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Downfall (2004)

1063 statements
210 feature instances
46 referencing feature instances

Downfall (2004)	type	TVTItem
Downfall (2004)	label	Downfall (2004)
Downfall (2004)	page	Downfall2004
Downfall (2004)	comment	Downfall (German: Der Untergang) is a 2004 German war drama film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, recounting the last days of Nazi Germany as the Red Army closes in on Berlin, when Adolf Hitler (Bruno Ganz) and the senior Nazi leadership that remained at his side, including Joseph Goebbels (Ulrich Matthes), waited around to die.Released by Constantin Film, it is primarily based on the memoirs of Gertraud "Traudl" Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara), one of Hitler's secretaries, and is one of the most accurate portrayals of the last, desperate days of the Third Reich and its effects on the FÃ¼hrer, his closest aides, and ordinary Germans. Other POV characters in the film include Dr. Ernst-GÃ¼nther Schenck, an SS doctor struggling to help the massive German casualties piling up as Soviet soldiers storm the city, and Peter Kranz, a small boy who has been turned into a Child Soldier with the Hitler Youth and sent to the front line.The film is also known as the source of all those Hitler Rants videos, wherein the subtitles are edited to satirize all kinds of usually trivial topics. The scene that is used for most of the Hitler Rants is actually a Hitler freakout that occurs after he learns that neither Wenck's 12th Army nor Felix Steiner's Army Group will be coming to the defense of Berlin. In Real Life, both forces were trying only to get West so they could surrender to the Western Allies, with Wenck's forces in particular trying to evacuate as many civilians as they could from the vengeful Red Army while slowing down the latter as much as they could.
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Downfall (2004)	parsed	2024-04-29T17:17:18Z
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Downfall (2004) / int_12dd1d4c	type	Rape as Drama
Downfall (2004) / int_12dd1d4c	comment	Rape as Drama: Pretty much every female is worried about being raped by Red Army soldiers.
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Downfall (2004) / int_1514ecc1	type	Home Guard
Downfall (2004) / int_1514ecc1	comment	Home Guard: The Volkssturm are this on paper. In practice, they're under-trained conscripts who know next to nothing and die in droves doing things like running out in the open with no regard for cover.
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Downfall (2004) / int_15b2cab3	type	Tempting Fate
Downfall (2004) / int_15b2cab3	comment	Tempting Fate: Hitler does this several times in the film. When fate does respond, he becomes enraged and goes on a rant. In 1942, he assures Traudl that everyone makes mistakes, including himself, and one shouldn't be pressured by them. Fast-forward to 1945, Hitler breaks under pressure by numerous (and often fatal) mistakes, mistakes that are caused by his leadership (yet he refuses to take responsibility for them). Hitler brushes off Himmler's plea to engage in negotiations with the Western Allies, saying that Himmler will "have plenty of politics to do" when he's dead. Later, Himmler is negotiating a peace treaty with the Allies and claims that Hitler is now dead. When the generals discuss how much territory was lost to the Red Army during a war room meeting, Hitler assures them that Steiner's assault will bring the situation under control. This forces the generals to deliver the news that Steiner never carried out the attack, leading to Hitler's infamous Villainous Breakdown. Hitler boasts of how natural it is for the strong to eliminate the weak during a dinner talk. Then he receives a report of Himmler betraying him to the Allies, reminding him that he is the weak one in question.
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Downfall (2004) / int_16bbbd7c	type	This Is What the Building Will Look Like
Downfall (2004) / int_16bbbd7c	comment	This Is What the Building Will Look Like: Hitler has a model of his planned new Berlin that will, of course, never exist.
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Downfall (2004) / int_1722aaf	type	Hitler Ate Sugar
Downfall (2004) / int_1722aaf	comment	Hitler Ate Sugar: Averted. Hitler does a lot of fairly common human things while he holds out as long as he can, despite the horrifying and richly deserved circumstances.
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Downfall (2004) / int_17674f28	type	Villainous Cheekbones
Downfall (2004) / int_17674f28	comment	Joseph Goebbels has more pronounced Villainous Cheekbones than his real-life counterpart, making him look more like a creepy, skeletal figure with soulless eyes. note Something the Youtube parodies often run with.
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Downfall (2004) / int_1865f13a	type	Apocalypse Anarchy
Downfall (2004) / int_1865f13a	comment	Apocalypse Anarchy: Numerous soldiers that are far enough from the ever-closing frontline gleefully abandon their positions and get drunk and party away with disconnected civilians while shells blast buildings into rubble and small arms fires echo through the streets. Another scene shows a couple slicing a piece of meat from a dead horse while the battle rages around them.
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Downfall (2004) / int_18ba2fe	type	Sound-Only Death
Downfall (2004) / int_18ba2fe	comment	Sound-Only Death: The suicides of Hitler and Eva Braun, the Goebbels couple, and some other Nazi bigwigs.
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Downfall (2004) / int_18baa751	type	Historical Villain Downgrade
Downfall (2004) / int_18baa751	comment	Historical Villain Downgrade: There are several individuals within Nazi Germany's military staff who, while known to have committed several atrocities during the war, have those crimes completely ignored in the film, and in some cases seem to get portrayed almost in a sympathetic manner. Hermann Fegelein is one such example, responsible for the massacres of partisans in Yugoslavia, is at worst depicted as The Friend Nobody Likes while futilely trying to convince others to escape Berlin, and leaving them behind when he fails. These depictions, however, are justified by the time this movie is set in - with the Nazis on the verge of defeat, those crimes had been mostly done for (and thus no longer relevant for them), and most of the leadership is instead focused on how to avoid capture by the Soviets.
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Downfall (2004) / int_18d15922	type	Title Drop
Downfall (2004) / int_18d15922	comment	Title Drop: At Hitler's birthday reception, when he's obsessing over his Welthauptstadt Germania model with Speer while the others plead that he evacuate.
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Downfall (2004) / int_19d06ef7	type	A Father to His Men
Downfall (2004) / int_19d06ef7	comment	A Father to His Men: Subverted with Hitler. Many ordinary German soldiers and civilians still look up to him as a father figure, but it turns out he has no qualms about sacrificing them all for his own selfish/crazy reasons (he thought the entire German people had "failed" him). General Weidling is a more straightforward example of this trope. When he is informed he is to be shot over a misunderstanding, Weidling leaves his command post and goes to the bunker to explain himself. He spends his time there in agitation not over the prospect of being executed but because he would rather be with his men at his command post. Later, Weidling as commander of the Berlin Defense Force, surrenders after Hitler's death and tells German soldiers to lay down their weapons because Hitler has abandoned them. Burgdorf would not tolerate Hitler insulting or condemning the soldiers (who are dying) as cowards, traitors, and failures. For all the good it does. This is later subverted, as Burgdorf is such a fanatical Nazi that he tries to kill anyone daring to surrender to the Soviets, preferring Germany to fight to the death than surrender for the sake of the surviving soldiers.
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Downfall (2004) / int_1b465242	type	Conditioned to Accept Horror
Downfall (2004) / int_1b465242	comment	Conditioned to Accept Horror: After days of fighting the Russians, most of the Berlin defenders treat the death and chaos around them as rote. As Koller and a group of soldiers and staff leave the bunker for good, a man eating his gun in front of everyone gets nothing more than mild exasperation in response.
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Downfall (2004) / int_1ba17583	type	The Ghost
Downfall (2004) / int_1ba17583	comment	The Ghost: Steiner, Wenck, and Admiral DÃ¶nitz, all of whom Hitler believes capable of saving Berlin. With the notable exception of a few scenes, the Red Army is this for most of the film. Outside of those, the most we see of Soviet soldiers in the battle sequences are fleeting glimpses of figures advancing from cover to cover or quickly popping up to fire their weapons before ducking back down again.
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Downfall (2004) / int_1dacdb4f	type	Senseless Sacrifice
Downfall (2004) / int_1dacdb4f	comment	Senseless Sacrifice: Mohnke tries to reason with Goebbels about the under-trained Volkssturm he was being supplied with, saying that they have little hope of actually making a difference and it's just wasting German lives. Goebbels, who of course knows that he isn't coming out of this alive, replies that he doesn't really care.
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Downfall (2004) / int_1e3a9a21	type	Angrish
Downfall (2004) / int_1e3a9a21	comment	Angrish: Even German speakers have trouble keeping up with Hitler's infamous rants without subtitles. Note that anyone who's watched actual historical footage of the man's speeches will tell you that is completely accurate to how he talked when he got worked up.
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Downfall (2004) / int_1f250372	type	I Need a Freaking Drink
Downfall (2004) / int_1f250372	comment	I Need a Freaking Drink: THE MOVIE. Pretty much everyone at some point needs to get drunk. Zigzagged with Weidling; he is never shown touching alcohol, as when Burgdorf and Krebs get drunk, they encourage Weidling to do the same, only for Weidling to express concern for his troops at the front. At the end of the movie, after delivering a speech ordering all remaining combatants to lay down their arms, the exhausted Weidling asks for a glass of water before fainting from fatigue.
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Downfall (2004) / int_208c4494	type	With Great Power Comes Great Insanity
Downfall (2004) / int_208c4494	comment	With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Hitler condemns the German people to death because, apparently, they failed him. He's convinced that the day will be saved at any moment by what one underling refers to as "phantom divisions". He goes about appointing people to key positions seemingly at random. He generally makes many errors; for example, he even orders one general to be executed as a traitor, only to later call him a hero and reassign him to Berlin's faltering defense — all in a span of roughly 40 seconds. (Then again, the execution order was due to a misunderstanding.) Generally, much of Hitler's breakdown seems to revolve around the fact that he utterly fails to recognize his own flaws, and turns his loathing of his own weaknesses at other people and their perceived (whether actual or imagined) weakness.
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Downfall (2004) / int_20a14df0	type	Wrong Genre Savvy
Downfall (2004) / int_20a14df0	comment	Wrong Genre Savvy: All of the Nazis in general but Hitler most of all. For the first half, he keeps delusionally insisting that a last-minute counter-attack (from units that no longer exist) is going to miraculously turn back the Soviets. He insists that it's going to be the biggest reversal in military history (more than Stalingrad was), and his secretaries actually believe him, not realizing he has lost touch with reality. In Hitler's mind, the Nazis are the plucky heroes on the side of good and righteousness who are always saved at the last minute by divine favor: he's wrong. After he finally admits that the war is lost, he thinks this is all a tragedy with the Nazi leadership as the poor victims of everything that happened. In real life, the OSS psychology report on Hitler made a very insightful observation about him: he mentally processed his entire life on the model of a Wagner play, with himself as the main character. He perceived himself as the star of his own movie â€” as if to say "this siege is a challenge but we're just at the climax of the movie, right before the hero yanks victory out of the jaws of defeat, damn the odds". When real life got in the way, Hitler just couldn't mentally process it (the psych report even accurately predicted that when the war stopped going according to Hitler's "narrative", he would withdraw into his bunker, unable to come to grips with it). The psych report also accurately predicted what Hitler attempts to do in the movie: order Speer to burn down all of German infrastructure, even though the war is ending and this would serve no point except to spite the winners. As the psych report said, Hitler would eventually shift from thinking he was in a Wagnerian epic to a Wagnerian tragedy, the kind where the hero loses at the end and his entire castle burns down around him like a funeral pyre to the gods. He then did everything he could to ensure that as many Germans went down with him as possible in a blaze of glory, as he perceived it - which ended up meaning sending child soldiers to their deaths, and to be a modern-day Nero.
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Downfall (2004) / int_21d70919	type	Crapsack World
Downfall (2004) / int_21d70919	comment	Crapsack World: Berlin is being bombed and shelled into a smoking ruin by a ruthless enemy determined to make Germany pay for the war of annihilation they started on them and there is no escape from the top to the bottom for its inhabitants.
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Downfall (2004) / int_222dc873	type	Black Comedy
Downfall (2004) / int_222dc873	comment	Black Comedy: Goebbels's young son, Helmut, remarks that he likes the sound of the Russian artillery because nothing can hurt them in the bunker. Then he hears the sound of Hitler shooting himself and cries "Volltreffer!" ("Bullseye!")
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Downfall (2004) / int_234fa9ba	type	Mayâ€“December Romance
Downfall (2004) / int_234fa9ba	comment	Mayâ€“December Romance: When they marry, Hitler is 56, and Eva Braun is 33. Robert Ritter von Greim is 52, while his mistress, Hanna Reitsch, is (like Eva Braun) 33.
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Downfall (2004) / int_24321e44	type	Only Sane Man
Downfall (2004) / int_24321e44	comment	Only Sane Man: Filled by several of the viewpoint characters, usually by Traudl Junge throughout most of the movie (particularly when she realizes how absurd Eva's partying is while shells are falling on buildings around them). Albert Speer is one during his brief stay in the bunker, desperately trying to insist to Hitler that his scorched-earth orders are insane, ultimately revealing that he couldn't bring himself to implement such a suicidal order. At this point, even Traudl still vaguely hopes that the war is not lost, because she spends so much time with Hitler who rants that it is not. Speer has to one-up Traudl's "Last Sane Man" delivery at this point, making her finally realize that even Hitler knows the war is lost, or is flat-out delusional. Finally, the trope is subverted by Hitler himself, who sees himself as the Only Sane Man in all of Germany—and, up to that point, many Germans had agreed he was.
