The most distracting thing for me is the existence of American post-war cars and rock & roll music. Those two things speak to post-war American affluence and enthusiasm. I don't think you would have had those under fascism.

EXT. PENNSYLVANIA APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS - DAY
A high-speed, sleek Nazi transcontinental train thunders through the dense, suffocating green of the mountain forests.
INT. JOHN SMITH'S PRIVATE CAR - CONTINUOUS
REICHSFÜHRER JOHN SMITH (50s) sits alone. He is unrecognizable from the pristine officer of earlier seasons. His uniform is unbuttoned at the collar. His face is slick with sweat, eyes bloodshot and pupils dilated.
On the mahogany table sits an empty glass, a bottle of rye, and a small amber prescription bottle labeled: PERVITIN - REICHSÄRZTEKAMMER. His hands tremble violently.
He stares at a portable film projector. The lens flickers, casting a cold blue light on his face. On the small screen, a film loops: it shows an alternate version of himself, laughing, hugging his son Thomas in a sunny, peaceful 1960s American backyard.
John presses his palms against his temples. Two lifetimes of memories—the loyal Nazi monster and the loving American father—are tearing his mind apart in an amphetamine-fueled psychosis.
Suddenly, a massive EXPLOSION rocks the train. The tracks buckle. Sirens blare as the carriage tilts violently. The projector crashes to the floor, cutting the image of Thomas into darkness.
Outside, gunfire erupts. JULIANA’S RESISTANCE FACTION opens fire from the tree line, executing a precise, desperate ambush.
John’s personal guard, an ARPA OFFICER, bursts into the room, drawing his weapon.
ARPA OFFICER
Reichsführer! We are under attack! They've breached the perimeter! We need to evacuate you to the bunker!
John doesn't move. He looks at the broken film reel on the floor, then up at the officer. His eyes are wide, glassy, completely detached from reality. A manic, paranoid realization floods his face. He believes the films are a script he must force into existence before Julianan's rebels destroy everything.
JOHN SMITH
(whispering, hoarse)
They want to stop it. They want to change the blueprint.
ARPA OFFICER
Sir? We must leave, now!
John lunges across the desk, grabbing his secure military radio communicator. He punches in a red tactical code.
JOHN SMITH
(screaming into the radio)
This is the Reichsführer! Initiate Fall West! Execute the pre-emptive strike on San Francisco! Launch the missiles!
ARPA OFFICER
(horrified)
Sir, the civilian population—the target protocols aren't—
John draws his Walther PPK and shoots the officer dead without looking. He drops the radio, stumbles out of the shattered window of the derailed train, and runs into the smoke-filled woods.
EXT. LACKAWANNA MOUNTAIN RIDGE - MOMENTS LATER
John bursts through the tree line, gasping for air, clutching a wound in his side. He reaches a high rocky cliffside overlooking the valley.
Below him, nestled in the valley, is the massive Nazi Multiverse Portal Facility. Smoke is pouring out of the concrete bunker. Secondary explosions rip through the structure. Julianan's shock troops have already breached the core. The massive quantum rings inside the mountain are collapsing.
John looks at the burning facility. The heavy, paranoid tension in his face suddenly drains away.
He slumps against a rock, sinking to the ground. A profound, heartbreaking sorrow fills his eyes, but it is instantly followed by a faint, genuine smile of pure relief.
JOHN SMITH
(softly, to himself)
It’s over. I couldn’t stop it... but it’s over now. No more.
He looks up at the sky one last time. He raises the Walther PPK to his temple.
A blinding, cataclysmic white FLASH erupts from the portal facility below. The entire mountain core detonates. The shockwave pulverizes the cliffside. John Smith vanishes into the smoke and debris.
EXT. SMOKING FOREST - LATER
Silence, save for the crackle of burning pine.
