General Hemmer

"We have no more time. I have waited impatiently for this council to act. But our people are tired of dying in the rotting hall of this Ark. Therefore, I am assuming command; the council is hereby dissolved!"

- General Hemmer taking over as commander of the Ark

General Hemmer is the commanding officer of the Ark and the main antagonist of the 2007 sci-fi film Battle for Terra.

He is voiced by Brian Cox.

History
Hemmer, along with everyone else living on the spaceship called the Ark, is looking for a new planet to colonize after a war between the colonies on the planets of Mercury, Venus, and Earth lead to the destruction of all three. Hemmer is tired of spending his whole life on the Ark and proposes a plan to forcefully colonize a new planet, regardless of what life already exists on the planet.

Hemmer was first seen on the Ark arguing with President Chen and the council about the rising conflicts between the humans and the Terrians and proposes war on the aliens. He feels betrayed by the council as his actions are instead under vote.

Jim Stanton and his brother Stewart comfort Hemmer, saying that the Terrians are not as evil as Hemmer believes them to be. Meanwhile, Mala, a Terrian Jim befriends after saving his life, sneaks on-board of the Ark in search of her father, Rover, who was one of the many Terrians captured for scientific research. When she is spotted, Rover sacrifices his life to save his daughter and blasts an airlock, killing him and two humans in the process.

Hemmer uses the camera recording of the act to persuade to the council that the Terrians are murderous and plan to destroy their invaders. To make sure the council won't stand in his way, he takes power over the civilian leaders in a coup, and declares war on Terra, citing the deteriorating condition of the Ark.

After becoming the commander of the Ark, he is then seen monologuing his goal to Jim, to place a massive Terraformer onto the surface of Terra and use it to wipe out the Terrians with a massive amount of oxygen (which is poisonous to the Terrians). He then throws Mala and Stewart into a test chamber, showing the differences between the Terrain air and Earth air. Before Mala suffocates to death, Giddy (Jim's personal robotic assistant) breaks the glass, allowing Mala to escape.

While Jim and Stewart are healing from their injuries, Hemmer enters the room and recruits Jim to be in the first group of space-fighters designated to defend the Terraformer from the Terrians, while Hemmer will supervise the terraforming process from inside the Terraformer.

When it appears the Terrians are about to lose the battle, Jim realizes that annihilating all of the inhabitants is morally wrong. In a risky move, he turns his ship towards the Terraformer machine, and, with his laser cannons blazing, destroys the Terraformer's command module, killing everyone in it, including Hemmer. Unfortunately, Jim is killed in the resulting explosion.