The Battle of Munich: The Machine of Munich III

The Battle of Munich
	; June 2018
Directed by	Scott Pincus
Written by	Scott Pincus and Josh Nedved
Filmed and Edited by	Scott Pincus
Starring	Scott Pincus Will LaTorre Steven Rizzo Josh Reiner Josh Nedved Trevor Boyce
Release Date	June 7, 2018
Studio	Bio-Builder Productions
Music by	Michael Giacchino Alan Silvestri Hans Zimmer
Running Time	17 minutes
Preceded by	The Trial of Munich: The Machine of Munich II

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for The Battle of Munich.

The Battle of Munich: The Machine of Munich III is the third and final installment in The Machine of Munich series. It is the second sequel to The Machine of Munich, and the sequel to The Trial of Munich: The Machine of Munich II. Unlike the first two films, the third installment didn't serve as a German project for its cast members. Scott Pincus returns to write, direct, shoot and edit the film. Set seven months after its predecessor, Sketch Penzil faces an old accomplice, and a final battle for the fate of Munich becomes all but certain.

The film was officially announced in February 2018, with production expected to commence that May. Josh Nedved, Trevor Boyce and Josh Reiner return for the film in new roles. Scott and Steven Rizzo reprise their roles as Sketch Penzil and Doctor Steinfeld, respectively, while Will LaTorre makes his acting debut as Rigatoni Fettucine, a major antagonist. Scriptwriting for the film took place towards the end of May; filming began on May 31 and wrapped on June 4. The film was released on June 7, 2018.

Plot

Seven months after The Trial of Munich, mafia accomplice Linguine Tortellini heads to the outskirts of the English garden. After speaking with a goon, Frederick, Tortellini is met with Sketch Penzil. He explains how they need the flashdrive containing the digital consciousness of the late Doctor Steinfeld, which was given to Sketch shortly before the battle with Steinfeld's Doppelgänger. Tortellini shoots Frederick and brings Sketch to see an "old friend".

Tortellini brings Sketch to his superior, Rigatoni Fettucine - the most nefarious mafia boss in Germany, who has a rough past with Sketch. Rigatoni wants Sketch to hand over the flashdrive, and after threatening to destroy all he has left, Sketch hands it over. Steinfeld is revived through the body of his third doppelgânger. He explains his plans to Sketch, stating that he built an army of mechanical doppelgängers based off the appearances of Sketch's goons, and will release them to infiltrate and control the global population. Denouncing Steinfeld's scheme, Sketch runs off.

Sketch meets with a scarfed goon on a riverbank, and frustratingly explains what transpired. Not long after, two inspectors resembling Hobbes and Nevada, who fought Steinfeld in the first film, approach them. They reveal themselves as their brothers, Spiff and Newark. The two are aware of Steinfeld's schemes, having overheard what he said earlier, and they deign to stop him with Sketch's help. Sketch is uncertain at first, but ultimately agrees to help defeat Steinfeld.

Steinfeld arrives in the English Garden with Rigatoni and Tortellini. The two praise Steinfeld for his work, after which he activates his three strongest doppelgängers - Hoffman, Bernard and Johannes. Sketch, Spiff and Newark arrive at the scene, and challenge Steinfeld'a allies. A final battle breaks out. Hoffman charges at Spiff, who fights and destroys him with a shot to the head - but Spiff is killed in the subsequent explosion. Newark and Sketch destroy Johannes and Bernard, and Newark impales Tortellini with his umbrella. Sketch and Rigatoni duel, until Sketch is stabbed in the chest. Sketch gloats that he wasn't a pawn and chose his own fate, before succumbing to his wound.

Rigatoni gloats over Sketch's death, but is suddenly betrayed by Steinfeld, who calls him a puppet and breaks his neck. Newark recovers from the blast and rises to his feet, fighting Steinfeld with the last of his strength. Using a laser gun and Fettucine's sword, Newark strikes Steinfeld down and stabs him through the chest, immobilizing him. Newark takes out a bomb, proclaiming that today belongs to Munich, and tosses it onto Steinfeld. Steinfeld realizes this is the end, moments before the bomb explodes, destroying him at last.

Cast

Scott Pincus as Sketch Penzil, the conniving leader of a wealthy drug cartel in Munich, who returns from the first two films.
Will LaTorre as Rigatoni Fettucine, a nefarious crime boss in Munich, who serves as a major antagonist.
Josh Nedved as Inspector Newark, the brother of Inspector Nevada, who killed Steinfeld in the first film.
Steven Rizzo as Doctor Steinfeld, the creator of the mechanical doppelgängers, who is revived to fulfill his master plan.
- Rizzo plays the inactive body of Steinfeld's third doppelgänger, which is used to hold his digital consciousness.
Josh Reiner as Linguine Tortellini, the loyal accomplice of Fettucine who helps run his crime gang.
Trevor Boyce as Inspector Spiff, the brother of Inspector Hobbes, who helped fight Steinfeld in the first film.

Steven Rizzo also plays Frederick, the goon who appears at the start of the film, and the Scarf Goon, who meets with Sketch by the river. Dan Brusilovsky, Michael Behrenshauser and Gabe Sagherian also play doppelgängers named Hoffman, Bernard and Johannes, respectively. The "original" Johannes was played by Gabe in The Trial of Munich; the character in this film is a masked clone of him.

Production

With the release of The Trial of Munich: The Machine of Munich II in November 2017, the possibility arose for another film in the series, as Sketch Penzil survived the film's events once more. Initially, however, there was no confirmation or mention of a potential third installment. Over the next few months, Scott kept the main concepts of a third film in mind, though no major progress was made on the project.

