Face Swapping Face/Off (1997)
The Movie Invention: Technology that means you can entirely change your face. Nic Cage changes his so that he looks like John Travolta. Don’t ask why.
What We’d Do With It: Get Brad Pitt’s face, obv.
Transporter Star Trek: The Movie (1979)
The Movie Invention: The one thing every commuter dreams of having – a fancy machine that transports you to a pre-determined destination in the blink of an eye. Or, in Star Trek , a swirl of pretty lights.
What We’d Do With It: See the world! Travel the globe! Or just pop down the corner shop…
Lightcycles Tron: Legacy (2010)
The Movie Invention: A pair of wheels to rival even the DeLorean as coolest movie vehicle, the Lightcycles are a computer-bound mode of transportation mostly used during duels.
What We’d Do With It: Cruise around the neighbourhood, naturally, with Daft Punk thundering from the custom speakers.
Rags The Robotic Dog Sleeper (1973)
The Movie Invention: Monotonous, repetitive but massively loveable, Rags barks at a noticeably human timbre and, let’s face it, it’s cute as a button.
W hat We’d Do With It: Treat him like the real dog that we’re not allowed to have in our city digs.
NZT Pills Limitless (2011)
The Movie Invention: Pills that give you access to 100% of your brain's capacity (instead of the market standard 20%). Which, essentially, means you can become really, really clever.
What We’d Do With It: Take them to increase our intelligence, then use that intelligence to take over the world. Muwahahaha.
Stargate Stargate (1994)
The Movie Invention: A frankly humungous ring that acts as a portal across the galaxy. Looks wet when activated.
What We’d Do With It: Check out Mars firsthand (with spacesuit, obv) and look for signs of Martian life. Or John Carter.
Phone Booth Bill & Teds Excellent Adventure (1989)
The Movie Invention: A snazzy time machine as used by Bill and Ted to do research for their history project.
What We’d Do With It: Something similar – what’s not to love about going back in time to meet your historical heroes? We hear Napoleon actually wasn’t that short…
Hofmann Lenses They Live (1988)
The Movie Invention: Sunglasses that expose hidden messages – and the hidden faces of invading aliens who’ve set up camp on Earth without anyone noticing.
What We’d Do With It: Use them to expose all politicians as evil aliens. Obviously, right?
Shrinking Machine Honey, I Shrunk The Kids (1989)
The Movie Invention: Put together by Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis), the shrinking machine does exactly that. Furniture, fruit, your kids, everything gets zapped down to an nth of its original size.
What We’d Do With It: Make our shopping last years by shrinking down every time we have a meal. One Cheerio O could last us months.
Atom Real Steel (2011)
The Movie Invention: A sentient robot built to be a boxer. Rescued from a dump heap by Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman), he’s large and in charge. Take that, Transformers.
What We’d Do With It: Hire him out to clubs as a no-nonsense bouncer.
