Was tun, wenn's brennt?
Tags: suspenseful, violence, avant garde, romantic, home movie

Plot synopsis:
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	The sound of a film reel rolling accompanies credits appearing jerkily on the screen, as if displayed by an old film projector. As the credits continue, voices and clanking sounds are heard. One says "Camera - rolling!" and another follows with "Group 36 Training Film." After some more fumbling sounds, the training film begins.
A crude map of Berlin in 1987 appears, filmed by an unsteady camera. A narrator, one of the previously heard voices, explains that Allied occupation forces rule the city, and almost every squat has been evacuated. Only one block remains: Machnow Street, zip code SO36, in the American sector.
The film then gives way to footage of a crowd of jeering people in a run-down neighborhood. They begin to throw objects at a line of police holding riot shields. For a moment, the camera freezes, and the film's title, "Was Tun, Wenn's Brennt?" (What to Do in Case of Fire?) appears on the screen. Then the rioters rush the line of policemen, jumping on cars, screaming, and generally causing mayhem. The camera focuses on some of the rioters, whose names appear onscreen, introducing Tim (Til Schweiger) and Flo (Doris Schretzmayer). A water cannon, a huge, tank-like vehicle equipped with a high-pressure water hose, begins to rumble down the street. Its spray knocks down several rioters, and they begin to flee. Rioters with signs continue to mock the policemen. Two more new characters appear in the same way as the others, Maik (Sebastian Blomberg) and Nele (Nadja Uhl). Another, Terror (Matthias Matschke) urinates on the policemen from an upper-story window. Yet another, Hotte (Martin Feifel), leads a mob down a street, waving a flag bearing the symbol for anarchy. All the while, the rioters are heard shouting in the streets.
The narrator begins to speak again, informing viewers that Machnow street residents live in terrible conditions. A female voice adds that they are always inebriated or on drugs. More voices chime in that these people commit vandalism, resist arrest, and are misguided and sexually depraved. As this last statement is made, the cameraman sneaks up on a couple sleeping on a mattress on the floor of a cramped house. They awaken and gesture angrily at the camera, along with a third man who appears and moons it.
"But these people can be helped," the narrator continues, as the camera focuses on a grinning Terror and Maik. "They should do useful work, read a good book or tinker with a little bomb." Tim, Flo and Nele appear and begin to educate viewers on how to carry out an anarchist bomb attack. Tim speaks, while the others hold up placards to match his words. The anarchists take turns listing and demonstrating rules: "Beginners, don't bite off more than you can chew." "No handwritten tracts, throw away fonts and ribbons, and never use your own typewriter." "Buy all materials at large supermarket chains," accompanied by footage of Flo burglarizing a store. "Don't touch anything with bare hands, or rinse thoroughly." The anarchists then give a recipe for making homemade explosives using sugar, saltpeter, and weedkiller. One more rule follows: "Occupy abandoned buildings."
The footage then shows the five anarchists (Hotte is absent) tossing a homemade bomb into an abandoned building. They gather in front of the camera. "What to do in case of fire?" asks Tim. "Let it burn!" they scream in unison as they give the camera the finger. "And most important, folks, is timing," adds Tim's voice. "Timing is everything." The film then freezes and the still image burns away, leaving only blackness.The jerky, amateur camerawork is now replaced by standard, professionally filmed scenes. The timer on the bomb which the group dropped into the abandoned building is about to reach the end of its countdown, and sticks. Outside the building, snatches of various conversations and news broadcasts are heard. The weather abruptly changes to indicate the passage of time, and a number on the bottom of the screen indicates years going by. It begins at 1987 and ends at 2000.
Two people are seen in the reflection on the mail slot, approaching the front door of the house. The woman, a real estate agent, explains to the man that the house used to be occupied by Americans, who didn't bomb the region of Dahlem in 1945 because they wanted it for themselves. Given all the events in Germany since then, politics in this place seems less troublesome, she says. "Hear that? That's historical silence." Pulling out a ring of keys, she attempts to unlock the door, adding that the house has been unoccupied since 1988 and she doesn't know who owns it. She gets the door open, but the bomb from thirteen years ago is in the doorjamb, preventing her from opening it. The man offers to give it a try. "Oh la la," she says. "Welcome to the new Berlin." The man rushes the door and kicks it in, setting off the bomb and destroying the front of the house. The fate of the two people is not shown.A group of protesters yell and scream from behind a fence outside a Mercedes-Benz office building. A line of police and trucks stands stoically on the other side of the fence. Among the protesters is a much older Hotte, now missing his legs and in a wheelchair, blowing a bugle. He pulls it from his lips and begins to bang on the fence, swearing. Then he holds up a video camera and begins filming an older Tim, who has snuck behind the line of police and begins spray-painting on their cars. Hotte grins and continues to scream.
Several policemen inside a van hear a radio broadcast informing all units that a bomb has exploded in Grunewald. Their leader picks up his radio and affirms that they have received the message.
Outside the vans, Tim finishes spray-painting them and climbs back over the fence to join the other protesters. When the vans pull out, they are all marked with crude pictures and obscenities. The protesters cheer.Tim wheels Hotte down a deserted Machnow Street. "Man oh man!" cries Hotte. "Just like the good old days!" He tosses the spray can into the street and reminisces about their days as more active anarchists. Tim replies that back then, Hotte wasn't so fat. Wheeling him inside a building, Tim attaches Hotte's wheelchair to a harness that pulls him up to the top of a spiral staircase. Tim begins to ascend the stairs after him. A third man, rotund and wearing glasses, appears at the bottom of the stairs and calls for them to wait. "No time, Bülent," replies Tim. "We've got work to do." Bülent (Aykut Kayacik) protests that he can't demolish the building while they're still inside, and Tim shrugs him off. Still following them up the stairs, Bülent offers them a deal: A place for both of them in Wedding. Hotte laughs him off and says a place in Grunewald would be a different story. An exasperated Bülent asks him for rent, and Tim lazily replies that it's in the mail. "I'll kick you out on the street!" shouts Bülent. The two dismiss him and slam a door behind themselves.As they enter their dingy apartment, one of the two men puts on a record. Hotte laughs that Bülent cannot possibly kick them out, because Hotte is a handicapped citizen. Tim washes his face at a sink. Hotte pulls the tape from his camera and tosses it to him. Hotte adds that a trial involving their home could go on for four or five years, giving them even more time to live there, and that they will still be living on Machnow Street when they're fifty. As he speaks, Tim tosses empty bottles off shelves, apparently searching for something. Closing the refrigerator, he asks if Hotte can lend him a 20. Hotte, now smoking a cigarette, only laughs.Tim stands in a department store, loading chemicals into a bag. In the security room, all three of the store's video cameras are trained on him. Tim glances about suspiciously and begins to run through the store. Three security personnel, skidding awkwardly on the tiled floor, chase after him. Tim dives into a bed on display and pulls the hangings closed. The security men approach the bed and one whips the hangings off, finding no one. A PA system announces that the store will be closing in ten minutes. Mystified, the security men walk away. Underneath the bed, Tim watches them leave and breathes a sigh of relief.It is nighttime. Policemen and other authorities run to and fro outside the house where the bomb went off. It is now a total wreck. A newswoman speaks into a camera, saying that a bomb went off in Berlin and a villa in Grunewald was destroyed by unknown perpetrators. Only two people, presumably the real estate agent and her buyer, suffered minor injuries. The newswoman joins a mob of reporters jabbering at a newly arrived police commissioner (Hubert Mulzer), asking him if there are any recent developments. He answers that the bomb was the work of anarchists sabotaging building projects, and that the police will question "every left-wing fanatic in town." A woman, Pritt (Barbara Philipp), asks if that is legal, and Manowsky (Klaus Löwitsch), an aging detective, hustles her away from him. "Any more questions?" the commissioner asks, and the newswoman asks him if they have any leads on the bombers.
