My name is James Bond.... James.... Bond

It was not just the men in suits, the women in barely anything and the villans who were always upto something that endeared the series to many. Twas ze gadgets.

Jetpack (Thunderball, 1965)
Helps Mr Bond fly out of sticky situations.







Blue X-Ray Glasses (The World Is Not Enough, 1999)
Used to spot concealed weapons.







Q's Pet (A View To A Kill, 1985)
Robotic remote control being that was used for surveillance.







Imitation Fingerprints (Diamonds Are Forever, 1971)
They're finger prints and they are imitated.








Underwater Breather (Thunderball, 1965)
Allows the man to breathe underwater or in other very gooey situations for 4 mintues.







BMW had showcased a robotic 5 series that had bullet proof windows, a dent resistant exterior, self deflating and re- inflating tires, eight missiles in the sunroof, a wire cutter, automated caltrops(sharp triangular thingies) dispenser, forward machine guns and a english speaking computer that could be controlled with a nokia cellphone. (Bmw made sure all these features actually worked on the car and were not just props for the scene!)


However, interest in the movies is definitely down. Maybe people watching these movies are getting bored of the predictable plots, the classy and infallible womanizing British/Irish heroes and the unrealistically rich screwball villans with overambitious plans.
Or maybe the audience is getting smarter. Most have become more gadget friendly and Internet savvy.
Maybe mechanical engineering marvels that might have garnered oohs and aahs before are now yawnful.
The cliched 'Computer age' has probably made such gadgets seem wasteful. Most of them can be easily done with graphics making even the real seem unreal. Every other movie can have all these fancy deelies with some coffee inhaling programmers at their disposal.

Gadgets were the life blood for these movies and the plots had to incorporate them into their story. And this has begun to limit the movies to crappy plots with an outdated method of gadget exhibition. We don't need silly little mechanical marvels dangling in every scene. Their plots need to have more tech-depth to them. The plots themselves need to be the gadget. Most of us understand distributed computing, remote robotics, artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

Maybe the Matrix was the best James bond movie till date.