Four Futuristic Movie Gadgets and Technologies You Can Get Now
Sci-Fi movies invariably have cool, futuristic gadgets that are much more interesting than silly things like characters and plot. Luckily, the future is getting closer all the time. Although we don’t have flying cars, we do have four move technologies that will make you feel like you’re living in the future.
1. Tech: Kaneda’s electric motorcycle
Movie: Akira
Akira opens with a battle between two motorcycle gangs in Neo-Tokyo in the year 2019. The bikes are fast, dangerous, and apparently electric.
Leave it to the Japanese to make geeky future tech happen. This version isn’t quite as fast or mean looking, but paint it red and throw on some decals and the clowns won’t mess with you.
Tech we really want: SOL
Although Tetsuou eventually makes mincemeat of the The Satellite Orbiting Laser, it’s the only thing in the whole move that was able to hurt him. Plus, how cool would it been to be able to rain down laser on command? Think of all the popcorn you could make!
2. Tech: Vitamin-enhanced soda
Movie: Back to the Future Part II
When Doc takes Marty to the far-flung future of 2015, Marty finds himself in the Cafe 80’s, a cheesy themed restaurant complete with old school arcade games and Ronald Reagan / Max Headroom waiters. He orders a Pepsi and gets a Pepsi Perfect - cola infused with vitamins and minerals.
Yes, that’s right, now we have Diet Coke Plus. Apparently it tastes the same as normal Diet Coke. I’m’ not really a fan of diet soda, but I might willing to give this one a try - anything I can do to be more like Marty McFly is okay by me. I might skip the iridescent baseball cap though.
Tech we really want: Hoverboards
Although a time-traveling DeLorean is tempting, technically that’s a gadget from the past (built in 1985). So I’m going to go with hoverboards:
3. Tech: Captain Kirk’s communicator
Movie: Star Trek I, II, etc…
Cell phones have been common for years now and some flip-open models like the Motorola StarTac are so old they can only be found in landfills and recycling centers. But recently a few people have hacked bluetooth headsets in to old Star Trek style communicators, making this future tech a retro-future reality.
Tech we really want: Transporters
Calling people is nice and all, but wouldn’t it be great to simply dematerialize and rematerialize anywhere you wanted? No more commute, avoid airport security screenings, periodically switch places with your evil mirror universe counterpart… what’s not to love?
4: Tech: The gestural computer interface
Movie: Minority Report
Forget all the psychic pre-crime mumbo-jumbo and Minority Report is strikingly realistic in it’s use of technology. With so many companies capturing so much data about your buying habits, do you really think it will be that long before the ads in the mall start calling you by name? One really cool tech is the gesture-based user interface that Tom Cruise uses to make PowerPoint presentations about future murders.
If you have the money, you can have something very similar today, from Microsoft.
The Functioning Fom blog lists out more projects with similar interfaces.
Tech we really want: Jetpacks
In the film these are used exclusively by police, but I want one for personal use. It would save me tons on my aerial photography budget and I could dust my own crops.
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I also want a time machine from back to the future. That way I can go back in time and stop them from making those awful sequels to back to the future. I would also tell Michael J. Fox that Teen Wolf makeup may cause parkinsons
November 12th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
We may never know in the future, the person we’re conversing in front would just be a hologram( but an interactive hologram that would be able to touch and feel the person standing next to him/her) Just like in the movie The Island and interactive XBOX..VERY COOL!!!!
March 7th, 2008 at 4:50 pm