As he leads her away, Manowsky tells Pritt that tonight a judge will issue search warrants, and arrest any left-wingers who object on the grounds of human rights. Pritt looks disbelieving. Manowsky stumbles over an object in the rubble of the villa, and picks it up to examine. A man with a camera appears in front of him, and Manowsky shoves the cameraman away, calling for a pair of policemen to get him out of there. Manowsky then takes a closer look at the object, which is a piece of the lid from the bomb.In the department store, now closed, Tim sneaks past the patrolling security personnel. He reaches the front door and kneels down, tinkering with a fuse box. He causes the doors to swing open and all the store's lights to turn on. Slinging his bag over his shoulder, Tim strolls casually out of the store, turning back to give it a whoop of victory before walking away.
Tim stands inside a telephone booth, banging on the glass. He emerges from it and calls to the woman whose attention he was trying to get, asking her if she has a telephone card he can borrow, as his is used up. She offers to let him use her phone, since she lives close by. "Really?" he replies gratefully. She leads him toward her home.
Inside her apartment, Tim whispers into a phone "The Anti-Cement Brigade strikes again. We've liberated the mall to protest the capitalist pigs on Potsdam Square razing low-rent housing by multinationals." As he speaks, people in the street below steal goods from the department store, whose doors he left open wide. He falls silent as he hears the woman, now in her nightgown, enter the room behind him. She smiles at him and leaves him be. "All power to the imagination!" he finishes.
A dark window of an upper-story building is seen. A light illuminates the room beyond, and Tim walks into his apartment, moving as if tired.It is dawn. A long line of police vans divides itself along various roads, as a broadcast from headquarters instructs each unit as to which sector it should cover. The broadcast warns the men to be especially careful around Machnow street, where hoodlums have been known to push heavy or burning objects out of windows. The vans park and the police emerge from them.
A cluster of bottles sitting on a table begins to shake with repeated vibrations. A gourd falls off a shelf and hits a sleeping Hotte on the head, awakening him. He sits bolt upright, hears the vibrations, and swears. He wheels himself over to the window, where he sees the source of the vibrations: The police are breaking down the front door with a battering ram. Hotte swears again and wheels himself onto the indoor balcony. He hammers at a peg, releasing coils of barbed wire that fall onto the spiral staircase. The police enter and call for wire cutters. "Do something, officer!" shouts Bülent, and the policeman asks him to leave. Hotte knocks out another peg and a sheet of wood falls onto the lowest part of the stairway, forming a ramp. A couple of policemen, having cut through the wire, try to scramble up the ramp, but Hotte knocks out a third peg, sending barrels rolling down and knocking the police back. He then wheels himself back into the apartment, slamming and bolting the door. "Man, he hoards everything!" he complains, probably referring to Tim. Hotte heads for a bookshelf filled with reels of film, and pulls off a stack of them. Behind it is an old photograph of Tim and Flo, taken while they were lovers, back in the days when they all made these films and bombed buildings. "Unbelievable!" exclaims Hotte. "He can't let go." In the stairwell, the police are now using an electric saw to cut through the wire faster, and they manage to lift the ramp out of the way. Hotte frantically piles reels of film on top of the stove, lights a match, and then discovers that the gas has been turned off. A chainsaw begins to cut through his door.
Tim sits on a bus. He sees someone sitting across from him reading an article about his old bomb, which destroyed the villa. He leaps up and snatches the paper from the man, ignoring his protests.
Inside the apartment, Hotte screams at the police to get their hands off his papers. He demands to see their badges, calling them "dog leashes." One policeman, ignoring his screams, hands Hotte his receipt. Hotte mockingly sticks the paper to his forehead, still swearing at them as they confiscate all the films and papers in the apartment. "Good, get it all out," says Bülent, as he watches the police carry the things downstairs. He asks them to take Hotte too, but a policeman replies that the evening news would love a story of police handcuffing an invalid.Returning home, Tim sees the police vans heading out, and a concerned expression appears on his face. He jogs toward the apartment building and picks up one of the film reels left on the ground. Hotte calls from upstairs that he tried, but "the pigs had me outnumbered." Tim hops on his bicycle at once and follows the vans down the street.
Outside the police barracks, Tim watches the police vans pull into an underground garage. He surveys the building's watchtowers, high walls, and imposing security gate before turning and biking away.Inside the police barracks, Manowsky and Pritt are walking down a hallway. Pritt tells him that the task force is in the gym, to which Manowsky replies "Good for us." "I forgot to tell you" begins the girl. She gestures to a taller man in a suit who joins the pair as they walk by. He introduces himself as Dr. Henkel (Devid Striesow), sent by security in Bonn. He volunteers to lend infrastructural support and lists his fields of experience. Manowsky stops walking and interrupts him: "Ever wonder why the commissioner chose not to call in the Nation Guard, but to hire an old watchdog like me?" Manowsky and the woman dismissively walk on without Henkel. "I have, actually," Henkel answers and follows.In their apartment, Hotte explains to Tim that the police searched the entire neighborhood, but here is where they found the evidence. They still haven't screened the films yet. "Once they do, we're screwed," replies Tim. Tossing a tangled reel to the floor, he suggest they go to Poland. Hotte asks what will happen to the others in the films, and Tim shrugs it off as not being his problem. "I thought we didn't betray our friends," says Hotte. Tim points out that they don't even know where their old friends live now. Hotte grins and pulls out an address book, holding it open. Tim reads the page and says he won't set foot in "that rich ghetto."Three people sit at a table in a spacious office with pictures on the walls and a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking a fountain. A fourth man paces back and forth, and angrily punches a small punching bag sticking up from the floor on a spring. A closer shot reveals him to be Maik, now older and wearing a purple suit, with a pink ribbon fastened to one lapel. He silently turns to face the three people at the table, pulls out a marker, and draws a cake with a candle on a sheet of paper. He tosses the paper derisively at the three people. "You want a piece of the pie?" he says. "With us you take the cake. I want that slogan in Helvetica and add a line." He sits at the table. The man across from him says that Maik's problem is he keeps changing the campaign around. "I have no problem. I'm the boss, I'm looking out for our shareholders," replies Maik. "We're thirty-two times oversubscribed. I'm ingenious, I'm a genius. And this stuff--" he throws a pile of potential ads into the air "--is bullshit! Or do you disagree?"
Tim ambles down a hallway, passing a receptionist's desk. The receptionist follows him and tells him he can't just walk in. Just then Maik's voice gets Tim's attention. Maik is still yelling at his subordinates about advertisements. "Forget it," says Tim, and turns to leave. Just then, Hotte rolls in, screaming triumphantly. Maik looks up. "Oh, shit," he says. He walks across the conference table and approaches his old friend in disbelief. He and Hotte greet each other enthusiastically, and Maik gives Tim a hug. Tim appears less than pleased to see Maik, who realizes this and looks uncomfortable. "What do you want?" he asks.A woman wrapped mummy-like in gauze bandages playfully chases a group of children around an apartment. There are balloons and streamers lying around, as if for a birthday party. The woman kneels to talk to a girl. "Mama, can Sasha and Holger come up too?" the girl asks. The woman replies that the deal was six kids for six years. Her daughter says that when she's as old as her mother, she'll have thirty-three friends over. The woman jokingly wonders if she'll have that many, and she and her daughter hug. The women removes the bandage on her face, revealing herself to be an older Nele. She then looks up to see Hotte and Tim in the doorway.
Tim explains to Nele that the whole operation is filmed on those tapes, in close-up. Nele ignores them and tells her daughter, Melli, to stop fiddling with her shoes, and that they are going for a walk. "Did you hear me?" asks Tim. Nele ignores him and fiddles with her daughter's shoe. Tim strides over, pulls out a knife, and cuts the shoelace tying Melli's shoes together. "Are you nuts?" cries Melli. Nele protests that she put all her anarchist activities behind her.On an upper floor of a tall building, Tim and Hotte stand before a third man, who paces. "I don't understand," he says. "That stuff never blew up." "It was a great job," replies Tim. "You really knew your stuff, Terror." Hotte reminds him of something he used to say: "Stay high, be free, it's Terror A to Z." The third man finally turns to face the camera -- it is indeed an older Terror, missing his mohawk and wearing a judge's robes. He asks desperately if they can even see him in the film. Smoke from Hotte's cigarette wafts into Terror's face, and Terror seems to accept that he is in trouble."That wasn't even a real bomb," protests Nele in her apartment. "We weren't the RAF!" Tim says that she was, and Nele becomes angry at him for saying that. Tim reminds her that they made the films to show their children that they stood up to "the pigs."
