Iron Sky

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"We come in peace!"
—A class of Hitler Youth

A Sci-Fi comedy by the makers of Star Wreck [1] 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.

Tropes used in Iron Sky include:


  • 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 that needs an iPad to handle its computing needs. It has the capability to blow up entire planets with it's main weapon, and blows off about a quarter of the Moon with said gun. 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 removing the iPad that's powering it.
  • America Saves the Day: Subverted. While fighting Nazi zeppelins is good and all, starting a war over Nazi Helium-3 deposits was kind of a dick move...
  • Big Bad: The Moon Führer Wolfgang Kortzfleisch.
  • Big Damn Heroes: During the space battle the U.S.S George W. Bush is finally getting fired back at by the Nazi ships and needs reinforcements but there should be none due to an international treaty that bans creation of armed spaceships. Cue an incoming armada of ships consisting of every major nation in the world, all of which violated that treaty just like the US did.
  • 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: Klaus Adler 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 Renate, who kills Klaus by ramming her heel into his forehead.
  • Compensating for Something: The Götterdämmerung, as pointed out by Vivian.

Vivian: Klaus must have the smallest dick in the entire universe.

Vivian: He fell for the old "one last blowjob" trick ...

Crew member: What about the women and children?
Vivian: The USA does not negotiate with terrorists!

Invasion? Y'all must be trippin'...

Vivian (in the middle of the high-budget space battle): This is beautiful...

A representative: So it was YOU, India!

Narrator: You know what I'm talking about... Motherfucking space Nazis in a film called Iron Sky!

  • 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 Vivian taking revenge on Klaus and the USA waging revenge for the Nazi attack, then the other nations of the world get into the fight back against bullying America...
  • Rule of Cool: Nazis on the moon. With a Doomsday weapon and an army of space zeppelins. Also, every nation in the world (except Finland) has an armed space program to join battle against said space zeppelins.
  • 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.

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*

    • 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
    • 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 Adler crawls towards Renate who tries to stop the Götterdämmerung 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 during their final confrontation at the bridge of Götterdämmerung, "You have destroyed something beautiful", 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 a man-made satellite, orbiting Mars.
  • 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.

Vivian: Obvious and overstated as always, Klaus...

  1. ↑ and several other production companies
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