Entertainment
The Classic Adventure That Created Indiana Jones, A Rare Perfect Movie
By Jennifer Asencio
| Updated
Before there was Indiana Jones, there was the 1939 classic movie, Gunga Din. The character at the heart of the franchise we know and love is a homage to the swashbuckling heroes of the 1930s and 40s, with Gunga Din so much at the heart of the tribute that one of Dr. Jones’s adventures challenges the same enemies. In 1999, Gunga Din was included in the United States National Film Registry in recognition of its historic contribution to cinema.
Gunga Din is based on a poem by Rudyard Kipling about a brave Indian water bearer who saves a British Army soldier, despite the soldier treating the Indian with colonial contempt and derision. The poem is told from the soldier’s perspective and salutes the water bearer who gave his life to save the soldier’s.
Attack Of The Thuggee Cult
In the movie, there are three soldiers: Cutter, Ballantine, and MacChesney, all close friends and adventuresome enlistees in the British Army, serving in India in the late 1800s. Cutter, played by the classic leading man Cary Grant, is a fortune hunter who is constantly getting into trouble as he seeks treasure in the Indian countryside. MacChesney is in charge of the company’s elephants, including one named Annie, who he treats like his own baby. Ballantine, much to his friends’ dismay, announces that he is leaving the service at the encroaching end of his tour to get married and go into the tea business.
Nevertheless, none of these men are afraid to get into a tumble, so when a British outpost suddenly goes silent, they are sent with troops to investigate. Their group is attacked by the mysterious Thuggee, thought to be a cult to the Hindu death goddess Kali. The squad is nearly decimated, and the British Army has to figure out how to deal with the Thuggee terrorists.
Chemistry Carries The Movie
Lurking on the sidelines is Gunga Din, the titular water bearer, who desperately wants to be a soldier himself. Cutter takes a liking to him, and in return, he tells Cutter about a golden temple in the mountains, igniting the soldier’s lust for treasure. But the quest for fortune and glory brings Cutter and his friends more than they bargained for and could lead to the defeat of the British Army.
The chemistry of the three stars, the smarmy Cary Grant, the burly Victor MacLaglen, and the heartthrob Douglas Fairbanks Jr., is a great deal of what carries the movie, despite it being named for the water bearer. Their behavior toward each other is a dance of manly social maneuvering, complete with teasing, tricking, stealing from, and even fighting with one another, but always loyal to each other to the end.
The Ultimate Boys Action-Adventure Movie
At its heart, Gunga Din is a boy’s action-adventure film about Army guys getting into fantastic adventures. The film also stars contemporary female lead Joan Fontaine, but it is no accident that Annie the Elephant gets more screen time. Even Ballantine has no time for sissy girls when the going gets tough. It is a masterpiece of male bonding, with the trio’s hijinks punctuated by their interactions with one another and how well they know each other, especially in the midst of a fight.
And Gunga Din has a lot of fighting: fistfights, explosive skirmishes, and the final high-stakes battle that pulls out all the stops. Don’t be fooled by the early-Hollywood special effects, because Gunga Din was a large-scale production that was revolutionary for its time. However, it is also very family-friendly despite all the action, since it reflected early Hollywood sensibilities about depicting violence.
A California Adventure
Although the movie was shot entirely in California, its cinematography is so magical that it seamlessly transports the viewer to India’s northwest frontier, so much so that Fairbanks, Jr. once observed that Indian people he met in his travels believed the film was shot in their homeland. From wide shots of mountain vistas and drilling troops in martial exercises to intimate scenes of murder and male bonding, the movie’s camera work is so celebrated that it is studied in film schools to this day and has been required viewing on numerous film sets.
However, Gunga Din is also a product of its time. The role of Gunga Din is played by Sam Jaffe, who is not Indian, nor are the major Indian characters, the Guru or Chota, played by Indian actors. All three wear blackface in the film. This should be taken as a byproduct of the era, not a condemnation of the film, but less educated viewers might judge it harshly through a modern lens.
Gunga Din’s Similarities To Indiana Jones
It’s easy to see this movie echoed throughout the adventures of Indiana Jones. Temple of Doom shares many plot elements and characteristics with Gunga Din, and not just because they share a villainous organization in the Thuggee cult. There are numerous references to events concurrent with the earlier film, including entire characters that are tributes to its ideas: a British soldier defends the Empire’s colonialism, while a mad guru leads the Thuggee in their terrible plan.
Stephen Spielberg has repeatedly said that Temple of Doom is his least favorite film in the franchise, calling the 1984 sequel too dark and horrific and saying it “out-poltered Poltergeist.” This is disappointing because Temple of Doom is a loving tribute to the film that inspired it, putting Indiana Jones into the role of Cutter as he seeks “fortune and glory” by hunting down the Shankara Stones for a small Indian village. From there, the adventure Indy and his friends go on is, in essence, the same one as Cutter and Din’s trek out to the golden temple.
Unfortunately, Gunga Din is not streaming free on any major services. However, it can be streamed for a fee on Amazon, and it’s well worth buying the DVD, especially since it is a fun movie for the whole family.
Gunga Din created the framework for most of the action-adventure movies you love today. Best of all, it’s endlessly rewatchable as a self-contained, neatly wrapped package that requires no embellishment, gritty remake, or computer-generated action.
Entertainment
Wordle today: Answer, hints for April 19, 2026
Today’s Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you can never sit down.
If you just want to be told today’s word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today’s Wordle solution revealed. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
Where did Wordle come from?
Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once.
Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.
What’s the best Wordle starting word?
The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.