"It's just that nobody cares anymore," says Tim, now speaking to Maik. "Except the police," says Maik, shaking a bottle of pills.
"That's the problem," says Terror in the law office. He cites the section of the penal code covering bombs. His mouthful of legal jargon concludes that the punishment for the friends would be a sentence of at least eight years.
"Eight years? But I'm a celebrity!" protests Maik. (It is unclear whether he and the other characters are actually speaking to each other, or they are in different places and the scene is edited to make it appear that way.) "Maybe seven years, with a good lawyer," says Terror. Nele mutters that Melli will be thirteen in seven years. Maik asks if there is a statute of limitations. Terror slams his law book decisively. "Not for attempted murder," he states.
Tim, Hotte, and Nele now appear in the room in Terror's building. "A memorial service for the victims?" asks Tim. He says they got the right guys: A real estate broad and an asshole from Bonn. Terror puts his hand over Tim's mouth and drags him to a corner, looking about nervously.
Outside Nele's apartment, she tells Tim and Hotte that they almost killed two people. "Don't you have any feelings?" she says, and slams the door in their faces. Inside her apartment, she tells herself that they won't be suspected, because they have changed so much.
In his law offices, Terror suggests they turn themselves in to set a good example, but Tim is skeptical.
In Maik's office, Maik's associates call to him that the board is waiting. Maik asks Tim if there is anything else. Tim grabs a candy from Maik's desk and turns to leave. Hotte snatches a handful of candies and throws them in Maik's face.In a dimly lit gymnasium, Henkel addresses a group of men about the findings from analyzing the bomb. Manowsky stands and interrupts him, already familiar with the old anarchist recipe for bombs. Striding up and down the room, he tells the group that the ingredients used to make the bomb are at least twelve years old, and that the pressure cooker that housed the bomb came out in 1984. So, he says, the time frame for the bomb is between 1984 and 1988. Though politics have changed, he says, this bomb is from a time when West Berlin was still an island. Manowsky stops moving and faces the group. He tells them to find him every activist splinter group active during that time.Tim and Hotte pull up in front of their apartment in a beat-up van. Tim gets out of the van and takes several suitcases from the curb, loading them into the back. Hotte says that it doesn't matter that all their old friends are assholes now, and Tim has much more going for him than "some stupid ad man." And they really brainwashed Terror, he adds. Tim tells him to shut up, and Hotte reminds him that he's the only friend Tim has left. As Tim heads into the apartment building, Hotte calls to him not to forget Hotte's parka.
Tim enters the apartment and gathers up a few odds and ends. He discovers an older Flo in his bedroom, wearing a white coat. Tim stonily says hello. She tells him she couldn't even find this place anymore, because the street is full of new buildings. "And they renamed the Dimitroff!" she adds. There is an awkward silence. "I have long hair now," Flo states unnecessarily. "Flattering, isn't it?" Tim gives a small nod. Flo walks over to catch the water dripping from the ceiling, noting that the roof still leaks. Tim says he's had a lot on his mind and hasn't fixed it yet. "Eleven years," murmurs Flo. She then tells him that "Old Bruiser Manowsky" got the bomb case. He knows the scene and exactly who they are, she reminds him. She says that the others agree they're in this together. "So that means someone sent you," says Tim. Flo says she thought he could go in and get the reels of film, since he saved them and none of the others would recognize them. Tim walks away and Flo follows him outside, calling to him. She reminds him that only he knows which one shows the bomb scheme. Hotte sees her and happily greets her from inside the van. Tim slams the van's door shut and heads for the driver's side. "That's how it is," says Flo. "I can't change it." "What about Poland?" asks Hotte. Tim climbs into the van and drives off without a word, leaving Flo alone in the street.
Tim and Hotte drive in silence. "Shut up," says Tim. Hotte replies that he didn't say a word. More silence follows. Hotte breaks it by saying "No pot in Poland, anyway," and grins. Tim looks pensive.
The van pulls back up in front of the apartment building it just left. Flo is still standing out front. Tim gets out and quietly tells her he'll do it. She smiles and says "Good." "What about the others?" asks Tim.Flo, Nele, Maik, and Terror enter the apartment building, followed by Tim. They look unsettled at being back in their old home. Hotte happily calls down to them from above. Terror carries a small black dog in his arms. As they ascend the stairs, Nele asks what the smell is. They glance at the ancient graffiti coating the walls. Terror jumps as Maik turns on a loud handheld air horn. He turns it off after a second.
Inside the apartment, Maik tells Tim it's good to see him again. Tim doesn't believe him, but Maik insists he means it. Hotte tries to energize the group by pretending things are just as they used to be, but the others only look around uncomfortably. "I won't use violence," says Nele. "I've only got until Friday," says Flo. "I won't break any laws," says Terror. Hotte pulls on a mask, shouting "But I can!" Terror asks exactly what they're doing, and Tim tells him they're breaking into police barracks.The next scene is a montage of the group's planning. Maps of the barracks are unrolled and wooden blocks are moved about upon them. Hotte watches the place from the van through binoculars. Sitting in the apartment, the former anarchists discuss the plan. Nele tells them the barracks used to station 8,000 troops during the Nazi regime, and that one day only seventeen men returned from battle. Tim and Flo briefly make eye contact and then turn away. The group identifies weak points in the barracks and uncovers the schedule for its security. Nele uses a device disguised as a stroller to measure the length of the building's perimeter. Tim sits outside the barracks on a bench and snaps photos while Flo distracts the guards. Sitting down beside him, Nele remarks that men are stupid and easily distracted by women. Tim gives her a look. "Okay, women are no better," she admits.
Tim says that they'll never get past the ID check at the gate. Terror, holding a dog leash, runs along outside the fence, calling for Hotte to stop. Hotte laughs and tosses Terror's dog over the fence. Terror uses his dog as an excuse to get inside the perimeter and covertly snap pictures. There are armored doors, tanks, water cannons, and attack dogs.Tim pulls a developing photo from a tub of water. He glances at it; it's one he snapped of Flo while he was photographing the outside of the barracks. Changing her baby, Nele remarks to Tim that it's nice to spend time with people who aren't toddlers. Tim asks how she changed so much from the anarchist she used to be. "You were the best," he says, picking up the baby and bouncing it. Nele tells him that it was hormones and nesting instinct. She grew up, left home, and got a job. Tim asks where her children's father is, and Nele gives him a defensive look. Just then the washing machine jams. Nele angrily kicks it, exclaiming that she only bought it four years ago. "After four years," she says, "everything falls apart."An anchorwoman on TV announces that one of the victims of the bomb was a government employee. The six former anarchists sit around a small table, ignoring the TV. Terror tells Hotte that he can go to night school online now, and offers to lend Hotte his old notes. Hotte asks Terror to lend him the rum instead, and Terror passes him a bottle. Nele gives up trying to offer them tea, and asks who's taking the early shift tomorrow. Terror says he's busy with work and has a cold. Maik says he has to butter up his board of directors. Flo says she's busy, and refuses to say why. She suggests Nele do it. Nele says she did it today, and besides, she has kids. Flo tells her to get a babysitter, and then offers to pay for it. Nele becomes angry and accuses Flo of trying to buy her. "Quiet, the kids," says Hotte. Terror asks how they will get into the fortress, and Maik says they will let experts handle it. He suggests hiring Romanians to go in and get the film. Nele points out that they will just blackmail the group. Maik says they'll just write a check, and he and Terror begin to argue about the best course of action. Terror wants to turn himself in, but Nele says that won't happen. Flo suggests entering the barracks via hot-air balloon. Nele and Maik dismiss the idea, but Tim defends it. Maik tells him to be realistic. Then Maik has another idea: Take the film from inside. "This time," he says, "we use the system."Manowsky sits in a press conference, speaking about a typewritten letter made untraceable by the usual anarchist techniques. The letter is signed "Group 36," with whom the police are unfamiliar. Maik sits among the press. A reporter begins to ask questions, and Manowsky answers that the police received the note in 1987, that notes like these were very common at that time, and that the police did nothing because the homemade bombs didn't usually go off. "Why did this one?" asks the reporter. "Shit happens," says Maik in English, earning laughs. Manowsky answers one last question, that this is all the police have for now, and then ends the press conference. But as Manowsky turns to leave, Henkel motions the reporters back into their seats. He informs them that the letter has been linguistically analyzed, and that they're dealing with determined and clever terrorists, judging by their use of technical jargon. ("I bet something got stuck in the sucking thingy," Nele says to Tim as he tries to repair her washing machine.) Henkel adds that there are also "marked fecal references." (Hotte, holding Nele's baby, sniffs his hand and looks disgusted.) The letter's syntax and prose indicate substance abuse, says Henkel. (Terror, breathing heavily, looks up from a mug containing some kind of inhalant.) Henkel finishes by saying these people are unpredictable because they believe in a cause. Looking satisfied, he ends the press conference. As everyone leaves, Maik approaches Henkel and compliments him on his speech. He asks him to repeat it for "ATV Berlin" in an exclusive interview tomorrow, and hands Henkel a business card. Henkel says it might be possible, and leaves. Maik stands still, apparently amazed at how gullible Henkel is.
