The film tells the story of Nick Rivers (Kilmer), an American pop singer (whose songs sound suspiciously like those of Elvis Presley and The Beach Boys), who goes to East Germany to perform in a cultural festival. (Curiously, East Germany still seems to be controlled by Nazis and under attack by the French Resistance.) Whilst there, he becomes involved in a resistance movement and helps the beautiful Hillary Flammond (Gutteridge) rescue her father (Gough), a brilliant scientist being held by the Germans and forced to build the deadly Polaris Mine.
The film also features short performances by Omar Sharif as Agent Cedric, and Peter Cushing as a Swedish bookstore proprietor, in a scene filmed completely in reverse.
At the beginning a German courier gets off his motorbike and he ties it up like a horse. Also, when he goes inside and takes off his helmet, the straps look like they were painted on his face.
When Nick is on the train listening to the German teaching tape, he learns phrases like "There is sauerkraut in my lederhosen" and "I want a Schnauzer with my Wienerschnitzel". (Most of the 'German language' heard during this scene is actually gibberish.)
The East German guards' vehicle is forced to brake sharply upon seeing a car stopped ahead of it. It just touches the car – a Ford Pinto – which of course explodes violently.
Nick and Nigel have an underwater fight scene, including an underwater Wild West Saloon.
Hillary Flammond says she can help Nick as she knows "a little German" before pointing to a short man across the room.
A magnetic mine attracting a submarine to its location, instead of the other way around.
Peter Cushing's character is shown with a magnifying glass up to his eye. When he lowers the glass, the eye remains the same size. Also everything in the book shop is going backwards, e.g. going up the firepole, and the dog walking backwards.
After Nick criticizes the Hillary-Nigel storyline and Hillary replies "This all sounds like a bad movie", they take a nervous glance at the audience.
Before Nick's train pulls off the East German train station, the station itself moves on first. Probably a joke on the German WW2 expansion politics and/or the rapid expansion during the Blitzkrieg.
Spoilers end here.
Production notes
Most of the "German" spoken in the film is not German, but Yiddish or just Mock German. Some of the "Latin" spoken is pig latin.
According to the end credits, all songs performed by Nick in the movie were actually sung by Val Kilmer.
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