The way to create a good conspiracy theory is to include a hint of the truth. Combine it with a healthy dose of the unknown, and you have a conspiracy on your hands. If the unknown isn’t doing it for you, it can be swapped out for the desire of disbelief. The alternate reality that people choose to believe by mixing these elements can lead to a successful conspiracy theory. It can lead to people believing something profoundly false.
One major conspiracy theory began with World War II. Yes, this theory involves Nazis. The basic idea was that the Nazis developed a missile engine during World War II that Americans wanted their own version of. Following the war’s conclusion, some Nazi engineers were secretly brought to the United States to work on re-engineering it. That eventually led to the United States winning the space race against the USSR with their rocket power. Cleary, to conspiracy theorists, this meant that the Nazis must have had space rockets of their own. They must have used them to relocate to the moon and build a base where they could regroup and build a better army.
That conspiracy theory has been around for decades and served as the inspiration for the 2012 film Iron Sky. Two astronauts landed on the moon and began exploring. They stumbled upon a Nazi moon base. One astronaut was killed and the other, James Washington (Christopher Kirby), was taken hostage to be tested on. He formed a bond with Renate Richter (Julia Dietze), a schoolteacher whose fiancé, Klaus Adler (Götz Otto), was next in line to be Führer. James, Renate, and Klaus went down to Earth on a trip to get battery power for a Nazi warship, and the two Nazis infiltrated the United States government. A war between Earth and the moon was set in motion.
Iron Sky was the ultimate fictional interpretation of the Nazis on the moon conspiracy theory. It played out the idea that they had simply escaped to the moon to regroup for a future war. It showed the colony that they had built, swastika-shaped base and all. Their technology had progressed, though in more of a mad scientist form than the science of Earth. They had created a closed system where the people of the moon colony only knew what the Nazis wanted them to know. They filtered propaganda into the people as truth, teaching them about the world through highly edited media. One example was The Great Dictator, a movie they cut down to a ten-minute short film, removing anything that satirized the Nazi government.
The satire might have been removed from The Great Dictator, but Iron Sky was a satire through-and-through. Political satire was the name of the game. As I already said, the Nazis infiltrated the United States government. They wanted to start a war with Earth and the easiest way was to have the United States president (Stephanie Paul) declare war on the Nazis. They took her campaign manager hostage. The campaign manager decided that their message would be a good message for the president, which basically turned the United States into a new pre-war Nazi Germany. The president, who was an unnamed Sarah Palin surrogate, began preaching Nazi ideology to earn re-election. She was also happy to start a war with the Nazis on the moon because, to paraphrase her words, wartime presidents always get elected for a second term.
All that political satire, whether dealing with the Nazis or Americans, was brought together through the blossoming romance of James Washington and Renate Richter. They were the heart of the movie, allowing the audience to root for somebody. James Washington was a Black model sent to the moon as a part of the president’s re-election campaign. He was captured by the Nazis and his skin was turned white. Then he got brought back to Earth, trying to convince people of what happened to him. He fought to reveal the truth. He knew the threat that was coming to Earth.
Renate Richter was the daughter of a mad scientist. The plan was for her to marry the next in line to be Führer. Her trip to Earth changed her mind. When she saw the full version of The Great Dictator, she learned that she had been lied to. She had grown up in a society that was filtering out anything that went against their messaging. And she had been a part of the problem because she had been teaching students what the Nazis wanted taught.
Washington and Renate bonded when he saved her from being sucked out of an open door in the Nazi moon base. They would bond a little more when she tried to help him while he was being held captive. The thing that solidified their relationship, though, was when they were reconnected on Earth. She found him, he helped her avoid some skinhead thugs, and they saw The Great Dictator. After that, they were a team. Working together to stop the Nazis from destroying Earth with their war machine would solidify the romance that they built.
Iron Sky was a blown up and expanded version of the Nazis on the moon conspiracy theory. It played out the idea to the conclusion that the conspiracy theorists were worried about. The Nazis returned to Earth and began a war. They infiltrated the American government and put their rhetoric back into the world. Part of the moon was blown up. The different world governments set off nuclear missiles, destroying the lives of billions of people. It was a worst-case scenario for the planet, all because some Nazis had fled to the dark side of the moon at the end of the second world war.
More conspiracy theories would be explored in Iron Sky: The Coming Race, a sequel that came seven years after the first movie. The first film was set in 2018. The second film would jump ahead twenty-nine years to 2047. The remnants of human civilization had long left Earth and taken shelter in the Nazi moon base. The Nazi regime had been eliminated during the Nazi-Earth war. The base wasn’t doing well. They were nearly out of resources and would soon die if something wasn’t done. Obi Washington (Lara Rossi), the daughter of James Washington and Renate Richter, went on a mission to Earth to find an energy source that would save the colony.
The first conspiracy theory that Iron Sky: The Coming Race introduced to the franchise was the location that Obi had to visit on Earth. The surface of the planet had been rendered inhabitable following the nuclear war in 2018. That was why the survivors were living among the few former Nazis that remained in the moon base. Obi had to travel into the Hollow Earth, a living world within the world that we know.