On February 2, 2018, the film was officially announced as the third and final installment in the series. The same day, Scott consulted with the original cast about the prospect of a third and final film in The Machine of Munich series. Josh Nedved and Steven Rizzo, who participated in the first two films, agreed to return for the third installment, as did Josh Reiner, who debuted in the second film. On February 3, Scott confirmed that filming for the project will likely take place in May 2018, and it will be released the same month. On February 16, Will LaTorre, a longtime friend of Scott's who had German class with him throughout high school, joined the film's cast. His role has yet to be disclosed.

On February 26, Scott confirmed that he will be reprising his role as Sketch Penzil, having played the character in the first two films. On March 29, Gabe Sagherian and Austin Brinser were added to the film's cast, with Austin set to reprise his role as Heinz Heineken; only Gabe wound up appearing in the film. On May 14, Trevor Boyce was confirmed to return for the film, likely in a new role. Scriptwriting for the film began the same day, with Josh Nedved, Scott Pincus and the other cast members developing story concepts and character names. On May 31, the first day of filming, the film's title was confirmed as The Battle of Munich: The Machine of Munich III. The same day, Will was confirmed to debut as Rigatoni Fettucine, a crime boss in Munich who serves as the main antagonist. On June 2, the film's premise was officially revealed. On June 6, the film's release date was revealed to be June 7, and its running time was confirmed as 17 minutes. The same day, Josh Reiner was confirmed to play Linguine Tortellini, a new antagonist. The film was released the night of June 7. Scott and Josh Nedved showed the film to their former German teacher the next morning, which they'd hoped to do with their former classmates, but were unable to due to scheduling conflicts.

Filming

Since the project's announcement, filming was confirmed to take place in May 2018. Filming began on May 31, with Josh Nedved, Trevor Boyce, Steven Rizzo, Will LaTorre and Josh Reiner all present for filming. Filming was initially set to wrap on June 2, but was called off due to severe weather that afternoon. Instead, filming continued and wrapped on June 4, with all the actors from the first day of filming returning. Gabe Sagherian, Michael Behrenshauser and Dan Brusilovsky also participated in the shoot.

Trivia

This is the first film in the series not to feature the smokestacks of the Sonoco Paper Mill in the distance. The mill and its smokestacks were demolished in January 2018, four months before filming took place.
None of the film's characters were revealed prior to its release, save for Sketch Penzil, Rigatoni Fettucine and Linguine Tortellini.
The film runs at 17 minutes; the first and second films ran at 7 minutes and 9 minutes, respectively, making it the series' longest film.
The Battle of Munich is Scott's third longest short film, behind The Two Man Trio (which is only a few seconds longer) and The Search for the Creepy Guy in the Woods.
The film marks Dan Brusilovsky's first role outside the Bread's Crumbs series.
Due to having work on the second/final day of filming, Scott was forced to leave the set right before filming the final fight with Steinfeld. As a result, he left his camera with the present cast members and trusted them to finish filming, feeling they're devoted to the project and know where it's heading.
Austin Brinser was set to return as Heinz Heineken, the surviving goon from The Trial of Munich, but didn't participate in filming.
Will LaTorre, a longtime friend of Scott's, makes his debut in the film. Will acted in Scott's high school musicals for several years, and had a major role in the senior musical, The Addams Family. He also had German class with Scott and many of the other cast members from 2013 to 2017.
This was the first and only film in the series that wasn't made as a German project for the cast members.
Despite not being a German project, which would require the cast members to speak German, the film is spoken entirely in German to keep with the series' continuity.
The film was originally set for release in May 2018. However, due to scheduling conflicts, and an extension in the scriptwriting process, the release was delayed to early June.
The film's subtitle precedes the original title, which was also done with The Trial of Munich.

Spoiler Trivia

The final fight between Steinfeld and Newark was directed, filmed and choreographed by Will LaTorre.
This is the only Machine of Munich film where Josh Nedved's character survives, and thus the first installment where a protagonist survives.
This was also the only Machine of Munich film to feature more than one doppelgänger; it features four, including Steinfeld's unactivated body.
The film features various homages to the original, such as the opening titles/credits font being identical to that film's font. In addition, a lengthy battle takes place in the English Garden, and Steinfeld is once more incinerated in an explosion at the very end of the film.
The sword wielded by Fettucine was provided by Will LaTorre, who portrays the character. Due to Will's Italian heritage, he put red, white and green duct tape over it to represent the colors of the Italian flag - something he'd done long before filming.
The film continues the series' tradition of having only one character survive the film. In the first film, Sketch Penzil survived (although this wasn't evident until the second film). In the second film, Sketch Penzil survived again. In this film, Newark survives after defeating Steinfeld.
- In the original script, Newark and Spiff died following their fight with Steinfeld, although this was changed when the cast members completed the final scene.
Trevor Boyce, who plays Spiff in the film, was supposed to participate in the entire shoot, with Spiff surviving until the final fight with Steinfeld. However, Trevor left the set of the film "to do laundry", and couldn't return due to problems with his car.
- As suggested by Josh Reiner, the scene where Spiff shoots Hoffman in the back of the head was used as his death scene, with an explosion overtaking them. Scott agreed with this change, considering Steinfeld's doppelgänger exploded in the first film after Nevada shot it.
When Steinfeld says "das ist die Ende!" (this is the end!) at the end of the film, his dialogue is taken from The Machine of Munich, in which he says "das ist nicht die Ende!" (this is not the end!). The word "nicht" was simply removed from the line.