So many sci-fi and action movies and television shows have great characters who are engineers, scientists and inventors. Here is our definitive list of the top eleven. How did we narrow it down to these eleven? Charcters were considered based on a few criteria including the success and usefulness of their inventions, the quality of their character, their existential “coolness” factor, and the mark they made of the fabric of pop culture. Let's get to the countdown!
From the 1983 movie WarGames, Professor Falken is responsible for creating artificial intelligence in computers that allow them to learn from their experiences. His greatest engineering achievement is a military computer system called “Joshua,” which is used by the U.S. military to aid in deployment of its nuclear arsenal in case the Soviet’s start World War III. Even though Falken initially wants to stay a hermit when his creation mistakes a game it’s playing with a teenage hacker for the real deal, he does finally go with them to NORAD to help teach “Joshua” some new tricks and prevent global thermonuclear Armageddon.
Played by Rick Moranis in the Disney film Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, Wayne Szalinski is the lovable scientist who invents a shrink ray in the attic of his suburban home. Yes, it accidentally shrinks his kids, the neighbor’s kids, and his beloved “thinking couch,” but, hey, it still works, right? In the end, and just before he eats his own son who has fallen into his Cheerios, Wayne finds them all and manages to restore everyone back to their original sizes. It’s more than enough for Wayne Szalinski to shrink into the number ten spot.
Played by Richard Dean Anderson in the television series that shares the name of his character, MacGyver’s abilities are that of legend. As top agent for the Phoenix Foundation, MacGyver uses his vast scientific knowledge, and his ever-present Swiss Army knife, to defeat countless enemies of the world – sometimes with a little less than a paper clip and whatever else happens to be lying around. Resourceful and possessing of an encyclopedic knowledge of the physical sciences, MacGyver is number nine on our list.
Yes, Mark Watney, from this year’s critically acclaimed film The Martian is technically a botanist, but his engineering skills are not to be underestimated. Played by the versatile Matt Damon, Watney basically takes lemons and makes lemonade when he is stranded all alone on the red planet. He uses the limited equipment available and his wide breadth of mechanical, chemical, and mathematical knowledge to figure out how to survive his situation and communicate with NASA so they can figure out a way to get him back home. Don’t worry, we won’t spoil the ending for you.
Although the British Secret Service’s quartermaster has been portrayed by many actors during the fifty year run of the James Bond Franchise (most famously by Desmond Llewelyn) nobody can argue that this master of R&D is one of the best. Let’s face it – without the assistance of the amazing inventions of Q Branch, our fearless double-o would have met his demise on several occasions. From watches tricked out with lasers and electromagnets, to jet packs, to key chains that spray poison gas, Q’s equipment always got Bond out of a jam. Q even modified all of Bond’s rides with missile launchers, ejector seats, oil slick cannons, and anything else he could cram in without voiding the manufacturer’s warrantee.
Great Scott! This wild-eyed scientist – played zanily by Christopher Lloyd in all three Back To The Future films – first made a time machine out of a Delorean, and then out of a steam locomotive. Sure, he meant well, but even though he invented the Flux Capacitor (which makes time travel possible), the Doc’s invention tended to make things worse everywhere it went – especially for his friend Marty. Granted, with the help of his teenage friend he was able to fix all of the temporal damage that was done, but maybe he would have been better off had he devoted himself to the study the other great mystery of the universe: women.
Buckaroo Banzai – played by Peter Weller in the 1984 movie – is many things. He’s a top neurosurgeon, particle physicist, race car driver, rock star, and a comic book hero. His greatest achievement, however, was piloting a jet car equipped with the Oscillation Overthruster – an invention he co-created that would allow an object to pass unharmed through solid matter. And, even though the experiment was a success, it gets the attention of the insane Dr. Lizardo who wants to use the Overthruster to power a spacecraft that will bring aliens from a distant planet to take over the earth. Don’t worry, Buckaroo and his band of scientists stop them and save the world. His invention combined with his heroics make him number five on our countdown.
He’s not a master of time and space like the good Doctor Who, but more like its pawn. Regardless, this brilliant and endearing physicist successfully engineered a time travel experiment entitled “Project Quantum Leap” that has him careening through history – albeit not inside his own body. Sure, he ends up with a “swiss cheese” brain that plays with his memories and a cigar smoking hologram named Al who helps him along the way, but he still manages to make the best of it. Even though Sam is trapped by God or fate in his semi-successful experiment, he manages to fix the lives of dozens of people and “put right what once went wrong.” That puts this time travelling do-gooder in the number four spot.
Also known as Dr. Who, this eccentric and compassionate Time Lord knows his way around all kinds of technology – extraterrestrial or otherwise. Not only does he travel through the multiverse inside his police call box shaped TARDIS, he can overcome any engineering obstacle with the use of his ubiquitous sonic screwdriver – the ultimate engineers tool. Because it can pick locks, detonate land mines, dismantle equipment, and serve as a welding torch - and because The Doctor is the ultimate master of space-time - we place him solidly into third place.
He may not be the biggest, the baddest, or the greenest Avenger, but what he lacks in skill and strength, he makes up for with his amazing inventions. Tony Stark is not just a billionaire playboy and a business magnate; he’s also a very ingenious engineer. His inventions include his Iron Man suit - which is armed to the teeth with weapons of his own design - as well as the Arc Reactor – a portable power source that makes a nuclear reactor look like a D cell battery. All that puts this swaggering superhero at number two.
Sure, he may not be able to change the laws of physics, but he has certainly tried. Whether the Enterprise was fighting a rowdy band of Kilngons or a malfunctioning super computer, this surly Scotsman is always “giving it all she’s got.” And even though he multiplies his repair estimates by a factor of four, who can blame him? How else is he going to keep his reputation as a “miracle worker?” All we know is that on Star Trek, when Captain Kirk needs a “little more power,” Scotty gets it for him. That’s why Starfleet’s greatest engineer is tops on our list.
That's it! Did your favorite fictional engineer make our list? If you think we missed someone, or just got it all wrong, head on over to any of our social media pages and let us know what you think.
