girl’s locker room, but an invisibility cloak would be ultimate espionage tool. And its not even quite as science-fictioney as you may think: Back in 2006 MIT made a major breakthrough in developing a material that bends light around it. And no, it didn’t involve proper enunciation and a flicking of a wand.

• Teleporter (Star Trek)

Any person who has ever been stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, has secretly wished to be beamed up by Scotty. Just make you don’t teleport with any flies in the area.

• Universal Remote (Click)

Possibly the best thing to ever come out of an Adam Sandler movie, this Universal Remote allows you to pause, slow-mo, rewind and fast-forward life itself, so now you can have endless weekends, stopping at and reliving all the best moments, and then just blur past all those pesky Mondays.

• Mark VLII Armor (Iron Man 3)
  

 

Having a suit of highly advanced armour packed with enough firepower to turn a small Eastern European country into the world’s largest mirror would already be cool enough – well, unless you happen to live in said small Eastern European country – but making it remote-controllable as well would truly be… Actually, that would kind of scary. But in a cool way!

• Delorean Time Machine (Back To the Future)

Please note: I said Delorean time machine. Normal time machines that don’t run on flux capacitors or need 1.21 gigawatts of power or use roads,  just aren’t going to cut it around here. Revisiting some of the greatest eras in history is all good and well, but unless you’re doing it at 88 mph, it’s just not worth it.

• Hoverboard (Back To the Future II)

Yes, it’s just a levitating skateboard. Yes, I want it more than a time machine. No, I don’t see how this needs any further explanation.

• Sonic Screwdriver (Doctor Who)

Firstly: Yes, Doctor Who is a TV series, not a movie, but Eighth Doctor, Paul McGann, once starred in a TV movie, so yay, loophole! Secondly, with the Sonic Screwdriver easily being the most versatile gizmo here, there’s just no way it could be left off this list. Capable of doing just about anything the Doctor can program it to do, the Sonic Screwdriver makes the Swiss Army knife look like nothing more than pointy stick.

• Lightsaber (Star Wars)

Was there ever any doubt? It’s arguably (and I’ll probably be the one doing the arguing) the greatest weapon in movie history, and has captured the imaginations of at least three different generations. It’s such a part of our pop culture, that I put it to you that it’s impossible to give a child/man-child an empty cardboard tube and not have them VVVVHHHHHmmm-VVVHHHHHHHHmmmmmmnnn-ing as they wave it about just a few seconds later.

And here’s the kicker: MIT and Harvard scientists “accidentally” took the first steps to creating a real life lightsaber just last year.

Last Updated: September 18, 2014