Iron Sky



""We come in peace!""

- A class of Hitler Youth

A Sci-Fi comedy by the makers of Star Wreck about Moon Nazis invading Earth in the year 2018. It premiered at the Berlinale Film Festival on February 11th, 2012, and released to theaters on April 4th.

The history: In the year 1945, Nazi scientists under Hans Kemmler develop revolutionary anti-gravity technology at a secret base in Antarctica. While the technology offers an enormous advantage in many fields, it came too late to save the Axis cause. The last representatives of the Third Reich construct saucer-shaped spaceships using the anti-gravity technology and retreat to the dark side of the moon. There, they establish a new base, Schwarze Sonne (Black Sun), and spend 70 years developing new technology and preparing for a full invasion of Earth.

Meanwhile on Earth, things have been going about as normally as you'd expect. After the apparent defeat of the Third Reich there was the Cold War, the Space Race, various social upheavals, unpopular wars, technological revolutions, economic rollercoasters, a Sarah Palin expy got elected President...

And now the United States is ready to send a man back to the Moon.

This can only end well.

---

"Vivian: Klaus must have the smallest dick in the entire universe."
 * All There in the Manual: How the Nazis got the moon, for starters.
 * Allohistorical Allusion: In one of the trailers the Nazis are shown landing on the moon, unfurling a flag on a fixed flagpole, saluting the audience, and even draws similarities to the "Small Step For Man" line.
 * Assault on Earth begins on 5:45 a.m., not unlike German invasion of Poland that started World War Two.
 * A Nazi by Any Other Name: Vivian bases the President's re-election campaign speech on Renate and Adler's Nazi rantings.
 * Awesome but Impractical: The Nazi Death machine, the Götterdämmerung AKA the biggest war machine ever built by mankind. It's a ridiculously sized (not to mention constructed) flying engine of destruction  It has the capability to blow up entire planets with it's main weapon,   However, the weapon system has to be manually reset and reloaded after every shot, which obviously takes a while. Also, it can easily be rendered powerless by
 * America Saves the Day:
 * Big Bad: The Moon Führer Wolfgang Kortzfleisch.
 * Big Damn Heroes: During the space battle
 * The Big Board: The Nazis have some kind of operations room to plan their invasion, and we see Wolfgang Kortzfleisch playing with the models like a 5 year old plays with his plastic army men.
 * Bling of War: ordering "a uniform fit for a Führer". Later we see him in a uniform trimmed with an excessive number of chains.
 * Also Vivian Wagner's inexplicable feather-trimmed catsuit, which she wears on the bridge of the USS George W Bush.
 * Bound and Gagged: Vivian -- it doesn't stop her talking.
 * Clothing Damage: Renate gives the audience some gratuitous Fan Service when the airlock is opened.
 * Combat Stilettos: Weaponized by, who kills   by ramming her heel into his forehead.
 * I guess she just... Meh, too easy.
 * Compensating for Something: The Götterdämmerung, as pointed out by Vivian.
 * Compensating for Something: The Götterdämmerung, as pointed out by Vivian.

"Vivian: He fell for the old "one last blowjob" trick ..."
 * Cool AirStarship: Spaceships resembling zeppelins. Intrigued yet?
 * Death by Sex: Klaus and Vivian, almost. Also:

"Crew member: What about the women and children? Vivian: The USA does not negotiate with terrorists!"
 * Death by Woman Scorned:, who made the mistake of scorning two women.
 * Downer Ending: Quite so,
 * Except
 * Irony:
 * Evil vs. Evil:
 * Eagle Land
 * Einstein Hair: Doktor Richter
 * Epileptic Trees: Invoked - The movie is based on the idea the most outrageous Nazi conspiracy theories are actually true.
 * Evil Tower of Ominousness: Schwarze Sonne is a giant swastika.
 * Fantastic Racism: Moon Führer Wolfgang Kortzfleisch sees all humans on Earth as sub-humans that must be eliminated from Earth.
 * Five-Bad Band:
 * Big Bad: Moonführer Kortzfleisch.
 * The Dragon: Klaus Adler, also The Starscream.
 * Evil Genius: Dr Richter.
 * The Brute: The Nazi Soldiers.
 * The Dark Chick: Renate Richter
 * Flying Saucer: The staple transport of the Nazis, working something like a Space Tank in terms of armament.
 * Fun with Subtitles: Overly Long Title gags and spelling mistakes that get corrected on screen.
 * Gas Mask Mooks: The Nazis are seen wearing these as they load up into their flying saucers.
 * Groin Attack: With a hilarious reaction to boot!
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * Herr Doktor: Doctor Richter, naturally.
 * Historical In-Joke: The Russian throwing his shoe at the UN conference.
 * Homage: Vivian shouting at her employees is very similar to the infamous Hitler ranting scene from Downfall.
 * Incurable Cough of Death: Kortzfleisch seems to get long bouts of coughing whenever someone greets him with "Heil Hitler!"
 * Interrupted Intimacy / Engineered Public Confession
 * Ironic Echo: intertextualist echo on a Shout-Out line: after Vivian orders her crew to fire the nukes on Schwarze Sonne, they hesitate:
 * Ironic Echo: intertextualist echo on a Shout-Out line: after Vivian orders her crew to fire the nukes on Schwarze Sonne, they hesitate:

"Invasion? Y'all must be trippin'..."
 * Jive Turkey: from a black man, naturally.

"Vivian (in the middle of the high-budget space battle): This is beautiful..."
 * Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Before leaving, the Nazi elite kill off all excess people in the Antarctic base as to leave no evidence warning of their return.
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall:

"A representative: So it was YOU, India!"
 * Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Renate.
 * Meaningful Name: The Nazi spaceships are named after the operas of Wagner's Ring Cycle.
 * Missing Trailer Scene: Kortzfleisch playing with his models, among others.
 * My Name Is Not Hitler: History has moved on, with the need for a different reich on the moon, after all.
 * Next Sunday AD: The movie was screened in 2012 and is set in 2018.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: The US President is a Sarah Palin lookalike, and personality-wise seems to take some cues from George W. Bush, after whom she named her country's militarized spaceship.
 * No Mere Windmill: The flying saucer space Nazis are very real, but when a certain hobo tries to warn people about the threat they all just think he's crazy.
 * No Swastikas: Averted.
 * Even subverted when Indian politician tries to hide his traditional swastika-adorned ring.

"Narrator: You know what I'm talking about... Motherfucking space Nazis in a film called Iron Sky!"
 * Not Distracted by the Sexy: Klaus manages to shrug off Vivian's advances, and she does not take it well.
 * Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Dr. Richter may be a Nazi quack, but you have to give the man credit for
 * Once More, with Clarity: In-universe: Renate teaches her students on the moon that The Great Dictator is a ten minute short film showing how Adolf Hitler wished for peace and unity across the globe. After Renate arrives on Earth, she tries to convince Washington of Hitler's "message" by taking him to a theatre playing the movie. Too bad Earth's copy of the film isn't edited...
 * Orion Drive: The USS George W. Bush seems to be designed with one. Might explain the sh*t ton of nukes it was carrying.
 * Overly Long Title: some of the Moon Nazi military titles spoof Actual Nazi military titles with glee. One of them is long enough to take a full row in subbing.
 * Playing with Syringes
 * Precision F-Strike: From the recent trailer:

