Iron Sky is a totally over the top science fiction parody ostensibly about Nazis on the moon who invade Earth. It was produced by Tero Kalkoman and created by a team of independent Finnish film-makers, led by Timo Vuorensola as director. The film is Vuorensola’s first major film project. He is well-known in his homeland, where he’s built a substantial fan base around the low-budget Star Wreck: The Pirkonning parodies which are still very popular on YouTube.

The film is a Finnish-German-Australian co-production, and while the film is ostensibly a SF action comedy, it also serves as biting social criticism. It bravely tries to draw political parallels between Nazis and the American government.

As one would expect in a SF movie about Nazis on the moon, the film is absolutely ridiculous. It’s certainly not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. But the idea is so absurdly inspired that it seems almost foolproof as the basis for “cult movie” status. It’s more along the lines of a cautionary tale (“Nazisploitation?”) combined with outrageous humor and plenty of SF action. Iron Sky has several brilliant moments and a few laugh-out-loud scenes, especially for cynical viewers who can relate to the unflinching mockery of contemporary pop culture.

This sort of ‘in your face’ attitude makes perfect sense, considering the guys who made Iron Sky are all apparently self-taught young film-makers who grew up making movies of their own; true the children of the computer age. Two of the lead roles also required perfect German/English bi-lingual acting skills: another rarity in mainstream cinema.

The film is certainly visually stunning – and the jokes come fast and furious. There are satirical references to James Bond, Downfall, Back to the Future, Star Wars, Dr. Strangelove, and more. The symbolic juxtaposition of Charlie Chaplin’s classic 1940 anti-fascist film, The Great Dictator is one of the few serious references included in the over-the-top comedy.

Set in the near future and shot in classic B-movie style, Iron Sky takes an outrageous concept (Nazis invade New York City from their base on the moon!) and uses that premise to create a spirited critique of hyper-nationalism. A rejection of American cultural hegemony and the value system which it represents is another important subtext in the film. The fact that Iron Sky was not a product of the Hollywood treadmill certainly adds to its uniqueness.

Director Timo Vuorensola seems to enjoy the film’s B-movie status, tip-toeing a fine line between political incorrectness and vulgarity. Who knew the secret Nazi space program evaded destruction at the end of World War II and escaped to the Dark Side of the Moon? Who knew the Nazis even had a secret space program to begin with? All this time they were lying in wait, anticipating the perfect moment to establish the Fourth Reich back to planet earth.

Iron Sky is the kind of movie that the Hollywood studios wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole: A comedy about Nazis? Huh? America is bad? No way. Interracial romance? WTF?!

As such, the film’s producers were forced to go underground for part of their funding. Although the majority of Iron Sky’s €7.5million budget came from traditional sources, close to €1million came via the internet, from fans who simply wanted to see the film made. A trailer released a few days before Iron Sky’s premiere in Berlin in 2010 received a million hits in less than 24 hours. The film-makers made up for a low-budget marketing campaign with a perfectly executed viral attack on social-media sites. The same sources that helped to fund the film also helped to promote it. In the future, social networking support for film-makers should not be underestimated.

There is much about the film which is left to the viewer’s imagination, such as: how did the Nazis build a moon base in the first place, and how did they survive up until now? Those questions are only answered in the short synopsis provided by the film’s distributor:

In the last moments of World War II, a secret Nazi space program evaded destruction by fleeing to the Dark Side of the Moon. In total secrecy, the Nazis construct a gigantic space fortress with a massive armada of flying saucers.

Iron Sky makes no attempt to explain these events in any real depth, however. The average viewer is left to consider the possibilities for themselves. Perhaps a prequel can help fill in some of the blanks. Indeed, the ‘average viewer’ may not be aware that the notion of a secret Nazi space program is not completely unheard of. Nazi flying saucers are a powerful, enduring trope among certain factions of the UFO/conspiracy subculture. The internet is awash with tales of the infamous ‘Nazi Bell’ and the mysterious Vril society, and their attempts to produce functioning interplanetary craft like the Haunebu I and II. Some fringe researchers like Vladimir Terziski and Timothy Green Beckley actually insist that a number of high-ranking Nazis managed to escape after the war; either to a secret underground base in Antarctica (New Swabia), or to the moon itself. An entire Nazi/UFO mythos has been spawned which encompasses Hitler’s escape, high-tech Nazis, and secret bases in Antarctica and on the moon.

