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| “ | We both know the precise schedule. It starts to eat away my bones, orbital, cheek, teeth, jaw, skull, exposing my brain. Tumors, madness, excruciating pain. [chuckles] One fine morning, I will start to scream and I will never stop. I cannot face such a vulgar demise. Which brings me to my one condition. Our deal. As agreed, in exchange for my generous intervention on your behalf. And as we give life to our new Adam, I want to be placed in this new perfect body. | „ |
| ~ Heinrich Harlander explaining why he’s helping Victor on building the Creature. |
Herr Henrich Harlander is a major character in Guillermo del Toro's 2025 film adaptation of the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by the late Mary Shelley. He was an arms merchant who is the uncle of Elizabeth Harlander and the mysterious benefactor for Victor's endeavours.
He was portrayed by Christoph Waltz, who also played Hans Landa in Inglorious Bastards, Benjamin Chudnofsky in The Green Hornet, August Rosenbluth in Water for Elephants, Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers, Mandrake in Epic, Bert Hanson in Horrible Bosses 2, Walter Keane in Big Eyes, Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond rebooted film series, Léon Rom in The Legend of Tarzan, Miles Sellars in Most Dangerous Game and Count Volpe in Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio.
Personality[]
Heinrich Harlander presents himself as a sophisticated gentleman who provided Victor with resources to help build a body to bring back from the dead. However, his true nature is of a desperate man who wants to cheat death because he is dying of syphilis.
His relationship with his niece Elizabeth is unknown, as he is her paternal figure after the deaths of her parents, but he is willing to marry Elizabeth to Victor if he makes the brain transplant to the creature.
History[]
Frankenstein[]
Henrich Harlander is a wealthy weapon's monger who makes his money from war. He is the apparent guardian to his niece, Elizabeth Harlander. He contracted syphilis as a sexually transmitted infection, and it painfully deteriorated his body away over time. Harlander concealed his blighted flesh behind a wig, and presumably his clothes. With his vast wealth, Harlander acquired the lost fifth of the Evelyn tables which displayed the human lymphatic system, the system from which syphilis spreads through the body.
Harlander attended the university hearing of Victor Frankenstein where the scientist showed off a temporarily reanimated corpse and was subsequently expelled. Harlander revealed to Victor that his niece, Elizabeth, was to wed Victor's younger-brother William. Harlander invited Victor to witness his Evelyn table, leading Victor to an epiphany which would lead to him creating life from dead matter. Harlander agreed to fund Victor's experiments with limitless resources in return for a condition which Harlander did not yet identify.
When Victor spent increased time courting Elizabeth, Henrich threatened to pull his funding. Victor then accelerated his process and set about bringing his creature to life with Harlander in the tower laboratory. Victor witnessed the truth of Harlander's condition, and Harlander revealed his condition was to have Victor place his own brain within the creature's body so that he might live on. Victor refused due to knowing that the syphilis would rot away Harlander's brain and prove unsuitable for their creation. Harlander attempted to offer Elizabeth to Victor as incentive for his compliance. In the following skirmish, Harlander fell down the pit at the top of the tower and into the lab, smashing open the back of his skull on the stone floor and killing him.
Victor placed Harlander's body in the tower's cold-box and kept his death a secret from Elizabeth. The body was presumably lost when Victor set the tower on fire.
Trivia[]
- Henrich's name is similar to Henry, who was Victor Frankenstein's childhood close-friend in Mary Shelley's original book. The name Henry (as well as Heinrich) was later used for Universal's adaptation of Victor Frankenstein in the 1930s.
- Harlander has similarities to Dr. Septimus Pretorius from The Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Both are older men who persuade their Victor into collaborating with them and creating life for their own gain. Both are elite characters with psychosexual aspects and undertones in their relationship with Victor. Harlander is also the guardian of Elizabeth, who Del Toro has visually parallel Pretorius' creation the Bride of Frankenstein.
- Waltz was originally rumoured to be playing Pretorius himself.
- Harlander also has some similarity to Ygor from The Son of Frankenstein (1939) and the later Universal sequels. Ygor was a grave-robber who assisted Victor in acquiring the parts needed to make his monster, and plotted to have his brain transplanted from his disabled body into that of the monster. In general pop-culture, "Igor" is thought of as the one who assisted Frankenstein in bringing his monster to life. A similar brain-transplant plot-line was followed by the assistant Karl in Hammer's Frankenstein film series which Del Toro took some influence from.
- Henrich's murder by Victor during the creature's birth parallels Victor's own mother's death as he believed his father to have murdered her then took a role similar to his father in the creature's life.
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 Villains
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