Iron Sky: The Coming Race

Iron Sky: The Coming Race is a 2019 Finnish-German comic science fiction action film directed by Timo Vuorensola. The sequel to Vuorensola's 2012 film Iron Sky, its production was crowdfunded through Indiegogo. Like its predecessor, the film mixes political themes with repeated allusions to the popular culture and various conspiracy theories, but is generally more action-adventure oriented. A major inspiration of the content (and title) is the Vril conspiracy theory.

Iron Sky: The Coming Race
Theatrical film poster
Directed byTimo Vuorensola[1]
Produced by
Screenplay byDalan Musson[1]
Story by
Based on
Characters
by
Starring
Music byLaibach
CinematographyMika Orasmaa[1]
Edited byJoona Louhivuori
Production
company
Iron Sky Universe
120dB Film Finance
Distributed by101 Films[2]
Scoundrel Media
Release date
  • 16 January 2019 (2019-01-16) (Finland)
Running time
92 minutes[2]
Country
  • Finland
  • Germany
  • Belgium
Language
  • English
  • German
Budget€17 million[3]
(US$10–25 million[2])
Box office$400,000 (excluding Finland)[4]

The plot follows a group of nuclear holocaust survivors living in an abandoned Nazi base on the far side of the Moon. Boarding a barely-functioning spacecraft, they travel to the nucleus of the hollow Earth in an attempt to recover the Holy Grail from a group of reptilian shape-shifters who are led by Tyrannosaurus-riding Adolf Hitler.

Produced on a budget of 17 million euros, The Coming Race is the most expensive Finnish live-action picture ever made. The production suffered from repeated delays and a two-part copyright dispute, with a Finnish court denying that copyright even existed in the subject matter of the case apart from one 3D model, the Japanese Ship. The second half of the case was a counterclaim by the production companies to sue the original Iron Sky 3D artists for continued use of their work. The court ruled that the production companies had not shown any evidence of copyright ownership themselves and dismissed the counterclaim.[5]

The Coming Race was released on 16 January 2019 in Finland, but performed very poorly in the box office. Most reviews were negative, citing problems such as unidimensional characters, low-quality CGI, dated jokes, and confused script. The self-conscious ludicrousness of the storyline divided critics, with some finding it amusing while others criticized it as disorienting and unfunny. Lara Rossi's and Udo Kier's performances received some praise, otherwise the film is generally considered one of the worst films ever by critics.

Plot

The year is 2047, 29 years after the nuclear war immediately following the battle between the Earth and Moon Nazis rendered the planet inhospitable. The last survivors have rallied together on "Neomenia", the former Moon Nazi base on the far side of the moon, struggling to coexist with the former Moon Nazis who also live in the base. Over the years, the base has started to deteriorate, due to overpopulation and the damage on the moon caused by the battle. Meanwhile, Jobsism, a cult formed around the teachings of Steve Jobs and their leader, Donald, has become the moon base's official religion.

Obi Washington, daughter of James Washington, who's since passed away, and Renate Richter, has spent her life keeping Neomenia's life support systems functional. While examining a Russian refugee ship, she encounters Wolfgang Kortzfleisch, the long-presumed-dead former Moonführer, who gives her Vrilia, the cure to Renate's terminal illness. When Renate's health is restored, Kortzfleisch reveals to Obi that he is a Vril, a race of Reptilians that arrived on Earth during the age of the dinosaurs. While studying the primates that emerged during prehistory, Kortzfleisch created humankind by injecting Vrilia into an apple and feeding it to his monkeys, Adam and Eve. The Vril have since gone underground to the center of the Earth once mankind had evolved. Kortzfleisch offers Obi a mission to travel to the subterranean city of Agartha and take the city's Vrilia to ensure the survival of her colony. Obi, along with the refugee ship's pilot, Sasha, security officer Malcolm, and the Jobsists, fly to Earth and crash in the Hollow Earth.

