License to thrill: James Bond's high-tech gadgets, cars the focus of Museum of Science and Industry exhibit

James Bond’s legendary Aston Martins and other high-tech gadgets have arrived at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry for a first-of-its-kind exhibit on the science behind the film franchise.

For veteran special effects supervisor Chris Corbould — who has worked on 15 James Bond films — moving through the new exhibit is like a full-throttle race down memory lane.

But the Hollywood version of Q hopes those viewing the props for the very first time walk away with a yearning and excitement to build new things.

Zubaer Khan/Sun-Times

“I think it would be great if they came away with a passion for doing something like this,” Corbould told the Sun-Times during a preview event Wednesday.

“There’ve been many James Bond exhibitions, but this is the first one where we’ve looked into the science of James Bond and how it affected future inventions and discoveries. Some of these things are coming out of somebody’s head, and to us now they are everyday items.”

“007 Science: Inventing the World of James Bond,” opens to the public Thursday and will run through late October. The exhibit features 13 vehicles and over 90 additional artifacts from the Bond films.

The creations of the Bond films always had a grounding in science, according to Kathleen McCarthy, the museum’s head curator. And the movies often debuted technology that would later materialize in real life, such as underwater cameras and watches with TV screens.

Zubaer Khan/Sun-Times

Dozens of the real vehicles used in stunts are in the exhibit, including the Aston Martin DBS from “Casino Royale” (2006), which set a new Guinness World Record for most barrel rolls in a car.

Crews first attempted to use a ramp to get the vehicle to flip, but the Aston Martin proved too sturdy, so Corbould said he and his team fitted the car with a cannon of pressurized nitrogen to propel it to flip.

Interactive features throughout the exhibit will also allow visitors to step into lab space of Bond tech whiz “Q” to try and design their own stunts or gadgets.

“Everything was set up to not only tell you how it happened [in the film] but to inspire you to then be creative,” McCarthy said.

To emphasize Bond’s impact on real-world innovation, the end of the exhibit features a collection of Bond props with their modern-day counterparts — the jetpack used in “Thunderball” (1965) next to a modern-day Gravity Industries Jet Suit and the suction cup climbers from “You Only Live Twice” (1967) alongside real life Gecko Gloves.

Likewise, the stunts of Bond films, aimed to adhere to real-world laws of physics and mathematics.

“James Bond is always based in reality,” Corbould told the Sun-Times.

More details on exhibit hours and prices can be found on the Museum of Science and Industry website.