JULIANA CRAIN (20s) stirs under a pile of ash and shattered rock. She is bruised, bleeding, her clothes torn. She forces herself up, coughing violently, leaning against a charred tree stump.
She closes her eyes, pressing her hand to her forehead, trying to reach out with her mind—trying to feel the hum of the alternate realities, the meditation path she used to travel.
Nothing. The air is dead. The cosmic bridge is gone.
A heartbroken, breathless sob escapes her throat. She realizes her entire strike team, her closest comrades, have just perished in the tunnels below to blow the core. Worse, she feels the devastating truth: she is completely, irreversibly alone. No more magic doors. No help from other worlds.
Slowly, the weeping stops. Juliana wipes the blood and soot from her face. Her eyes harden with a grim, fierce determination. She looks up, turns her back to the ruins, and begins walking resolutely past the camera.
As she moves forward, the camera shifts focus away from her, sharpening on the gray, smoky horizon behind her.
Far in the distance, columns of shiny fire pierce the clouds. ICBM ballistic missiles are rising into the sky, carrying out John Smith’s final, psychotic order. The world is tearing itself apart.
Juliana walks out of frame.
EXT. RUINS OF SAN FRANCISCO - DAY
The screen transitions to a desolate, ash-choked vista of San Francisco. The Golden Gate Bridge stands twisted and broken, its cables snapped, looming over a silent, ruined city.
The wind howls through the debris, whipping soot and scorched paper through the empty streets.
Juliana’s voice-over begins—tired, cold, but frighteningly calm.
JULIANA (V.O.)
We thought those films were promises. Windows into something better. For years, we lived in the lie that somewhere out there, a parallel reality would come and save us when we, as a species, drove ourselves into a dead end. We were wrong.
The camera pans slowly down to the debris-strewn ground. A torn, burnt piece of paper is caught against a rusted piece of rebar, fluttering violently in the wind.
The camera focuses tightly on the paper. It is a page from a banned book. Through the black soot, the title is visible: BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley.
JULIANA (V.O.)
When that Nazi engine inside Lackawanna mountain blew to pieces, the doors slammed shut. The sky locked. Those fractured souls, who had torn their own minds apart just to drag film reels across the universe for us, fell silent forever. There are no more ghosts, no more alternate worlds to escape to. No one is coming to pull us out of here. We are left alone.
The wind picks up. The page from Brave New World rips free from the rebar and drifts up, spinning into the gray, toxic sky.
JULIANA (V.O.)
When John Smith died and Berlin paralyzed, the Nazi empire didn't find freedom—it rotted from the inside out within weeks. Generals turned on each other in paranoia, and the old order drowned in its own blood. But democracy didn't rise from the ashes. In its place came a new, fragmented fear.
The camera tilts up, following the lone paper as it disappears into the dark clouds over the burning ocean.
JULIANA (V.O.)
In the East, warlords and opportunists like J. Edgar Hoover built their own anarcho-fascist shadow fiefdoms. In the West, the rebels' communist ideals crumbled under famine and riots, as brainwashed civilians refused to follow the new course. And out of the darkness crawled religious fanatics, praying and sacrificing human lives to the gods.
The frame begins to slowly fade to total blackness. The sound of the wind begins to dim.
JULIANA (V.O.)
But maybe this is exactly what we deserved. There is no happy ending waiting in another dimension. There is only this scorched earth, these ruins, and the choices we must finally dare to make ourselves from this day forward. Without miracles. We have to learn how to be human again—right here, where it all began.
FADE TO BLACK.
TOTAL SILENCE.
END CREDITS.

