| “ | Quicksand has no basement. Gadget finished! | „ |
| ~ Wild Man |
The Wild Man of Borneo is a character in Inspector Gadget. He joined forces with Claw to spread a Malaysian jungle fever, to which only he had the antidote.
Physical Description[]
The Wild Man is a lanky man with wild white hair and bushy eyebrows, a long nose, a tooth sticking out from his lower lip and pointy chin. He wears a brown shirt with a green collar under a white lab coat.
Personality[]
True to his name, the Wild Man has a wild persona, and he is a brilliant scientist. He speaks in a raspy and poor English language.
History[]
The Wild Man of Borneo claimed to have lived in the Malaysian jungle for forty years. During this time, he witnessed the jungle fever many times. He finally discovered it was the blood of a local fly that caused the illness, and managed to produce an antidote. He then joined forces with M.A.D. and gave a demonstration of the virus, and it's cure to Dr. Claw, using the British explorer Tarnivore as a test subject. Claw was impressed and told the Wild Man to inject the other prisoners (Tarnivore's fellow explorers) at once.
The Wild Man told Dr. Claw by video phone that he would "fix Gadget" after a missile attack on the Gadgetmobile was foiled by a passing ox cart. He performed a tribal dance on top of a cliff to summon a large snake and a talking parrot to do his bidding. The parrot sought out Gadget and led him into the river. The Wild Man then ordered three alligators to attack the Inspector.
When the Parrot returned to the Wild Man, he spoke to it in a jungle dialect, but the Parrot demanded to be addressed in English. Learning that Gadget was heading his way, the Wild Man used a secret bamboo lever hidden in the side of a tree to open a trap that caused Gadget and the White Monkey he was chasing to fall through the ground and slide into a pit of quicksand. The Wild Man waved the Inspector goodbye and told Dr. Claw that Gadget was finished. But Claw changed his mind and told the Wild Man to bring Gadget to him. The Wild Man ordered the giant snake to rescue Gadget from the quicksand (the White Monkey hitched a ride on the snake as well). He then quickly hog-tied the inspector, and called for a striped tiger to help him carry Gadget to his temple headquarters using a stick. There, Gadget was imprisoned in a large cell that already held Tarnivore and the other explorers suffering from jungle fever.
The Wild Man met Dr. Claw face to face in a room provided for Claw inside the temple. Wild Man was accompanied by his snake, which got into a tangle with M.A.D. Cat before being retrieved by the Wild Man. He promised Claw to give Gadget a shot of jungle fever personally. Later, he ordered M.A.D. Agents Fred and Squirt to bring him a crate and get Gadget in order to inject him with the virus. When they arrived at the cell, they found the door had already opened, and Gadget pushed Squirt and the Wild Man out of the way. The Wild Man told Fred and Squirt to find Gadget and bring him back. The Inspector somehow circled back to the original cell, and was simply pushed back into it by Fred. But when the Wild Man wanted to inject the Inspector with the virus, Brain, now disguised as a native, pushed one of the ill explorers into the Wild Man, who fell to the ground. He managed to climb out from under the unconscious explorer, but was knocked over again, this time by Gadget, who had activated his Gadget Skates and was accidentally injected with the virus himself. Despite being affected, the Wild Man still managed to infect Gadget as well, after the Inspector used a combination of his Gadget Legs and Gadget Springs, accidentally bumped his head on the ceiling and fell to the ground.
The Wild Man managed to make his way to a secret storage room behind a hidden entrance where all the antidote had been stored and cure himself. But Penny followed him and managed to cure both her uncle and her dog, who had boarded a M.A.D. helicopter filled with the virus, as well as the infected prisoners. Thinking Brain was an agent of M.A.D., Gadget commandeered the vehicle, threw out its passengers and planned to use it to bring his captive to prison. Claw ordered the Wild Man to stop Gadget. He quickly jumped aboard the vehicle just as it was lifting off and once again infected the Inspector with the virus using a syringe. But when the Wild Man pushed Gadget out of the vehicle, Brain, who was still handcuffed to the Inspector, grabbed onto the Wild Man's leg and pulled him along. The Wild Man ended up in the river, surrounded by alligators. The virus also ended up in the river, infecting both the Wild Man and the alligators. They were then taken into custody by the local police, together with the other animals that followed the Wild Man's orders: the snake, the parrot and the tiger.
Trivia[]
- He is the first M.A.D. agent to use animals to do his bidding.
Gadget Goofs[]
- Continuity: When the Wild Man of Borneo is knocked out by Brain pushing a sick explorer into him, bubbles are seen coming out of the Wild Man's mouth before he is infected with his own virus. The bubbles should have been coming from the explorer's mouth instead.
Appearances[]
Inspector Gadget (1983 TV Series)[]
Season 1 (1983 series)[]
Gallery[]