In Agartha, the Vril, who have been parading around as world leaders throughout history, kill the President of the United States for making the surface world uninhabitable. The Jobsists and Malcolm are captured by Steve Jobs and brought to Adolf Hitler, and Donald offers Hitler the whereabouts of Kortzfleisch in exchange for the Jobsists to live in Agartha, only for Hitler to betray them and have Jobs eat the Jobsists. Meanwhile, Obi and Sasha take the Holy Grail, the source of the Vrilia, but cause Agartha's sun to collapse and destroy the city. Malcolm escapes from captivity and rejoins Obi and Sasha before they fly back to Neomenia. Hitler launches the Vril spaceship out of Antarctica to follow them. Upon the trio's arrival, Kortzfleisch holds Renate hostage for Obi to surrender the Holy Grail, but Hitler and his tyrannosaurus, Blondi, invade the moon base. After drinking from the Holy Grail, a rejuvenated Renate confronts and kills Hitler, but is mortally wounded by Kortzfleisch. Obi, Sasha, Malcolm, and the surviving inhabitants escape in an old ship, but Kortzfleisch chases after them. Using Sasha's old Nokia 3310, Obi hacks into Donald's iPhone, triggering the self-destruct mechanism and destroying the Vril spaceship.

During dinner, Malcolm comes out as gay, but collapses and seemingly dies from allergens in the food. Both he and Renate are given a space funeral, but Malcolm suddenly gets out of his coffin, revealing that he only went into a short coma, a condition he's had since childhood. As the ship makes its long travel to Mars, Obi and Sasha express their love for each other.

In a mid-credit sequence, it is revealed that Mars has been colonized by the Soviet Union.

Cast

Production

On 20 May 2012, Tero Kaukomaa, producer of the first film, announced that there were plans for a prequel and a sequel but refused to disclose details.[6] In May 2013, Vuorensola announced that Iron Sky would have a sequel titled Iron Sky The Coming Race. He also mentioned that unlike the first film, this installment would be completely funded by fans via Indiegogo, with an estimated budget of US$15 million. A promo video was shot for the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and the final draft of the script was scheduled to be published by the end of 2014. Filming was expected to begin in 2015.[1] In July 2013, Vuorensola revealed Croatia as one of the proposed shooting locations.[7] In February 2014, Dalan Musson signed in to write the screenplay. The Finnish Film Foundation and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg had come on board to finance the US$13 million project.[8] On 5 November 2014, Iron Sky Universe launched another crowdfunding campaign to raise US$500,000 before 20 December.[9] At the closing of the campaign on 5 January, contributors pledged a grand total of US$560,949.[1]

On 22 November 2014, Lloyd Kaufman of Troma Entertainment confirmed having a cameo role in the film.[10]

On 18 September 2015, Vuorensola announced that filming would commence at AED Studios in Belgium.[11]

In October 2016, Timo Vuorensola launched a new crowdfunding campaign to fund special effects for out-of-budget scenes that were in danger of being left out from the final cut of the movie. The scenes included the deaths of reptilian Margaret Thatcher and Pope Urban II.

In the spring of 2017, the company responsible for the effects revised its cost calculations, and suddenly $2.5 million was missing from the film's budget. Due to the delay, one of the film’s major funders, Universal Studios, which was also one of the distributors of the first film, withdrew from the project, and the entire production had to be suspended.[12] The project had to stand still for 1,5 years before it was finally completed in 2019 with Chinese funding.[13]

In the summer of 2017 a number of original Iron Sky VFX artists filed a suit in Finland against Iron Sky Universe Oy and Blind Spot Pictures Oy. "The plaintiffs claim their creative contribution to the Iron Sky franchise is such that they should also be considered as joint copyright holders of the original movie."[14] In May 2018, the Finnish market court ruled that the artists have no copyright under sections 2, 6 and 46a of the Finnish copyright act in relation to Iron Sky and its material.[15] The court awarded copyright to a single artist in the case of a Japanese ship design used in the film, but ruled that the copyright for only that ship had legally transferred to Blind Spot Pictures. In addition, the production companies filed a counterclaim asking the Finnish Market Courts to confirm that the VFX artists had no copyright in the films or in any material made by them and that the VFX artists had no right to use any material related to them. However, Finnish Market Courts rejected the production companies counterclaim.[5]

Themes

Like its predecessor, the movie refers to several motifs of post-war Esoteric Nazism, such as the Hollow Earth theory. The movie's title is most likely a reference to Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel The Coming Race (1871) that is commonly regarded as the origin of the so-called Vril myth. The film teaser features the Vril symbol that was designed by the Tempelhofgesellschaft in the 1990s.