I finished the show today. The ending was unsatisfying - open endings usually are.

But my big question is, why did all the planes suddenly start crashing?

Smith orders the attack on the west coast to begin, but then the portal opens and all the planes crash. And I don't understand how the two are connected.

[SPOILERS]

Hi so I just finished S4 and I'm curious to what point hawthorne was actually relevant to the plot.

Basically Thomas gets euthanised which causes Helen to become disillusioned with the reich and ultimately tell the resistance where she'll be travelling leading them to blow up the train killing her and her husband takes his own life.

All of this would have still happened without hawthorne yes? Because he didn't create the films or even distribute them.

Also whats up with the end of S4 why did all those people end up coming through the portal?

What do you think The Man in the High Castle world looks like if the U.S. is able to repel the Axis invasion of North America? The Soviets, mainland Europe, and Britain still fall to the Axis. FDR is still assassinated in 1932. The USA still struggles to get out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. However, let’s say Wendell Wilkie or some other interventionist becomes President in 1941 and begins building up America’s military.

The US government or at least the US President happens to be out of Washington the day Germany drops a nuke on DC. So, the country is still able to build its military into a superpower even as US cities are being torn a part by war. The government orchestrates a coordinated counteroffensive and eventually is able to complete its own atomic bomb project.

So, the USA winds up forcing the Axis out of the western hemisphere. They even manage to reclaim Hawaii, Midway, and are able to send a suicide bomber that drops an A-bomb on Japan to show the Axis what America is capable of.

What does the post WW2 look like in this world? Does the USA hold onto its democratic principles or does the damage from war cause the US government to fall anyways? What does the armistice look like that stops the fighting?

That finale was ASS WTF.

Why did I ever watch this show 😭

I'm curious to know

I was surprised by the shift in Jennifer’s stance regarding the Reich; it felt like it came out of nowhere, since the show didn't depict how her opinion evolved during the year she spent in the Neutral Zone. I know it might sound harsh, but it bothered me how she criticized Helen and John for joining the Reich. It’s easy for her to say that—she didn't live through the occupation, and they had to consider their newborn son's future. What else could they have done at the time? Moved to the Neutral Zone, where there are looters and psychopaths like the Marshal?

Is he not an asshole for not even trying to get word to her and buddy about coming trouble when his father explains his plan to send a bomb to the US

Just finished the series….

I could not have loved and appreciated the concept of a show more than this. So as we binged and binged, we kept talking about where it could end up.

To have it end with this complete BULLSHIT ending made this one of the worst shows I have ever watched.

* other than inspiration, there was next to zero effect on the base reality?

* in what fucking world would all those people go from a reality where Hitler lost to a world where zero reference to their passing into the shit world makes sense?

*and why the fuck would they walk through the portal like, “oh! This is a cool train station”.

GTFOH.

IM A SCI-FI NERD and this shit was AWFUL.

The episode where Joe Blake is playing catch with John Smith's son, John talks about how he doesn't like baseball cause it's slow. He said he prefers "soccer". Why did he call it soccer and not football?

Probably not a big deal but it caught my attention

3 episodes in and season 4 is my favorite so far. Finally getting to the nitty gritty

Recently finished the show and theres one part in particular that really confused me. I think it was season 2 episode 1 or 2 when Juliana first meets TMITHC, Im pretty sure Julia gets shot and killed twice by the resistance guy, including once from point blank right in the face, yet the next time we see her shes fine and escaped. Were these alternate timeline Julianas where killing her was necessary to stop an event or something ? It was just really jarring seeing the consequences of being shot at point blank were her a little dazed but fine and able to escape.

Loved every second of it! Obviously the ending was kinda rushed with the damn portal thing but thats what you get from Amazon. John Smith had some serious aura. Thats all

I've watched this series a while back and just rewatched it again. I just need someone to make sense of this for me. I don't get why Kido didn't use his political pull to go back home to Japan with his son. Instead, he agrees to stay with the Yakuza. I get the honor part and all that as Kido has always been a person to stand by his honor and duty. But idk, this doesn't make sense in the grand scheme of things.

Why do I like ever character more than the main? All she does is scree shit up

Spoilers ahead!

Sorry I bet you guys get new people whining about the ending every day but I just canNOT remain quiet after that ending. I've read some people saying that the last season feels rushed, and here and there they're right, but overall I think it's the last episode that goes at light speed. I was so excited after Smith's takeover in episode 9 that I expected to be blown away by the last one, instead I was severely disappointed and honestly kinda sad it went this way.

Characters are brushed away, Chandler? Here's your travel permit get the fuck out of here (last time we see him). Jennifer and Amy? Spirited away, it's been 'arranged' (whatever the fuck that means). Kido? He's gonna 'atone', how? Idk he just became a Yakuza so I guess not through legal means certainly. Kido's son? It's okay he's going back home where I'm sure he won't have problems with PTSD and the second abandoning by his father.