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Downfall (2004) / int_269e82c1	type	Death of a Child
Downfall (2004) / int_269e82c1	comment	Death of a Child: Around a dozen children die on-screen over the course of the film.
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Downfall (2004) / int_272108cd	type	ZigZaggedTrope
Downfall (2004) / int_272108cd	comment	Alfred Jodl's depiction as a fairly overweight and bald general is at odds with his real-life counterpart, who still had hair on his sides and was rather quite thin. However, he lacks distinct wrinkles on his face, making him appear much younger than the real Jodl.
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Downfall (2004) / int_2764d432	type	Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
Downfall (2004) / int_2764d432	comment	In the film, Hitler is polite and affectionate to those who remain with him in the FÃ¼hrerbunker as well as those who continue to fight for his doomed ambitions. However, as the film progresses, it increasingly becomes apparent that his demeanor is a carefully calculated ruse designed to seduce his subordinates into joining him in death out of guilt and/or a tragically misplaced sense of loyalty. It did backfire somewhat, as some Moral Guardians did criticise the film for depicting Hitler as "too sympathetic".
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Downfall (2004) / int_27ab0123	type	Offing the Offspring
Downfall (2004) / int_27ab0123	comment	Offing the Offspring: Magda Goebbels kills her own children because of a political ideology. The film's portrayal differs from Real Life; a Soviet autopsy performed on Helga's body showed numerous large black and blue bruises, indicating that she may have woken up and struggled with her killer. Ernst-Robert Grawitz commits suicide in his apartment during dinner with his wife and three children—by detonating a grenade and killing his family along with him. Also an example of Pater Familicide.
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Downfall (2004) / int_295b6800	type	Real Footage Re-creation
Downfall (2004) / int_295b6800	comment	Real Footage Re-creation: The film recreates the last known footage of Hitler from a March 1945 newsreel when he went out of his bunker to award Hitler Youth Child Soldiers.
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Downfall (2004) / int_2dae4381	type	My Master, Right or Wrong
Downfall (2004) / int_2dae4381	comment	My Master, Right or Wrong: Goebbels has a private moment where he breaks down and sobs to Traudl, telling her that Hitler has asked him and his family to leave Berlin (and how this is the only order from Hitler he'll not obey). Traudl can only look at him, wide-eyed and shocked.
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Downfall (2004) / int_2e6a41e0	type	Gratuitous English
Downfall (2004) / int_2e6a41e0	comment	Gratuitous English: Burgdorf's Drunken Song has a couple of lines in English.
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Downfall (2004) / int_30a0067b	type	Supervillain Lair
Downfall (2004) / int_30a0067b	comment	Supervillain Lair: The genuine article, the FÃ¼hrerbunker. We also get a glimpse of the Wolf's Lair at the beginning of the film, a much larger and heavily fortified secret base in East Prussia that fits the trope more.
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Downfall (2004) / int_319e4a2f	type	Even Evil Has Standards
Downfall (2004) / int_319e4a2f	comment	Even Evil Has Standards: Burgdorf mentions early in the film that Nazi party bosses "make him sick". Later, he stands up to Hitler when Hitler insults the German soldiers during a rant. German field commanders and generals in the Battle of Berlin are willing to fight to the bitter end for Hitler's fanatical vision. But most, if not all, are not willing to send civilians to their deaths in a futile hope for victory. Mohnke takes the trouble of leaving his command post to personally give Goebbels a protest about his use of elderly Volkssturm recruits, who are pointlessly dying due to being untrained and poorly equipped. Towards the end of the film, Weidling calls for a ceasefire surrender shortly after Hitler dies in order to save as many remaining soldiers as he can and doesn't hesitate to portray Hitler as a cowardly backstabber to his own people.
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Downfall (2004) / int_33d5b7f2	type	Adapted Out
Downfall (2004) / int_33d5b7f2	comment	Adapted Out: Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, who left the bunker on April 23, does not appear in the film. Other prominent Nazi officials who were in the bunker, including German Labour Front leader Robert Ley, Hitler's lead physician Theodor Morell, Hitler's chief adjutant Julius Schaub, Hitler's pilot Hans Baur, Martin Bormann's brother Albert, RSD head Johann Rattenhuber, and Gestapo chief Heinrich MÃ¼ller, do not appear. Gotthard Heinrici and Ferdinand SchÃ¶rner, who commanded significant units outside Berlin, are not mentioned. Blondi is depicted as being the only dog in the bunker when there were actually several. Eva Braun had two Scottish Terriers and Blondi had given birth to a litter of puppies in March or early April. On top of that, the bunker's dog handler, Fritz Tornow, also had his own pet dog. All of these other dogs were shot.
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Downfall (2004) / int_34dcfc96	type	Kick the Dog
Downfall (2004) / int_34dcfc96	comment	Kick the Dog: Blondi is forced to test Hitler's cyanide pills to see if they worked. Eva Braun admits to kicking Blondi on occasion because she doesn't like her, which ironically serves as a Pet the Dog moment for her as she bonds with Traudl.
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Downfall (2004) / int_3511c4d7	type	Plunder
Downfall (2004) / int_3511c4d7	comment	The Red Army's seizure of Berlin is sanitized. The one instance of pillage in the movie is comical, consisting of a platoon of female Soviet soldiers going through Magda Goebbels' dresses. Constance Manziarly is merely stated to have "disappeared" after leaving the bunker when in real life she was last seen being taken into an underground station by two Soviet soldiers and was never heard of again - it is commonly speculated that she was raped and murdered.
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Downfall (2004) / int_373283c9	type	This Cannot Be!
Downfall (2004) / int_373283c9	comment	This Cannot Be!: Hitler's bombastic rant is fueled by his utter disbelief that there is no way the Germans can hold the Soviets off. Everyone else saw this coming long before he did.
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Downfall (2004) / int_37cb353b	type	Ate His Gun
Downfall (2004) / int_37cb353b	comment	Ate His Gun: Many Nazis lose their will to live when faced with the end of the Nazi Reich... and the arrival of the Soviets, who cannot be expected to go easy on them after everything they've done. There are quite a few suicides using this and other means.
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Downfall (2004) / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Downfall (2004) / int_38dade51	comment	But Not Too Evil: The film gives a balanced portrayal of Hitler as a human being, capable of displaying kindness and charm when around people and things he likes, but also cruel, petty, ineffectual, and genocidally paranoid. Lest you get too much Sympathy for the Devil, one scene in particular has Hitler giving a speech expressing pride in the fact that he's killed so many millions of people and hopes that all of Germany perishes for failing him.
Downfall (2004) / int_38dade51	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_38dade51	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_38dade51
Downfall (2004) / int_392372f9	type	Actor Allusion
Downfall (2004) / int_392372f9	comment	Actor Allusion: Oliver Stritzel plays Johannes Hentschel, the mechanic who was responsible for the power generators in the bunker. In Das Boot, he played a member of U-96's engine crew.
Downfall (2004) / int_392372f9	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_392372f9	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_392372f9
Downfall (2004) / int_396e1c2a	type	Face Death with Dignity
Downfall (2004) / int_396e1c2a	comment	Face Death with Dignity: Ernst-Robert Grawitz dresses in his Sunday uniform before joining his family and killing himself with them. Fegelein, dragged out of a woman's bed to be summarily executed by the SS, takes a moment to button up his tunic and give the Nazi salute before being shot. This is the opposite of what the Real Life Fegelein, a bastard who betrayed his brother-in-law (the FÃ¼hrer) and tried to escape with a suitcase of stolen money and jewelry, did when caught. He was shot on the spot because he was too drunk to be court-martialed.
Downfall (2004) / int_396e1c2a	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_396e1c2a	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_396e1c2a
Downfall (2004) / int_39de664a	type	Mad Doctor
Downfall (2004) / int_39de664a	comment	The real Ernst-Robert Grawitz was slim and even handsome-looking based on the photographs. The film's Grawitz is depicted as an overweight man with balding, greying hair.
Downfall (2004) / int_39de664a	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_39de664a	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_39de664a
Downfall (2004) / int_3bc88a7f	type	Foregone Conclusion
Downfall (2004) / int_3bc88a7f	comment	Foregone Conclusion: And they know it. Some are more willing to face reality than others, however.
Downfall (2004) / int_3bc88a7f	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_3bc88a7f	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_3bc88a7f
Downfall (2004) / int_3e74b72e	type	The Pollyanna
Downfall (2004) / int_3e74b72e	comment	The Pollyanna: Eva Braun to a pathological degree. Seeming to live in total delusion, she's completely carefree as the Nazi Reich crumbles around her. Like Hitler ordering counterattacks from non-existent units, she asks people to visit stores that have been bombed out. However, in a private moment with Traudl, she admits that she realizes that there is no hope left for the Nazis, but insists that she doesn't care. She's still happy.
Downfall (2004) / int_3e74b72e	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_3e74b72e	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_3e74b72e
Downfall (2004) / int_3e8d9cd3	type	Historical Hero Upgrade
Downfall (2004) / int_3e8d9cd3	comment	Historical Hero Upgrade: Dr. Ernst-GÃ¼nther Schenck was involved in human experimentation on concentration camp victims and was barred from practicing medicine in post-war West Germany. (Although in fairness his experiments were on vitamins and nutrition, and were less cruel than the experiments of other Nazi doctors.) The Red Army's seizure of Berlin is sanitized. The one instance of pillage in the movie is comical, consisting of a platoon of female Soviet soldiers going through Magda Goebbels' dresses. Constance Manziarly is merely stated to have "disappeared" after leaving the bunker when in real life she was last seen being taken into an underground station by two Soviet soldiers and was never heard of again - it is commonly speculated that she was raped and murdered. May or not be the case with Wilhelm Mohnke. There were several allegations of him being involved in the massacre of prisoners during the war, however not enough evidence was found to prosecute.
Downfall (2004) / int_3e8d9cd3	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_3e8d9cd3	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_3e99481a	type	Deadly Distant Finale
Downfall (2004) / int_3e99481a	comment	Deadly Distant Finale: The end explains how each of the characters lived their lives after the events of the movie, and how they died if they did die.
Downfall (2004) / int_3e99481a	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_3e99481a	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_3e99481a
Downfall (2004) / int_40bb59d0	type	Blatant Lies
Downfall (2004) / int_40bb59d0	comment	Blatant Lies: Right before the Red Army's assault on Berlin, we briefly see a homemade barricade on which someone had painted "Wir siegen!" (We are winning!) in big white letters. Dr. Stumpfegger says that the "medicine" will prevent the Goebbels children from getting sick in the damp bunker. One of the kids then remarks that the bunker is not damp.
Downfall (2004) / int_40bb59d0	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_40bb59d0	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_40c57041	type	Manipulative Bastard
Downfall (2004) / int_40c57041	comment	GÃ¶ring sends a telegram stating that if Hitler doesn't reply soon, he will assume that the leadership in Berlin has been incapacitated and thus shall take command of the Third Reich. Hitler, prodded by Bormann and Goebbels, sees this as a naked coup and, after ranting and raving about GÃ¶ring's incompetence, expels his former Number Two from the chain of command.
Downfall (2004) / int_40c57041	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_40c57041	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_40cc0c7e	type	Bittersweet Ending
Downfall (2004) / int_40cc0c7e	comment	Bittersweet Ending: Traudl and Peter taking a bicycle and riding off into the great unknown. Cue the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue. This was added because the director felt the audience needed something upbeat.
Downfall (2004) / int_40cc0c7e	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_40cc0c7e	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_40da7cc9	type	Urban Warfare
Downfall (2004) / int_40da7cc9	comment	Urban Warfare: While most of the film takes place in the safety and comfort of Hitler's bunker, there are brief scenes of the German defenders fighting a losing battle for their capital in the streets and buildings.
Downfall (2004) / int_40da7cc9	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_40da7cc9	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_424feb18	type	That Was Not a Dream
Downfall (2004) / int_424feb18	comment	That Was Not a Dream: When Eva Braun is leading the party in the Reichschancellary, the sight of so many drunken revelers having a good time while the sound of gunfire and exploding ordnance emanates from a few blocks away causes Traudl to have a severe anxiety attack. When Gerda asks what's wrong, Traudl answers: "Oh God. It's all so surreal, like a dream, but I can't wake up."
Downfall (2004) / int_424feb18	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_424feb18	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_43a46119	type	Surrounded by Idiots
Downfall (2004) / int_43a46119	comment	Surrounded by Idiots: Discussed by Hitler. It's half-true, in the sense that no one is doing what he tells them, but that's because they all know it has no chance of turning the war around even as they continue to respect his leadership. In other words, the reason he's surrounded by idiots is him.
Downfall (2004) / int_43a46119	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_43a46119	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_44fc28e8	type	Honor Before Reason
Downfall (2004) / int_44fc28e8	comment	Honor Before Reason: The movie's entire premise can be summed up as this, with Hitler's decision to stay in Berlin to face his victory or downfall being the central piece.
Downfall (2004) / int_44fc28e8	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_44fc28e8	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_474e3977	type	You Have Failed Me
Downfall (2004) / int_474e3977	comment	You Have Failed Me: Hitler and some of his cohorts attempt to do this to an entire country.
