Funny thing about those gadgets in Get Smart. The people who make them in the real world are paying attention. So too was the case in 1965 when the Get Smart TV series first launched.
With all the shtick and catch-phrases the comedy TV series became famous for, the gadgets have endured in their legacy: The shoe phone, the cone of silence, the list goes on.
Truth is, the real makers of gadgets and weapons do take note when some deceptive device appears on the big or small screen. That gadget might come darn close to mirroring what exists in the real world of espionage.
The covert devices used in the Get Smart movie are not far removed from the ingenuity dreamed up four decades ago.
Anne Hathaway, who plays Agent 99 in the film, got to employ three gadgets, and loved learning how to execute them: The compact that releases a gas that exposes laser beams; exploding dental floss; and a cellphone with knockout gas inside it.
�When the gadgets worked, it would be great, but another funny part is when they wouldn�t work,� Hathaway told Metro.
In fact, Hathaway says one contribution of hers to the film, well other than that acting part, was suggesting how to execute a gadget scene that had been going awry for Steve Carell (Maxwell Smart, Agent 86). She suggested how he could better handle one of his gadgets to fix a nagging problem that was holding things up on the set.
�I was proud of that,� she says.
From the TV series, scenes featuring the cone of silence contain some of the best comedy skits going, but guess what ... it existed.
Director Peter Segal says someone who worked on the movie had a relative who had a connection to the CIA and was able to confirm this fact: The cone of silence was used in the American Embassy in Moscow. A plastic cone was placed over people and music played inside so the conversations couldn�t possibly be picked up by a bug.
�And, as usual, they said it didn�t work,� said Segal, laughing. �Almost everything in the movie is based in some kind of reality and so we came up with a few of our own gadgets to go along with some of the iconic ones (from the TV series).�
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