"Now pay attention, 007."
- The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension: Buckaroo Banzai invented the Jet Car, a surgical technique to implant a microphone in the human skull so people can give orders to their own brain, and (with Professor Hikita) the Oscillation Overthruster. And that's just what's mentioned in the movie — it's implied that he's done much more.
- Doc Brown, slightly crazy inventor and engineering genius from the three Back to the Future movies. Built a Time Machine from of a DeLorean which used plutonium and later upgraded it with an energy reactor and flying circuits. Then in Part III, a second, even more stylish time machine which combined a 19th century steam locomotive with anti-gravity and cold fusion technology from the future. He turned a regular steam train into a time-traveling steam train with nothing that didn't exist before the 1800s, except for a hover-board. And he only used that because the sudden bursts of acceleration made him lose his footing on the narrow running board. There's also his epically-impractical ice-making machine.
- The Blade Trilogy movies (especially Blade: Trinity) have several characters who build high-tech equipment for the vampire hunters. Seriously... ultraviolet light bullets?
- Lucius Fox in The Dark Knight Trilogy provides Batman/Bruce Wayne with every piece of equipment he wields against his foes, though the trope is played somewhat in that it is never stated that he invented them. He is just the head of the Applied Sciences Division, which presumably invented most of the toys.
- Ash Williams from the Evil Dead franchise (mainly in Army of Darkness) modifies a chainsaw to serve as a Blade Below the Shoulder, reverse-engineers gunpowder by referencing its elemental makeup in a chemistry textbook, converts his car into the Death Coaster, and crafts a fully functional cyborg hand that puts modern prosthetics to shame from a metal gauntlet. It's worth noting all but the first example he does in medieval times under a strict timeframe, with only a single blacksmith and a handful of wiseman around to lend a hand. Justified as the 1992 comic book adaptation states that he has a degree in engineering from Michigan State University.
- The Grinch in How the Grinch Stole Christmas! manages to build a VTOL jet sleigh with nothing but garbage in a few hours. He also has various other homemade gadgets in his lair, as well.
- Q from the James Bond films. He's even the chief of an entire MI6 sector of Gadgeteer Geniuses.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Tony Stark has been the gadgeteer genius in the MCU since his introduction in 2008's Iron Man. He built the power suit prototype and his own Unobtainium artificial heart using nothing but spare parts provided for the construction of a Jericho missile. In his own lab, he creates even more impressive gadgets, including but not limited to forty-two different Iron man suits, Spider-Man's suit, multiple AI systems, military weapons that are noted to be the most potent in the world, and an entirely new element. He also revolutionized the arc reactor and turned it into a clean, near-infinite power source and, as of Avengers: Infinity War, is the only person to have successfully and efficiently incorporated nanotechnology into his armor without the use of vibranium. Not to mention the truckload of specialized weapons and systems he managed to build into each of his suits while still keeping them relatively form-fitting and phenomenally aerodynamic.
- Jane Foster in Thor, a scientist who built most of her research equipment herself.
- Despite being, well, a raccoon, Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy and its sequels can jury-rig planet-busting weaponry out of random junk.
- Peter Parker managed to develop his own web shooters and webs despite operating on a very, very minimal budget. Spider-Man: Homecoming shows that he uses his high school chemistry class and its limited stock of chemicals to produce more webbing — the sophistication of which impresses even Tony Stark. It's also noted that he enjoys building computers in his spare time (the parts for which he says he found in the dumpster), he seems to excel at physics and math in addition to his obvious aptitude for chemistry and engineering, and after only moments of battling Falcon in Captain America: Civil War, he correctly deduces that Falcon's wings are constructed from carbon-fiber. And he is only fifteen.
- Also from Homecoming, the Vulture's gang has Phineas Mason, who jury-rigs stolen alien and Avengers technology into weapons and gear to sell on the black market, as well as for the gang's own use (as seen with Shocker's gauntlets and the Vulture's exo-suit).
- Shuri from Black Panther rivals Tony Stark as the most brilliant gadgeteer in the MCU. With the world's vibranium supply at her fingertips, she's managed so far to revolutionize T'Challa's Black Panther suit, greatly enhance the process of harnessing vibranium's energy in general, and create a remote piloting system that can take control of vehicles anywhere in the world, in addition to her twin panther cannons. And she is only sixteen.
- A. Heller (Tom Waits) in Mystery Men is a genius inventor who specializes in non-lethal weapons.
- No Escape (1994): Dysart can make Molotov cocktails, fancy telescopes, and an engine out of discarded junk that floats ashore. He’s also on the island for building a bomb.
- Thorpe Holmes a.k.a. Spring-Heeled Jack, the Big Bad in Sir Arthur Conandoyles Sherlock Holmes, constructs an exoskeleton to overcome his paralysis, a clockwork automaton henchwoman who is also his lover, a mechanical giant octopus, and an army of mechanical dinsosaurs.
- Fritz in Sky Bandits. Fellow Grease Monkey Chalky notes that he is a mechanical genius, and he cobbles together bizarre flying contraptions out of wrecked planes and whatever other machines he can find, including an old car and what appears to be a tractor. Despite their ungainly designs, all of these "specials" (as he dubs them) manage to fly.
- Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Dex works for Sky Captain. He is an expert on radios and Humongous Mecha and creating and using advanced avionics and Disintegrator Rays.
- Gwen/Royal Pain from the super-teens comedy Sky High (2005) calls herself a "technopath". She demonstrates the ability to magically repair electronics, as well as presumably designing and building her own armored super-suit.
- The Specials: Mr. Smart, smartest man in the world, inventor of such devices as a winged rocket-backpack and a machine that amplifies his sense of smell 3,000 times.
- Anakin Skywalker of Star Wars fame built a protocol droid and a pod racer before the age of ten.
- Wild Wild West:
- Artemus "Artie" Gordon creates the first bulletproof vest and a primitive airplane.
- Subverted with Dr. Loveless. He produces an enormous mechanical arachnid, but most of the work is actually done by the scientists he has captured. He doesn't even hide that fact, but he is smart enough to find a way of surviving after being blown in half (albeit by his own prototype tank).
- In X-Men: Days of Future Past, Quicksilver mods a Pong arcade cabinet to run significantly faster than normal.