Downfall (2004) / int_474e3977	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_474e3977	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_474e3977
Downfall (2004) / int_4782e60f	type	Jerk with a Heart of Jerk
Downfall (2004) / int_4782e60f	comment	Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Should Bruno Ganz's powerful, deeply sincere performance evoke even the slightest bit of sympathy during the infamous breakdown scene, the movie quickly reminds you who you're watching moments later when he starts screaming about how the German people have betrayed him and how he hopes that his entire country drowns in their own blood for failing him.
Downfall (2004) / int_4782e60f	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_4782e60f	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_4783acfa	type	Bait the Dog
Downfall (2004) / int_4783acfa	comment	Bait the Dog: Very carefully and deliberately done with Der Fuhrer himself. The clear-eyed, un-slanted depiction of his personality, combined with Bruno Ganz's brilliant performance and just enough small, sympathetic touches for him to come across like a believable human being instead of a cartoonish supervillain - before yanking back the veil to remind us why he's frequently called the most evil human who ever lived, a narcissistic, self-absorbed unsportsmanlike racist who would rather burn the entire world than see it ruled by people he considered inferior.
Downfall (2004) / int_4783acfa	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_4783acfa	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_489ce93a	type	Capital Offensive
Downfall (2004) / int_489ce93a	comment	Capital Offensive: Berlin is completely surrounded and besieged by the Red Army, with all of the nearby German armies encircled.
Downfall (2004) / int_489ce93a	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_489ce93a	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_49f20c6a	type	Gory Discretion Shot
Downfall (2004) / int_49f20c6a	comment	Gory Discretion Shot: Hitler himself, along with Goebbels and his wife. Two generals, too. Oddly enough, we see a random mook suddenly shoot himself, yet then the camera stays right on him. The director states in commentary that there's a specific reason for cutting away from the suicides of Hitler, Goebbels, and his wife, as well as the two generals; they didn't deserve to have their final moment immortalized in film, even if it is just a recreation.
Downfall (2004) / int_49f20c6a	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_49f20c6a	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_4ab9c868	type	Pretty Little Headshots
Downfall (2004) / int_4ab9c868	comment	Pretty Little Headshots: They're less pretty than most, but still under-done. One scene during the Contrast Montage shows a despairing teenage officer shooting himself in the head after he fulfills a female comrade's request to be shot rather than be captured, raped, and tortured. There's zero blood which, along with the scene having no audio (Eva's narration plays over it), somehow makes it more disturbing.
Downfall (2004) / int_4ab9c868	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_4ab9c868	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_4c1e47cb	type	War Comes Home
Downfall (2004) / int_4c1e47cb	comment	War Comes Home: Applies to the Germans in Berlin as they are besieged by the Red Army that is invading the capital city and conquering the German resistance. Justified in that this is about World War II and how the warmongering started by Adolf Hitler and his generals backfired with the Soviets ravaging their homeland in retaliation. Though Hitler is hoping for a Last Stand to deliver Germany from defeat, he and his fanatical supporters are forced to recognize that this will never happen.
Downfall (2004) / int_4c1e47cb	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_4c1e47cb	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_5123df54	type	Dramatic Sit-Down
Downfall (2004) / int_5123df54	comment	Dramatic Sit-Down: Hitler has a massive Villainous Breakdown in this infamous scene. He reacted like this after he was told Felix Steiner couldn't hold back the Allies (the Soviets get there first of course) with the forces he has. After his breakdown, he is permanently hunched over and he is usually the only one sitting while everyone else has to stand.
Downfall (2004) / int_5123df54	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_5123df54	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_5313c266	type	Bookends
Downfall (2004) / int_5313c266	comment	Book Ends: The movie begins and ends with excerpts from a video interview with the real-life Traudl Junge, taken a matter of months before she died in 2002 (two years before Der Untergang was released).
Downfall (2004) / int_5313c266	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_5313c266	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_5313c266
Downfall (2004) / int_546e23f6	type	Evilutionary Biologist
Downfall (2004) / int_546e23f6	comment	Even though you're liable to get shivers the moment you see a Nazi in a lab coat, Dr. Ernst-GÃ¼nther Schenck turns out to be the most heroic character in the film, putting his concern for civilians above his orders from the SS. The real Schenck bordered on being little more than a Punch-Clock Villain, but he engaged in human experimentation (though his experiments were on nutrition and vitamins).
Downfall (2004) / int_546e23f6	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_546e23f6	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_546e23f6
Downfall (2004) / int_556a4863	type	Virtue Is Weakness
Downfall (2004) / int_556a4863	comment	Virtue Is Weakness: Hitler goes on a rant where he says that morality is a human flaw and compassion is a weakness.
Downfall (2004) / int_556a4863	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_556a4863	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_556a4863
Downfall (2004) / int_56515a39	type	Artistic License â€“ History
Downfall (2004) / int_56515a39	comment	Artistic License â€“ History: As well-researched as the film is, this trope occurs enough to warrant its own page.
Downfall (2004) / int_56515a39	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_56515a39	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_590e1c70	type	Frontline General
Downfall (2004) / int_590e1c70	comment	Frontline General: While Hitler and his military advisors hide in the bunker, General Helmuth Weidling and Brigadier General Wilhelm Mohnke risk their lives organizing and personally leading the defense of Berlin and minimizing the civilian casualties. Mohnke and Weidling spend time under fire and both narrowly avoid being killed by artillery on more than one occasion. There's also Felix Steiner and Walther Wenck of the Army Group and 12th Army respectively, but they're only mentioned.
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Downfall (2004) / int_590e1c70	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_5989e3b6	type	Enemy Mine
Downfall (2004) / int_5989e3b6	comment	Enemy Mine: Both Hitler and Goebbels assume that the Western Allies will see the Nazis as their natural compatriots in the fight against the Soviets, which means that once the Russian advance is beaten back, it will be easy to reach an agreement with the Americans and British. Unfortunately, they manage to convince Himmler of the same thing, who tries to negotiate a separate peace because he knows the Wehrmacht and the SS have no chance in hell of stopping the Russians from taking Berlin.
Downfall (2004) / int_5989e3b6	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_5989e3b6	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_5fcb9ad1	type	Time Skip
Downfall (2004) / int_5fcb9ad1	comment	Time Skip: The film opens in November 1942 when Traudl Junge first meets Hitler. It then immediately skips forward to April 1945 as the Nazi regime is nearing total collapse.
Downfall (2004) / int_5fcb9ad1	featureApplicability	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_60f567f1	type	Lonely Piano Piece
Downfall (2004) / int_60f567f1	comment	Lonely Piano Piece: In The Courtyard of the Reich Chancellery by Stephan Zacharias. Part of the film's Awesome Music.
Downfall (2004) / int_60f567f1	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_60f567f1	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_613ca729	type	Request for Privacy
Downfall (2004) / int_613ca729	comment	Request for Privacy: Adolf Hitler tells everyone to leave except four generals (to be more precise, he says that those four will stay, implicitly telling everyone else to leave), then screams at them so loudly that everyone else in the bunker can hear him anyway. This is the scene that the Hitler Rants meme is made from.
Downfall (2004) / int_613ca729	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_613ca729	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_61a503a7	type	Hell Is That Noise
Downfall (2004) / int_61a503a7	comment	Hell Is That Noise: Katyusha rocket launchers, also known as "Stalin's organ pipes," are a constant sound during the battle scenes.
Downfall (2004) / int_61a503a7	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_61a503a7	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_61a503a7
Downfall (2004) / int_61b576af	type	I Take Offense to That Last One
Downfall (2004) / int_61b576af	comment	I Take Offense to That Last One: Non-comical example. During Hitler's infamous rant, his generals are too afraid to say anything contradicting Hitler's furious rebukes against the leadership, the SS, the bureaucrats, the troops, etc. The most that Burgdorf can muster up is that he cannot permit the Fuhrer to call the troops cowards.
Downfall (2004) / int_61b576af	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_61b576af	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_61c683d2	type	We Have Reserves
Downfall (2004) / int_61c683d2	comment	We Have Reserves: Subverted. Hitler certainly thinks they have reserves, but they don't, and everyone else knows it. Most of the scenes regarding strategy, including the infamous rant scene, discuss troops and soldiers that no longer exist. Goebbels tries to use the Volkssturm this way, but the "national militia" is actually just a pathetic, last-ditch attempt to put outdated weapons in the hands of untrained civilians, a lot of them old men and children barely in their teens, and herd them into the meatgrinder against a battle-hardened Red Army under threat of execution by the SS. Their commander, General Wilhelm Mohnke, pleads with Goebbels to realize that the Volkssturm have no effect on the Soviets and simply waste German lives. Goebbels finally admits that he really doesn't care. It's their fault for following him.
Downfall (2004) / int_61c683d2	featureApplicability	-0.3
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Downfall (2004) / int_6363937b	type	Cyanide Pill
Downfall (2004) / int_6363937b	comment	Cyanide Pill: They're handed out like candy throughout the film. Most affectingly, Frau Goebbels forces her (sedated) children to take cyanide.
Downfall (2004) / int_6363937b	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_6363937b	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_63d861f8	type	Even Evil Has Loved Ones
Downfall (2004) / int_63d861f8	comment	Even Evil Has Loved Ones: A good chunk of the characters are the leaders and senior members of the Nazi party; they're also people with spouses and families.
Downfall (2004) / int_63d861f8	featureApplicability	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_641cf81d	type	Viewers Are Geniuses
Downfall (2004) / int_641cf81d	comment	Viewers Are Geniuses: Some characters/moments occur without any exposition to help a viewer know what they mean. An SS doctor shows up in the bunker and begs Hitler's permission to leave, which is denied, and he later commits suicide with a pair of grenades. All we learn of him is his panicky words "If the Russians find me...", and Hitler's answer that "You did nothing wrong. The coming generations will be grateful for what you have accomplished with your medical research. I will accept the full responsibility for everything." That's Dr. Ernst-Robert Grawitz, one of the worst of the worst of the Nazi doctors, who organized both the experimentation on human beings and the T-4 "euthanasia" program (the murder of the disabled and mentally ill).
Downfall (2004) / int_641cf81d	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_641cf81d	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_658f7193	type	Lack of Empathy
Downfall (2004) / int_658f7193	comment	Lack of Empathy: Not just Hitler, almost everyone in his inner circle has little empathy for the German people, even those who seem to care about their soldiers. Goebbels in particular spells it out to Mohnke after the latter confronts him over citizens being used as Cannon Fodder.
Downfall (2004) / int_658f7193	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_658f7193	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_697b5232	type	Those Wacky Nazis
Downfall (2004) / int_697b5232	comment	Those Wacky Nazis: As Villain Protagonists.
Downfall (2004) / int_697b5232	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_697b5232	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_69cce3dc	type	Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!
Downfall (2004) / int_69cce3dc	comment	Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Speer tries to convince Traudl to leave at once. She replies that things can't be that bad; after all, Goebbels and his children are staying in the bunker. Speer gives her a knowing look, and she soon realizes that the children will not be leaving the bunker alive.
Downfall (2004) / int_69cce3dc	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_69cce3dc	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_69fb91e8	type	Chewing the Scenery
Downfall (2004) / int_69fb91e8	comment	Chewing the Scenery: Hitler goes completely apeshit when he learns that his army literally cannot stop the Soviets.
Downfall (2004) / int_69fb91e8	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_69fb91e8	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_6a1a1f8a	type	Glasses Pull
Downfall (2004) / int_6a1a1f8a	comment	Glasses Pull: A very slow and very shaky one precedes Hitler's infamous rant. When Hitler learns that Steiner's attack isn't happening, Hitler puts a shaky hand to his face to remove his specs before asking all but a select few to leave before tearing said select few a collective new one for failing him. The actor behind Hitler was aware of rumors that Hitler developed Parkinson's and integrated that into his performance.
Downfall (2004) / int_6a1a1f8a	featureApplicability	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_6b510ace	type	Hopeless War
Downfall (2004) / int_6b510ace	comment	Hopeless War: That is the situation, with the capital of Nazi Germany under direct siege from the Soviets who are relentlessly advancing through the city, and Hitler's forces have no hope of stopping them. Nevertheless, the German Army continues to conduct operations right up until the very end; the generals attend meetings and briefings, and they continue to issue orders to defending troops and plan ahead. The last time an officer reports to Hitler is when Mohnke is summoned on the day of Hitler's death. Mohnke plainly reports that the defending garrison will be able to hold for no more than twenty hours.
Downfall (2004) / int_6b510ace	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_6b510ace	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_6c6fe9c	type	Big Sleep
Downfall (2004) / int_6c6fe9c	comment	Big Sleep: Magda Goebbels drugs her children into unconsciousness, then forces them to ingest cyanide by placing a vial in their mouths and forcing their jaws shut. The only sign of their death is a shudder. Unrealistic (even the most heavily drugged cyanide victim will usually thrash violently, if only for a few seconds) but enforced for dramatic purposes.
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Downfall (2004) / int_6d332aea	type	Driven to Suicide
Downfall (2004) / int_6d332aea	comment	Driven to Suicide: Truth in Television, as many hardcore Nazis killed themselves rather than face justice or revenge or a world without National Socialism or even a world where Jews, Roma, and other minorities are considered anything but subhuman. Subverted in one scene where a unit filled with supposedly hardcore die-hards make a big deal about the fact that they're all either going to die fighting or kill themselves to avoid dishonour. Moments later, a messenger soberly brings the news that the German High Command has surrendered and the war is over... and only two of them actually go through with it, the others are just left stunned but with no apparent intention of killing themselves.