"You can't snub the press," says Henkel to Manowsky as they walk down a hallway inside the barracks. It's important for making citizens feel secure, and it helps to work with the press, says Henkel, handing Manowsky Maik's card. Manowsky disagrees and tears the card in two, dropping it. "No press," he tells Henkel, and stalks off. Henkel looks after him, then bends to pick up the pieces of the card.Nele, Terror, Hotte, and Maik sit in Maik's office, about to eat. Maik overpays the man who delivered their food, remarking that these days he screws the state through tax evasion. Nele calls him an asshole, and Maik sarcastically says she has a way with words. Nele asks him if he can take anything seriously, and Maik replies "No, can you?" Nele answers that she takes her family seriously and tries to teach her kids not to grow up like Maik. She calls it "a small daily battle not to forsake our old beliefs." She can still look in the mirror, she says. Maik asks her what she sees there. Terror tells him to cut it out, and Maik exclaims loudly "Why team up against me?" He says he isn't all that uptight, and at least he's entertaining. He loves his company, his penthouse, his maid -- his phone rings -- "and I love my cell phone." He answers, speaks briefly into the phone, thanks the person on the other end, and hangs up. As he turns around, it can be seen that his shirt reads "I [heart] Bill Gates." Tim enters the room and looks at Maik. Maik quietly tells the group that a TV crew will be covering the police task force tomorrow. Hotte excitedly says they could join the crew, and Terror informs him they are the crew.
Maik stands behind a camera, snapping photos of the other former anarchists. Nele irritably asks if he's still calling the shots. Maik says that's how he got ahead: Endless philosophizing while living on Machnow Street. He then uses his computer to modify the photos. "Now I manipulate speech for my own reasons," he continues, passing out false press passes to the others. "And the other guy thinks it was his idea all along." Tim gives Maik a stony look and rudely knocks into him on his way out.As Flo and Tim walk down a street at night, Flo tells Tim about a guy who worked for an airline, presumably someone she dated. He got her cheap flights all over the world. Africa was her favorite place. She tells Tim he'd like the desert; that it's endless, with no fences in the way, and at night it's freezing. She says you could lie on a rock looking up at the sky and think that the stars belong to you. Tim breaks a Mercedes-Benz hood ornament off a car as he passes it. He says they could go there together when this is all over. He just has to take care of Hotte. Flo says it's strange that guys always want to go away with her, and Tim asks what's strange about that. Ignoring his question, Flo says she should stay put for a while. Grinning, Tim says he's good at that too. He heads over to another car with a Mercedes-Benz hood ornament. Flo tells him not to break it off. Tim brushes her hair back from her cheeks and says he wasn't even thinking about it. Flo says it took a long time to forget him. As he stares into her eyes, Tim breaks off the hood ornament and offers it to her. "Break what breaks you," she says. "Isn't that how it went?" She climbs up on the car's hood and jumps up and down, shouting the slogan. Tim joins her, and the two of them laugh joyfully. Flo hops down and surprises Tim by taking out her keys and remotely unlocking that very car. Tim realizes the car is hers and stops jumping. Flo tells him he is always against things and never for anything. She says she's tired of living with no tomorrow, and she doesn't want to travel with him or sleep with him on dirty mattresses. "So we stay in a hotel," says Tim, no longer smiling. Flo sighs exasperatedly and says he knows nothing about her. She gets in her car and drives away. Tim hurls the hood ornament after her car, and begins to walk in the opposite direction.
Flo sits in her car by the side of the road, crying. Her cell phone rings, and she answers and says she'll be home soon.
Nele cleans toys off the floor of her apartment. Kneeling, she catches sight of her reflection in the stove. She looks at it for a moment and then and turns away.
Maik lies on the table in his office at night, playing with a toy robotic dog. He talks to it and laughs.Tim takes a hot shower. Someone walks into his room, sits down, and turns on a film projector. The light from the projector causes Tim to turn around. He shuts off the water and pulls back the shower curtain to see Maik, sitting comfortably in Tim's chair and grinning. "What?" asks Tim. "The films were our best work," Maik tells him. All Maik's advertisements were ideas recycled from those films. Toweling himself off, Tim asks what Maik wants. Maik stands and hands Tim a suit jacket that Maik bought for him. Tim says Maik can keep it, and Maik drops it onto a chair. He asks if Tim has been here all along, and Tim replies that Maik knew where he was and could have come by anytime. Maik says it [the anarchist activities] was over before the evictions. Tim disagrees, saying the two of them could have made a difference. Maik says this is pathetic, and Tim asks him why. "This used to be our city," says Tim, "the city of our dreams!" Maik laughs that that was eleven years ago, and asks Tim how long he wants to keep this up. Tim angrily whacks a lampshade and turns away. "You're wasting your life," Maik tells him. Tim says that's capitalist bullshit, and that he doesn't want to be like Maik. Maik replies "Don't want to, or can't?"Manowsky sits before a microfiche machine in a dimly lit room. He finds a picture of Group 36 in an old newspaper, with the slogan "Films for Free and Freedom."Outside the barracks, Terror sits inside a news van, while Maik paces anxiously. Hotte and Nele come hurrying up, along with Nele's daughter and baby. Maik asked what happened, and Nele explains she couldn't find a babysitter. She doesn't know where Tim or Flo is. Maik says he'll go in alone. Hotte says he'll come along, but Maik says he can't because he's missing his legs. Nele asks Hotte to watch her children, and he nods reluctantly. She gives Hotte a kiss on the cheek and runs after Maik.
Tim comes running up to find Maik and Nele already inside the gate. He shows his fake press ID and the guard opens the gate for him. Maik sees he is wearing the jacket Maik bought him and remarks that Tim looks good. Tim smiles, and the three of them turn to greet Henkel, who emerges from inside the barracks. Maik tells Henkel that Tim is their cameraman, and hands Tim a camera. Tim confidently hefts it onto his shoulder, and they all walk into the barracks. A taxi pulls up and Flo gets out, but Hotte tells her she is too late to join the fake film crew.Pritt brings a mug to Manowsky at his desk. While shaving, he tells her that Group 36 was a political film club in Kreuzberg. He explains that the anarchists mixed stolen footage with their own propaganda to make films. He lists information the police will have to gather, and remarks that the federal jerk [Henkel] will come in handy. He asks where Henkel is.
Meanwhile, Henkel shows Tim, Maik, and Nele around the barracks, describing their protocol and capabilities.Outside the barracks, Hotte plays catch with Nele's daughter, Melli. "Uncle Hotte, where are your legs?" she asks. Hotte looks uncomfortable. He sighs and tells her the police stole them. Melli says that's mean. She goes over to hug Hotte and tells him she knows what Nele is doing in the barracks. She says Nele is finding Hotte's legs. Hotte and Flo exchange a look of regret, and Hotte tosses the ball back to Melli.
Inside the barracks, Manowsky walks purposefully down a hallway.
