Fritz Lang

Fritz Lang is a character who appears in Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa. He is the parallel world counterpart of the human being that the 2003 anime's Pride/King Bradley (who is known as Wrath in Brotherhood) was born of. Lang is a Jewish filmmaker residing in Berlin.

History
While driving through Munich, Lang is spotted by Edward Elric, who is struck by his resemblance to King Bradley and manages to follow his car despite being on foot. Edward is able to set up a roadblock further down the road, which forces the car to stop. When Lang's chauffeur gets out to investigate, Edward knocks him unconscious and confronts Lang. The latter is hardly surprised at the ambush, claiming that being a Jew he is used to being confronted by "patriots". He reveals that his left eye over which he wears a monocle is an actual eye, not Bradley's eye with the Ouroboros tattoo in place of the pupil and cornea. Although Edward is disappointed, Lang reveals that he is searching for a dragon to use as inspiration for one of his movies and is on his way to an abandoned castle where the dragon was last sighted. He asks Edward to drive them there as the chauffeur is still unconscious.

At the castle, Lang hands Edward a lamp and a pistol and the two split up. Edward finds the dragon, which turns out to be Envy in his dragon form. The two are captured when the Thule Society, also after the dragon, raids the castle. However, Karl Haushofer, a friend of Lang's and member of the Thule Society who is supervising the operation, discovers that they have captured Edward Elric, they knock Edward out and leave him, presumably doing the same with Lang.

A little while later, Lang calls up Edward at his residence in Munich and asks to meet him in Berlin at UFA, the main film studio in Germany. There, Lang shows him an animatronic dinosaur on a set which seeing Envy helped make more lifelike. Lang also shows Edward a photograph of the uranium bomb, which he recognizes. The bomb had made it through the Gate after the physicist failed a human transmutation. He also tells Edward about the Nazi Party and their plans, so Edward will stay out of trouble and not try to stop them. Lang himself is monitoring the Nazis because of his wife's interest in them. He says that he chooses to avoid reality by not trying to stop the Nazis from starting a war. Edward yells at Lang, accusing him of acting like he's too good for the world, and then walks out of the studio.



Back in Munich when Edward is at the beer hall and finds himself surrounded by Nazi Party members including the parallel world counterpart of Maes Hughes, Lang rescues him by crashing his car into the beer hall and telling Edward to get in. He also flies Edward above the factory where the Thule Society is planning to open the portal to Shamballa so that the latter can jump from the plane and crash land into the factory and confront them. Later, as he observes the Nazis getting rounded up, he remarks to himself that another conflict is inevitable, and he will be there to film it. Lang's eventual fate is unknown. If the film version of Lang is supposed to be from "our" world, he would have left Germany shortly after the Nazis took power.

Trivia

 * Lang is based on an Austrian-American filmmaker of the same name. The choice for Bradley's parallel world counterpart to be Fritz Lang probably was not arbitrary, as Lang was known as a ruthless director who did outrageous things to his actors in the pursuit of a perfect artistic product. Further paralleling the historical Lang, the character also wears a monocle on his left eye and his wife sympathizes with the Nazis.


 * He uses the alias "Mabuse" before Edward eventually finds out his real name from a newspaper. Mabuse is the master criminal of three of Lang's films: Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922), The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), and The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960). This reference by the film may be a nod to the 2003 anime's Pride in that although his human equivalent is not dangerous or antagonistic (to Edward, at least), he still engages in deception and mind games.