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Downfall (2004) / int_71105dfc	type	Everybody Smokes
Downfall (2004) / int_71105dfc	comment	Everybody Smokes: Played With. Smoking is banned in the bunker, which chafes at nearly everyone in the film except Hitler. When General Wiedling reports to the bunker to protest against his execution, he prepares for a wait at the guard post and takes out a pack of cigarettes, but the guard tells him it's not allowed. Nearly every inhabitant of the bunker other than Hitler smokes, but is careful to do so away from his quarters; during a lull in the artillery fire, Eva Braun, Gerda Christian, and Traudl Junge slip above ground to sneak cigarettes; As soon as Gunsche announces that Hitler has killed himself, everyone in the bunker lights up.
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Downfall (2004) / int_7484b619	type	Herr Doktor
Downfall (2004) / int_7484b619	comment	Herr Doktor: Even though you're liable to get shivers the moment you see a Nazi in a lab coat, Dr. Ernst-GÃ¼nther Schenck turns out to be the most heroic character in the film, putting his concern for civilians above his orders from the SS. The real Schenck bordered on being little more than a Punch-Clock Villain, but he engaged in human experimentation (though his experiments were on nutrition and vitamins). Grawitz, the head of the German Red Cross who was simultaneously one of the leading planners of the Nazi human experimentation program (directly responsible for wounding prisoners and intentionally infecting them with gangrene to test treatments on them), appears in the film, but as opposed to a menacing hands-on surgeon, he's portrayed (much as he arguably was) as a cowardly fat bureaucrat, begging Hitler to allow him to flee Berlin rather than face justice at the hands of the Red Army. He takes the coward's way out by killing himself and his entire family with grenades while they're eating dinner.
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Downfall (2004) / int_74c69a97	type	Nazi Protagonist
Downfall (2004) / int_74c69a97	comment	Nazi Protagonist: The events are told from the point of view of the Germans during the last days of the Third Reich. Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge, SS medical officer Ernst-Gunther Schenk, and Peter, a young German boy inducted into the Hitler Youth to defend Berlin, are the three main protagonists.
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Downfall (2004) / int_75538142	type	Friend to All Children
Downfall (2004) / int_75538142	comment	Friend to All Children: Hitler, of all people, appears as this: The Goebbels children are obviously fond of him. At the same time, he's also sending Child Soldiers en masse to their deaths.
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Downfall (2004) / int_78c5ce7e	type	Screw the Rules, I Make Them!
Downfall (2004) / int_78c5ce7e	comment	Screw the Rules, I Make Them! In the extended cut, after taking a walk outside, Eva asks Hitler if he will buy the figure in the Chancellery garden once they've won. Hitler responds that he has no idea who actually owns it, and if it is state property, then it cannot be in a private garden. Eva then says that, as the man who managed to defeat the Soviets in Berlin, he will be able to amend the law however he wishes. Hitler then smiles and rolls his eyes at this "Logik der Frauen." During Hitler's wedding. This has the added real-life subtext of Hitler being unable to identify his biological grandfather due to his Tangled Family Tree, ergo he would not actually pass the Aryan test.
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Downfall (2004) / int_7c1207c1	type	Weapons Understudies
Downfall (2004) / int_7c1207c1	comment	Weapons Understudies: Peter's Hitler Youth group man a Soviet-made 85mm M1939 (52-K) anti-air cannon. It is likely meant to represent the German 88mm Flak but can be justified as them using captured equipment because they are so short on weapons, which is a rarity for this trope.
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Downfall (2004) / int_7c6709e2	type	Crisis Point Hospital
Downfall (2004) / int_7c6709e2	comment	Crisis Point Hospital: The film shows several scenes where wounded German soldiers and civilians alike are crowded into cramped field hospitals set up inside overcrowded bomb shelters while the Battle of Berlin rages all around them, complete with desperate officers calling up anyone who can provide morphine and other critically limited supplies.
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Downfall (2004) / int_7c862b8a	type	Chronic Backstabbing Disorder
Downfall (2004) / int_7c862b8a	comment	Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: On display throughout the storyline, with the members of Hitler's inner circle jockeying for power, position, and favor, even as the Third Reich is disintegrating around them. Just to name one example, Hermann GÃ¶ring sends Hitler a telegram offering to take control of the Reich — an act with clearly selfish motives, but one that makes a certain amount of sense considering the rapidly deteriorating situation in Berlin — only for Goebbels and Bormann to instead persuade Hitler that GÃ¶ring intends to mount a coup, causing Hitler to order him arrested and removed from office.
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Downfall (2004) / int_7fbe9a30	type	Freak Out
Downfall (2004) / int_7fbe9a30	comment	Freak Out: The one that launched a thousand memes, when the FÃ¼hrer learns that Felix Steiner didn't attempt to carry out his assault because he realised it would fail. You can practically feel the spittle flying.
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Downfall (2004) / int_7febc23b	type	Establishing Character Moment
Downfall (2004) / int_7febc23b	comment	His statement that he values his dog much more than many people serves as an Establishing Character Moment.
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Downfall (2004) / int_823c6e3e	type	Large Ham
Downfall (2004) / int_823c6e3e	comment	Large Ham: Guess who. Bruno Ganz practically uses the scenery as his own all-you-can-eat buffet.
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Downfall (2004) / int_82b48dc	type	Stupid Jetpack Hitler
Downfall (2004) / int_82b48dc	comment	Stupid Jetpack Hitler: The Nazi Wunderwaffen are briefly mentioned, with Hitler promising Ritter von Greim a thousand jet fighters within short notice. Greim replies that he had no idea they had so many reserves available.note The Nazis really were producing a jet fighter near the end of the war, the Me-262, which could fly circles around Allied fighter planes. But by that stage they were running out of pilots and, worse, running out of jet fuel. In the uncut version, one of the bunker staff eagerly asks Keitel when Hitler is going to use those wonder weapons, including the V2 rockets. Keitel, clearly aware there are no such weapons anymore, says that all details are classified.
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Downfall (2004) / int_83a8d697	type	Oblivious Guilt Slinging
Downfall (2004) / int_83a8d697	comment	Oblivious Guilt Slinging: In their last meeting together, Hitler calls Himmler his "loyal Heinrich" when, in fact, Himmler is already making moves to betray him by attempting to broker peace with the Allies behind the back of his leader.
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Downfall (2004) / int_83a903f6	type	Stepford Smiler
Downfall (2004) / int_83a903f6	comment	Stepford Smiler: Eva continues smiling even when things are at their bleakest. It might be a bit of a subversion in that she insists that she really is happy, in spite of it all, with no regrets and unafraid to die. She was, after all, dying as Mrs. Hitler after being hidden away from public view for years. The party scene in the Reich Chancellery just above the bunker, where there's a palpable sense of dread and forced merriment, with people forcing smiles and continuing to dance and trying to act happy as the shelling gets louder and louder.
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Downfall (2004) / int_83c9369b	type	Simple Score of Sadness
Downfall (2004) / int_83c9369b	comment	Simple Score of Sadness: The entire music score is done in a somber tone to remind the audience that from the German perspective, there was no joy or celebration in Hitler's downfall.
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Downfall (2004) / int_863fa679	type	What Happened to the Mouse?
Downfall (2004) / int_863fa679	comment	What Happened to the Mouse?: General Karl Koller is present at Hitler's birthday reception and at the following strategy conference, but disappears when Mohnke arrives. In a filmed but unused scene, Hitler orders him to organize fighter defense for Northern Germany and he leaves. In reality, upon hearing that Hitler said GÃ¶ring would be better suited for peace negotiations, Koller left to inform GÃ¶ring personally, leading to the telegram he sends later.
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Downfall (2004) / int_873f9d1e	type	Historical Ugliness Update
Downfall (2004) / int_873f9d1e	comment	Historical Ugliness Update: While the film portrays the Nazis as human beings (albeit terrible human beings), some of the Nazi officials' looks are less glamorous than their real-life counterparts: Joseph Goebbels has more pronounced Villainous Cheekbones than his real-life counterpart, making him look more like a creepy, skeletal figure with soulless eyes. note Something the Youtube parodies often run with. Alfred Jodl's depiction as a fairly overweight and bald general is at odds with his real-life counterpart, who still had hair on his sides and was rather quite thin. However, he lacks distinct wrinkles on his face, making him appear much younger than the real Jodl. Martin Bormann is balder and more plain-looking than his real counterpart. Also, the real Bormann was 44 years old during the events of the film, here, he is played by an actor who was 56 years old when the movie was made, making him look older than he really was. The real Ernst-Robert Grawitz was slim and even handsome-looking based on the photographs. The film's Grawitz is depicted as an overweight man with balding, greying hair.
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Downfall (2004) / int_875615dd	type	Truth in Television
Downfall (2004) / int_875615dd	comment	This is truth in fiction, of course, but Hitler's generals are such "yes men" they will never disobey him (Wilhelm Keitel's nickname was "Lakeitel", a pun on the German word for lackey). At best, some implore him to see reason, but refuse to outright turn on him. The most any of them ever does is when (the unseen) Felix Steiner refuses to launch a counterattack against surrounding Soviets... only because Hitler insists he attack using imaginary units, and his remaining forces are (despite Hitler's crazed claims) in reality outnumbered ten to one.
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Downfall (2004) / int_898ff050	type	Villain Protagonist
Downfall (2004) / int_898ff050	comment	Villain Protagonist: It's a film centered on the last ten days of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi inner hierarchy. Technically, almost every character in the film is either a Nazi or a supporter of their regime. Some of the characters are treated sympathetically, such as Hitler's secretaries, Albert Speer, Dr. Schenck, General Mohnke, and General Weidling. This is largely because their remaining capacity for rational thought and human emotion stands in stark contrast to how far off the deep end Hitler went. Mohnke and Weidling are the only generals that outright express concern to Hitler about the fate of the German civilians in Berlin. Mohnke is on the front lines alongside his troops, pointing out to Goebbels that the "Volkssturm" conscripts are being slaughtered. Weidling outright pleads with Hitler to abandon Berlin. After most of the other Nazi leaders commit suicide or flee, more or less on his own initiative Weidling crosses the lines to unconditionally surrender Berlin to the Soviets rather than let the pointless fighting continue.
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Downfall (2004) / int_8ec0abf	type	The Voiceless
Downfall (2004) / int_8ec0abf	comment	The Voiceless: Rochus Misch. Heinrich Schmeidler delivers an impressive performance despite having no dialogue beyond an incredulous "Marshal Zhukov!?" late in the film. He gets a couple more lines in the extended cut.
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Downfall (2004) / int_8ed5c6e4	type	Asshole Victim
Downfall (2004) / int_8ed5c6e4	comment	Asshole Victim: Though the film plays itself as a tragedy, it doesn't offer much sympathy towards Hitler and his cronies as they are driven into despair by their impending doom. If they die, it is often unceremonious and the dead Nazis are then promptly forgotten. Most notably, when Hitler finally kills himself, his death is heard offscreen and is immediately followed by an innocent gun joke from one of the Goebbels children.
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Downfall (2004) / int_90e31482	type	Laser-Guided Karma
Downfall (2004) / int_90e31482	comment	Laser-Guided Karma: Hitler is dining and elaborates about being The Social Darwinist, how compassion is an evil sin, how to feel empathy for the weak is treason to nature, and how Hitler had always chosen the most reasonable path: to destroy the weak inside and outside Germany. Just then, he gets a report about Himmler surrendering to the Allies. Himmler just went Screw This, I'm Outta Here and reasonably is abandoning the weak (Hitler) to join the strong. Of course, Hitler fails to see the irony and begins yet another Villainous Breakdown.
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Downfall (2004) / int_957e5fc2	type	Villainous Breakdown
Downfall (2004) / int_957e5fc2	comment	After his Villainous Breakdown, Hitler gives his generals permission to do whatever they want as he sulks over his impending defeat. Although they criticize Hitler's plans behind his back, the generals do nothing with this rare opportunity. Instead, they just wait until their dear leader recovers from his breakdown and starts giving them impossible orders again, not willing to take responsibility for the fate of the Germans. It's such a cowardly moment that Fegelein calls them out for being stupid and spineless.
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Downfall (2004) / int_9591377d	type	Heel Realization
Downfall (2004) / int_9591377d	comment	Heel Realization: In the real Traudl Junge's interview at the end of the film, she confesses that she had this moment when she finally learned that the great German resistance heroine, Sophie Scholl, was younger than herself and she knew what was going on in the Third Reich and had the conscience and backbone to do something while Junge did nothing.
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Downfall (2004) / int_95b7c400	type	Faux Affably Evil
Downfall (2004) / int_95b7c400	comment	Faux Affably Evil: In the film, Hitler is polite and affectionate to those who remain with him in the FÃ¼hrerbunker as well as those who continue to fight for his doomed ambitions. However, as the film progresses, it increasingly becomes apparent that his demeanor is a carefully calculated ruse designed to seduce his subordinates into joining him in death out of guilt and/or a tragically misplaced sense of loyalty. It did backfire somewhat, as some Moral Guardians did criticise the film for depicting Hitler as "too sympathetic". Several Nazi officials are shown to be polite and respectful, especially in the presence of their FÃ¼hrer. Some of them would even bring up their families. But as the film goes on, these affable Nazis show themselves to be selfish, opportunistic, fanatical, or just plain sadistic. A common theme among these Nazis is the disregard for their people's suffering.
