History Film / Downfall2004

* WindmillCrusader: 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 [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman 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 take this tragic belief into account.

** Manzairly escapes all capture and is never seen or heard from again.

* WarIsHell: 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 equipments, dying senselessly against the enemy in already lost battle. And if that's not bad enough, [[ScyllaAndCharybdis 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.

* ViewersAreGeniuses: 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 researches. 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).

** 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 reason that Nazi Germany was able to have many victories during the early years of the Eastern Front was because of Stalin's purge, where many including USSR's best generals were killed.[[/note]], and finally admitting that the war was lost and that he would kill himself in Berlin.

* ChildSoldiers: 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 his birthday on the 20th of April 1945.

* NewMeat: Most of the Volkssturm are barely shown how to fire their weapons before being sent straight into the front lines. It's not pretty.

* HopelessWar: That is the situation, with UsefulNotes/NaziGermany with its capital under direct siege with the Soviets 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.

* HookersAndBlow: When Fegelein is tracked down, he's found in a room above an abandoned building used for [[ScrewTheWarWerePartying a wild party by soldiers and civilians]], with a nude woman, booze bottles, and several lines of cocaine on a nearby dresser.

* HomeGuard: The Volkssturm are this on paper. In practise, 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 to cover.

* ContrastMontage: Eva Braun's inner monologue narrates a letter she is typing to her family, calmly asking family members to redeem items and pay off debts at shops that have long since been destroyed, and that she hopes to send a care package with chocolate as well as some tobacco for her father. The almost cheerful narration of her letter is played over a montage of death and destruction as Berlin is blown to pieces, under-equipped doctors perform amputations in overcrowded bomb shelters, and the Soviet Army overruns the German defences. Particularly harrowing is that during the part where she's absent-mindedly talking about sending some chocolate, a squad of ''child'' soldiers who are being overrun start ''turning their guns on their squadmates'' to save them from a more grisly death at the hands of the vengeful Soviets.

* GallowsHumour: Knowing that all hope is lost as the Soviet 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 Warenhäuser: hier war 'n Haus, da war 'n Haus..."'')[[/note]]

** 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 Soviet 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.

* BlackComedy: 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 and his wife shooting themselves and cries "''Volltreffer!''" ("[[FromTheMouthsOfBabes Bullseye!]]")

* AssholeVictim: 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 Goebbelses' children.

* FriendToAllChildren: Hitler, of all people, appears as this: The Goebbelses' children are obviously fond of him. At the same time, he's also sending ChildSoldiers en masse to their deaths.