Release

Release was originally announced for 14 February 2018,[1] but had been postponed to 22 August 2018 in Finland followed by the rest of the world soon after, if not the same time.[16] However, according to reports in the Finnish press, the release date of 22 August 2018 had been cancelled.[17] It was later announced that the film was scheduled to be released on 16 January 2019 as the Fan World Premiere in Helsinki, Finland.[18]

Reception

Box office

The film did not do well in the box office. In Finland, it had close to 32,000 viewers, less than one-fifth of the previous film.[19] International total box office (excluding Finland) by July 2019 was less than US$400,000.[4]

In Finland

Following its premiere on January 16, 2019 in Helsinki, Finland, Iron Sky: The Coming Race attracted hostile reviews.[20] Common criticisms included superficial characterization, poor special effects, self-conscious absurdity of the script, and the fact that its humor was badly dated as a result of the repeatedly delayed premiere. Lara Rossi in the lead role received some praise, however.

Juho Typpö of Helsingin Sanomat called Iron Sky: The Coming Race an ”awfully bad movie”, awarding it one star out of five. The comedy built upon ”crazy and ludicrous twists” fails to entertain or amuse, and the entire film ends up being ”but a big joke” that provides the audience no reason to care. The potential of once-topical themes (such as Sarah Palin and Steve Jobs) was lost due to the prolonged production, and even the budget of 20 million — an all-time record for a Finnish live-action movie — was seemingly wasted, resulting in confined set-pieces and CGI of uneven quality.[21] Jouni Vikman of Episodi also gave the film one star, criticizing The Coming Race for its ”old jokes that would not have been funny even if they were new”. The special effect sequences, supposedly the main attraction, were too brief to his tastes and ”reminiscent of a tawdry TV-series”. According to Vikman, ”the veteran actors Udo Kier and Tom Green only manage to survive by ignoring their surroundings”. On the other hand, he was impressed by Lara Rossi, especially considering the fact that most of the scenes were filmed in front of the green screen.[22] Jonni Aromaa from Yle News said Iron Sky: The Coming Race was one of the worst films he had ever seen, citing problems such as cardboard characters, subpar dialogue, unfunny humor, and low quality of the dinosaur effects. He was particularly critical of the screenplay: ”Why on earth was the script written by the American Dalan Musson, a friend of Vuorensola’s? Was it really so that no one else was available on this planet?”[13]

Other reviews were more positive. Tapani Peltonen from V2 awarded Iron Sky: The Coming Race two stars out of five, describing the film as a ”wild and free” alternative to the homogenous mass of calculated Hollywood productions, but remarked that many such alternative productions — The Coming Race included — struggle with even the very basics of filmmaking, failing to flesh out characters that captivate the audience's interest. Helinä Laajalahti from Muropaketti gave the film three stars of out five and lauded it for its ambition. She, however, noted that ”the abundance of details and references embedded in the story threaten to turn against itself” and felt the film would have benefited from a more focused approach.[20] Janne Kaakko of Aamulehti called the film a sequel that managed to be even more ”colorful, crackpot, and nerdy” than the original, giving it three stars out of five.[23] Martta Kaukonen of Me Naiset likewise awarded the film three stars and said it was as entertaining as the original Iron Sky. She enjoyed the ”delicious” characterization and praised Kier's dual role.[24]

Abroad

Foreign reviews were generally negative as well. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 29%, based on 7 reviews.[25]

Sophie Monks Kaufman of The Guardian gave the film one out of five stars, calling it a ”scattershot, stakes-free, self-consciously wacky space comedy”. She criticized its unidimensional characters and superficial script, noting a tendency to introduce illogical elements with little relation to the rest of the plot, seemingly for the sake of sheer surrealness. Nonetheless, Kaufman praised Lara Rossi's committed performance ”as a grounding presence in a gravity-free spectacle”.[26] Noel Murray of Los Angeles Times called The Coming Race a ”goofy science-fiction picture”. While alluding to contemporary concerns such as the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, the film — not unlike its predecessor — remains unable to provide actual satire and invokes provocative themes merely as a means of attracting curiosity. Murray described The Coming Race ”frustratingly unfocused” both as a story and as a commentary of the modern era. Just the same, he found the hollow Earth sequence ”suitably wacky”.[27] Joey Magidson of Hollywood News noted the potentially entertaining premise, but concluded that the film was "largely a bore and a mess". He awarded the film 1.5 stars out of 4.[25] Brian Orndorf of Blu-ray.com called the film "noisy and unfunny" and gave it 3 stars out of 10. Orndorf's criticisms included "pawing at [...] obvious political targets" and "relentless absurdity".[25]