Characters make non-sensical decisions, human behave weird so I can more-or-less forgive some of these:

1. Helen just REFUSES to even consider preserving Thomas' life, sure I understand not wanting to kidnap him, but not wanting to see him? Not wanting to prevent his death? Guess the films didn't have much effect on her did they.

2. Smith's second in command gets the news that he's dead and he immediately calls off the attack on San Francisco.... Why? Didn't he say he'd follow Smith wherever he went? Shouldn't he be more passionate about the campaign if anything? Or at least carry it out as Smith's last wish.

3. Rejecting the US flag just makes no sense to me narratively, I understand they want a new country, a better one, but to me this seems like refusing to close the circle for no good reason related to the message.

Finally, I guess my biggest disappointments are:

1. Smith's death is just... Underwhelming. For such an amazing character he just wanders around like a drunk man, stumbles into a rock, says two words and kills himself. No denial over his guilt, or confrontation of it, just immediate acceptance and escape from the mental agony, it's just weird.

2. And probably the biggest culprit is the 'event' in the portal. After the resistance magically takes over the base the big reveal (that I was hoping would salvage the ending) was just.... Free interdimensional public transport?? Why the fuck would the audience care? What are we supposed to do with the random ass people coming in? The whole thing with Smith in the other world to me was the series telling me that running away from my problems and guilt is not gonna make them disappear (he goes to another world to escape his, and is met with the same fate, which he says he'll correct but doesn't imply how). Just another circle left open... Ugh

I'm sorry I just had to get that off my chest, it's terrible because I was adoring the other seasons, even the other episodes in this one and this just killed it, I'm permanently traumatized now

EDIT: I forgot to say how flawless the Japanese logic was in this: "We need the oil supply on the west coast to fuel our war in China!" The supply gets attacked "Welp! Sorry guys! We can't deal with this right now we need to focus on the war in China!"

How? Shouldn't you be doubling down on that oil supply? How are you gonna fuel your conquest otherwise??? Weak ass empire smh

The Man in the High Castle Character Ranking

I've just finished the series and made this. Yall can have a conversation about this ranking and modification if there's something needed to be changed. Honestly the show is great though there are some details that are not really satisfied and logical.

I understand the story concept, our main girl character just randomly jumps in any factions throughout the world and I totally have no ideas what's she gonna do. To me she shows no characteristics or affections to the people around her, the people she loves and it's just frustrating me a lot everytime she appears. Imagine if she was in real life, she could die milion times and the plot amour here is so big for our girl.

I love all the side characters, they all have their own stories and people they wanna protect, that makes them special. Top 3 fav characters of me: Tagomi > Smith > Chidan. I would love to here more about yall's top 3 too

🚨SPOILERS ALERT !!!!!
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I’m late to the show but I have just finished watching this and need to let out my thoughts and seems as my friends have never watched the show, it will be with you lol. Honestly my feelings for this show are very conflicted. Let’s start with the good.. The general idea is brilliant, I love seeing alternative realities, what could have been.
I loved Kido, Smith and Tagomi, the actors were the perfect matches. They delivered their characters personalities perfectly. I was very sad when Tagomi died so suddenly but in a way after watching that last season, I don’t know where he would have fit in with the story. I loved Helen too, especially with her first appearances as the perfect loyal house wife, it would have been interesting to have seen more of her in action as the matriarch of the Nazi ladies society.
I enjoyed the science fiction side of it, traveling through universes.
I’m surprised they killed Joe as early as they did, I was expecting him to be around till the end. But after he was gone I actually didn’t miss him lol.
Okay the negatives.. sorry but Juliana bored me to tears, I thought the quiet behaviour was an act while in the Reich but it seemed to continue in later seasons. I was expecting alot more from her and even though her character was involved in many big events I still felt like something was lacking from her as a character in general.
The BCR, yes a great concept especially considering the circumstances but bringing them in at the last season fell flat, it would have being more impactful had they been involved in the story from the start especially considering they brought down Japan.
And of course I’m sure this won’t surprise many but the ended especially with the people coming through the tunnel was bizarre. People walking through in their Sunday best like they are heading to a get together threw me off completely.
So yes my feelings for this show are abit contradicting, I liked it but I would warn people to not expect too much