"Klaus Adler: What is this device? *holds up a smartphone* Washington: Oh that? That's my kickass cellphone... and a computer. Doktor Richter: That... is not a computer. *Gilligan Cut* Zis is a computer! *Motions to a room-sized Zuse computer*"
 * Recycled in Space: Nazis, ON THE MOON.
 * Rescue Romance: Washington stops Renate from being blown out into space when he unwittingly opens an airlock door.
 * Riding the Bomb: Very briefly towards the end of the movie.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The movie is, ultimately, all about this; first with the Nazis wanting revenge on Earth, then
 * Rule of Cool: Nazis on the moon. With a Doomsday weapon and an army of space zeppelins. Also, every nation in the world
 * Running Gag: Moon Führer Kortzfleisch is annoyed when his subordinates salute him with "Heil Hitler!"
 * Screen Shake: In the USS George W. Bush, when fired upon, the entire ship shakes in a way reminiscent of another show...
 * Schizo-Tech: The Nazis have a secret moon base, flying saucers, GIANT space zeppelins, and Helium-3 fusion power, but they're still using trenchcoats, motorcycles, and MP-40 submachine guns.
 * In their defense, those must be some advanced trenchcoats and motorcycles to work on the moon's surface.
 * The creators have been Shown Their Work; the moon motorcycle runs on biodisel distilled from the waste of a hydroponic greenhouse, and has a separate oxygen tank to allow it work in the vacuum. The official explanation is the motorcycle engine is converted to run on hydrogen peroxide monopropellant. Peroxide is introduced into the cylinder via a catalytic nozzle, which turns liquid peroxide into superheated steam and replaces the combustion in power stroke. Peroxide is run through hollow cylinder liners which act as regenerative coolant jackets.
 * Also they wear their trenchcoats over pressurized suits.
 * Secret Weapon: In violation of the UN treaties, every major nation turns out to have one or several secret militarized spaceships... apart from Finland.
 * Selective Obliviousness: The Nazis are very confident in their technological levels.

"Vivian: Obvious and overstated as always, Klaus..."
 * Justified, provided they are closed community cut from all information about Earth. They missed the invention of transistors, but have Helium-3 (presumably fusion) power-plants and anti-gravity engines. Also, Metallic Hydrogen ordnance.
 * Sequel Hook: after dealing with Moon Nazis for the entirety of the film, the final shot of the film shows the Moon eclipsing the sun, which slowly pulls back to show an Earth riven by nuclear war, until finally it pulls back far enough that Mars appears at the bottom of screen. Hmm... the Red Planet, huh?
 * Shout-Out: Including
 * Der Untergang
 * Vivian's first scene is a recreation of the famous Downfall rant.
 * Dr. Strangelove
 * If you look again closely at the first shot of the Earth fleet, there's a little blue box that you might have missed...
 * Plenty to Wagner, from the ship names to some of the musical themes.
 * The scene where  is accompanied by the shark theme from Jaws.
 * The Australian satellite is named the Dundee Irwin.
 * Star Trek, in design of the USS George W Bush's bridge and in the way the whole crew stumbles about whenever they get hit.
 * The line Adler says to Renate  likely refers to the similar line from Fight Club, "I felt like destroying something beautiful".
 * This isn't the first time we've had a Nazi complex shaped like a swastika.
 * Steampunk: Having adapted separate from our own technological advancements, the grim, pistons-and-gears approach towards spaceship design, particularly the Götterdämmerung, gives this feel as a stark contrast to the more traditional approach to Twenty Minutes Into the Future that Earth has grown with.
 * Super Breeding Program: Brought up by Klaus Adler as a rather unromantic way of telling Renate Richter that he wants her babies.
 * The Starscream: Adler.
 * The Stinger: The camera continues to zoom out during the closing credits until it stops at
 * Stupid Jetpack Hitler: Oh, boy...
 * Sucking-In Lines: at least one Earth space laser weapon does that.
 * Supervillain Lair: Schwarze Sonne, a swastika-shaped Nazi base ON THE MOON.


 * Those Wacky Nazis: Wackyer than ever.
 * Toilet Humor: Notice the dove on the teaser poster.
 * Tomato in the Mirror: Washington isn't aware he's been turned into a blue-eyed white man until he encounters some gangbangers.
 * Twenty Minutes Into the Future: Well, in 2018, to be precise.
 * Villain Protagonist: The comics are told from the Nazis' POV.
 * Wave Motion Gun: The Russian ship, the re-purposed MIR space station, seems to have a giant laser mounted on.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Invoked in one of the trailers.
 * Wide-Eyed Idealist: Renate really believes that national socialism is all about bringing peace, cooperation and unity. She was apparently never told about real outcome of the World War Two.
 * Woman Scorned: Do not ever piss off Vivian. She even quotes the preceding line of the poem (Hell hath no fury).
 * Moon Zeppelins: They carry Nazi UFOs and drag asteroids behind them.