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Downfall (2004) / int_973d220f	type	Never My Fault
Downfall (2004) / int_973d220f	comment	Never My Fault: As it becomes more and more obvious Germany is about to lose the war, Hitler blames just about everyone for it: first his generals, then the SS, then his inner circle, until finally he declares the entire German people lost because they were weak and deserved it. He never, ever blames himself. During his most famous rant, he claims that he personally conquered all of Europe, yet all his generals keep failing and betraying him. In short, he takes sole credit for all of Nazi Germany's successes and blames all its failures on everyone but him.
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Downfall (2004) / int_9751f6eb	type	Tanks, but No Tanks
Downfall (2004) / int_9751f6eb	comment	Tanks, but No Tanks: Despite the generally high levels of historical accuracy in uniforms and equipment, there is a scene that includes one very poor mock-up of a Tiger tank, which is quite jarring. Averted in the use of actual T-34/85s by the Soviets.
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Downfall (2004) / int_97e48376	type	The Elites Jump Ship
Downfall (2004) / int_97e48376	comment	The Elites Jump Ship: While Berlin's civilians, including women, children, and the elderly, are being recruited en masse to defend the Reich, all the highest-ranking Nazi Party and SS leaders (except for Hitler and his most deluded followers) are fleeing to their country estates and desperately applying for passes to leave the city.
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Downfall (2004) / int_980647af	type	Visible Boom Mic
Downfall (2004) / int_980647af	comment	Visible Boom Mic: The shadow of one can be seen in one instance during the 'Hitler rant' scene.
Downfall (2004) / int_980647af	featureApplicability	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_99298c71	type	Better to Die than Be Killed
Downfall (2004) / int_99298c71	comment	Better to Die than Be Killed: One recurring question for the cast is how they plan to deal with the Reich's downfall: will they choose to flee and be taken prisoner by the Soviets, or will they commit suicide to save face and avoid imprisonment or trial and execution?
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Downfall (2004) / int_9a061e64	type	Dishonored Dead
Downfall (2004) / int_9a061e64	comment	Dishonored Dead: Well, not on purpose, but it's not exactly very dignified - Hitler's and Braun's bodies are shoved in sacks, tossed in an unmarked ditch, and burned in a "memorial" ceremony that barely lasts five seconds before it's interrupted by Red Army artillery fire, and Goebbels and a couple of random Nazi goons hastily return to the bunker.
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Downfall (2004) / int_9bfb2f41	type	Dead Guy on Display
Downfall (2004) / int_9bfb2f41	comment	Dead Guy on Display: Roving execution squads are going around hanging anyone found guilty of desertion (a lot of people, as what was left of the Heer and Volkssturm was falling apart) and leaving the bodies up, with placards of warning hung from the bodies. ("I supported the Bolsheviks.")
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Downfall (2004) / int_9d12bbc1	type	Foreshadowing
Downfall (2004) / int_9d12bbc1	comment	Foreshadowing: After GÃ¶ring sends a telegram asking for permission to take control of the Reich — while adding that if he doesn't hear back before the end of the day, he'll assume Hitler is incapacitated — Hitler angrily shouts "How dare he declare me unable to act? Tomorrow, he might declare me dead!" before ordering GÃ¶ring removed from office. The following day, Hitler actually does find himself being declared as "possibly dead", but this time by Himmler in order for Himmler to claim the authority to negotiate with the Allies.
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Downfall (2004) / int_9dfb8296	type	This Is Gonna Suck
Downfall (2004) / int_9dfb8296	comment	This Is Gonna Suck: Hitler's inner staff share looks of concern and dread right before they're forced to tell him about Steiner's inability to counterattack. They share further looks of dread as everyone else, on Hitler's orders, evacuates the room - you can almost feel their stomachs tightening as they brace themselves for the inevitable tantrum. Hitler then launches into his longest, most vitriolic rant of the entire film. The look on Heinz Linge's (Hitler's valet) face when he approaches with a report indicating that Himmler has attempted to surrender. It's clear he's read the report and knows it will send Hitler into another rage.
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Downfall (2004) / int_9e5d1558	type	GallowsHumour
Downfall (2004) / int_9e5d1558	comment	Gallows Humour: Knowing that all hope is lost as the Red Army's artillery steadily reduces Berlin to rubble, the German generals tell each other jokes such as "Have you heard? Berlin's a city of warehouses. Where's my house, where's my house?"note In German "department store" (Warenhaus) and "was a house" (war 'n Haus) sound the same. The original joke was something like "Berlin's a city of department stores. Here was a house, there was a house." ("Berlin ist jetzt die Stadt der WarenhÃ¤user: hier war 'n Haus, da war 'n Haus...")
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Downfall (2004) / int_9f4bec33	type	Destroy the Evidence
Downfall (2004) / int_9f4bec33	comment	Destroy the Evidence: Schenck is introduced as SS personnel are throwing out and destroying all documents. During Eva's and Frau Goebbels's letter montage, Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to watch Linge and GÃ¼nsche burning documents by the folder.
Downfall (2004) / int_9f4bec33	featureApplicability	1.0
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Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_9f4bec33
Downfall (2004) / int_9f62723d	type	Get Out!
Downfall (2004) / int_9f62723d	comment	Get Out!: When informed that Steiner's reinforcements aren't coming, Hitler quietly tells everyone but a select few people to leave. As if realising what's about to happen, they leave very quickly - and the instant the door closes behind them, Hitler explodes.
Downfall (2004) / int_9f62723d	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_9f62723d	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_9f62723d
Downfall (2004) / int_a01f88a7	type	General Failure
Downfall (2004) / int_a01f88a7	comment	General Failure: Hitler attempts to micro-manage his troops to increasingly greater degrees, revoking control from his far more capable (and sane) commanders for perceived failures. In the war room scene prior to his infamous breakdown, he shows a very weak grasp of tactics by declaring that battalions and divisions on the verge of being overrun will hold their ground no matter what and grossly overestimating the fighting capacity of groups that exist only on his map. Even the other members of his inner circle give each other nervous looks as he makes these costly decisions. After the last offensive ordered by his generals, Unternehmen Zitadelle/The Battle of Kursk of July 1943, failed and led to a spectacular reversal which cost them Ukraine and all the (experienced) panzer forces, this became Truth in Television for the remainder of the war.
Downfall (2004) / int_a01f88a7	featureApplicability	1.0
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Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_a01f88a7
Downfall (2004) / int_a1ca3743	type	Believing Their Own Lies
Downfall (2004) / int_a1ca3743	comment	As for Hitler himself, Traudl gets a brief glimpse of him sitting alone in his room looking at the painting of Frederick the Great. Frederick the Great was known to be on the verge of defeat until the empress of Russia died, causing the enemy coalition to fall into disarray and giving the Prussian king the edge for victory. It shows that Hitler really is delusional of his chances of winning the war.
Downfall (2004) / int_a1ca3743	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_a1ca3743	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_a1ca3743
Downfall (2004) / int_a2b998a0	type	Wouldn't Hurt a Child
Downfall (2004) / int_a2b998a0	comment	Wouldn't Hurt a Child: In the extended cut, Peter takes his deceased teenage commander's pistol and hides as the Soviet troops storm in. After leaving his hiding place, he is found by a Soviet soldier who then says in Russian, "I won't fight a child". He is then shot and left for dead by Peter, who is quickly horrified by what he did.
Downfall (2004) / int_a2b998a0	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_a2b998a0	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_a2b998a0
Downfall (2004) / int_a2ff4e6f	type	Single Tear
Downfall (2004) / int_a2ff4e6f	comment	Single Tear: Hitler cries one when his close friend, Albert Speer, reveals that he has not always been loyal to him and has at times disobeyed his orders. You get the sense that he has realised that he has no friends left.
Downfall (2004) / int_a2ff4e6f	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_a2ff4e6f	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_a39d6056	type	NiceToTheWaiter
Downfall (2004) / int_a39d6056	comment	The opening scene where Hitler plays the friendly uncle whilst interviewing a nervous group of women for a new secretary. At one point, he literally pets his dog Blondi before testing Traudl's abilities as a secretary.
Downfall (2004) / int_a39d6056	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_a39d6056	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_a39d6056
Downfall (2004) / int_a679184b	type	Due to the Dead
Downfall (2004) / int_a679184b	comment	Due to the Dead: Subverted with Der Fuhrer himself. Once he and Eva Braun kill themselves, the bodies are hastily bundled up in burlap sacks, dragged out of the bunker, thrown in a ditch, doused in petrol, and set on fire, while the "mourners" are too busy dodging Red Army artillery fire to actually pay their respects. In the ultimate insult to injury, the solemn Nazi salute that Goebbels leads lasts for about five seconds before it's interrupted by shells and they all scramble back inside the bunker.
Downfall (2004) / int_a679184b	featureApplicability	-0.3
Downfall (2004) / int_a679184b	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_a679184b
Downfall (2004) / int_a8559a9f	type	RealLife
Downfall (2004) / int_a8559a9f	comment	Fegelein, dragged out of a woman's bed to be summarily executed by the SS, takes a moment to button up his tunic and give the Nazi salute before being shot. This is the opposite of what the Real Life Fegelein, a bastard who betrayed his brother-in-law (the FÃ¼hrer) and tried to escape with a suitcase of stolen money and jewelry, did when caught. He was shot on the spot because he was too drunk to be court-martialed.
Downfall (2004) / int_a8559a9f	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_a8559a9f	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_a8f905e3	type	While Rome Burns
Downfall (2004) / int_a8f905e3	comment	While Rome Burns: Invoked and defied in the same scene, no less. There are a few desperate attempts to have fun, at Eva's insistence - for example, when everyone is forcing themselves to act happy and dance with the shelling in the background. Finally it gets so loud and so close, that they can't even fake it anymore and are clearly terrified. At this point, Eva jumps up on a table and starts dancing going "Câ€™mon, play the music, I want to dance!" And then a shell hits directly outside the ballroom, filling the room with cloud of dust and sending everyone scurrying back into the bunker in a panic as the lights flicker.
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Downfall (2004) / int_a8f905e3	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_a8f905e3
Downfall (2004) / int_abad35b4	type	Soundtrack Dissonance
Downfall (2004) / int_abad35b4	comment	Soundtrack Dissonance: Eva plays lively swing music during her party, even after it's interrupted by an artillery shell. Later, when the SS storm a hotel looking for Fegelein, the drunken partygoers are dancing to the song "Davon geht die Welt nicht unter," which literally means "it's not the end of the world."
Downfall (2004) / int_abad35b4	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_abad35b4	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_abad35b4
Downfall (2004) / int_ac09dc0f	type	Alas, Poor Villain
Downfall (2004) / int_ac09dc0f	comment	Alas, Poor Villain: Astonishingly enough, while not downplaying or ignoring a single one of his crimes, the film - with the assistance of Bruno Ganz's incredible performance - manages to make Hitler himself, the ultimate symbol of human evil in Western civilization, into an oddly pitiable if not sympathetic figure, as the sheer folly and cruelty of his worldview crashes down around him. This was highlighted by many critics and reviewers, several of whom questioned whether it was even morally acceptable to make a movie that depicted him in such a light.
Downfall (2004) / int_ac09dc0f	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_ac09dc0f	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_ac09dc0f
Downfall (2004) / int_ad1db87c	type	Oh, Crap!
Downfall (2004) / int_ad1db87c	comment	Oh, Crap!: The reaction of the German officers when they learn Hitler has committed suicide. Subverted in the very next shot which shows them immediately breaking out the cigarettes due to Hitler having had a distaste for smoke. The look on Jodl's, Keitel's, Krebs's, and Burgdorf's faces after Hitler is told Steiner couldn't get enough men and Hitler excuses everyone but them. This comes before the iconic rant. When Gunsche runs to the conference room with a report from Keitel, he presents it with a look of dread, knowing that the news isn't good (Keitel having reported that none of the units Hitler had ordered to the rescue of Berlin were able to do so).
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Downfall (2004) / int_ad1db87c	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_ad786c6b	type	Hookers and Blow
Downfall (2004) / int_ad786c6b	comment	Hookers and Blow: When Fegelein is tracked down, he's found in a room above an abandoned building used for a wild party by soldiers and civilians, with nude women, booze bottles, and several lines of cocaine on a nearby dresser.