On the other hand, Samantha Nelson, writing for The Verge, enjoyed the ”uniquely bizarre form of movie magic”. She found the film mostly void of the original's ”dark political comedy”, being more focused on campy adventure and absurd expositions delivered by Udo Kier. The storyline offers "plenty of opportunities for spectacle" and comedic commentary of film tropes, and the special effects show significant improvement over those in the first film. On the downside, The Coming Race’s high-speed plot prevents it from giving necessary focus on any single theme.[28]

Aftermath and future of the franchise

Before the film was released, a third film, called Iron Sky: The End Game, which would have made the Iron Sky films a trilogy, was in a planning stage.[29]

During Autumn of 2019 there were many complaints from crowdfunding participants that Iron Sky Universe were not fulfilling their delivery of promised crowdfunding perks from the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform.[30] Eventually, on November 5, 2019 Iron Sky Universe placed an update citing, "very challenging financial situation for the company", and saying that physical discs of the film may not actually be delivered at all. "However we can not make promises when the physical discs are coming, or if they're coming at all."[31]

Blind Spot Pictures, the main production company for Iron Sky 2012 has been declared bankrupt since 17 September 2019.[32][33][34]

During September 2020, Iron Sky 3D artist Trevor Baylis answered questions related to the future of the Iron Sky franchise on the Iron Sky "subreddit" r/ironsky and gave some insight to the legal problems behind the scenes using the username 'trevileo'.[35] According to Baylis, due to the Finnish Market Courts failure to clarify copyright issues related to Iron Sky, this created a break in the Chain of title of copyright ownership documentation. Additionally, the situation was made worse by the Producers themselves failing to provide any evidence of copyright ownership to the courts which led to the Producers counterclaim being rejected.[5]

Additionally, during the 2020 Helsinki Film Festival, Baylis took part in an Industry Panel related to film copyrights. Along with film producers and legal experts Baylis spoke about the contract problems associated with Iron Sky. In his comments he talks about how the Producers made a mistake of thinking there was a Work for hire doctrine in Finland when in fact, as mentioned by the expert panel, such a doctrine does not exist in Nordic countries as it mainly relates to United States law. Instead in Finland, employees can remain owners of copyrights. A salient fact as Baylis points out which contributed to both films distribution problems especially as many people worked without contracts creating 3D models for large parts of the first film's production.[36]

Baylis concludes that because the producers do not have Chain of title for Iron Sky that it will be problematic to get legal distribution or raise funding for future projects.[35]

Iron Sky Universe filed for bankruptcy

Finnish news reported on 13 October 2020 that Iron Sky Universe, the production company behind Iron Sky franchise, has been filed for bankruptcy in Finland. This was also confirmed by Iron Sky Universe the same day.[37][38] Timo Vuorensola himself also confirmed that Iron Sky Universe had been filed for bankruptcy, "The production company of Iron Sky, called Iron Sky Universe, one which I jointly set up with Tero, is going under."[39]