There is a growing body of SF literature and popular conspiracy theory linking UFOs to Nazi Germany. These narratives highlight the alleged attempts by Nazi scientists to develop ultra-advanced technology during World War II. They further contend that these craft survived the postwar years in secret somewhere – along with their creators. This urban legend is highly improbable, but certainly fun to speculate on!

The action in Iron Sky takes place in the year 2018. America has a Sarah Palin look alike for President – played by Stephanie Paul. She is literally draped in an American flag when she first appears onscreen, wearing a patterned scarf, riding a treadmill decked out in red, white and blue from head to toe – an astute reference to Hollywood, maybe? Her odious campaign motto is “Yes She Can” – an obvious twist on the current Chief Executive’s empty rhetoric. The President – who oddly is never named in the film – is convinced that resuming the lunar missions will secure her forthcoming re-election. Only her Secretary of Defense (played by the stone-faced Michael Cullen) knows the true military purpose of the missions: to find and harvest all of the Helium-3 on the moon before anyone else can get their hands on it. The President and the rest of the world are unaware that the Fourth Reich has been harvesting Helium-3 for decades at their secret base in preparation for their coming invasion of planet earth.

When the lunar lander ‘Liberty’ gets too close to the Nazi’s secret Helium-3 mine, the white astronaut is summarily executed and the black astronaut is captured and taken to the swastika-shaped moon base for interrogation. The moon-Nazis misinterpret the unwitting arrival of the Americans as their cue for retaliation against earth. They wrongly think their cover has been blown, assuming that the astronaut, James Washington (Christopher Kirby) is a spy.

The opening sequences inside the dull, grey, imposing moon base set the tone for life at the base, and we are introduced to the main character, Renate Richter, an ‘Earthology’ teacher (Julie Dietze). In a telling scene, she shows her students an in-class film, claiming it is “the best ten minutes in the history of cinema.” The film is The Great Dictator, the famous full-length Charlie Chaplin film about a dictator with imperialistic ambitions who uses the Jewish people as a scapegoat for his country’s problems. Iron Sky’s creators envision the moon-Nazis being so hard-up for entertainment they have apparently edited out all of the offending bits until there are only ten minutes of usable propaganda left.

Meanwhile, a ruthless officer, Klaus Adler (played by Götz Otto), forces himself upon our heroine, the idealistic jungfrau, Renate. Klaus tells her she has been chosen to help propagate the master race: there is no need for romance. This sets up the film’s primary love triangle between the perfect Aryan couple and the hip, jive-talking black astronaut.

The aging Moon-Führer Kortzfleisch (Udo Kier) orders Washington’s immediate execution. There is some ambiguity as to whether Fuhrer Kortzfleisch is actually meant to represent Adolf Hitler incognito or not. He certainly looks like the real Führer – without the mustache. The initial lingering shots of the aged Nazi’s wrinkled face seem to indicate that the director wants us to think it’s him.

The possibility that Hitler did not commit suicide but instead survived the war is another powerful trope among conspiracy theorists. A recent book called Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler claims there is ‘overwhelming evidence’ to suggest that Hitler and Eva Braun escaped at the end of the war for a new life in the German-controlled enclave of San Carlos de Bariloche in Patagonia, Argentina. For whatever the reason, the ‘Moon- Führer’ in Iron Sky only insists that his name is Kortzfleisch in later scenes.

