ArkaEvren

FILM · 2012 · FINLAND

Iron Sky

27 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

27 Interesting Facts About Iron Sky

Interesting Facts (19)

  1. #001

    Adler says the Moon Nazi invasion of Earth began at 5:45 in the morning, just like Germany's invasion of Poland that triggered the Second World War.

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  2. #002

    The German customs office would not allow the filmmakers to bring any Nazi costumes and clothing into Germany, but fortunately the producers of Inglourious Basterds helped director Vuorensola by explaining how they had solved the same problem.

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  3. #003

    Alongside the role of Klaus Adler, he has a small part as a mustachioed campaign designer in the scene parodying Downfall (2004). Otto was in the original scene and mirrored his original role perfectly.

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  4. #004

    The Nazis' Unidentified Flying Objects (Reichsflugscheiben) take their names from the operas in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen series: "Rheingold," "Walkure," "Siegfried," and "Götterdämmerung."

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  5. #005

    The original idea was conceived by Jarmo Puskala in a dream. He told director Timo Vuorensola about his dream in a sauna, and Vuorensola said he could only make the film if Udo Kier acted in it and Laibach composed the soundtrack.

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  6. #006

    The huge black-and-white YES! propaganda poster of the United States president was modeled on the posters bearing Hitler's face that the Nazis made for the 1932 presidential elections.

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  7. #007

    Fans of the film contributed fictional movie posters that can be seen in the cinema scene.

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  8. #008

    The Wehrmacht soldiers entering Götterdämmerung imitate Apple's 1984 commercial for the Macintosh.

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  9. #009

    Just before James Washington opens the airlock, there is a hopscotch court in the shape of a swastika on the ground.

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  10. #010

    In a deleted scene included in the Director's Cut, a homeless man speaks Finnish with Renate and Washington after their encounter with the neo-Nazis.

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  11. #011

    The American president resembles Sara Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 2008.

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  12. #012

    The writer credited with the film's original idea appears as the candidate running against the president in the upcoming election. He is seen at the start of the limousine scene in the news feed.

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  13. #013

    When the television news reports the flying saucer attack, the clock reads 9:11 throughout the entire scene.

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  14. #014

    Vivian Wagner's first scene with the campaign team is a homage/parody of the notorious scene from the popular internet meme based on the German film "Downfall," in which people add arbitrary subtitles to Hitler berating his staff in a bunker (in German). The scene in which she calls on "those who haven't" to leave the room, rather than addressing people to stay as in the film, was inspired by the internet meme rather than the film itself.

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  15. #015

    That only Finland observes international rules against turning spacecraft into weapons was a gentle joke by the filmmakers. Although this film was shot in Australia, Germany and the United States, it is a Finnish production.

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  16. #016

    When Washington first meets the Moon Nazis, he tries to calm them by praising everything he knows about German, including a word that comes out as "varvenugen." "Fahrvergnügen" was a slogan used in American TV commercials for Volkswagen in the early 1990s, roughly 30 years before the story's time frame.

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  17. #017

    The warplanes the United States uses to repel the Nazi attack are the Fairchild-Republic A-10 "Thunderbolt II" and the Lockheed Martin F-22 "Raptor." The F-22 is shown with its weapons bays open even when attacking UFOs, because the aircraft's stealth capabilities are largely compromised by external weapons such as missiles and bombs.

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  18. #018

    In the scene where Washington shouts on a street corner, a poster of the Finnish rap artist Petri Nygård can be seen.

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  19. #019

    It is very clear that the character Dr. Richter was inspired by Dr. Emmett Brown ("Doc") from Back to the Future: a similar hairstyle and age; the same anxious, highly theatrical manner; and his absolute admiration for modern technology without his own awareness of it (such as the mobile phone he admires).

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Production Story (1)

  1. #020

    More than 10 percent of the film's financing came from fans. Donors are listed in the credits.

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Easter Eggs & References (3)

  1. #021

    The character name Vivian Wagner refers to Viivi & Wagner, a Finnish newspaper comic strip about a relationship between a woman and a pig.

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  2. #022

    The scene in Vivian Wagner's public relations firm where her staff review the presidential campaign speech is a direct parody of the Downfall (2004) scene in which Hitler discovers he will lose the war. Sergeant Peta even takes off her glasses with a tremor, just as Bruno Ganz did as Hitler in the earlier film.

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  3. #023

    When Renate Richter takes off her helmet after leaving the escape module, the number "SS-1138" can be seen on it, a nod to George Lucas.

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Deeper Meaning (4)

  1. #024

    The radio traffic heard in the scene where spaceships from other UN countries join the battle was entirely crowdsourced. The dialogue was recorded by fans at home and sent to the director.

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  2. #025

    One of the Nazi zeppelins has the registration code Q-N4751, which can be read as kuu-natsi (moon Nazi in Finnish).

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  3. #026

    The symbol the President and Adler adopted for their campaigns is taken from Laibach's album "Volk." Laibach created the music for "Iron Sky."

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  4. #027

    Vivian Wagner's logo is almost identical to Wonder Woman's symbol (a two-layered W with "wings" on the side), but hers has a V representing Vivian as its top letter.

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Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • IMDb IMDb title page (trivia)

Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work