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"And all attributed to natural causes."
― Mortner commending on Zorin's plan.[src]

Dr. Carl Mortner, born Hans Glaub, was a fictional German geneticist who served Hitler and the National Socialist regime during the Second World War. He later became the head scientist of wealthy businessman, Max Zorin. He serves as the overarching antagonist portrayed by British actor, Willoughby Gray, the character first appeared in the 1985 James Bond film, A View to a Kill, and was subsequently adapted for the 1983-87 tabletop role-playing game, James Bond 007: Role-Playing In Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Biography[]

Born Hans Glaub in 1913, at some point in his life he began a career in science, with an interest in breeding and genetics. His methods were akin to the infamous cruel doctor Josef Mengele, who had little regard for human life, requesting the National Socialists send some concentration camp subjects to him for purposes of experimentation, to be treated like lab rats. Hans Glaub's speciality was steroids and hormonal experimentation on pregnant women who were corraled into the concentration camps. Most of Glaub's experiments ended in failure, causing most of the experimented mothers to miscarry. However, a handful of women did successful deliver babies. These babies were often psycotic in nature, but grew into children with gifted intelligence. Glaub took an interest in such "super kids" one of whom was Max Zorin, whom he took special care.

Unlike many of his fellow National Socialists, Glaub escaped facing justice at the Nuremburg Commission following the end of World War II. A Soviet military unit had attacked Glaub's facility during the war. Realising Glaub's potential, the unit chose to transport him to the Soviet Union in their version of Operation Paperclip. Glaub spent fifteen years in the Soviet Union, where he was ordered to make steroids for their athletes.

He fled the USSR sometime in the 1960s, taking Max Zorin with him. Glaub gave himself the false identity of "Carl Mortner" and resumed his work in genetics, now working on horses. He had discovered a way to make horses faster without doping. Glaub used Zorin's microchips in the brains of horses, which acted as receiver for a silver-tipped cane. Zorin used the cane as a remote control, pointing it at a running horse which would cause its brain to release adrenaline, and thus run faster. He covered up his activity by falsely claiming the horses got their abilities through complex selective breeding.

Then in May 1985, an MI6 agent, James Bond, began to sniff Zorin in their stable and Glaub intrigue a Bond's colleague, Sir Godfrey Tibbett. The doctor meet Bond as he leaves Max Zorin's study, pretending to be looking for the bar. As the doctor escorts Bond to where he should be, Bond asks him about how Zorin's horses always seem to win, and is introduced to another henchman, Bob Conley, and Zorin himself.

He later appears after Bond breaks into Zorin's lab and tells Zorin that 007 has been snooping around in places he shouldn't have been as he discovered that a microchip has been misplaced in the cabinet due to Bond's hastiness during his escape from the lab.

GlaubDeath

Hans Glaub and Scarpine's deaths.

Mortner subsequently travels to San Francisco and colludes in Zorin's plan to cause an artificial double-earthquake; permanently submerging Silicon Valley underwater and granting Zorin Industries a monopoly in microchip production. He meets his death shortly after Bond and Zorin have their final fight on the Golden Gate Bridge. He awakens after having been knocked unconscious by Stacey Sutton into the Zorin’s airship immediately before the fight. When Mortner sees Zorin fall to his death from the bridge, he reacts violently, pulling out a pistol and firing at Bond and Sutton in retaliation for the death of his adopted son. Once his pistol runs out of ammunition, he goes into a cabinet, pulls out a small bundle of dynamite, lights the fuse, and walks toward the cabin door, seeking to throw the dynamite at Bond and Sutton. Bond, however, uses Zorin's axe to cut through the rope anchoring the blimp to the bridge, causing Mortner to lose his balance and drop the dynamite in the cabin as the blimp floats away. Scarpine, who has just regained consciousness, panics and tries to wrestle the dynamite away from Mortner and extinguish the fuse, but it explodes while they are fighting over it, destroying the blimp's cabin and killing both of the men (who would have died when they fell into the San Francisco Bay even if they somehow survived the explosion).

Alternate continuities[]

James Bond 007 (role-playing game)[]

To be added

Gallery[]

Dr. Mortner/Gallery

Trivia[]

  • Glaub is responsible for many of the events of the film because if it were not for his experiments, Zorin never would have been created and the story never would have happened.
  • In the German version of A View to a Kill, Mortner's origin and real name is changed to Polish-born biologist Jan Kopersky. While there is no mention of the Concentration Camps, the experiments on pregnant women still took place during World War II and he also worked for the Soviet Union afterwards. The German subtitles (supposedly newer than the 1985 synchronization) follow the original version of the story.
  • Although never mentioned directly, it is implied Glaub was a student of the real life Doctor Mengele.
  • Glaub was one the few secondary characters who attempted to kill Bond following the death of the boss. This was also seen with Tee Hee and Nick Nack, and would later be seen with Stamper. Producer Albert R. Broccoli later said these post-boss fights were meant to signify "the neverending struggle" in that Bond would always have to face another villain.

References[]

  1. (1985). A View to a Kill [Blu Ray]. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Event occurs at 31:30. "The cheque is dated May 1985"
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