Washington manages to escape by sprinting away (of course)! He jumps and seemingly falls to his death into the bowels of the enormous moon base. Still, a warning is broadcast alerting all citizens to be on the lookout for “…a negro. Possibly angry…” James meets Renate while he is on the run and he saves her life when the two of them are nearly blown out of a garbage vent. Some of Renate’s clothes get torn off, revealing her sexy underwear: a foreshadowing of things to come? James tells her she might want to cover herself as he looks away. The ‘outlaw’ motif is common in SF cinema. Several films used this ‘rugged individual / outlaw’ template in some way: Logan’s Run, Soylent Green and Enemy Mine, for example.

This initial meeting between the idealistic Nazi Earthologist and the lowly black astronaut brings issues of race, class and gender relations together in one fell swoop.

Washington is quickly re-captured by the Nazis. Klaus only spares his life when Washington claims he knows the President of the United States. The Nazis decide he could be of use, so they strap James to a gurney and do what Nazis do best: they experiment on him! The chief scientist, who happens to be Renate’s father, injects the astronaut with drugs that turn him into a Caucasian. There is an implication here that many cultures are losing their identity. This idea establishes the tone for the rest of the film, but this message is nearly missed. Washington is reborn as a totally indoctrinated Aryan, so now he can be trusted. James and Klaus (with Renate as a stowaway) travel to earth, intent on acquiring more iPhones: the technological breakthrough needed by the Nazi scientists in order to power their space fleet.

The three Nazis kidnap the President’s press agent, a “fashionista” named Vivian Wagner (Peta Sergeant) and they force her to bring them to the “Mond-Führer.” Predictably, the Nazis fit right in among the president’s administration, and ultimately Renate becomes the President’s speechwriter. Comparisons are made between the rhetoric of Nazi speeches and American presidential campaigns. A famous Hitler poster instead uses the face of the president with the slogan, “Yes!” The connections are obvious. The propaganda campaign is a huge success.

Three months later, Renate runs into James on the street corner, now a scruffy, bearded homeless man, ranting about “Space Nazis.” Renate offers to take James to watch The Great Dictator. Renate has an epiphany when she unwittingly sees the full-length version of the film at the local movie theater. She is disgusted to realize that Chaplin’s film was actually mocking the Führer. James and Renate wind up being arrested after they encounter a group of skinheads following the show. Some of the most hilarious yet poignant dialogue is spoken by James as the two of them are questioned by the cops: “I was on the dark side of the moon, but now I’m back. I was black, but now I’m white…you guys are gonna be so sorry you didn’t listen to me!”

When the moon-Führer hears that his protégé is now in cahoots with the Americans, he unilaterally orders the invasion – the “Meteor-blitzkrieg”- and he personally flies to Earth to dispense justice to the traitor, Klaus. The tables are turned when the Führer and his entire party are gunned down by the vengeful Vivian.

The real fun begins when the Nazis attack the earth in massive zeppelin-shaped mother ships. Klaus returns to the moon base to direct the invasion as the new Führer and all hell breaks loose. James and Renate follow Klaus to the moon base in the abandoned Nazi spacecraft, still sitting in the pot field. From this point on the film is pure SF. The ensuing space battles are seamless, reminiscent of Star Wars and a million other great SF films. The Nazi invasion of the Earth is spear-headed by space zeppelins dragging moon rocks to catapult at the planet. A humongous orbital battle ensues, with the spaceship USS George W. Bush leading the fight for Earth, commanded ironically – in more ways than one – by Vivian. The Nazi battalion is ultimately defeated in Earth orbit, thanks to a global armada of spacecraft. When the president accuses some members of the UN coalition of not arming their ships, only the representative from Finland reluctantly raises his hand – a nod to the Scandinavian country’s well-known pacifism.

Leading the global coalition, America is forced to defend itself against the Nazi invasion. The Nazis are portrayed as “the alien other” in this scenario, as one way to distinguish just how far apart they are in ideology to the rest of the world.

Even though she had previously collaborated with her Nazi friends, the US President gleefully announces that she will now go down in history as a “war president,” as she watches the mayhem unfolds live on television. She doesn’t care how many lives are lost; her only concern is that it will get her re-elected.

