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Some movies you watch and never forget—because you can’t. Who could fail to remember the first time they saw Nazis in space, or Nicolas Cage ranting and raving about honey in a matriarchal commune? There’s a fine line between what’s weird but enjoyable and what’s too weird to sit through, so we asked Atlantic writers and editors to share which bizarre films they’d actually recommend.
Iron Sky (streaming on Prime Video and the Roku Channel (aff))
Iron Sky is the sort of movie that demands a long-form investigation into how many hallucinogens were consumed during its production. The premise: Facing defeat in 1945, a group of Nazis flees to the moon and establishes the Fourth Reich, waiting for the right time to retake Earth—that is, until they are inadvertently discovered by an American astronaut. One of the most expensive Finnish films ever produced, this science-fiction farce has everything: a swastika-shaped Nazi base on the dark side of the moon, a U.S. space warship named after George W. Bush, and an American president who sends people into space as a reelection stunt, complete with campaign posters on the lunar lander (a move that no longer seems so implausible).
When Iron Sky was released, in 2012, its concept was comical for situating Nazis on the moon, of all places. In 2026, the concept remains comical for putting Nazis on the moon rather than on your social-media feed or in a local political group chat. Perhaps recognizing that reality has caught up with satire, the filmmakers announced last month that they are planning a new trilogy—this time about communists on Mars.
— Yair Rosenberg, staff writer
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Jupiter Ascending (available to rent on YouTube and Prime Video)
Jupiter Ascending is like no other movie ever made. What if Mila Kunis were a house…