In a courtyard, Maik asks Henkel where the seized evidence is kept. He tells them it's in the basement, and asks if it interests them. Nele answers that everything interests them.
Manowsky pokes his head into an office and asks where Henkel is. Hearing that Henkel is showing journalists around, Manowsky mutters grumpily and dials a phone hanging on the wall.
In the basement, Henkel unlocks a cage and leads the fake film crew into the evidence locker. He tells them that the evidence is stored alphabetically by street name. Hearing a ringing phone, Henkel excuses himself and rushes off. Tim, Maik, and Nele look inside another cage and see their films in bins labelled "Machnow Street." Henkel picks up the phone, snaps "Not now," and hangs up, surprising Manowsky on the other end. Returning to the fake film crew, Henkel tells them his men work around the clock to clean up Berlin. "What about the anarchists?" asks Tim. "Where to they go once the city's cleaned up? Into work camps!" The bombings weren't that bad, and the victims of the latest one deserved it, Tim continues loudly. Nele and Maik try to pass it off as a joke, but Henkel grows suspicious and asks the name of their station. Just then, Manowsky enters the basement and calls to Henkel. Nele hurriedly thanks Henkel and the fake news crew turns to leave. Tim hides his face with the camera and bumps into Manowsky on his way out, causing Manowsky to drop the picture of Group 36. Tim bends and picks it up for him. Manowsky stares suspiciously after Tim, then runs after him, ignoring the confused Henkel.
Outside, the anarchists pile into their news van and drive away. Manowsky runs out of the barracks, shouting at the guards not to close the gate, but he sees only the retreating van.Inside the van, Nele and Maik berate Tim for his outburst. Hotte exclaims that he recognized "that old bastard Manowsky." Flo tells Terror to drive faster, and tells Nele and Maik to leave Tim alone. Nele gets angry at Flo for not being there on time, and Flo says Nele is just jealous. "Jealous of what?" shouts back Nele. "That you get everything on a silver platter?" Terror stops the van for a red light. Maik tells Nele to keep her kids quiet, then sees that a police van is right behind them. He yells at Terror to drive, but Terror refuses to run the red light. Maik hisses at Terror "Your kind is to blame for the Third Reich!" As they argue, Hotte answers a ringing cell phone. "Not a good time," he tells the caller. Terror panics and begins to scream that every one of them is guilty. Nele hits him with one of her children's toys and tells him to get back to driving the van. The police van pulls up to the light next to the news van, and the driver sees Nele hitting Terror. "Just like our marriage," remarks the driver. "First the fights, then the silence." He and his companion amusedly watch the hysterical Terror leave the van in the middle of the street, as Nele calls for him to come back.
Nele chases Terror into the subway and catches up with him. She calls him "Robert" and tells him it doesn't matter. Terror, panting and ashamed, says he knows he was always weird, but nobody cared on Machnow Street. "I was just crazy Terror, the wimp - and he belonged too." He sits morosely on the subway steps. Nele kneels next to him and gives him a hug, but Terror tells her to leave him alone and walks away.Hotte, Nele, and Maik, and Melli lie on a blanket of dead leaves as more fall around them. Nele says she saw the films in a crate, and Maik says they probably have a day or two. Maik dials his phone and asks for Schmitz. He tells Schmitz to sell when the stock hits ninety. Nearby, Flo climbs up to join Tim, sitting on the news van. "I thought if anyone could get us out, it would be you," she says. Melli asks if they are all going to jail. Tim stands and announces "We'll build another one!" He proposes they build another bomb and blow up the evidence. Hotte laughs gleefully and flings a handful of leaves in the air. Nele objects that they can't endanger anyone, and Tim reminds her that no one's around the barracks on Friday night. Nele asks for a 20 for a taxi. As Maik reaches into his pocket, she tells him this isn't funny, and she'll pay him back. Maik hands her the 20. He then walks over to Tim and calls him insane. He seems to be against Tim's idea, but then decides it is a challenge and will work. Flo asks if they are crazy. Nele says they will never do it and storms off with her children.Manowsky walks down a hallway in the barracks. As he approaches the commissioner, Manowsky says he needs search warrants for 350 people -- everyone who lived on Machnow Street. The commissioner refuses because if things go wrong, the press will attack him. Manowsky tells the commissioner that six people tricked Henkel into spying on Manowsky. The commissioner asks for evidence, and Manowsky says that the crime happened twelve years ago, and there is no more evidence. Manowsky grows impatient and storms off.Tim, Nele, Flo, and Maik carry bundles of materials up the stairs to Tim's apartment. Nele asks Maik how he plans to get the bomb in. Maik answers it will go in the same way the film got in, and likens this ploy to the Trojan horse. Nele asks how he will make certain the films are destroyed in the blast. Maik has no answer, and jokes that they will send someone in.
In the apartment, Hotte hammers nails into wood slats to make a crate. Nele asks who will fit in the crate, and Maik jokes that a kid might. Nele is not amused. Tim explains that they won't need a person in the crate. Because the evidence is sorted alphabetically, it will be placed next to the letter M, near the film. Melli appears and tells Nele she can't sleep. Nele speaks impatiently to Melli and tells her to shut up, and Melli runs away. The others give Nele admiring looks. Nele sits at the table and reads from the anarchists' manual the instructions for building a bomb.All six of the friends sit around a table, constructing the bomb. A song is playing, the same one that played as all the characters were first introduced. Flo tries in vain to open a fire extinguisher, and Hotte hands her some pliers. Hotte lights up a joint and passes it around. Maik takes a puff and says it is beneath him, but good. Flo still cannot open the extinguisher, so Tim takes a hammer and knocks off the seal. The film plays in slow motion as flame-retardant sprays out and rains down on all the friends. As they dance around reveling in the mess they're making, scenes from the film's introduction appear faded in the background, showing each younger anarchist fighting the police and causing mayhem. At the end of the scene, present-day Tim and Flo kiss.
Tim flicks a switch, arming the bomb. He carefully places it into the crate. Maik goes to the window and calls the police on his cell phone. He tells them that anarchists are stirring up the neighborhood and shouting something about "Anti-cement." As he speaks, he tosses anarchist propaganda papers out the window into the night. He tells the police he lives on Machnow Street and hangs up. He joins the rest of the friends, who are sitting on a couch, watching old films from their younger days. They laugh about Terror's long mohawk and the way Nele knocks out a policeman with a shovel. Flo points out to Tim that he appears in the video, but he denote seems to care. Present-day Tim is the only one not smiling and laughing. Everyone falls silent as Hotte appears in the film, holding Tim on his shoulders and marching down the street. Hotte sees himself with legs in the film and looks uncomfortable. Melli enters, sees the film, and says "Uncle Hotte, your legs are back!" Hotte mumbles that he still had his legs that day. Everyone looks uncomfortable. Hotte wheels himself into the kitchen and begins to scream hysterically "Once day you have legs, the next day they're gone! One day you have friends, the next day they're gone! You all ran out when the fucking water cannon ran me over! It was war, and you ran away like deserters! Cowards! Tim was the only one who stayed." Tim rushes to Hotte and tries to calm him down. Hotte says that the things they did weren't all in vain and that they were a cause. He seems to be trying to convince himself. Tim says the bad times are over and everything will be like it was before. He hugs Hotte.A car pulls up on Machnow Street and Manowsky gets out. He picks up one of the propaganda papers Maik threw out the window, and looks up at the apartment building.A line of police cars drives down the street with lights flashing. Maik sees them and tells everyone to get up to the roof. Nele doesn't want to leave Hotte behind, but Tim and Hotte explain that the police never take him away, because he is crippled and it would be too controversial.
Down below, the police begin to ram open the front door of the apartment building. One policeman leads Manowsky away even as Manowsky protests that they are colleagues. Manowsky tells a nearby cameraman to get out of there, and when the cameraman ignores him, Manowsky angrily punches the man and knocks him out.
On the roof, Tim, Nele, Melli, Flo, and Maik watch the police load the crate containing their bomb into a truck. "It'll all be over in four hours," says Tim.
