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“
I will take Arrakis back for myself! He who controls the Spice controls the universe and what Piter did not tell you is we have control of someone who is very close, very close, to Duke Leto! This person, this traitor, will be worth more to us than ten legions of Sardaukar!
„
~ Baron Harkonen's famous quote. (Dune, 1984)
“
I won't tell you who the traitor is, or when we'll attack. However, the Duke will die before these eyes, and he'll know, he'll know, that it is I, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who encompasses his doom!
„
~ Baron Harkonen takes control to kill the Duke. (Dune, 1984)
“
My desert. My Arrakis. My Dune.
„
~ Baron Harkonnen. (Dune, 2021)
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is the main antagonist of the original Dune Saga, serving as the main antagonist of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune (and its many adaptations) and the posthumous overarching antagonist in its 1969 sequel, Dune: Messiah and the 1976 novel, Children of Dune.
He is the main antagonist of David Lynch's 1984 film adaptation, the 2000 miniseries adaptation and the Denis Villeneuve's 2021 film adaptation, and will return in it's 2023 sequel in some capacity.
The Baronial leader of House Harkonnen, he rules from his ancestral homeworld of Giedi Prime, exercising a tyrannical rule of exploitation and sadism over the lives of the slaves unfortunate enough to end up in the service of his House. A long-standing rival of House Atreides, the Baron is determined to bring about their end, with particular emphasis on seeing Duke Leto Atreides' humiliating defeat.
The Baron is also the uncle of Glossu "The Beast" Rabban and Feyd-Rautha, who serve as his instruments in pursuit of universal domination, with Rabban acting as his brutal enforcer on Arrakis and Feyd being groomed to eventually take the Baron's place as the Head of House Harkonnen - and much more, should the Baron's plans come to fruition. He is also Lady Jessica’s father and the maternal grandfather of Paul Atreides and Alia Atreides, the children of his rival, Leto.
He was portrayed by the late Kenneth McMillan, who also played Cressner in The Ledge, in the 1984 film; Ian McNeice in the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel miniseries; and Stellan Skarsgård in the 2021, who also played Viktor Tupolev in The Hunt for Red October, Jim Whitlock in Deep Blue Sea, Terry Glass in The Glass House, King Cerdic in King Arthur, Martin Vanger in the 2011 adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and The Grand Duke in the 2015 Disney live-action adaptation of Cinderella.
In the year 10,191 A.G. (23,352 A.D.) Baron Harkonnen and Emperor Shaddam IV devised a plan to rid themselves of the Atreides, the latter intending to remove Duke Leto as a threat before his popularity granted him the influence to usurp Shaddam, the former eager to end his feud with House Atreides in a final and decisive act of revenge. As always, however, the Baron intended to use the ensuing chaos as an opportunity to seize greater power. Nonetheless, the plan began with the Emperor ordering the Atreides to move from their ancestral homeworld of Caladan to the planet Arrakis in order to take over the Spice-mining operation there. Once they had arrived on the planet, the Baron made use of a traitor among the Atreides, the Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, to sabotage them from within. Normally, persuading a Suk doctor to turn on his masters would have been impossible thanks to the psychological conditioning undergone, but the Baron was able to override this by holding Yueh's wife hostage, ensuring the doctor's total cooperation with House Harkonnen's designs.
With the aid of the Emperor's Sardaukar troops, the Baron was able to stage an ambush on the unsuspecting Atreides, resulting in their forces being either scattered or killed en masse; amidst the confusion, Duke Leto's wife Jessica and son Paul were forced to flee into the desert, while Leto himself was paralyzed and taken before the Baron to suffer humiliating tortures. Correctly suspecting that his wife had already been murdered, Yueh attempted to allow Leto a fighting chance to decapitate House Harkonnen's leadership by replacing one of his teeth with a poison capsule; unfortunately, not only was the doctor murdered in order to tie up loose ends, Leto's poison capsule only killed the Harkonnen Mentat Piter DeVries and a handful of guards, leaving the Baron unharmed.