Once the Nazi invasion has been successfully repelled, the Earth forces turn their firepower against the moon base, intent on “nuking it back to the stone-age.” Before the final showdown on the moon, Renate confronts Klaus and after a short struggle, Renate kills him by thrusting her red stiletto heel into his forehead. Ultimately, he gets penetrated. Klaus’ demise, in a very un-SF way, is a signifier of female empowerment over male hegemony.

In the film’s climactic scene, the Nazi ‘Death Star,’ named the Götterdämmerung (“Twilight of the Gods”), is destroyed and the allied forces begin nuking the base, still filled with good Nazis who dream of being reborn on Earth. Somebody asks Renate what Earth was like, and all she can say is that it was “different.”

The space carnage concludes as the voice-over of some crazy American televangelist plays in the background, and the music swells dramatically.

Perhaps the most poignant, touching scene in Iron Sky comes at the very end of the film when James is reunited with Renate and he is black again, nappy hair and all. He clutches a bottle of “de-Albinizer” and the two of them embrace. As their world crumbles around them, the tragic lovers finally express their feelings for one another with a deep, soulful kiss. “You are as you should be,” Renate tells him. The message is simple and obvious: if these two people from such profoundly different backgrounds can find true love, why can’t we all get along?

Iron Sky also raises the most important question in SF cinema: “Who are the real bad guys?” The film acts as a mirror on society that challenges us to acknowledge some of the very real problems we face today such as violence, racism and sexism. It doesn’t point fingers at America alone, but it takes aim at the rise of right-wing extremism around the world, and it reminds us that even today there are Nazis among us. Whether they come from the dark side of the moon or from misguided political parties on Earth, the danger to humanity is clear.

Iron Sky is intentionally campy – almost a parody of itself at times – and it plays to a number of cultural stereotypes, directed primarily at the universally-loathed Germans and Americans. The fact that Iron Sky was written and produced in Finland gives it a uniquely ‘European’ view of some American peculiarities. The script is well developed, the humor a little cheesy at times, but generally right on. Michael Kalesniko and Timo Vuorensola wrote the screenplay, based on a story by Johanna Sinisalo and a concept by Jarmo Puskala. Major kudos should be given to the effects and CGI teams, especially cinematographer Mika Orasmaa for some outstanding visual sequences produced on such a tight budget. Production Designer Ulrika von Vegesack paid close attention to detail in costumes, sets, and current pop culture trends.

The best scenes in Iron Sky include some very astute inside jokes specific to Americans, although blatant stereotyping of international ethnicities and prejudices is not simply reserved for them. The scenes at the United Nations are a perfect example of this strategy. Vuorensola pokes fun at everyone. North Korea is openly mocked when they try to take responsibility for the chaos.

There is a lot of smart SF fun to be had in Iron Sky, which nicely blends the director’s comic-book sensibilities combined with B-movie action. The concept is utterly original, to say the least. At times, the dialogue is slightly awkward, but the overall production values and the brilliant special effects belie the film’s relatively small budget – rumored to be around €8.5 million ($14 million). Iron Sky is classic schlock: SF cinema at its finest. The film represents what is potentially a brand-new genre of SF cinema – space Nazis, anyone? – but it is also notable for the jaundiced, darkly cynical and decidedly ‘un-Hollywood’ narrative which lies beneath the slapstick comedy. Within the first few minutes of Iron Sky, however, it becomes apparent why this film wasn’t very popular in America.

Perhaps the most incredible aspect of Iron Sky is the fact that it ever got produced. The internet played a major role in the process. Using the web for movie financing is an increasingly common phenomenon. In Iron Sky’s case, the overwhelming response from online investors meant that the producers were able to get additional funding from traditional financiers because it was already proven that so many people wanted to see the film. Buzz for Iron Sky started to build several years before the film even began production. Vuorensola realized he needed more funding than the original budget called for, so he turned to fans for help, giving them a chance to invest in the film. There are a growing number of websites like Kickstarter aiming to help film-makers find money for their films. Kickstarter works by setting a time limit and a funding goal: if the target is not reached, the money is returned to potential investors.

We will definitely see more of that from independent films in the future.