After the police leave, the five friends walk around the apartment building. Tim says they can move in together, like before. The others stare at him, and Nele points out that they all have jobs now. Maik says they shouldn't be seen together for at least 14 years. They never knew each other, he says. Maik and Nele turn to leave. Flo tells Maik he could have put that differently, and Maik replies that he has to tell it like it is. Tim says it's okay and takes Flo's hand. Flo says she can't go with him. Maik sarcastically asks if there will be a wedding. Flo says she only has until Friday at nine, implying that she is engaged to be married then. Tim turns and angrily runs off.In a slow-motion shot, Tim runs down the street, crying. He runs across the hoods of some cars, then slips and falls in the street. He gets to his feet and throws a rock through the window of a shop. The window displays a picture of a happy couple. Tim's throwing the rock and the window's shattering are shown multiple times. Tim collapses in the street. He is next seen in the back of a police van along with a few policeman. He is still crying.In the basement of the barracks, four men leave the crate with the new bomb inside the evidence locker -- too far from the film to ensure it is destroyed.In the gym, Manowsky, Henkel, and the commissioner watch the film from the camera just before Manowsky punched the cameraman. Manowsky says he was close, but his own men got in his way. He promises to round up the anarchists, and calls the commissioner by his first name, Ralf. The commissioner says he is replacing Manowsky with Henkel. Manowsky glances at Henkel and says he will never work for that jerk. Henkel switches off the film. The commissioner puts an arm around Manowsky's shoulder and tells him he can retire early. Manowsky protests that he does not want to retire, that he just turned sixty, and that he is about to catch the anarchists. "Ralf, I thought we were friends," says Manowsky. The commissioner gives him a grim look and walks out of the room.Inside the evidence locker, the ticking of the bomb can be heard. The lid of the crate pops off and Hotte emerges. Because of his missing legs, he can fit inside the crate. He sees the reels across the room and whispers "I knew it."
Tim sits on a bench in the barracks. A policemen asks his place of residence, and Tim says he lives on Machnow Street.
In the evidence locker, Hotte removes the bomb from the crate. He uses a rolling cart as a makeshift wheelchair, and wheels himself and the bomb across the room. He sticks the bomb in a box of the confiscated film reels. 90 minutes remain on the bomb's timer.
In the briefing room, Manowsky packs his bag. Pritt tells him they will miss him. Manowsky leaves without a word.
In the evidence locker, Hotte shuts the gate and looks through it to see the bomb next to the reels.
In the barracks, Manowsky and Pritt pass Tim in a hallway, led by a guard. As Tim exits the building, Manowsky turns and looks suspiciously at him, then begins to run after him. Manowsky soon gives up the chase and snatches the papers Tim's guard is carrying.
In the evidence locker, Hotte finds the door locked and the power out, so he cannot open even the emergency door. He swears and turns toward a phone on the wall.
Tim trudges down Machnow Street toward his apartment.
Hotte looks in his address book and dials a phone number.
In Maik's office, a man protests to Maik that Maik told him to sell at 90. Maik says he was not himself when he said that. A woman holds out a phone for Maik, and he irritably waves her away. Maik tells the man to get the other people off his back.
At her home, Nele is too distracted by her baby to answer the phone.
At her home, Flo asks her fiancee, Konrad (Oliver Mommsen) to answer the ringing phone. He sits on the counter where she is doing her makeup, and strokes her face. "In a minute," he says.
In the evidence locker, Hotte looks at the ticking bomb. He frantically flips through his address book.
Tim walks toward the apartment building. Bülent sees him and offers him 50 marks for all his junk. Bülent increases his offer to 100 marks, then 120, but Tim ignores him.
A light blinks on Terror's answering machine as Hotte leaves him a message. Hotte says he is trapped down in the basement.
Bülent follows Tim into his apartment, now offering him 150 marks, "because I like you." Tim does not see Hotte, and asks Bülent where Hotte is. When Bülent does not tell him, Tim grabs Bülent and pulls back his fist to hit him. Bülent swears he does not know, and then answers his ringing phone as Tim pins him against the wall. Bülent hands his phone to Tim. Tim takes the phone and hears Hotte's voice. "150 plus the phone, because I like you," says Tim. He snatches a wad of cash from Bülent and runs off.
Over the phone, Hotte tells Tim that Hotte had a plan but it got messed up. Tim says he'll come to rescue Hotte.Terror shows up at Nele's apartment, holding his answering machine. He tells Nele that Hotte needs them like he needed them after the accident. Nele asks him what's wrong.
A taxi pulls up in front of the barracks, and Tim gets out. He hands the driver Bülent's cash. The driver gives Tim some rope and metal bars from the trunk. As the taxi drives off, Tim throws the rope over the fence outside the barracks.
In Maik's office, Terror plays Hotte's message for Maik and Nele. Terror says Hotte needs them like he needed them after the eviction. Terror wants to use this "second chance" he now has. Maik is indifferent. Terror and Nele march off, but Maik stares uncertainly after them.
Tim climbs up a wall in the barracks with his rope. He is still on the phone with Hotte, who says he is terrified. The bomb's timer shows 33 minutes. Trying to calm Hotte, Tim reminds him of a gag they pulled in a restaurant once. Hotte begins to reminisce about the time they spent together as Tim sneaks through a room full of sleeping policemen. Hotte says he never thanked Tim properly for all their good times. A drowsy policemen enters the room, and Tim hides behind a bunk, but the man climbs into that very bunk. He is too tired to notice Tim hiding there, but he can hear the phone, and says "Shut up!" before falling asleep. Tim rolls his eyes and leaves the room.Maik follows Terror and Nele out of his office, trying to convince them to stop. Nele says they're going to rescue Hotte, and asks if Maik is with them. Maik says no -- he is an asshole, but a free asshole. Terror takes Maik's car keys from his pocket and Terror and Nele climb into Maik's car. Maik changes his mind and joins them, saying "Make way for an asshole." Terror haphazardly drives off.As Tim runs across a courtyard, Hotte continues to talk about how tough the last few years have been. Tim is startled by guard dogs barking, but he manages to calm and silence them. On the other end of the phone, Hotte hears a clank. He falls silent and does not respond to Tim. Tim runs on.
Tim enters the basement and hugs Hotte. The two look up to see Manowsky standing next to the reels and their bomb. "Nice pictures," he says, holding up a copy of their Group 36 poster. "And what's that?" he asks, pointing to the bomb. He tells Tim to come along, and then asks him if he's waiting for his friends. He tells Tim not to risk himself for his friends, because they wouldn't do the same for Tim. As Manowsky speaks, Terror, Nele, and Maik climb over the fence outside the barracks. "Friends are overrated," says Manowsky. He says that battle lines are now drawn between winners and those who refuse to sell out. Tim glares at him. Manowsky tosses a pair of handcuffs on the floor in front of Tim.Terror, Flo, and Maik sneak through the same sleeping quarters as Tim. They are startled by Terror's phone ringing. He answers and hears Flo on the other end. Again, a policemen sleepily tells them to shut up. Terror hangs up the phone.
At her wedding, Flo looks concernedly at her phone. She tells Konrad that they need to talk.In the evidence locker, Tim stares from the handcuffs to Manowsky, apparently considering attacking him. Manowsky reminds Tim that Manowsky can shout and bring all the men in the building running. Tim picks up the handcuffs, puts them on, and turns his back to Manowsky. As Manowsky approaches him, gloating, Tim suddenly head-butts him and tackles him to the floor. As Hotte cheers Tim on, Tim chokes Manowsky with the handcuffs. Hotte's shots bring Terror, Nele, and Maik into the room. They rush to hug Hotte, and pull Tim off Manowsky.