Downfall (2004) / int_ad786c6b	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_ad786c6b	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_ad786c6b
Downfall (2004) / int_afc6df04	type	What You Are in the Dark
Downfall (2004) / int_afc6df04	comment	What You Are in the Dark: As the Nazi regime collapses, and Hitler's power wanes, the Nazis begin to express their true inner thoughts regarding the situation. Some, like Traudl and Weidling, are shown to be decent people who care about the plight of their people. Others, like Mohnke and GÃ¼nsche, want to live to see another day in spite of their promise to kill themselves for Hitler. Speer, meanwhile, accepts that the regime is over and believes that Germany should still have a future. Still others, like Himmler and GÃ¶ring, are selfish bastards who eagerly take advantage of the situation. And the rest, like Goebbels and Hewel, are fanatically loyal to Hitler to the bitter end, committing suicide rather than face the humiliation of defeat. After his Villainous Breakdown, Hitler gives his generals permission to do whatever they want as he sulks over his impending defeat. Although they criticize Hitler's plans behind his back, the generals do nothing with this rare opportunity. Instead, they just wait until their dear leader recovers from his breakdown and starts giving them impossible orders again, not willing to take responsibility for the fate of the Germans. It's such a cowardly moment that Fegelein calls them out for being stupid and spineless. As for Hitler himself, Traudl gets a brief glimpse of him sitting alone in his room looking at the painting of Frederick the Great. Frederick the Great was known to be on the verge of defeat until the empress of Russia died, causing the enemy coalition to fall into disarray and giving the Prussian king the edge for victory. It shows that Hitler really is delusional of his chances of winning the war.
Downfall (2004) / int_afc6df04	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_afc6df04	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_afc6df04
Downfall (2004) / int_b1346878	type	Fate Worse than Death
Downfall (2004) / int_b1346878	comment	Fate Worse than Death: General Helmuth Weidling got a pint of this: Hitler ordered his execution on the assumption that he moved his command post to the west. After his attempt to solve the misunderstanding, Hitler was impressed and appointed him as commander of the defense of Berlin. In one scene, the young blonde female soldier begs the young German officer to kill her as their position is being overrun. Most disturbingly of all, Magda Goebbels decides that this awaits her and everyone else who will be forced to live in a postwar world without Hitler and National Socialism, which is how she self-justifies her killing her own children.
Downfall (2004) / int_b1346878	featureApplicability	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_b7248073	type	My Country, Right or Wrong
Downfall (2004) / int_b7248073	comment	Magda Goebbels kills her own children because of a political ideology. The film's portrayal differs from Real Life; a Soviet autopsy performed on Helga's body showed numerous large black and blue bruises, indicating that she may have woken up and struggled with her killer.
Downfall (2004) / int_b7248073	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_b7248073	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_b7248073
Downfall (2004) / int_b77808f2	type	"Where Are They Now?" Epilogue
Downfall (2004) / int_b77808f2	comment	"Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The ultimate fates of the people we weren't shown are detailed at the very end. Christian escapes all forms of capture and dies in 1997. Dr. Schenck is released from captivity by the Soviets in 1953, and dies in 1998. Monkhe is also released from Soviet captivity in 1955, and dies in 2001. Weidling dies in captivity in 1955. Haase is arrested in the bunker by the Soviets and dies in 1950 (the movie incorrectly claims he dies in 1945.) GÃ¼nsche is also arrested by the Soviets. He is released in 1956 and dies in 2003. Reitsch survives the war and goes on to break many records in aviation. She dies in 1979. Ritter von Greim commits suicide on May 24, 1945. Linge and Hentschel are also arrested by the Soviets. Linge is released in 1955 and dies in 1980, while Hentschel is released in 1949 and dies in 1982. Manziarly escapes all capture and is never seen or heard from again. Speer is arrested in Flensburg after Germany surrenders. At the Nuremberg trials, he is sentenced to 20 years in prison. He is released in 1966 and dies in 1981. Keitel and Jodl are both sentenced to death at the Nuremberg trials and executed. GÃ¶ring is also sentenced to death at the Nuremberg trials. He commits suicide with a cyanide pill shortly before he is to be executed. Himmler attempts to escape from Germany using a false name, but is caught by former Soviet prisoners of war and commits suicide with a cyanide pill. Bormann and Stumpfegger commit suicide after Germany surrenders. Misch is released from Soviet captivity in 1955. He lived in Berlin at the time of the film's release, and he dies in 2013. Junge continues to work as a secretary, lives a long and full life, and dies in 2002, two years before the film was released.
Downfall (2004) / int_b77808f2	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_b77808f2	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_b77808f2
Downfall (2004) / int_b8e3f20a	type	Demoted to Extra
Downfall (2004) / int_b8e3f20a	comment	Demoted to Extra: Goering, despite being a major historical figure, does not factor into the events portrayed, so he's reduced to a single, non-speaking appearance and a telegram. Truth in Television, since Goering left Berlin for good after Hitler's last birthday party.
Downfall (2004) / int_b8e3f20a	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_b8e3f20a	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_b8e3f20a
Downfall (2004) / int_ba0ff694	type	You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!
Downfall (2004) / int_ba0ff694	comment	You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: The reaction of all the officers and witnesses have when the clergyman marrying Hitler and Eva Braun asks if they are both pure Aryans. Somewhat averted by Hitler and Braun who donâ€™t seem to mind the questions though.
Downfall (2004) / int_ba0ff694	featureApplicability	-1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_ba0ff694	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_ba0ff694
Downfall (2004) / int_ba2f9dfe	type	The Paranoiac
Downfall (2004) / int_ba2f9dfe	comment	The Paranoiac: Refusing to accept that defeat was his fault, Hitler starts seeing Starscreams all around him. He removes GÃ¶ring out of the chain of command believing in Bormann and Goebbels' lies that he's planning a coup, and he's convinced that Himmler, chief architect of the Final Solution, is an agent of a Jewish conspiracy against him.
Downfall (2004) / int_ba2f9dfe	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_ba2f9dfe	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_ba2f9dfe
Downfall (2004) / int_bac9f95d	type	Sweet Tooth
Downfall (2004) / int_bac9f95d	comment	Sweet Tooth: In the extended cut, Eva Braun is preparing a chocolate cake for Hitler's birthday. Constanze Manziarly then laments what she's doing because cake is all Hitler will eat these days.
Downfall (2004) / int_bac9f95d	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_bac9f95d	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_bb18a227	type	It's All About Me
Downfall (2004) / int_bb18a227	comment	It's All About Me: Guess who feels this way in response to the impending Soviet invasion? Go on, guess.
Downfall (2004) / int_bb18a227	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_bb18a227	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_bb18a227
Downfall (2004) / int_bb49a7a	type	I've Come Too Far
Downfall (2004) / int_bb49a7a	comment	I've Come Too Far: Spoken by Hitler himself during the infamous rant.
Downfall (2004) / int_bb49a7a	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_bb49a7a	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_bb49a7a
Downfall (2004) / int_bcc9f4f7	type	Realpolitik
Downfall (2004) / int_bcc9f4f7	comment	Realpolitik: After failing to convince Hitler to negotiate with the Allies, Heinrich Himmler unilaterally reaches out to the British Army to offer his surrender. He seems to be operating under the assumption that the Allies would still prefer propping up the Nazi regime so they could use Germany as a counterweight to the communist Soviets. Subverted because Himmler Cannot Comprehend Good - despite the rest of the Allies having ideological differences with the Soviets (and recognizing that conflict with the Soviet Union is more or less inevitable after the war), nobody with a normal moral code would consider siding with the Nazis for a second. This is especially true as the war is nearly over and there is ample evidence for Nazi atrocities all across Europe.
Downfall (2004) / int_bcc9f4f7	featureApplicability	-0.3
Downfall (2004) / int_bcc9f4f7	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_bcc9f4f7
Downfall (2004) / int_be192f18	type	Yes-Man
Downfall (2004) / int_be192f18	comment	Yes-Man: This is truth in fiction, of course, but Hitler's generals are such "yes men" they will never disobey him (Wilhelm Keitel's nickname was "Lakeitel", a pun on the German word for lackey). At best, some implore him to see reason, but refuse to outright turn on him. The most any of them ever does is when (the unseen) Felix Steiner refuses to launch a counterattack against surrounding Soviets... only because Hitler insists he attack using imaginary units, and his remaining forces are (despite Hitler's crazed claims) in reality outnumbered ten to one. In contrast to regular generals, SS members like Himmler and Fegelein know all too well that the war is lost and are secretly planning to negotiate with the Allies; not that they were more heroic, but they were smart enough to realize when to give up on a lost cause. Fegelein even criticizes the regular generals (Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, Hans Krebs and Wilhelm Burgdorf) for continuing to go along with Hitler when they privately admit the war is lost. Himmler and Fegelein pay lip service to Hitler while in the same room, but they're simply buying time for their escape. Even Joseph Goebbels — Yes Man among Hitler's Yes Men — has his fair share of private admissions of defeat, even as he seems to honestly believe everything Hitler says, knowing all too well that, as Hitler's right-hand man, getting out of Berlin alive is nigh-impossible. Subverted with Albert Speer, one of the few people who tries to convince Hitler that the war is truly lost, even pointing out that most of his generals already think the same, even as they are too spineless to ever say it to his face.
Downfall (2004) / int_be192f18	featureApplicability	-0.3
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Downfall (2004) / int_beb8cab5	type	Dressing to Die
Downfall (2004) / int_beb8cab5	comment	Dressing to Die: SS officer Hermann Fegelein is roused out of bed by armed soldiers and pulled out into the streets of Berlin. When the commander of the detachment orders him to halt and reaches for his gun, Fegelein hurriedly buttons his jacket and snaps to attention before being shot. Joseph and Magda Goebbels dress elegantly before they carry out their Suicide Pact (having previously forcibly euthanized all their children), including Goebbels putting on his ceremonial NSDAP uniform.
Downfall (2004) / int_beb8cab5	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_beb8cab5	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_beeccbf4	type	Windmill Political
Downfall (2004) / int_beeccbf4	comment	Windmill Political: The film is one of many works that take this view on the then-widely-believed fear of a global Jewish conspiracy; it was ultimately a total crackpot hoax and delusion, but Hitler and his followers honestly believed itâ€”making them Windmill Crusaders.
Downfall (2004) / int_beeccbf4	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_beeccbf4	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_beeccbf4
Downfall (2004) / int_bf609406	type	New Meat
Downfall (2004) / int_bf609406	comment	New Meat: Most of the Volkssturm are barely shown how to fire their weapons before being sent straight to the front lines. It's not pretty.
Downfall (2004) / int_bf609406	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_bf609406	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_bf74d357	type	Ugly Guy, Hot Wife
Downfall (2004) / int_bf74d357	comment	Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Both Hitler and Goebbels, in every sense of the word "ugly". Truth in Television for both of them.
Downfall (2004) / int_bf74d357	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_bf74d357	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_bf74d357
Downfall (2004) / int_bff666b	type	Suicide Pact
Downfall (2004) / int_bff666b	comment	Joseph and Magda Goebbels dress elegantly before they carry out their Suicide Pact (having previously forcibly euthanized all their children), including Goebbels putting on his ceremonial NSDAP uniform.
Downfall (2004) / int_bff666b	featureApplicability	1.0
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Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_bff666b
Downfall (2004) / int_c02f148d	type	Both Sides Have a Point
Downfall (2004) / int_c02f148d	comment	Both Sides Have a Point: Fegelein denounces Hitler's high-ranking generals' cowardice for not telling the FÃ¼hrer the truth about the situation in Berlin, but while Hitler's generals know they are fighting a hopeless battle, they also know that telling him what's really going on will only get them dismissed at best and make the situation worse at worst.
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Downfall (2004) / int_c145f69b	type	Subverted Trope
Downfall (2004) / int_c145f69b	comment	The reaction of the German officers when they learn Hitler has committed suicide. Subverted in the very next shot which shows them immediately breaking out the cigarettes due to Hitler having had a distaste for smoke.
Downfall (2004) / int_c145f69b	featureApplicability	-0.3
Downfall (2004) / int_c145f69b	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_c3ae004a	type	Re-Cut
Downfall (2004) / int_c3ae004a	comment	Re-Cut: An extended version aired on German television, which includes 23 minutes of extra footage. This includes an alternate version of the first briefing, additional scenes with the Goebbels children, and Mohnke giving a speech prior to the attempted breakout. So far, this version is only available in Germany without English subtitles.
Downfall (2004) / int_c3ae004a	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_c3ae004a	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_c3b760ed	type	ZigZaggedTrope
Downfall (2004) / int_c3b760ed	comment	Zigzagged with Weidling; he is never shown touching alcohol, as when Burgdorf and Krebs get drunk, they encourage Weidling to do the same, only for Weidling to express concern for his troops at the front. At the end of the movie, after delivering a speech ordering all remaining combatants to lay down their arms, the exhausted Weidling asks for a glass of water before fainting from fatigue.
Downfall (2004) / int_c3b760ed	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_c3b760ed	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_c3c18143	type	Hope Spot
Downfall (2004) / int_c3c18143	comment	Hope Spot: After his infamous rant about Steiner's failure to attack, Hitler sinks into a chair and finally admits out loud that the war is lost, and he might as well end his life now. This briefly gives the bunker's inhabitants hope that they will be allowed to surrender and prevent the Red Army from leveling Berlin, but within hours Hitler is back in the throes of self-delusion, claiming that Wenck's army, instead of Steiner's, will turn everything around.
Downfall (2004) / int_c3c18143	featureApplicability	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_c5f0119c	type	Insane Troll Logic
Downfall (2004) / int_c5f0119c	comment	Insane Troll Logic: Hitler's level of delusion varies from scene to scene, but in general he'll resort to blaming anyone and anything he can for the mess they're in, basically claiming it's they who failed him by following the orders he gave.
