Anton Bartok
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (April 2008) |
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (April 2008) |
| Anton Bartok | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | The Fly II |
| Last appearance | The Fly II |
| Created by | Jim & Ken Wheat, Frank Darabont |
| Portrayed by | Lee Richardson |
| Information | |
| Species | Human (pre-teleportation) |
| Gender | Male |
| Date of birth | Unknown |
| Date of death | Still living |
| Occupation | Industrialist |
| Relatives | Unknown |
Anton Bartok is a fictional character appearing in the 1989 horror film The Fly II, in which he emerges as the story's primary antagonist. He was portrayed by actor Lee Richardson. Though initially presenting himself as a kindly old man, Bartok reveals himself to be a greedy and self-serving individual who is far more concerned with profit and power than with the preservation of human life. On the DVD commentary track the film's director, Chris Walas, states his belief that screenwriter Frank Darabont wrote Bartok to represent the worst aspects of corporate America.
[edit] The Fly II
In the movie, Bartok is the founder and CEO of Bartok Industries, the company that employed physicist wunderkind Seth Brundle. Despite having him on the payroll, neither Bartok nor any of his employees knew exactly what Brundle was working on. In the first film Seth mentioned that the Bartok people left him alone because "I'm not expensive and they know they'll ending up owning it all, whatever it is." The invention was, of course, the Telepods. In order to insure absolute secrecy Seth contracted the components of the pods out to different people and then assembled them himself, while Bartok simply provided funding. After Brundle's death it was Bartok who helped cover up the true nature of the scientist's fate and then took possession of the telepods. Along with the pods, which he quickly realized as perhaps the greatest invention in the history of mankind, Bartok also discovered that Veronica Quaife was pregnant with the late scientist's child, and there was a very good chance that the fetus may have inherited Brundle's altered genes. Tests confirmed this, and Bartok persuaded Veronica to go through with the pregnancy, assuring her that every care would be taken to insure her safety.
But when Veronica went into labor the exact opposite happened. Bartok, who observed the delivery, was far more concerned with the survival of the baby, and Veronica died during childbirth. Stathis Borans had to be physically removed from the operating theater when he realized that the attending doctors were only making a half-hearted attempt to prevent Quaife's death. Following Veronica's death Borans became a cynical, angry man. With nothing left and no reason to meddle in Bartok's affairs, the duplicitous industrialist bribed Stathis with a good deal of hush money and sent him on his way. Borans had the last laugh, however, as it is revealed in an earlier draft of the script that he removed Brundle's programming discs from the telepods, effectively rendering them useless (this subplot was not integrated into the final film).
Bartok gave strict instructions to his subordinates to treat Martin, as he named the child, as a normal boy, telling them to be kind and patient. At the same time he and his scientists began trying to get the pods to work again, with little to no success. Martin grew very rapidly, reaching full maturity in five years. Bartok managed to convince Martin, who had inherited his father's brilliance, to work on the project, and Martin quickly managed to get the machines working in perfect fashion. Martin was aware that he had been born with abnormal genes (though he was unaware of the full truth of his condition) and was trying to find a way to rid himself of them. He discovered that the only way to do this would be to "swap" his corrupted genetic material with that of a healthy person. The reason that he did not do this, however, was because the other person would be left as a grotesque mutant.
At this point his dormant insect genes awakened, and Martin began to undergo a frightenting transformation. He discovered a videotape of his father talking about the experimental mishap that resulted in his mutation. Bartok told Martin that preparations for this day were made from the moment he had been born. Martin realizes that Bartok has simply been deceiving and exploiting him all of these years, as Bartok believes that Martin will give him an edge in genetic and biological experimentations. Martin escaped from the compound and Bartok sent his agents to hunt for him.
Several days later he received a call from Martin's distressed lover, Beth Logan, who was terrified for Martin. Bartok retrieved both the boy and Beth and took them back to his laboratories. Martin had entered into a cocoon to undergo the final stages of his transformation, but he emerged much sooner than anyone had expected and began a murderous rampage throughout Bartok Industries. Bartok and several of his men barricaded themselves into the main hanger that housed the telepods, but Martin nevertheless managed to get inside. After a lengthy and bloody battle Martin activated the gene-swapping program using the secret code word, "Dad" (Bartok and his men had previously been unable to get the pods to work, as Martin had booby-trapped the computer; the first wrong guess would have activated a tapeworm that would have erased all of the computer's internal programming). A terrified Bartok realized what Martin planned and struggled futilely to escape. Martin dragged the evil tycoon into the transmitter pod with him, and Beth activated the program. When the duo emerged in the receiving pod Martin was fully healthy and normal, while Bartok was left as a pitifully deformed monstrosity. He was then put into a cage and used for scientific experimentation, much as he had intended for Martin.
[edit] Notes
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (April 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
