Homing Capsule
(Thunderball)

Gadget: Homing Capsule
Movie: Thunderball
Owner: James Bond
Status: Used

A consumable capsule, containing a small amount of "harmless" radioactive material. Allowing it to be picked up with a sensitive tracking device.

Use

When Bond was trapped in a small cave, he swallowed the capsule and waited. Leiter picked up the signal on a small device with a needle indicating left or right, like a compass. Leiter directed the pilot of a coast guard helicopter, finding the area of the cave, Bond fired a flare gun through an opening in the roof of the cave, the chopper lowering a rescue harness into the cave.

Specs

This small capsule was filled with a slightly radioactive material, when swallowed, stomach acids would trigger off the chemicals inside the pill within minutes. Kept by a rescuer was a small compass like electronic device containing a very accurate Geiger counter, designed to track only that particular radioactive chemical.