14. Iron Sky Review

The Movie Dump Podcast

So let me get this straight; Nazi’s land on the moon, build up their ranks and weaponry, then come back to earth 70 plus years later to help a Sarah Palin-esk President with her campaign and then take over the world with a super weapon that’s powered by a iPad?! How the hell could this movie fail!

Iron Sky Review

Plot

The film opens with an American manned landing mission returning, in 2018, to the Moon. The lander carries two astronauts, one of them a black male model, James Washington, specifically chosen to aid the President of the United States in her re-election (various “Black to the Moon” word-play posters are seen in the film, extolling the new Moon landing).

Upon landing on the far side of the Moon they encounter the Nazis who have hidden there since 1945. Washington is taken captive and the other astronaut killed. Nazi scientist Doktor Richter investigates Washington and finds his smartphone. Although initially skeptical, he recognizes that its computing power outstrips all their technology combined. Moreover it serves perfectly as a control unit for space battleship Götterdämmerung. When he strives to demonstrate the completion of his Wunderwaffe to the current Führer, Wolfgang Kortzfleisch, the phone runs out of power. Nazi commander Klaus Adler, who is (for genetic reasons) chosen to mate with Earth specialist Renate Richter, Doktor Richter’s daughter, offers to go to Earth to collect more phones. Adler takes a spacecraft to Earth, taking with him Washington, who has been bleached by Richter. Upon landing they find that Renate has stowed away and travelled with them.

Meanwhile on Earth, the President of the United States has to tackle political issues; she desperately needs a miracle to ensure her re-election. Her aide, Vivian Wagner (played by Peta Sergeant), introduces the Nazi couple to her. Adler and Richter go on to revamp the President’s campaign Nazi-style, with apparent success, while the clueless Richter is unaware of Adler’s ambition to become the next Führer and rule the world.

After three months, Kortzfleisch seems to have figured out Adler’s plan. He sends his armada (though without theGötterdämmerung) to Earth orbit. He himself lands on Earth and confronts Adler, but is consequently killed by him and Vivian. Adler declares himself the new Führer before he returns to orbit with Kortzfleisch’s flying saucer. At the same time, Renate Richter comes across the now homeless Washington who makes her realize that the Nazis are in fact cruel and vicious, and intend to wipe out all “subhumans” on Earth.

The United Nations assemble to discuss the extra-terrestrial Nazi threat. The President is excited to finally have a war which will likely get her re-elected, and appoints Vivian Wagner as commander of the spacecraft USS George W. Bush, which orbits the Earth carrying nuclear weapons. As it turns out, most of the other nations have alsodeveloped armed spacecraft, and join in to defeat the invading Nazi armada.

Back on Earth, Richter convinces Washington to come with her back to the Moon to stop Adler. They take Adler’s flying saucer back to the Moon and to the Götterdämmerung, where Washington attempts to disable the engines while Richter goes looking for Adler. Meanwhile, the international spacecraft armada has destroyed the Swastika moonbase and is heading for the Götterdämmerung as well. In the final battle, Washington manages to disconnect the tablet device now controlling the Götterdämmerung while Richter takes out Adler. The spaceship crashes into the Moon, but not before Adler has taken out a considerable chunk of the Moon attempting to get a clear shot at the Earth.

The U.S. President calls Wagner from the UN session, congratulating her on her victory. Wagner discloses that she detected large tanks of Helium-3 on the Moon. This material would keep the United States independent of foreign power sources for a millennium. Consequently the U.S. president immediately lays claim to it. This enrages a white-haired UN member (cameo appearance by “Percy Stuart” Claus Wilcke) who throws his shoe at her. All UN members join the following “meeting hall battle”. This leads to an international turmoil; eventually the international spacecraft of the hitherto allied nations start attacking each other.

Richter meets up with Washington (who regained his natural skin) in the damaged Swastika moonbase, where they embrace in front of Richter’s flabbergasted former students and some adults who have fled there from other parts of the base. Richter states that “[they] have a lotta work cut out for [them]”. The final moments of the film show the Earth, where missiles are causing nuclear explosions across the globe. At the very end of the credits, the planet Mars is revealed with a man-made satellite of undetermined origin in orbit.