What happened to the Wordle archive?
The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website’s creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.
Is Wordle getting harder?
It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn’t any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle‘s Hard Mode if you’re after more of a challenge, though.
Here’s a subtle hint for today’s Wordle answer:
To rise.
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Does today’s Wordle answer have a double letter?
There are no recurring letters.
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Today’s Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with…
Today’s Wordle starts with the letter T.
The Wordle answer today is…
Get your last guesses in now, because it’s your final chance to solve today’s Wordle before we reveal the solution.
Drumroll please!
The solution to today’s Wordle is…
STAND
Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints. Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today’s Strands.
Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Wordle.
Entertainment
Hurdle hints and answers for April 19, 2026
If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.
There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it’ll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.
An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.
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If you find yourself stuck at any step of today’s Hurdle, don’t worry! We have you covered.
Hurdle Word 1 hint
The edge.
Hurdle Word 1 answer
BRINK
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Hurdle Word 2 hint
Moody.
Hurdle Word 2 Answer
POUTY
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Hurdle Word 3 hint
America’s bird.
Hurdle Word 3 answer
EAGLE
Hurdle Word 4 hint
A platform.
Hurdle Word 4 answer
FORUM
Final Hurdle hint
Cheapskate.
Hurdle Word 5 answer
MISER
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Entertainment
Star Trek’s Most Ambitious Villain Helped Create The Franchise’s Most Complex Hero
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
When Star Trek: Voyager first came out, the most fascinating character was the Doctor. While Robert Picardo’s performance was superb, it’s fair to say this character was mostly fascinating on a conceptual level. We had seen things like hypercompetent Starfleet captains and exotic aliens before, but what we hadn’t seen was a fully holographic chief medical officer. Voyager’s Emergency Medical Hologram seemed like the perfect embodiment of the Star Trek ethos. He’s a technological strange new world and new life, all rolled into one.
However, what casual audiences didn’t realize is that the Doctor wasn’t completely unique. Long before Picardo’s character ever sawed bones in the Delta Quadrant, Captain Picard dealt with another extraordinary hologram: Moriarty, the brilliant foe of the famous investigator Sherlock Holmes. Over on The Next Generation, Geordi LaForge accidentally created this villain as a sentient hologram when he asked the holodeck to create a challenge worthy of the android Data. Later, Star Trek: Voyager executive producer Jeri Taylor revealed that, in-universe, the holographic Doctor was created because Starfleet took advantage of the same accidental breakthrough that created Moriarty!
It all started in “Elementary, My Dear Data,” the Next Generation episode in which the titular android and Geordi LaForge recreated Sherlock Holmes’ adventures on the holodeck. Thanks to his positronic brain and his encyclopedic knowledge of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes novels, Data is able to easily solve every mystery that is thrown at him. That’s when Geordi makes a seemingly simple request. He asks the Enterprise computer to develop a holodeck foe that could actually defeat Data, one of the smartest beings in the entire galaxy.
The computer obliges and creates a sentient version of Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes’ greatest foe. Following Geordi’s instructions, the Enterprise computer included much of Data’s vast programming, which resulted in the holographic character becoming self-aware. Moriarty ended up threatening the Enterprise on two different occasions, and Picard eventually got rid of him by trapping the unknowing villain in a simulation where he thought he had left the holodeck and could explore the stars. This was meant to be a happy ending for Moriarty, but in the show’s typically bleak fashion, Star Trek: Picard later showed us a different, more hostile version of this character created by a malevolent Section 31 AI.
How A Villain Created A Hero
What does all of this have to do with Robert Picardo’s holographic Doctor on Star Trek: Voyager? Elementary, my dear reader! Very early in Voyager’s development (the show didn’t even have a name yet), executive producer Jeri Taylor was inspired by Moriarty to create a new character. As reported in A Vision of the Future-Star Trek: Voyager, Taylor wrote down notes for a holographic doctor “who, like Moriarty, has ‘awareness’ of himself as a holodeck fiction. He longs for the time when he can walk free of the Holodeck.”
A few days later, she wrote down additional notes that contain a startling bit of Star Trek lore. “The Holo-Doctor represents a new, state-of-the-art technology which has capitalized on the serendipitous incident which created Moriarty, and has programmed a holographic character which has self-awareness of his situation and limitations.” While Moriarty is name-dropped on Voyager a couple of times, the show never mentioned what Taylor’s notes seem to confirm: that Lewis Zimmerman could never have created the Emergency Medical Hologram program if not for Geordi LaForge accidentally creating Moriarty on the holodeck.
From Villain To Leading Man?
If that’s not strange enough, there was a period of time when Voyager’s producers were considering making Moriarty a mainstay character on the show. As reported in Star Trek–Where No One Has Gone Before, Taylor’s notes mentioned that “everyone agreed that was a little too broad, and we couldn’t figure out why anyone would take him along.” After dismissing the idea, they decided “that having a holographic doctor with the full consciousness of being a hologram might be fun, and we’d never done anything like that before, except for Moriarty.”
There you have it, gentle reader. Without the character of Moriarty on Star Trek: The Next Generation, we’d never have the Doctor on Voyager. In this way, Trek’s most ambitious villain helped create the franchise’s most complex hero. Thanks to Jeri Taylor’s notes, we also know that, in-universe, Lewis Zimmerman would never have been able to create the Doctor if not for Geordi accidentally creating a sentient Moriarty so Data could have fun. In retrospect, this does make Zimmerman’s arrogance that much weirder. After all, he has a lot of attitude for someone who owes his entire career to the two biggest book nerds in the galaxy!
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