At her wedding, Flo tells Konrad that she must leave. He protests, but she says she has no choice. She kisses him dispassionately and walks out of the party.In the basement, the friends remove Tim's handcuffs and use them to chain Manowsky to the cage. Tim roots through the reels of film and announces that he found the one that incriminates them. He takes it and the bomb and begins to run out. "How far do you think you'll get?" asks Manowsky. "I'm a witness." Tim places the bomb in front of Manowsky and says "There is no witness." The others tell Tim to forget Manowsky. "I don't get it," says Hotte. "Everyone's been a little crazy since then. Maybe there was something in the tear gas." Tim looks Manowsky in the eye and tells him Manowsky was right -- the battle lines are drawn between the winners and those who refused to sell out. He tosses the handcuff keys to the floor where Manowsky can reach them, and the friends rush out of the basement.An alarm sounds. Policemen wake up and don their uniforms as the friends put on masks. Tim carries Hotte on his shoulders. The police chase the friends across the courtyard, but the friends manage to get into a shed and lock it behind them. Outside, Henkel takes a megaphone and addresses them. He gives them thirty seconds to come out. Manowsky emerges from the basement and stares at the mob of police. They break open the shed and peer into the darkness. Suddenly a jet of water hits them, knocking them down on top of one another. The five friends emerge from the shed in a water cannon. Manowsky grins as he sees Henkel get drenched. The water cannon barrels straight through the security gate. This is shown multiple times. The friends jump out, and turn to see more police chasing them. A truck pulls up and Flo jumps out, calling for the friends to hurry. They pile into the truck and drive off. Henkel swears and orders an extensive manhunt. "They won't get far," he tells Manowsky. He asks Manowsky if they were the Machnow Street gang, but Manowsky lies to Henkel that they were wearing masks and could not be identified. Henkel urges Manowsky to tell him, saying that Henkel and Manowsky will be heroes. "I can't remember anything," says Manowsky. "A real blackout -- all those years on duty. We breathed the same stuff as the anarchists. Maybe there really was something in the tear gas." Henkel says that there's still plenty of evidence in the basement, and orders Pritt to get forensics. Just then, there is an explosion, and Manowsky laughs heartily.The friends pile out of the van and run up a stairway towards a train platform. Hotte asks Tim to put him down. Tim does, and sits beside Hotte on the stairs. Hotte says that if Hotte learned to surf the internet, it would be a great career opportunity. "I can't take care of you forever," he tells Tim. They chuckle and hug. From the top of the stairs, Maik calls to them.As the sun rises, all six of the friends collapse into a train car, laughing. Maik holds up the reel of film that incriminates them, and they laugh and unroll it. Tim piles up the film and pulls out his lighter. "What to do in case of fire?" he asks. "Let it burn," they all answer, and Tim lights the film. Terror and Nele look at each other as if about to kiss, but Hotte stops them. Tim and Flo give each other the same look.
The friends step off the train, with Maik now carrying Hotte. Maik says Hotte is heavy for a half-pint, and Tim starts to say something, but Hotte jokingly says he'll get even with Maik. They all walk across a bridge, Maik now pushing Hotte in a shopping cart. Nele asks Maik to borrow a 20, and Hotte reminds Maik that Maik is broke now, just like the rest of them. They all turn to see Tim standing on the handrail of the bridge. "Yes!" he cries victoriously, holding out his arms. He runs to join them, and they all walk away together, laughing.

Review: During the early 80s, squatters in Berlin have been mostly students on an adventure holiday, some years later they were mostly full time bums on a permanent "Do you have a Mark to spare"-quest.
Just let me tell you what happens during the first 15 minutes.A group of Berlin squatters decides to blow up an empty old villa.
Must be a very evil villa, because basically squatting was about saving empty buildings from neglect.They do an amateur movie about this heroic deed, maybe they think there is a market for Building-Snuff-Videos.Their bomb doesn't explode.
? The main door will not open, so the client uses some force to open it, and the old bomb, that had been waiting patiently behind it, finally explodes.
Believe me, they really do, I'm not making this up, it's even the main part of the plot: The Berlin police in the year 2000, looking for some bomb-building terrorists confiscates the 80s super-8-films of some broken down bums.
And they succeeded, which is even more unlikely.The two die-hard squatters will try to get the band together again and rescue what contained once proud memories of their glory days and now fatal evidence of their stupidity from the well guarded chambers of the police.By now you will know that you are not watching a movie, but are instead trapped inside the dream of some pathetic drunken 80s squatters, "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes".
In the middle of this problems, a group of 6 radical anarchists created a bomb that never exploded...
12 years later the bomb explodes and all the clues point to them.
and some got stunk in the past."Was tun, wenn's brennt?" is a very good movie by promising director Gregg Schnitzler that tells the story of this band of former radicals after 12 years of changes, social and personal.
Add to the mix an attractive young cast and you get this light comedy.Probably, that is both its greatest attribute and its greatest flaw: the fact that it has a lot of potential for being a deep character study filled with dark humor, but instead chooses the way of being a light hearted comedy with an upbeat tone.The movie has very good camera-work, although it has that Hollywoodish feeling that may turn some people away.
Those "Hollywood" moments are what probably hurt the film the most, with clichéd scenes that distract us from the point for the sake of getting emotions.Besides its light tone, the movie manages to deliver its message; past returns to burn you.
While Tim (Til Schweiger) and Hotte (Martin Feifel) are still living in the past, the rest of the gang tries to forget it, and ultimately it returns to burn them.The acting was actually better than expected, with Matthias Matschke as Terror, the former punk turned lawyer (!) stealing every scene he is in.
Also, it is worth mentioning the appearance of Klaus Löwitsch as an old cop who still remembers those days before the fall of the wall.Overall an enjoyable movie that despite its Hollywoodish tone (complete with feel-good ending), it manages to be fresh and more inventive that most Hollywood light comedies.
'What to do in case of fire' is an amazingly honest movie dealing with the anarchy past in Berlin pre reunification.
A group of six ex-anarchists have a 'little' problem when a 12 year old bomb suddenly explodes in Berlin and they have to get a hold on a self-made movie showing evidence that they're responsible.
While two of them are still active in demos and such, one is trying to hold on to her ideals while being a mother to two little children, the other three have completely turned away from their old ways and become 'respectable citizens'.
But if you look deeper, this is a movie about the difference of people still living in the past and on the other hand people trying to forget their past, showing us that neither way will work.It is simple to sympathize with the group, for their reluctance to hurt people, their very normal lives and their wish to change something in a world they don't feel they can accept..
The film told the story of a five anarchists who set a bomb in a government building in Berlin.
However, the movie was completely unrealistic and didn't touch on the differences of political ideologies as much as the back cover said it would.
I think it would have been better if the characters were struggling to identify with each others' new political ideologies while having to work together to realisitically save themselves from their younger anarchistic days..
This is a touching movie about a group of young, idealist anarchists who lose their beliefs and their friendships and become what they never expected.
The film actually portrays these young punks in a convincing way unlike many other movies I've seen in which underground or subversive groups are shown in the most basest of stereotypes.
The characters' background story or former look is not the focus though, so it does rush through that time rather quickly.
The main draw in the film is the amazing job it does showing all of the reasons for the group's disbanding.
this was a German "Friends"- complete crap, I felt violated by the ending.
Another Excellent German Movie.
Only thirteen years later the bomb explodes, wounding two persons.
The police force, under the command of the experienced inspector Manowsky (Klaus Löwitsch), investigate the terrorist act and go to the old apartment, where Tim (Til Schweiger) and the crippled Hotte (Martin Feifel) live, collecting all possible evidences, including many films.
One of these films show the group making the bomb, and Hotte and Tim decide to find the former four members of their group to tell them that they may go to jail, if the investigation watch the film.
The group joins force and plots a plan to retrieve the film.I am really impressed with the quality of the German movies released on DVD in Brazil in the last years.
All of them are excellent films, including "Was Tun, Wenn's Brennt"?
The dramatic story has action and humor and an unusual situation, with a good discussion between values, such as friendship, idealism and surrender to the system.
The Ultimate Feel Good Movie.
Of course, their later careers will be of little interest, once the police have had a chance to look through the confiscated film material...This is a great movie, about visions, friendship, solidarity - and anarchy.
I finally found a German film, with English subtitles at the DVD rental store.
And the film starts out well as we see the 6 radical friends going from being anarchists to most of them living pretty normal live, even to the point of betraying their original believes.
Therefore for an outsider, I felt that the film should have spent a little bit more time on defining what they were objecting to, what drove them, if you like.
And the film had a strange balance of reality and humor, which did work, though unusual.