With all oppositions to his power over Arrakis removed, the Baron installed his nephew Rabban as planetary governor, allowing him to brutalize the populace in order to create an enemy that the people could rally against - ensuring that their loyalties would lie with his other nephew, Feyd, when he came to "rescue" them from Rabban's tyranny. However, out in the deserts of the planets, Paul and Jessica joined forces with the local Fremen. Over the years that followed, Paul eventually ascended to the role of Muad'Dib, leader and messiah of the Fremen, allowing him to lead a war of liberation against Harkonnen rule, bringing Spice production to a standstill.
With the galactic community endangered by the potential loss of Spice, the Emperor himself was forced to directly intervene, venturing forth to Arrakis in person. Though the Baron hoped to exploit this by having the Emperor supplanted by Feyd, the conflict ended with the Emperor's forces surrounded by Paul's Fremen warriors, the Emperor's only source of leverage in the standoff being Paul's recently-captured sister, Alia. In the confusion, Baron Harkonnen attempted to seize Alia in a public show of loyalty, only for the child to jab him with a poisonous Gom Jabbar, killing him in seconds. Following a duel with Feyd for the fate of the Empire, Paul was eventually able to oust Emperor Shaddam from power and replace him as Emperor of the known universe, ending the novel with Baron Harkonnen dead and his House effectively obliterated.
However, the death of his body was not the end for the Baron. Because Alia had been exposed to the Water of Life prior to being born, she was susceptible to the memories and personalities of her ancestors, including her grandfather. The Baron manipulated her into acting against her only family, offering to help her resist the multitude of personalities that threatened to drown out her own personality; in reality, this only allowed him to influence her directly, granting him the perfect opportunity to take revenge on the Atreides. However, though his actions ultimately forced Jessica off Arrakis and allowed him to institute a new reign of terror, he was ultimately undone when Leto II returned from the deserts; having been defeated in combat by the Sandtrout-empowered Leto, Alia was able to regain control of her own mind and kill herself, ending the threat of the Baron once and for all.
Personality
Baron Harkonnen is a corrupt, deceptive, and entirely unmerciful tyrant whose formidable intellect is outshone only by his sheer cruelty and unrelenting ambition. In his pursuit of personal power, he is not only prepared to annihilate House Atreides and condemn the young Paul Atreides to death, but even to sacrifice his own nephew Rabban in a scheme to anoint Feyd as the apparent savior of Arrakis. Furthermore, he is secretly plotting to betray the Padisha Emperor, his one-time partner in the downfall of House Atreides, and have him replaced by Feyd, crowning him as Emperor and granting the Baron a position of direct influence over the affairs of a universe-spanning empire.
The Baron's ruthlessness is apparent in every scene he appears in: should any of his pawns outlive their usefulness, he will not hesitate to eliminate them for the sake of cleaning up loose ends. As soon as Wellington Yueh has completed sabotaging House Atreides from within, the Baron reunites him with his wife as agreed by having Yueh murdered. In order to teach Feyd a lesson, he goes so far as to order the execution of every woman in the pleasure quarter, justifying the mass-murder with a dismissive remark of "there will always be more women." The Baron's prized Mentat, Piter DeVries, is fully aware of this ruthless tendency and does everything in his power to ensure that he remains needed, but the Baron knows it will be only a matter of time before Piter's usefulness comes to an end. Later, when Piter and a guard captain are killed in a botched assassination attempt, the Baron can only reflect that it at least spares him the trouble of having the two of them executed. When he obtains the captive Atreides Mentat Thufir Hawat as a replacement for Piter, he ensures that Thufir will never be able to defect by poisoning him with a latent toxin: every day, an antidote to the toxin is introduced into Thufir's food, leaving him both symptom-free and effectively oblivious to his affliction. Should the Mentat ever try to escape, he will quickly succumb to the effects of the poison and die.
In conversation with others, Baron Harkonnen affects a jovial, avuncular demeanor, often addressing his relatives and servants with endearments. Only when angered or moving in for the kill against his opponents does he allow this façade to slip, revealing himself as the heartless, manipulative schemer he truly is: here, his lack of empathy becomes apparent, not only ordering mass-murders simply to teach Feyd a lesson, but allowing Rabban to conduct massacre after massacre on Arrakis, knowing that "the Beast's" atrocities will make it easier for him to present Feyd as a benevolent ruler to the people of Dune.
