Trivia / Alexander Nevsky

• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: A variation of the phrase "all who draw the sword will die by the sword", tends to be attributed to Alexander since it appears in the movie. In reality, there is no mention of him ever saying it in public, and the phrase is actually attributed to Jesus.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Brazil: Iron Knights
  • Hungary: Knight of Icefields
  • Sweden: Storm Over Russia
• Dawson Casting: Then-35 year old Nikolay Cherkasov, a superstar of Stalin-era Soviet cinema, was cast as the title character — who was 22 at the time of the battle. Due to Pop-Cultural Osmosis, most Russian people think that the prince was in his 30's when he fought the battle.
• Executive Meddling: Government executive, that is. The production of the film was an important affair of the state, rigorously monitored by Soviet authorities. The film's ultimate censor was Josef Stalin himself.
• Fake Nationality: All German characters, for obvious reasons, are played by Russian actors. The actor playing the Mongol envoy is Chinese, but Mongol extras are played by actual Mongols (foreign students of Soviet universities or members of the Soviet Mongol minority; Mongolia's first modern government independent of China was backed by the Soviet Union, also a communist regime which actually outlived the Soviets.)
• Prop Recycling: The distinctive helmets worn by the Knights reappear even after one wearer has been killed.
• Referenced by...: The film has been cited in a number of subsequent fictional works.
  • The beginning of Conan the Barbarian (1982). Thulsa Doom and his warriors attack in the dead of winter, torch the Cimmerian village, slaughter the inhabitants — all while wearing some strangely familiar helmets◊. Also, the "It's not the sword, but the hand that wields it" quote.
  • Also, King Arthur (2004) features a battle on the ice (much smaller in scale).
  • The The Lord of the Rings film trilogy seems to be full of them, particularly in the second movie.
  • In the novel Red Storm Rising, this film is shown on Russian TV shortly before the main False Flag Operation (detonating a bomb at the Kremlin and blaming West Germany).
  • First Squad has the Ghostapo raising the spirits of some Teutonic knights to fight the Russians on a frozen lake.
  • Not about the battle, but Emperor Palpatine looks very suspiciously like a character known as the Black-Hooded Monk who keeps appearing in the movie. And, indeed, one of the battles in the trilogy were reportedly inspired by this film, making this other borrowing quite plausible.
  • Billion Dollar Brain (1967): General Midwinter's private army wear white snow-camouflage uniforms, and their "MW" symbols on their vehicles and flags resemble the symbols worn by the Teutonic Knights; they also all die in the same way, drowning in the frozen Baltic, admittedly after a Soviet Airforce bomber drops a massive icebreaking "Blockbuster" bomb on the ice, shattering it and dooming the entire army to a horrible death.
  • Ridley Scott's Napoleon has a scene at the battle of Austerlitz that plays up much like the Lake Peipus battle, with enemy troops being lured onto a frozen lake and haplessly sinking once the ice is shattered.

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