I enjoyed this movie.It has the energy and visual shine of Run Lola Run, mixed with some of the anarchy and principles early on SLC punk.The one thing i will criticize, is The way the gang all dropped (or risked) their new ways of life to go back and fight for "the Cause" and against "the System", just seemed a little too fast and without much of the thought that an adult who out-growed the lifestyle would have had, other that that minor detail, i truly enjoyed the flick.En la selva de Ejutla....
There were some less than perfect stuff (the rekindling of a romance is not well handled, nor is the love-interest interesting at all), but there were so many good things, they are easily overlooked by less nit-picking movie watchers.The German punk soundtrack is a definate plus.Jean.
This film is a visual delight, and the fact that you can understand the various characters' metamorphoses, both in the gap of time missed and in the film itself, easily complements the brilliant cinematography.The protagonists were a group of young anarchists with a film camera that have all morphed into various dimmer, adult versions of themselves.
Well acted and sharply filmed, "What to Do in Case of Fire" showcases six radical German protesters from the Eighties, four of whom have taken on Yuppie identities.
A police raid results in the seizure of many reels of film which will implicate the six for their acts many years early.
So what we have (predictably: no spoilers here) is a caper film, mostly comedy but with the requisite bitter dollop of drama - lost love as well as legs) in which the reunited sextet tries to figure out a way to get or destroy the films before the police have a sachertorte und popcorn screening.There are both funny and sad moments in this American-produced film.
Okay, I did laugh a bit but I was uneasy as the group sought a solution that in real life could only result in bad things happening to many people.
It's a fictional story about six fictional people.I was immediately drawn in by the characters of Tim and Hotte.
It was evident throughout the movie that he really was an idealist, completely convinced of his beliefs.Yes, building a bomb to blow up the proof that you'd built a bomb might be a little far-fetched, but as Maiky (Sebastian Blomberg) says, it's the absolute sickest idea I've ever heard...but I love sick ideas..
In fact I was living in Germany in 87-88, exactly the period the flashback part is set in.I found myself enjoying this movie at first, it brought back memories.
The portrayal of terrorists in a kind of situation comedy light didn't strike me as strange at first.It was when they made a bomb out of a fire extinguisher that what I was watching finally struck me.
I don't remember how succesful it was.The politics of the group that did it was mostly as confused and futile as that of the characters in the movie.
Excellent movie of a great chapter in german history.
Movies about the german history are very hard to find.
"Was tun wenn's brennt?" shows in an excellent way that moments of the german history worth being filmed.
Seeing this movie about friends and getting out of a capitalistic system is a great pleasure because of its great acting, directing and camera work.Director Georg Schnitzler gets cleverly around many stereotypes and shows in his deep characterization his figures as dreamers on their search for happiness.
Director Schnitzler brings this world perfectly in the reality we know.The great team of actors presents us after a long time real characters which you can easily identify yourself with and which you really like.
On their search for happiness they finally find it here in a simple formula of friendship: "Real friends help each other consoling about the nastily of the capitalism." Was tun wenn's brennt?
Good German movies are hard to find.
Excellent camera work, a well-designed script throwing in a punchline here and there but not overdoing it, and a cast which doesn't favour anyone over the other, all add up to one of the best German movies I have seen lately.The female characters are a little weak, with a former and a beginning love story left unexplored, and some of the others a bit entangled in cliché, but the emotions conveyed are genuine and the storyline has enough surprises left in stock to make for an entertaining experience.If you plan to see any German movie this year, this should be it.Rating: 10/12 (4 stars).
No matter what good things people may say about this film, What to do in case of fire is just one step far from becoming a dull experience.
It's not as ironic or clever as I thought it would be based on the plot read on the back cover, and this group of so called "idealistic" people don't catch our attention because there's no way you can feel their commitment neither back then, when they performed minor terrorist acts in the twilight of the eighties, nor now, when they must stop police's investigation about a delayed home made bomb that set off in 2000, and links the bunch with it.
Now, almost fifteen years later, they all have changed but two, whom stay "true to the cause": one is a lawyer, other is a yuppie, one more is a teacher or so, and other one is a mother.
German movies has put me down in the past and I ought knew this one shouldn't be different (the most recent being Das experiment).
Usually, they start up with a nice welcome, but as the story unfolds, they loose ground and focus on narrative; I think they just don't know how to tell a story properly 'cause that is exactly what happens here: the beginning perhaps is not a compelling one but at least seems like fun, but then, the movie rolls on and you find out this amateur effort in every possible way is going nowhere.
Now, in What..., the visual matters may find every now and then some good eye candy stuff, but overall, just when the end credits starts to roll, you realize this none other thing but a waste of time and money.
They say two times in the movie: "what to do in case of fire?", "let it burn".
Telling of "Group 39", a motley bunch of 6 young left-wing two-bit terrorist freedom fighters in a divided Germany, who, with the exception of two hapless hold-outs, do a hippy-to-yuppie end-of-the-cold-war metamorphosis, the film asks us, the audience, to cleave to their heroics as they set about to destroy police evidence linking them to a 12 year old bomb which is accidentally detonated causing only minor injuries to the innocent victims by making another bomb and planting it in the Police building.
Unlike the French film "Bandits", which creates the requisite a la Robin Hood public enthusiasm  for a girl band of escaped convicts, this flick does little to make us want to care about its protagonists who are simply adding insult to injury during the run.
I just watched this film and, while it was an exciting action picture, it was horribly inaccurate.
Had Hollywood turned out this crock, I could have forgiven them, but this was a German production and I expected a lot more from them.I lived in Berlin for most of the Eighties.
I could write volumes on how these people think and act and, believe me, it was nothing like this movie depicted.In the movie, the characters were too clean and smart.
If the girls were half way decent looking, they were probably prostituting themselves or working in strip shows to make a living.
Certainly nothing like the happy-go-lucky characters the movie depicts.I never ever heard of any Anarchists moving out and becoming Yuppies.
"Was tun, wenn's brennt?" or "What to Do in Case of Fire" is a German movie from 15 years ago that runs for slightly over 90 minutes without credits.
The movie scored some awards attention, including a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the German Film Awards for Martin Feifel.
It is clearly manipulative in trying to convince us the police are the bad guys and the character of Klaus Löwitsch (rip) becomes one of the good guys in the end too.
Too bad their characters were not written in a way that they could show us their potential.
I also liked how we basically knew nothing about some of the group's characters such as Doris Schretzmayer's.
"Was Tun, Wenn's Brennt" (2001), directed by Gregor Schnitzler, is a German cult movie that has, strangely enough, never reached a greater popularity outside of Germany.
It is true that the situation of the former anarchists in West Berlin is not depicted historically exact, but this is not the aim of the movie.
Tim (Til Schweiger) and Hotte are the last ones from a former small group of a radical political film-club whose whole live was once determined by the conflicts between East and West Berlin, including street battles, during one which Hotte lost his legs.
11 years, after the group has separated, Tim and Hotte are still living in the house-ruin where the "Kommune" used to house, without any contacts to the former members.
Suddenly, a bomb explodes in an empty villa, and the police find traces of the former film club.
("Police-dog" Manowksy is the last role of the great Klaus Löwitsch which makes this movie especially precious).
Since immediate danger is waiting before the door, after the house-ruin has been stormed by the police, Tim and Hotte decide to try to find the other Kommune-members who meanwhile have become banker, lawyer, single mother and party-girl.
When finally they are re-assembled together, they decide to fight one more time against the police force..
Just saw that movie for the first time and must admit it was excellent.Background: In the late 80's Berlin was not in the front line of two political systems, which divided the world, in fact it was an island far beyond that border.
So looking back it's hard to say which were the real ambitions for someone to place a bomb in an empty house...
the fact is, they did it.13 years later times changed, a whole country, even more a whole world changed.
At this time the bomb, which former refused to explode, just did this in the moment this house was rent once again - wounding two people.And the six friends had to meet once again.
And last a woman, who started to travel the world instead of fighting it.It's just a selfish approach to defend their new lives against mistakes - really big and silly mistakes - they have done in the past as young wild idealists.
They just come out of it if they work together as a group of friends once more..