References
  1. "Iron Sky: The Coming Race". Indiegogo. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  2. "Iron Sky – The Coming Race". cinando.com. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  3. "Iron Sky sequel is set to be filmed with a record-breaking 17 million euro budget". www.ironsky.net. Archived from the original on 11 December 2015. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  4. "Iron Sky: The Coming Race (2019}". The Numbers.
  5. "MAO30218". IPR University Center (in Finnish). Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  6. Blind Spot plans prequel and sequel to Iron Sky 20 May 2012. Geoffrey Macnab. ScreenDaily
  7. Vuorensola, Timo; Karinen, Kalle (photographer) (2 July 2013). Director's Update – From the Center of the Earth! (Web video). Croatia: Energia Productions. Event occurs at 01:50. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  8. Keslassy, Elsa (5 February 2014). "Berlin: Dalan Musson to Write Sequel to 'Iron Sky' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  9. Roxborough, Scott (6 November 2014). "AFM: 'Iron Sky: The Coming Race' Launches Crowd Funding Campaign". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  10. Vuorensola, Timo (director) (22 November 2014). Message from a living legend – Support Iron Sky The Coming Race (Web video). Energia Productions. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  11. Vuorensola, Timo (director) (18 September 2015). Invest in Victory with Iron Sky Bonds! (Web video). Energia Productions. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  12. "Suomen kalleimman elokuvan teko yhtä painajaista: budjetista puuttui 2,5 miljoonaa, ohjaajan terveys koetuksella - "Viiden vuoden unettomuus"". Iltalehti (in Finnish). Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  13. "Analyysi: Iron Sky -vitsi väljähti, eivätkä sitä pelasta ehkä edes kiinalaiset". Yle Uutiset (in Finnish). Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  14. Roxborough, Scott (8 September 2017). "Animators File Copyright Suit Against 'Iron Sky' Producers". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  15. "MAO30218". Finnish Market Court (in Finnish). Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  16. "Iron Sky: The Coming Race Updates". Indiegogo. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  17. "Jo kolme vuotta sitten kuvattu Iron Sky 2 myöhästyy taas – ongelmien takana raha". Muropaketti. 24 April 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  18. "Release Dates & Info". Archived from the original on 21 July 2018. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  19. "Kotimaisten elokuvien katsojaluvut". Finnish Film Foundation.
  20. ""Aivan hirveän huono elokuva" – Iron Sky: The coming race sai kriitikoilta täystyrmäyksen" ["Very terribly bad movie" - Iron Sky: The coming race got a full hit from critics]. iltamakasiini (in Finnish). Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  21. "Vuosikausia odotettu suomalainen suurelokuva Iron Sky 2 on valtava pettymys – "Aivan hirveän huono elokuva", kirjoittaa HS:n elokuvakriitikko yhden tähden arviossaan" [Anticipated for years, the major Finnish production Iron Sky 2 is a massive disappointment — ”An awfully bad movie”, the HS film critic writes in his one-star review]. Helsingin Sanomat. Sanoma. 16 January 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  22. "Iron Sky The Coming Race". Episodi (in Finnish). Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  23. "Jättibudjetilla saatiin Iron Skylle entistä värikkäämpi, hörhömpi ja nörtimpi jatko-osa – Kriitikko antaa odotetulle elokuvalle kolme tähteä". Aamulehti (in Finnish). Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  24. "Scifikomedian jatko-osan Iron Sky – The Coming Race parasta antia ovat herkulliset henkilöhahmot". Me naiset (in Finnish). Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  25. "Iron Sky: The Coming Race (2019)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  26. Kaufman, Sophie Monks (24 April 2019). "Iron Sky: The Coming Race review – woeful return of the lunar refugees". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  27. Murray, Noel (18 July 2019). "Review: Dinosaur-riding Nazis in 'Iron Sky, The Coming Race' and more". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  28. Nelson, Samantha (17 July 2019). "In the sci-fi spoof Iron Sky: The Coming Race, Alien Hitler rides a T-Rex to war". The Verge. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  29. "Haastattelussa Iron Skyn ohjaaja Timo Vuorensola ja tuottaja Tero Kaukomaa". muropaketti.com.
  30. "Indiegogo comments".
  31. "Indiegogo Updates".
  32. "Blind Spot Pictures Bankrupt (in Finnish)".
  33. "News reports Blind Spot Pictures Bankrupt (in Finnish)".
  34. "There are now payment failures for the production company Iron Sky Universe, "I think the end is pretty close" (in Finnish)".
  35. "Does anyone know if iron sky 3 is really going to happen?".
  36. "Industry Panel: It's All About Copyrights".
  37. "Iron Sky -elokuvien tuotantoyhtiö on haettu konkurssiin Yle Uutiset (in Finnish)". 13 October 2020. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  38. "Eclipse of the Moon".
  39. Timo Vuorensola (19 October 2020). "A filmmaker Timo Vuorensola's journal". vuorensola.com.
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