Huskisson is a character exclusive to Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa, appearing in the flashback that Edward Elric relates to Alfons Heiderich at the beginning of the film. A fairly young but precocious man endowed with great intelligence and even greater arrogance, Huskisson lives in a large, castle-like facility floating in a body of water somewhere south-west of Amestris. There, he works as a nuclear physicist and operates a uranium mine that his establishment was built upon, which has claimed the lives of many of its workers in the proceedings of the uranium extraction. Evidently, the inherent danger of his work has harmed Huskisson himself, as he has extensive facial scars around his eyes, which he hides behind a metal mask.
Huskisson with the uranium bomb
Sometime in 1914, Huskisson perfected and completed work on a powerful new type of bomb fueled by uranium. Hoping to secure the backing of the Amestrian State Military with his accomplishment, he very vocally publicizes his findings, drawing the attention of the Fullmetal Alchemist and his younger sibling. Mistaking Alphonse for his older brother (and it's not an uncommon mistake), Huskisson regales the armored boy with discourse on the recent surge of technological development that has swept Amestris, spearheaded by Huskisson himself, before proudly presenting the uranium bomb itself and requesting a direct introduction to Central Command with the visiting Alchemist before him as an escort. However, much to the surprise of the wayward scientist, Alphonse refuses, denouncing Huskisson's discovery as just another destructive weapon. Angered, the physicist quickly grows violent, accusing Al of refusing a fellow scientist's offer out of fear that even a sample of the latter's innovation would render the craft practiced by State Alchemists useless and then immobilizing the living armor with a booby-trap and attacking him with retractable and stilted mechanical drills that the physicist had hidden underneath his attire. Believing that he has killed his opponent, Huskisson gloats over Al's "corpse" before realizing that the young alchemist's armor is empty, shocking him as something like this defies his understanding of science and logic.
Edward arrives on the scene, revealing that he and his brother never planned on helping Huskisson, and that they only came in hopes of finding something that could help Alphonse and him get their bodies back to normal; that, and shady rumors concerning Huskisson's facility was starting to circulate since he started conducting his research and operations on the mined mineral element there prompted the brothers to investigate. Enraged, the physicist lashes out at the State Alchemist with more drills. However, Ed is able to deflect the deranged man's attacks with his automail right arm. Recognizing Ed as the true Fullmetal Alchemist, Huskisson sets off a smoke grenade and flees to his uranium mine with the bomb in tow, where he operates and uses a massive mining-drill apparatus to battle the Elric brothers. The battle rages for several minutes, but is eventually decided by the overwhelming advantage that Ed and Al's alchemy gives them, neutralizing the drill. Huskisson curses them, saying that were it not for Alchemists like them, physicists would be in leading the country's scientific development and progress, only for Ed to point out that Huskisson's version of advancement in that regard was rather twisted if he was fine with sacrificing people for his aimed accomplishments. The physicist tries to discount this, saying that progress demands sacrifice and the Elrics argue that it was precisely by that unscrupulous ideology that the brothers cannot allow Huskisson's version of science to inspire and be emulated by the erudite in general. Beaten and desperate, Huskisson threatens to set off the uranium bomb. With the Elrics forced into submission by the threat of the weapon, he reveals his backup-plan: to create an army of half-man, half-machine soldiers and use them to conquer Amestris. And as a man of science, Huskisson claims that he too had to study some Alchemy; and it was easy enough for a genius like himself to grasp and comprehend. In order to make this endeavor possible, Huskisson plans to use Alchemy to transmute a large heap of deceased uranium miners, a fact that brings dire warnings from Edward. Ignoring the State Alchemist's pleas, the physicist activates a transmutation circle, drawn on a piece of cloth, and is immediately brought before The Gate for attempting Human transmutation. A bewildered Huskisson is dragged into the waiting arms of the Gate Children, losing his entire body to the void. Explosions rigged by Edward destroy what remains of the facility, sinking any evidence of its misdeeds deep beneath the waves.
Huskisson is not mentioned by name for the rest of the film, and does not appear to have survived the trip to the other side of the gate. His uranium bomb, on the other hand, makes its way into our world, where it is acquired by the Thule Society. The prospect of obtaining more advanced weapons from Shamballa is what initially drives the society to invade the parallel world.
Trivia[]
- Despite his apparent disdain for alchemy, the fact that Huskisson was able to perform a transmutation, however imperfect, that opened the Gate suggests that his alchemical abilities are quite extensive, as even attempting human transmutation is considered to be an extremely difficult task.
- Huskisson's backup-plan is eerily similar to that of the Thule Society, which acts as the film's primary antagonist. Both parties express a desire to conquer Amestris using technologically-enhanced soldiers, with the Society ultimately succeeding and launching a full-scale invasion via the permanent Gate opened by Alphonse Elric.
- Huskisson shares his name with William Huskisson, a 19th-century British statesman who became one of the first people to die in a rail accident when an early locomotive ran over his leg in 1830. Both the real man and the fictional character were killed during events meant to exhibit important new technologies. The connection is further solidified by the physicist's reverent description of the steam engine, which was used to power most locomotives throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.