Downfall (2004) / int_c5f0119c	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_c5f0119c	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_c660bc15	type	Fan Disservice
Downfall (2004) / int_c660bc15	comment	Fan Disservice: Several topless women appear in the brothel where Fegelein hides out, but the overall movie rather nullifies any potential sexiness.
Downfall (2004) / int_c660bc15	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_c660bc15	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_c7c7d2dd	type	Photoflood Lighting
Downfall (2004) / int_c7c7d2dd	comment	Photoflood Lighting: The FÃ¼hrerbunker is lit entirely with photo floods.
Downfall (2004) / int_c7c7d2dd	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_c7c7d2dd	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_c7c7d2dd
Downfall (2004) / int_c94f1109	type	Artistic License â€“ Chemistry
Downfall (2004) / int_c94f1109	comment	Artistic License â€“ Chemistry: Near the end of the film, Magda Goebbels drugs her children and then poisons them with cyanide capsules, which are shown to have a very quick effect; the children whimper and go limp practically a second after the capsule is cracked. In reality, death by cyanide - or really any poison administered orally - takes rather longer than a second or two, and, as mentioned below, the children would have thrashed around before dying. note This is most likely to avoid the fact that, even when the Death of a Child is depicted, watching a young child's agonized death throes would probably be too much for an audience to bear - as well as the fact that obtaining a convincing performance of painful, drawn-out death from a child actor would run the risk of falling into serious Narm.
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Downfall (2004) / int_c9c756a8	type	Child Soldiers
Downfall (2004) / int_c9c756a8	comment	Child Soldiers: The Germans are so short of troops that they're using children. One particular scene has Hitler inspecting a line of kids and giving them medals. This scene is a recreation of well-known newsreel footage of Hitler doing just that on 20 March 1945.
Downfall (2004) / int_c9c756a8	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_c9c756a8	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_caf89e54	type	Taking You with Me
Downfall (2004) / int_caf89e54	comment	Taking You with Me: Hitler's final plan basically amounted to scorched earth, destroying Germany's infrastructure and abandoning its people to the caprices of the Red Army. He felt they "failed him".
Downfall (2004) / int_caf89e54	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_caf89e54	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_cfa546f4	type	Mother Russia Makes You Strong
Downfall (2004) / int_cfa546f4	comment	Mother Russia Makes You Strong: At the end, Hitler believes this, explaining in his Last Testament that a Soviet victory means that they are a more deserving race than the German one and their strong leader will complete world conquest after destroying the "decadent democracies of the west." It's somewhat at odds with the accepted wisdom of the time that one of the USSR's greatest threats was its status as a highly mixed "mongrel race", and the common sense that there wasn't actually a Soviet race in the first place (presumably he meant the Slavs?).
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Downfall (2004) / int_cfa546f4	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_d080f396	type	The Napoleon
Downfall (2004) / int_d080f396	comment	The Napoleon: Hitler, especially when he's next to his towering adjutant GÃ¼nsche (played by 198cm/6'6" GÃ¶tz Otto). It doesn't help that Hitler is permanently hunched over as a result of his Villainous Breakdown, and that often he's the only one sitting down while everyone else has to stand.
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Downfall (2004) / int_d080f396	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_d1ebedfb	type	Armchair Military
Downfall (2004) / int_d1ebedfb	comment	Armchair Military: Hitler, whose isolation in the bunker and the presence of many yes men enables him to entertain the delusion that his intellect and willpower can save Germany from the brink of defeat. When discussing his plans he has totally unrealistic notions of what his units in the field are still capable of. In the extended cut, a Nazi brownshirt berates Peter's father for not joining the fight for Berlin. One of the hardened veterans takes a look at the brownshirt, laughs at him for not following his own beliefs, and forcibly takes him outside to join the battle.
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Downfall (2004) / int_d1ebedfb	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_d1fc4a16	type	Please Spare Him, My Liege!
Downfall (2004) / int_d1fc4a16	comment	Please Spare Him, My Liege!: Eva Braun begs Hitler to spare her brother-in-law Fegelein after he's ordered to be executed for treason.
Downfall (2004) / int_d1fc4a16	featureApplicability	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_d2102da0	type	Bad People Abuse Animals
Downfall (2004) / int_d2102da0	comment	Bad People Abuse Animals: Eva admits to repeatedly kicking Blondi for no real reason, and later, Hitler has a cyanide capsule tested on her as well.
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Downfall (2004) / int_d2102da0	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_d3a4af1e	type	Sympathy for the Devil
Downfall (2004) / int_d3a4af1e	comment	Sympathy for the Devil: It's often easy to sympathize with Hitler as a human being, watching him almost literally break apart from the enormity of his failure, but then you get scenes where he reminds the audience what a cold-blooded, paranoid mass-murderer he is.
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Downfall (2004) / int_d45c0b86	type	Refuge in Audacity
Downfall (2004) / int_d45c0b86	comment	Refuge in Audacity: Many Nazis, including Hitler, believe the party line that Germany is just one good counterattack away from turning the tide and winning the war. Nazi propaganda was built around the concept of the "Big Lie", that people would be suspicious of small promises and lies, but would more easily believe huge, sweeping lies. Additionally, if it weren't a historical memoir, half the stuff that happens wouldn't be believable. Hitler gets married to Eva Braun in his bunker, while Berlin is being shelled, civilians are starving and dying, he's swinging between losing his mind and fanatical delusion that he'll be saved, and everything is falling apart. The civil registration official then asks Hitler one of the questions that led to this total madness: "Are you of pure Aryan descent?"
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Downfall (2004) / int_d52d28b6	type	Hypocrite
Downfall (2004) / int_d52d28b6	comment	Hypocrite: Averted - Hitler's Master Race Social Darwinism wins out over his German nationalism in the end, as he concludes that not only are the Russians superior to the Germans, but that the Russians will ultimately prevail in the inevitable conflict between them and the Western democracies.
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Downfall (2004) / int_d54b9eb3	type	Inter-Service Rivalry
Downfall (2004) / int_d54b9eb3	comment	Interservice Rivalry: The Wehrmacht and the Volkssturm led by Goebbels. Though they don't compete with each other for resources, the Volkssturm operates independently and incompetently, causing them to get in the way of the Wehrmacht. Mohnke has to have them removed from the battlefield because they contribute nothing and even block his firing field.
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Downfall (2004) / int_d6a33187	type	We Didn't Start the Führer
Downfall (2004) / int_d6a33187	comment	We Didn't Start the FÃ¼hrer: A meta example of an aversion was invoked by the director, in response to some of the film's detractors: as he said, if Germans continue to treat Hitler like some kind of demon or evil alien, then they are just never going to learn anything from history, as awful a chapter as it was.
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Downfall (2004) / int_d9cf40fa	type	Screw This, I'm Outta Here
Downfall (2004) / int_d9cf40fa	comment	Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Fegelein, Speer, Himmler, among others.
Downfall (2004) / int_d9cf40fa	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_d9cf40fa	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_dae815bb	type	A Glass in the Hand
Downfall (2004) / int_dae815bb	comment	A Glass in the Hand: When Speer confesses to Hitler that he has on numerous occasions ignored or even acted contrary to his orders, Hitler snaps a pencil in half in his hand to avoid yet another outburst of rage. It's one of the few instances in the film where a reveal of disloyalty does not result in Hitler bursting into a near-incoherent rage-filled rant, instead producing a Single Tear.
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Downfall (2004) / int_dae815bb	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_dd082289	type	A Million Is a Statistic
Downfall (2004) / int_dd082289	comment	A Million Is a Statistic: Averted. While the child Peter represents a lot of youths caught up in the nightmare, a lot of civilians, conscripted Volkssturm, and soldiers are shown throughout the film being blown to pieces or otherwise suffering.
Downfall (2004) / int_dd082289	featureApplicability	-1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_dd082289	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_dda99fa8	type	Despair Event Horizon
Downfall (2004) / int_dda99fa8	comment	Despair Event Horizon: The film is basically one long chain of these. Watching how individual people deal with their inevitable, total, and deserved (or undeserved) defeats is a major theme. Every major character has at least one scene where they finally break. Hitler has about half a dozen. Hitler's biggest one is most likely when he receives news that Himmler is attempting to negotiate a surrender of Germany. Hitler, who always believed Himmler to be his most loyal follower, regarded this as the ultimate form of betrayal. While previously he would see-saw between fits of rage and moments of delusional optimism, Himmler's betrayal marks the final point when he begins actively planning to commit suicide.
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Downfall (2004) / int_dda99fa8	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_de15a322	type	Tangled Family Tree
Downfall (2004) / int_de15a322	comment	This has the added real-life subtext of Hitler being unable to identify his biological grandfather due to his Tangled Family Tree, ergo he would not actually pass the Aryan test.
Downfall (2004) / int_de15a322	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_de15a322	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_e0113647	type	Decon-Recon Switch
Downfall (2004) / int_e0113647	comment	Decon-Recon Switch: Essentially, to the typical cultural depiction of Hitler on film as an almost mythic figure of pure evil - first it shows us a Hitler who loves his family and is beloved by his people, before reminding us that just because he was a real person with sympathetic traits didn't make his genocidal views any less evil, and that he was ultimately a cowardly, incompetent, egotistical, and selfish racist who got not only the "undesirables" but millions of his own people killed because he's too proud and too unhinged to realize his goals were impossible in the first place.
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Downfall (2004) / int_e0c5d0bc	type	We Are Not Going Through That Again
Downfall (2004) / int_e0c5d0bc	comment	We Are Not Going Through That Again: Whenever the high-ranking Nazis discuss the possibility of surrendering or fleeing Berlin, one of them will usually mention Germany's defeat in the First World War and swear they will not let it happen again. After Fegelein proposes ending the war after Hitler's Villainous Breakdown when Steiner's attack plan failed: Later after Hitler finds out the Red Army has all of Berlin surrounded and is betting on a futile attack by Wenck's army. After he leaves, the remaining generals have another heated discussion about surrendering:
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Downfall (2004) / int_e13156e1	type	Mama Bear
Downfall (2004) / int_e13156e1	comment	Mama Bear/Papa Wolf: Subverted. Many parents in this film kill themselves and their own children.
Downfall (2004) / int_e13156e1	featureApplicability	-0.3
Downfall (2004) / int_e13156e1	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_e16cd24e	type	Know When to Fold 'Em
Downfall (2004) / int_e16cd24e	comment	In contrast to regular generals, SS members like Himmler and Fegelein know all too well that the war is lost and are secretly planning to negotiate with the Allies; not that they were more heroic, but they were smart enough to realize when to give up on a lost cause. Fegelein even criticizes the regular generals (Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, Hans Krebs and Wilhelm Burgdorf) for continuing to go along with Hitler when they privately admit the war is lost. Himmler and Fegelein pay lip service to Hitler while in the same room, but they're simply buying time for their escape.
Downfall (2004) / int_e16cd24e	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_e16cd24e	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_e3277b30	type	Contrast Montage
Downfall (2004) / int_e3277b30	comment	One scene during the Contrast Montage shows a despairing teenage officer shooting himself in the head after he fulfills a female comrade's request to be shot rather than be captured, raped, and tortured. There's zero blood which, along with the scene having no audio (Eva's narration plays over it), somehow makes it more disturbing.
Downfall (2004) / int_e3277b30	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_e3277b30	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_e3847ee8	type	Cigarette of Anxiety
Downfall (2004) / int_e3847ee8	comment	Cigarette of Anxiety: Anyone who isnâ€™t drinking is actually smoking (sometimes both). Once Hitler's suicide is announced, every soldier in the bunker immediately lights up a cigarette. Truth in Television, as Hitler ran very aggressive anti-smoking campaigns in Germany (German doctors were among the first to find a link between smoking and lung cancer), and after he killed himself, everyone in the bunker felt it was safe enough to finally smoke.
Downfall (2004) / int_e3847ee8	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_e3847ee8	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_e5fd8bc2	type	Hate Sink
Downfall (2004) / int_e5fd8bc2	comment	Hate Sink: While Adolf Hitler himself is portrayed as a pitiful shell of a man, Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels embodies all of Hitler's evil with none of his delusional madness. A fanatical Nazi loyalist, Goebbels encourages Hitler's worst impulses and attacks anyone who dares question their FÃ¼hrer. He knowingly sends civilians to die in a futile attempt to stop the Soviets and then admits he doesn't care because he blames them for losing the war (by following the Nazis in the first place). Rather than accept surrender, Goebbels and his wife Magda murder their children before killing themselves in one of the darkest scenes of the film.
Downfall (2004) / int_e5fd8bc2	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_e5fd8bc2	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_e9db9908	type	Younger Than They Look
Downfall (2004) / int_e9db9908	comment	Martin Bormann is balder and more plain-looking than his real counterpart. Also, the real Bormann was 44 years old during the events of the film, here, he is played by an actor who was 56 years old when the movie was made, making him look older than he really was.
Downfall (2004) / int_e9db9908	featureApplicability	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_e9f517e1	type	Artistic License â€“ Geography
Downfall (2004) / int_e9f517e1	comment	Artistic License â€“ Geography: Before the infamous Hitler Rant, Krebs announces that the enemy has advanced to the East as far as the line Lichtenberg-Mahlsdorf-Karlshorst. Lichtenberg is between Mahlsdorf and Karlshorst.
