James Bond is well known for the gadgets he and the villains use, but which ones are the most peculiar in the franchise?
James Bond 007, arguably the greatest spy and espionage agent in film history, is always equipped with the right suits, guns, and cars. Bond also has unique gadgets that make him stand out among other elite agents, such as the exploding pen in Goldeneye and the special briefcase in From Russia With Love. Even the villains have interesting gadgets, like Oddjob's hat in Goldfinger.
There are also plenty of great wristwatches Bond has used over the years that include various elements, including a laser beam-cutting tool and remote detonators. However, there are some gadgets in the franchise that are considered strange and outlandish, but very intriguing.
Out of all the firearms in the franchise, Scaramanga's golden gun in the Roger Moore film, The Man With The Golden Gun, is the most interesting pistol aside from Bond's Walther PPK. Christopher Lee's villainous assassin, Scaramanga, is a perfect match for Moore's Bond in terms of precision and ability to hit his targets. Scaramanga's golden gun is an odd firearm because it only fires one bullet at a time and is made up of interesting parts.
Scaramanga's cigarette lighter is the gun's firing chamber, his cigarette case is the handle, his pen is the barrel, and his cuff link is a trigger. Scaramanga is able to assemble his golden gun quickly and efficiently, and it's the only weapon he uses to battle his competition. This may be a small gadget for a villain, but it's a deadly one.
Timothy Dalton received a mixed reception for his more serious take on James Bond compared to his predecessors. However, he has a few funny moments, including one in his best Bond feature, Licence to Kill. Bond has a comical moment with Q, who surprises 007 by visiting him in his hotel room to show him some nice gadgets, including a signature camera gun and dentonite toothpaste. However, when female protagonist Pam Bouvier (former Army pilot and DEA informant) intrudes on their meeting, she is intrigued by Q's gadgets.
Pam grabs a Polaroid camera, and when she tries to take a picture of Bond and Q, she is shocked when a laser shoots out of the camera, nearly hitting both men, and destroys a picture frame. Q hilariously gets upset at Pam for touching things that don't belong to her. Not only does the camera have a laser, but the Polaroid picture displays an x-ray image. It's a brief but funny scene in an otherwise intense Bond action thriller.
One of Pierce Brosnan's most underrated Bond films, The World Is Not Enough includes a nice BMW car that shoots rockets, as well as cool gadgets like special eyeglasses (one with x-ray vision and one that can detonate a flash-bang) and a cane gun. However, Bond's avalanche ski jacket is a unique gadget because it appears simplistic, but it can inflate into a very large sealed sphere.
007's ski jacket comes in handy when he and oil heiress Elektra King are being chased by bad guys in snowmobiles on the mountains. Bond manages to ski his way through the trees, causing the villains to crash and self-destruct. After that, Bond and Elektra fall into a deep pile of snow, but 007 opens up his jacket immediately to inflate the large sealed sphere, preventing the snow from crushing them. Bond's jacket seems ordinary but turns into a cool, life-saving gadget.
Sean Connery's Bond films are the first to bring great and memorable gadgets to life, including wetsuits, jetpacks, and tracking devices. You Only Live Twice also contains some intriguing gadgets, such as a small helicopter (with machine guns and missiles) and a mini-rocket cigarette. There is also an interesting, deadly gadget in the form of a poison-delivering string.
This gadget is used by a Japanese assassin working for SPECTRE. It consists of a small amount of liquid poison going down a long piece of string and into a person's mouth while sleeping or unconscious. Bond is nearly killed by this venom, but unfortunately, his partner and love interest Aki (a Japanese Secret Service Agent) accidentally takes the poison and dies. Bond manages to kill the assassin, but he couldn't save Aki from this dangerous weapon.
Daniel Craig's Bond films don't have as many gadgets compared to previous 007 features, but his series did have some interesting gadgets, such as the portable defibrillator that saved his life in Casino Royale and some great wristwatches (such as one with an explosive charge and one with an electromagnetic pulse). Craig's final 007 film, No Time to Die, contains perhaps the deadliest weapon in recent memory: a nanobot virus programmed as a biological weapon by the main antagonist, Safin (Rami Malek). The nanobot virus is easily transmissible when airborne and through close contact. The weapon not only kills people but also targets their families due to DNA sequencing.
Safin manages to wipe out Blofeld and SPECTRE with this virus, and it also leads to Bond's downfall. Bond ends up killing Safin, but before that, the villain infects Bond with the virus, which is targeted to also kill 007's love interest, Madeleine Swann, and their daughter Mathilde. The nanobot virus is scary and fascinating because of how powerful it is, but it also, sadly, forces Bond to sacrifice himself to save the ones he loves.
My name is Christian Eltell. I was born in Colorado, but I’ve lived all my life in New York. I’m an NYU Tisch graduate with a Master’s Degree in Cinema Studies, and a St. Joseph’s College graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree as an English major and history minor. I’ve always enjoyed watching movies, especially crime dramas, Westerns, gangster pictures, and superhero films. I hope to entertain everyone with my writing on movies and television.
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