50 Movie Inventions We Want To Buy

Wall-E Wall-E (2008)

The Movie Invention: An adorable little robot whose sole purpose is to do the cleaning. In Wall-E , he’s been left on an abandoned Earth shifting through all the rubbish we humans left behind.

What We’d Do With It: Keep him as a house-trained pet. And let him watch Hello Dolly! as many times as he wants.

Iron Mans Suit Iron Man (2008)

The Movie Invention: Lifted straight from the pages of Marvel Comics, Iron Man’s super-suit is a gadget-lover's wet dream, equipped with rockets and the ability to ‘fly’, among other things.

What We’d Do With It: Er, become a superhero.

Wonka Vision Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971)

The Movie Invention: A television. No, really a television – except this one lets you pluck items out of it. So if there’s an ad for a chocolate bar, you can just reach into the TV and take one for yourself…

What We’d Do With It: Wrack up a huge amount of debt on our credit card…

Wardrobe Selecter Clueless (1995)

The Movie Invention: Used by fashion icon Cher (Alicia Silverstone) to make sure she never has a wardrobe malfunction.

What We’d Do With It: Turn ourselves into fashion icons. Of course, we’d need a small fortune to deck the wardrobe out in the first place…

Pasiv Dream Machine Inception (2010)

The Movie Invention: A simple-looking device that makes it possible for you to enter somebody else’s dreams, and manipulate them to your liking.

What We’d Do With It: Enter the dreams of somebody we really fancy, then make them think they can’t live without us. Happily ever after…

Invisibility Serum Hollow Man (2000)

The Movie Invention: A special kind of serum that’s injected into the body and makes you entirely invisible – for some unknown reason, it works from the outside in.

What We’d Do With It: Make our siblings think they’ve lost their minds by dangling objects in front of them. Ah, we do love a good fake haunting.

Memory Implanter Total Recall (1990)

The Movie Invention: Give yourself a holiday you’ll always remember – but that you never actually went on. The Memory Implanter creates new memories in your brain in exchange for cash.

What We’d Do With It: Implant memories of our time as a successful supermodel, then reminisce to our heart’s content.

Game Pods eXistenZ (1999)

The Movie Invention: Virtual reality game consoles known as ‘game pods’. In true Cronenbergian fashion, players plug the console into their spines using an umbilical cord and enter an alternate virtual reality.

What We’d Do With It: Cast ourselves as freedom fighters with really cool weapons.

Hoverboard Back To The Future Part II (1989)

The Movie Invention: A futuristic skateboard that does exactly what it says on the tin. Just don’t try to use it over water - you might get a bit wet.

What We’d Do With It: Show the kids down on the South Bank how it’s really done.

Universal Remote Click (2006)

The Movie Invention: Control everything around you with your TV’s remote control! Pause, play, fast-forward. Everybody wishes they had one of these. Come on Apple, sort it out.

What We’d Do With It: Pause the world during deadline. Fast-forward our mother-in-law’s inane babble…

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.