A venal, self-indulgent man, the Baron enjoys the luxuries that his immense wealth affords him, not only in the form of his lavish attire and possessions, but also the young slaves he regularly molests. Indeed, when he later resurfaces in Alia's mind, he asks only one price for helping her to control the ancestral voices that threaten to overwhelm her: namely, to be allowed to experience carnal pleasure through her.
Quotes
1984 film
“
I made my peace gesture. The forms of kanly have been obeyed!
„
~ The Baron
“
Bring in Feyd and Rabban!
„
~ The Baron calls for his nephews.
“
This is what I'll do to the Duke and his family.
„
~ The Baron on his plan to kill the Atreides.
“
We're knee-deep in Atreides Blood! We gutted them! We gutted them!
„
~ The Baron as the Harkonnens destroy House Atreides.
“
Baron Harkonnen: You wish to join your wife, is that it, traitor? Dr. Wellington Yueh: She lives? Baron Harkonnen: You wish to join her? So, join her!
„
~ The Baron has Dr. Yueh killed.
“
I'm alive. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!
„
~ The Baron
“
Come, Feyd, Thufir's a Harkonnen now. Aren't you Thufir?
„
~ The Baron
“
Rabban! I place you in charge of Arrakis. It's yours to squeeze, as I promised. I want you to squeeze and squeeze and squeeze! Give me spice! Drive them. Drive them into utter submission! Do not show the slightest pity or mercy! Never stop. Go. Go! Show no mercy!
„
~ The Baron places Rabban in command of Arrakis.
2021 film
“
When is a gift not a gift? The Atreides voice is rising, and the Emperor is a jealous man. A dangerous, jealous man.
„
~ Baron Vladimir Harkonnen explains the Emperor's true motives when giving Arrakis to the Atreides.
“
There are no satellites over Arrakis. The Atreides will die in the dark.
„
~ Baron Harkonnen planning the attack on the Atreides.
“
No Atreides will live.
„
~ Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
“
I said I would not harm them, and I shall not. But Arrakis is Arrakis, and the desert takes the weak.
„
~ Baron Harkonnen on giving his "word" to the Reverend Mother.
“
You have a wonderful kitchen, cousin.
„
~ The Baron to Leto Atreides whilst eating his food.
“
I said I'd set her free. That you could join her. So join her.
„
~ Baron Harkonnen before breaking his word to Dr. Yueh and murdering him.
“
For hundreds of years, we've traded blood for blood. But more. Your son is dead. Your concubine is dead. Tonight the House of Atreides falls. And your bloodline ends forever.
„
~ Baron Harkonnen mocking Leto of his defeat.
“
So it's done, finally.
„
~ The Baron upon hearing of Paul and Jessica's "deaths".
“
Send word to Geidi Prime to begin selling our spice reserves. But slowly. We don't want the price to fall.
„
~ Baron Harkonnen ordering Rabban to have the spice sold slowly.
“
You have no idea how much it cost me to bring such a force to bear here. I only have one requirement: income. So squeeze, Rabban. Squeeze hard.
„
~ The Baron ordering Rabban to mine as much spice as possible.
“
Kill them all.
„
~ The Baron orders Rabban to exterminate the Fremen.
Gallery
Baron Harkonnen in the book.
Baron Harkonnen in the 1984 film.
Baron Harkonnen in the 2021 film.
The Baron commuting with Rabban and Piter.
The Baron having council with the Bene Gennett Reverend Mother
Piter before the Baron.
The Baron floating.
The Baron above his armies whilst storming the Atredies.
Baron Harkonnen devouring food opposite a paralysed and stripped Leto Atredies.
Baron Harkonnen healing from his wounds and ordering the extermination of the Fremen.
Baron Harkonnen in the 1991 game.
Trivia
The novel version of the character, while certainly cruel and ruthless, is more a manipulator and prefers psychological torture to outright brutality, as in the 1984 the movie version. In this respect, Ian McNeice's portrayal of Baron Harkonnen in the 2000 Dune miniseries is more faithful to the novel than Kenneth McMillian's version in the 1984 film.
Both the movie and miniseries versions of the Baron Harkonnen, however, omit any reference to the Baron being a pederast, as in the novel.
In the 2021 film, unlike the novel and other movies, Harkonnen was still alive. However, as the film only covers the first half of the novel, he is likely to meet his death in the upcoming sequel.