Dr Hans Glaub, alias Dr Carl Mortner, is a fictional character in the James Bond film A View to a Kill, played by Willoughby Gray.

Willoughby Gray as Carl Mortner in ‘A View to a Kill’.

Biography: Dr Hans Glaub was a Nazi German physician who conducted medical experiments on concentration camp inmates during World War II. One particular experiment would play a major role in the plot of the film—he had pregnant women injected with massive quantities of steroids in an attempt to create “super-children”. The large majority of the pregnancies ended in miscarriage. A few babies were born and grew to be exceptionally intelligent; unfortunately for the survivors, the experiments had a severe side effect—psychosis. One of the babies born from the experiments was the film’s villain, Max Zorin.

After the war, the victorious Western Allies sought to try Glaub as a war criminal, but he was spirited away by the Soviet Union, where he continued his experiments with steroids; the Soviets ordered him to be doping their athletes. Sometime during this period, he took the Mortner alias (in the German release version, Mortner’s former identity was that of a Polish communist named Jan Kopersky). Sometime in the 1960s he had escaped the USSR, which Bond points out was the same exact time Zorin appeared in the West. While not directly mentioned in the film, it is strongly implied that Glaub/Mortner raised the young Zorin, explaining why Mortner is practically the only person Zorin somewhat cares for. He also worked with the adult Zorin, developing a doping program for Zorin’s thoroughbred race horses.

He meets his end shortly after Bond and Zorin have their final fight on the Golden Gate Bridge. He awakens after having been knocked unconscious by Stacey Sutton in Zorin’s airship immediately before the fight. When Mortner sees Zorin fall to his death from the bridge, he reacts violently. First, he pulls out a pistol and fires at Bond and Sutton. Once his pistol runs out of ammunition, he goes into a cabinet, pulls out a small bundle of dynamite, lights the fuse, and walks out toward the cabin door, seeking to throw the dynamite at Bond. Bond quickly reacts, grabbing the axe that Zorin had used in their fight and cutting the mooring rope, which Bond had previously tied to the bridge superstructure.

The shock of the unmooring causes Mortner to lose his balance, forcing him to let go of the dynamite, which rattles around the cabin. The shock also awakens Scarpine; the two struggle to grab the dynamite and throw it out. A now suicidal Mortner grabs the dynamite, but by that time it is too late; the dynamite immediately explodes, killing them and destroying the airship.

See also:

• Bond henchmen