Downfall (2004) / int_e9f517e1	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_e9f517e1	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_e9f79e23	type	Screw the War, We're Partying
Downfall (2004) / int_e9f79e23	comment	Screw the War, We're Partying: Eva Braun engineers vast parties to distract Hitler and their friends from the reality of Germany's impending defeat. Several officers and civilians alike are seen drunk off their asses wandering the streets with women in their arms as Berlin collapses. Frustratingly, the Bavarian-hatted man leading the amateur death squad is stringing up male civilians as "deserters" while walking past the aforementioned actual deserters from the war effort.
Downfall (2004) / int_e9f79e23	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_e9f79e23	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_ea2ae106	type	Windmill Crusader
Downfall (2004) / int_ea2ae106	comment	Windmill Crusader: Hitler and some of his closest followers desperately tried to save the world from a global conspiracy they honestly believed to be real. As Berlin falls they face what they believe to be the twilight of mankind itself. Hitler himself is most likely insane, while his followers are rational except for their misguided belief that he is a legitimate leader. Their actions make total sense when one takes this tragic belief into account.
Downfall (2004) / int_ea2ae106	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_ea2ae106	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_ed05cfee	type	NaÃ¯ve Newcomer
Downfall (2004) / int_ed05cfee	comment	NaÃ¯ve Newcomer: Traudl Junge, painfully so.
Downfall (2004) / int_ed05cfee	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_ed05cfee	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_ed2bbf8a	type	You Are in Command Now
Downfall (2004) / int_ed2bbf8a	comment	You Are in Command Now: On several occassions Hitler randomly promotes officers to higher military positions. General Weidling is ordered to defend Berlin when he only came in to attest that he didn't move his command post and therefore shouldn't be executed. Ritter von Greim is an even better example: he is already a general, but when he makes it to the bunker he is put in command of the entire German air force (which is all but completely defunct by this point in time), and told that he has to rebuild it from the ground up. When Hitler starts claiming that he'll be able to give Greim a thousand jet aircraft on short notice, it becomes obvious that he and reality don't see eye to eye anymore.
Downfall (2004) / int_ed2bbf8a	featureApplicability	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_ed503b22	type	Match Cut
Downfall (2004) / int_ed503b22	comment	Match Cut: Hitler's flunkies pour gasoline over his and Eva Braun's corpses; cut to Traudl Junge pouring vodka into a glass for her own I Need a Freaking Drink moment.
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Downfall (2004) / int_ed51d0	type	That Russian Squat Dance
Downfall (2004) / int_ed51d0	comment	That Russian Squat Dance: At the end of the film, Traudl and Peter walk through a group of Russians celebrating their victory, which includes a few soldiers doing this to "The Russian Sailor Dance" from The Red Poppy.
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Downfall (2004) / int_ed51d0	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_ed68bcc9	type	Dwindling Party
Downfall (2004) / int_ed68bcc9	comment	Dwindling Party: At the start of the film, the Third Reich in Berlin is at its highest (relatively speaking) peak, with hundreds of Nazi officials gathered to celebrate Hitler's birthday, including members of Hitler's inner circle such as Hermann GÃ¶ring, Heinrich Himmler and Albert Speer. But as the Battle of Berlin progresses, that number begins to dwindle as more and more Nazi officials disappear from the film, either by leaving Berlin or dying in battlegrounds. This symbolizes the downfall of Hitler himself, as his range of control goes from the Reich Chancellery to the claustrophobic FÃ¼hrerbunker.
Downfall (2004) / int_ed68bcc9	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_ed68bcc9	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_ed7b2907	type	Folk Hero
Downfall (2004) / int_ed7b2907	comment	Folk Hero: The picture Hitler looks at in one scene is King Frederick II of Prussia, who was an idol to him. King Frederick was saved twice from utter defeat, including a Russian seizure of Berlin, by last-minute turns of events (the "Miracles of the House of Brandenburg"). Hitler hoped for something similar for himself (especially after FDR died).
Downfall (2004) / int_ed7b2907	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_ed7b2907	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_ee8807f9	type	LawOfConservationOfDetail
Downfall (2004) / int_ee8807f9	comment	Law of Conservation of Detail: Historically, Traudl Humps married Hitler's servant Hans Hermann Junge in 1943; he later volunteered to go to the front and died, so by the time the film takes place, Traudl Junge was already a widow at 25. It may seem strange not to mention such a major life event that happened during the initial timeskip, which would have explained why her last name changes in the film, but in a movie packed with characters who take turns in the spotlight, the filmmakers seemingly judged her dead husband nonessential to the narrative.
Downfall (2004) / int_ee8807f9	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_ee8807f9	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_eeb4a5eb	type	Anti-Climax
Downfall (2004) / int_eeb4a5eb	comment	Anti-Climax: Hitler's suicide is staged in decidedly undramatic fashion, happening offscreen shortly into a random dinner scene. This was a deliberate choice by the director, who felt that such an evil man didn't deserve to be memorialized with a dramatic onscreen death.
Downfall (2004) / int_eeb4a5eb	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_eeb4a5eb	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_eedee4d	type	The Starscream
Downfall (2004) / int_eedee4d	comment	The Starscream: Hitler's refusal to leave Berlin, despite clear signs that the city is lost before the Soviets even invade, opens the door for many Nazi officials to claim power for themselves at the expense of their FÃ¼hrer. GÃ¶ring sends a telegram stating that if Hitler doesn't reply soon, he will assume that the leadership in Berlin has been incapacitated and thus shall take command of the Third Reich. Hitler, prodded by Bormann and Goebbels, sees this as a naked coup and, after ranting and raving about GÃ¶ring's incompetence, expels his former Number Two from the chain of command. Himmler has been negotiating with the Western Allies in hopes of ensuring that he'll rule some form of Nazi Germany after the war. He even claims that Hitler was either sick or dead and thus authority of the Third Reich would pass down to him. Like with GÃ¶ring, Hitler flies into a tantrum, expels Himmler from his inner circle, and then orders his capture and immediate execution.
Downfall (2004) / int_eedee4d	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_eedee4d	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_f0515dae	type	Sidelong Glance Biopic
Downfall (2004) / int_f0515dae	comment	Sidelong Glance Biopic: The film looks at the final days of the life of Adolf Hitler from the perspective of his personal secretary, Traudl Junge, as well as other key witnesses such as Ernst-GÃ¼nther Schenck and Helmuth Weidling.
Downfall (2004) / int_f0515dae	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_f0515dae	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_f15c2859	type	NO INDOOR VOICE
Downfall (2004) / int_f15c2859	comment	No Indoor Voice: Hitler, whenever he's ranting. In two particular scenes, he's easily audible from behind a reinforced steel door!
Downfall (2004) / int_f15c2859	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_f15c2859	featureConfidence	1.0
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Downfall (2004) / int_f16da697	type	Undying Loyalty
Downfall (2004) / int_f16da697	comment	Undying Loyalty: Unlike many other members of Hitler's inner circle, Goebbels and his wife remain loyal to Hitler to the end.
Downfall (2004) / int_f16da697	featureApplicability	1.0
Downfall (2004) / int_f16da697	featureConfidence	1.0
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Downfall (2004) / int_f16da697
Downfall (2004) / int_f1d6144a	type	War Is Hell
Downfall (2004) / int_f1d6144a	comment	War Is Hell: The Battle of Berlin is seen from the German perspective (aka the losing side) and it's an apocalyptic nightmare. The Red Army is relentless, continuously shelling the buildings into fiery ruins and pushing deeper into the center of Berlin with every passing hour. The German defenses have been reduced to young children and old men with poor equipment, dying senselessly against the enemy in the already lost battle. And if that's not bad enough, fanatical Nazis are prowling on the streets, killing any German who doesn't fight the Soviets. And all of this is due to Hitler's refusal to retreat or surrender.
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Downfall (2004) / int_f5241839	type	Braids of Action
Downfall (2004) / int_f5241839	comment	Braids of Action: The female Child Soldier operating the flak gun has long, blonde, twin braids.
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Downfall (2004) / int_f6698528	type	Vigilante Execution
Downfall (2004) / int_f6698528	comment	Vigilante Execution: Several Volkssturm members are executed for cowardice by a man wearing a Bavarian hat (with a feather), who leads a goon squad. It is ambiguous whether they were actually Volkssturm or just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Near the end of the film, Peter sees the Bavarian hat man coming out of his apartment building, and when he enters his home, his mother was shot in the head and his father was hung from the middle of the living room.
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Downfall (2004) / int_f67171cc	type	Empathy Doll Shot
Downfall (2004) / int_f67171cc	comment	Empathy Doll Shot: When Ernst-Robert Grawitz (an SS doctor who helped in the development of death camp gas chambers) kills himself, his wife, and his three children with grenades, we see a doll landing in the street after the explosion.
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Downfall (2004) / int_f740a274	type	Historical Beauty Update
Downfall (2004) / int_f740a274	comment	Historical Beauty Update: Alexandra Maria Lara is certainly more eye-catching◊ than the real Traudl Junge◊.
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Downfall (2004) / int_f7512035	type	Cope by Pretending
Downfall (2004) / int_f7512035	comment	Cope by Pretending: Eva Braun tries to pretend everything's fine as Berlin is being shelled. When one hits above the bunker hard enough to cause the whole place to start shaking like an earthquake is going on, even she can't deny it anymore.
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Downfall (2004) / int_f7cee9b	type	Last Stand
Downfall (2004) / int_f7cee9b	comment	Last Stand: By the scattered and disorganized remnants of the Heer, SS, and Volkssturm.
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Downfall (2004) / int_f8df38e6	type	Pater Familicide
Downfall (2004) / int_f8df38e6	comment	Ernst-Robert Grawitz commits suicide in his apartment during dinner with his wife and three children—by detonating a grenade and killing his family along with him. Also an example of Pater Familicide.
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Downfall (2004) / int_fb378c33	type	Oktoberfest
Downfall (2004) / int_fb378c33	comment	Oktoberfest: Eva Braun and at least one extra wearing a traditional Bavarian costume in Prussian Berlin. Justified though since Eva Braun was Bavarian and Hitler believed all of Germany should be like Bavaria. Itâ€™s pretty obvious from the get-go that she knows sheâ€™s living her last days and likely wanted to go out dressed on her own terms.
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Downfall (2004) / int_fdf22cfd	type	Evil Is Hammy
Downfall (2004) / int_fdf22cfd	comment	Evil Is Hammy: Is You-Know-Who ever. You half-wonder in the infamous breakdown scene whether he's going to have a heart attack from exertion before he kills himself.
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Downfall (2004) / int_ff7f34c5	type	Pet the Dog
Downfall (2004) / int_ff7f34c5	comment	Pet the Dog: The opening scene where Hitler plays the friendly uncle whilst interviewing a nervous group of women for a new secretary. At one point, he literally pets his dog Blondi before testing Traudl's abilities as a secretary. His statement that he values his dog much more than many people serves as an Establishing Character Moment. At one point, General Burgdorf, alone among all the "yes men" generals, shows he actually cares about his men when he stands up to Hitler after the latter undeservedly calls the German soldiers cowards.
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Downfall (2004) / int_ffad4e9f	type	Shown Their Work
Downfall (2004) / int_ffad4e9f	comment	Shown Their Work: This movie was heavily researched. Much of the framing is taken from contemporary photographs and newsreels—one of the movie posters is basically a staged version of the very last picture ever taken of Adolf Hitler. The Hitler rant that became an infamous Internet meme is presented in this movie as it basically happened, with Hitler screaming at his subordinates, telling them he should have purged them as Stalin did to the Soviet general staff note Ironically, one of the biggest reasons why Nazi Germany was able to achieve many victories during the early years of the war on the Eastern Front was because of Stalin's purge, where many of the USSR's best generals were killed., and finally admitting that the war was lost and that he would kill himself in Berlin. Bruno Ganz (who is Swiss) went through a lot of effort and study to accurately imitate Hitler's mannerisms and speech patterns, including his distinct Austrian accent that is slightly difficult for native Germans to pull off convincingly. Ask any German speaker, he nails it. Among the tools Ganz used to prepare for the role was a ten-minute tape recording of a dinner between Hitler and Field Marshal Gustaf Mannerheim of Finland, which is the only known recording of Hitler speaking in a calm and relaxed tone of voice. In the extended cut, during the wedding reception, Eva Braun says that, when signing the marriage certificate, she started to write her maiden name, then crossed out the B and wrote "Hitler." She actually did make this mistake in real life. While walking through the ruined streets of Berlin, Peter and some other kids see a dead woman in an APC. It's based on this photograph. While writing to her sister, Eva says that she is confident Fegelein will head south and continue the fight in Bavaria. The Alpine Fortress was a proposed plan to form a national redoubt in the Alps to continue fighting, though it was never fully endorsed by Hitler. A man wearing a Bavarian hat is seen leading a death squad that is executing "deserters" from the Volkssturm. Just such a man was seen doing this in real life; his identity remains unknown.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

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Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Armchair Military / int_78cbedd9
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Ate His Gun / int_78cbedd9
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Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Believing Their Own Lies / int_78cbedd9
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Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	War Comes Home / int_78cbedd9
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	Watch It for the Meme / int_78cbedd9
Downfall (2004)	hasFeature	We Didn't Start the Führer / int_78cbedd9
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