10 of the Most Ridiculous Made up Technologies Used in Movies

Second only to the entire back catalog of science fiction literature, the next best place to find ridiculous made up technologies is the big screen. From insatiably homicidal robots to nuke smoking aliens, the list of outrageous technologies in films is probably endless.

With that being said we've decided to handpick ten examples from the silver screen to put through the ringer. As usual, these are in no particular order. 

 1. Timecop - Time travel

Jean-Claude Van Damme takes on the role of a Timecop whose duty it is to regulate time travel. The movie was released in 1994 and set in the distant future of 2004. It's actually an OK film if you haven't seen it. Just take the technology with a pinch of salt.

Clearly, time travel is one of the most heavily featured themes in many sci-fi films and one that is likely to be impossible. This makes the entire premise of this film ridiculous from a scientific point of view. 

But the future is up for grabs, who knows what we'll master in time.

2. Back to the Future - Food re-hydrators

Akin to some form of a future microwave but not, the food re-hydrators are a ridiculous made-up technology in the Back to the Future series. The premise is simple, stick a small dehydrated foodstuff into the machine, wait a couple of seconds and "ping" you are rewarded with a fully rehydrated and cooked meal.

Granted we have 'instant' noodles and a variety of other dehydrated foodstuffs today, but they don't really qualify. But the films were made in the 80s so we should probably give them a little leeway.

3. Star Wars - Lightsabers

OK probably a little unfair, but lightsabers are just ridiculous. Various physicists have tackled the issue of lightsabers over the years, but this article pretty much sums up the problems with them. In a nutshell, how could you limit the focus of the light enough to be 'solid' or even restrict its length? How on Earth would you power it and yet make it portable? 

Why couldn't you just block it with a mirror anyway? Madness. 

4. Jurassic Park - Dinosaur resurrection

Granted there has been some work recently on de-extinction, rather cloning, of some recently extinct animals, but Jurassic Park takes the biscuit a little. Apart from the incredible rarity of preserved organic material from so long ago being found, the premise of the genetics labs is that the DNA can actually be extracted and used. 

As cool as it would be, this is simply not possible, DNA simply doesn't last very long once the animal is dead. It's more likely we could potentially reverse-engineer DNA from existing relatives like birds. But it makes for a great story nonetheless.

5. Super Mario Brothers - De-evolution gun

Jurassic Park brings us nicely onto another example of ridiculous made up technologies. This comes courtesy of that fantastic 1993 movie, Super Mario Brothers. Granted the film doesn't take itself too seriously, but a de-evolution gun, really? 

How exactly would this work? Why would you even conceive of such a weapon? Absolute madness, but great fun nonetheless.

6. Alien/Aliens/Alien 3 - Cryonic sleep

There are many other films this kind of technology appears in but the Alien series is the first that springs to mind. Although in theory, it sounds plausible, in reality, you probably wouldn't survive. Real life cryonics tends to involve the preservation of tissue or body parts. In some cases, an entire body with the aim of being able to cure whatever terminal illness the patient has in the future.

Whether you could actually undergo this process and wake up in the future without any lasting damage is probably unlikely.

7. Star Trek/Star Wars - Faster than light travel

To be fair this tends to be a running theme in a lot of sci-fi universes but these guys are some of the worst culprits. Although they both have their own distinct methods of achieving this ridiculous feat, traveling faster than light is probably not going to be possible. 

The best we could hope for is using or creating some 'shortcuts' in space-time to achieve a similar effect. But this kind of technology is not going to be with us for some time.

8. Farscape - Leviathan ships

The Leviathans of Farscape were enormous bio-mechanoid ships that were effectively living. Each one is unique and could adapt to the crew that inhabited them. Despite the fact we are yet to build, what could be considered, a conventional starship, one that was part alive is just ridiculous, to be honest.

In later episodes, Moya, the Farscape crew's Leviathan, was even able to breed through some form of hybridization and give birth. Though that was pretty massive too. As much as we admire imagination, this could be a step too far.

9. Wild Wild West - Magnetic saw blade collar things

We'd forgotten this film was ever created. But do you remember those magnetic collars that attracted saw blades if you strayed a bit too far? For some reason, they appeared to be a logical method of controlling prisoners. Albeit a little barbaric.

But apparently, they hadn't thought of the potential of using big puddles of mud to avoid them? Very strange and ridiculous indeed.

10. Dusk Till Dawn - Crotch revolver

Last but by no means least, the crotch pistol/revolver from Dusk till Dawn. If you haven't seen this vampire-killing-fest of a film, we would thoroughly recommend it. Just don't pay too much attention to some of the ridiculous weapons used intermittently throughout it.

One prime example is the crotch gun. Just think about that for a moment. Simply ridiculous. 

So there you go. Clearly, this list is a hand-picked selection, there are many other examples out there. What would you have included? Let us know your suggestions for ridiculous made up technologies in the movies.