The Hollow Earth theory has been around for centuries. It purports that the interior of the Earth is at least partially hollow, allowing for ecosystems below the surface. Some people said that the entire Earth was hollow, others only suggested large hollow areas. It worked its way into many works of fiction throughout the years as a location where adventures could be set. Iron Sky: The Coming Race was one of those types of stories. The Hollow Earth was used as a setting in which some of the characters could go on a wild adventure.
Iron Sky: The Coming Race utilized the Hollow Earth concept in a straightforward way, while at the same time making it interesting. The primary environment within the Hollow Earth was jungle. It was the most basic of adventure settings. There were dinosaurs living and interacting with characters. It wasn’t anything that hadn’t been done better before in other adventure films. The one thing that set it apart, as minor as it was, was the use of direction. When the characters first arrived within the Hollow Earth, they were misdirected by the map they were using. That was simply because the Hollow Earth was on the flip side of the outer Earth. East and West had to be flipped because of the new perspective of the characters.
The other conspiracy theory used in Iron Sky: The Coming Race was lizard people. This conspiracy theory is relatively young, compared to the Hollow Earth theory. It was popularized in the 20th century, though it may have originated before that. The theory goes that many of the people in power throughout the world are, or have been, shape-shifting lizard people that can disguise themselves as human. They worked their way into important positions in society to influence humanity. Politicians, actors, musicians, athletes, and tech moguls have been tossed around as potential lizard people. Anyone famous could be one of them.
Lizard people were referred to as Vril in Iron Sky: The Coming Race. That classification was based on an 1870 novel, The Coming Race, about a man exploring a Hollow Earth type of environment and coming into contact with beings called the Vril-ya. The beings weren’t lizard people. Instead, they had a bunch of parapsychological abilities. They could harness energy, called Vril, which could give them stronger powers than normal. Each of these elements of The Coming Race would influence what happened in Iron Sky: The Coming Race, though it would be a very, very loose inspiration. The psychics were replaced with lizard people. The Vril energy source became a goblet controlling a miniature sun for the Hollow Earth. And that was that.
Aside from the two conspiracy theories, the satire was still present throughout Iron Sky: The Coming Race. The political stuff was still there, through the remaining political figures. They were the lizard people living within the Hollow Earth. There wasn’t too much depth to the satire this time around, though. It was more just goofy representations of famous figures. The real satire came in the on-the-nose religion that the moon base had found during their twenty-nine years off Earth. Dennis (Tom Green) oversaw a religion founded on Apple products, which placed Steve Jobs as their messiah. It was a clear reference to the cult-like following that Apple products have in society. The way that people obsess over the newest iPhone or Macbook would inevitably lead to a religion if left unchecked. It was a satire on consumerism, rather than politics.
Over the course of two movies, the Iron Sky franchise tackled three major conspiracy theories. It began with the Nazis on the moon theory in Iron Sky, which culminated in a nuclear war that left Earth uninhabitable. The surface, at least. Iron Sky: The Coming Race would reveal that there was a world within Earth. The Hollow Earth. That was conspiracy theory number two. The third came from what was found in the Hollow Earth. The biggest influencers were there. Politicians, tech moguls, famous people. They were all lizard people. That was conspiracy number three. Three conspiracies tackled in a big way over the course of two films.
Society thrives upon conspiracy theories. People prefer to hear the more complicated, outlandish tales. They don’t want a simple, factual, grounded explanation for something. They would rather believe some outlandish story and act like people are keeping it secret. The mystery is more entertaining. The most successful conspiracy theories have some truth to them, though. They take the truth and bend it just enough to make things plausible while still not being right. Or, in the odd case, they are right. And that’s why people tend to want to believe them all.
Now for the notes that end every post:
- Timo Vuorensola directed both Iron Sky and Iron Sky: The Coming Race.
- Four actors were featured in Iron Sky and Iron Sky: The Coming Race. They were Julia Dietze, Tero Kaukomaa, Stephanie Paul, and James Quinn.
- Udo Kier was in both Iron Sky movies. He was also in Far Cry (week 364) and Surviving Christmas (week 367).
- Finally, Christopher Kirby played James Washington in Iron Sky. He also had a role in Movie 43 (week 243).
- Have you seen Iron Sky or Iron Sky: The Coming Race? Did you enjoy them? What other movies involving conspiracy theories have you enjoyed? Let me know on Twitter or in the comments.
- The comments and Twitter can also be used to let me know what movies I should be checking out for Sunday “Bad” Movies. If there’s a movie you think would fit, hit me up. Find me and tell me. I like suggestions.
- As always, Sunday “Bad” Movies is on Instagram, if you want to check out some fun clips and pictures and stuff.
- Next week, I’ll be taking a trip to the early 1990s for a television movie about a troubled teen. Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis starred in Too Young to Die?, and it’s going to be the subject of the next post. See you next Sunday!
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