Title: Hitler: Learn by the Numbers
Genre: Historical Drama / Psychological Thriller / Biblical Allegory
Written by: Joseph C. Jukic
Directed by: Guy Ritchie
Logline:
A haunting, poetic journey through the life of Adolf Hitler, structured through key years and matching Psalms—charting his transformation from a beaten Catholic boy to a messianic nationalist figure, and finally to a groom of death—before his story is drowned by the Psalm of peace.
TREATMENT
Opening Frame:
“Learn by the numbers, children. There is a code to evil. And it begins in pain.”
1901 – Psalm 1: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked…”
Location: Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary.
Scene:
12-year-old Adolf Hitler stands trembling before the altar at his Catholic confirmation. His eyes look up to the crucifix—hopeful, searching. Later that evening, his alcoholic father, Alois, whips him for crying in church. This becomes a ritual: beatings on every birthday. The number 1 is branded in his memory. He learns pain by the numbers.
Voiceover: “He delights not in the law of the Lord… but dreams of greatness in a barren house.”
1914 – Psalm 14: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”
Scene:
Trenches of World War I. Young Hitler volunteers with zeal. He writes poetry to his mother and sketches grand temples in his notebook. But mustard gas and machine guns burn all illusions. He blames Jews, communists, and atheists for Germany’s decay. He finds comfort not in faith, but in fate—and hatred.
1933 – Psalm 33: “He delivers them from death and keeps them alive in famine.”
Scene:
Germany. Starving, broken by reparations. A charismatic Hitler rises like a false messiah, delivering speeches that invoke divine destiny. He seizes power and “saves” the nation through rearmament and propaganda. Bread returns to tables. Flags rise. Psalm 33 is quoted in Nazi churches.
Voiceover: “He believed he was the Psalm—the shepherd of wolves.”
1939 – Psalm 39: “Let me know how fleeting my life is…”
Scene:
On the eve of invasion, Hitler stares into the mirror in the Berghof. He’s gaunt, manic, haunted by voices. Poland is next. Time is short, and his enemies multiply.
He whispers, “I have become a ghost of a man. A fury of destiny.”
1945 – Psalm 45: “Gird your sword on your side, you mighty one; clothe yourself with splendor and majesty.”
Scene:
A surreal, grotesque wedding in the Führerbunker. Eva Braun and Hitler marry amid crumbling ceilings and flickering lights. He wears a black military uniform like royal robes. The walls drip with sweat and smoke. Outside, Berlin burns.
A Nazi priest reads from Psalm 45 over a backdrop of collapse.
“Your throne, O god, will last forever…”
The guests are corpses and ghosts.
Hours later, they are both dead.
1946 – Psalm 46: “He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth.”
Scene:
Nuremberg Trials. The ghosts of the dead watch from above the court. A young boy reads Psalm 46 aloud in church. The words echo over the rubble of Europe.
“Be still, and know that I am God… He breaks the bow and shatters the spear.”
In a montage, we see the ovens dismantled. Flags lowered. Children playing in the ruins. A new Germany being born.
Closing Frame:
The numbers fade onto screen:
1901
1914
1933
1945
1946
Then dissolve into a single Psalm:
“Be still.”
End.
Themes:
- The perversion of faith and scripture
- The pattern of trauma passed down through violence
- The seductive power of messianic identity
- The ultimate futility of tyranny before divine justice
1907 – Psalm 7:3 — “Lest they maul me like lions, tear me to pieces with none to save.”
Scene Title: Psalm 1907 — The Lions Close In
Location: Linz, Austria.
Clara Hitler—kind, gentle, everything Alois was not—is diagnosed with breast cancer. She undergoes a primitive radical mastectomy. The air smells of burning carbolic acid. Adolf, age 18, watches helplessly as her body is cut apart in a cold room. The scene is clinical, brutal, holy in its suffering.
Clara, whispering the Psalm, “Lest they tear me to pieces…”
Blood stains her linens like wine on altar cloths.
Adolf sobs on the floor. His sketchbook is wet with tears and ink.
He begs God to save her. God is silent.
At her funeral, he stands alone—abandoned by faith, by medicine, by heaven. A rage takes root. This is the birth of vengeance.
Voiceover: “He would never forgive the lions. He would become one.”
Absolutely. Here’s how we integrate a surreal, symbolic, and haunting initiation scene into Hitler: Learn by the Numbers, combining the burning of the Reichstag in 1933, Hitler’s induction into an esoteric elite (the “Lodge of 99”), and the eerie, time-bending use of Nena’s “99 Red Balloons” as a prophetic anthem echoing from the future. The numbers align: 33 × 3 = 99.
ADDED SCENE: “Psalm 1933 — The Lodge of 99”
Music: “99 Red Balloons” by Nena (German version, echoing and distorted)
Setting: Berlin, February 27, 1933 – the night the Reichstag burns.
Psalm Reference: Psalm 33 – “He foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.”
SCENE: THE INITIATION
INT. SECRET MASONIC CHAMBER – NIGHT
Below Berlin, beneath the burning Reichstag, a secret hall glows with candlelight and occult geometry. Tall men in long dark robes chant in Latin and ancient German. A large iron “99” is embossed above a black-and-white chessboard floor.
Hitler enters, dressed in military uniform, unsure but mesmerized.
A hooded MASTER speaks:
“He who commands the number 33 must now receive the fullness. Three times over. 33 × 3. The Lodge of 99 welcomes the vessel of destiny.”
SYMBOLISM floods the room:
A golden lion statue (his trauma in Psalm 7)
A crucifix turned upside down
A mirror that doesn’t reflect Hitler
Suddenly, from nowhere—
“99 Red Balloons” begins playing, as if from the future, on a scratchy vinyl gramophone that shouldn’t exist in 1933.
🎶 “Neunundneunzig Luftballons / Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont…” 🎶
Hitler turns, entranced.
As the Reichstag burns above them, red light seeps through the cracks in the stone.
The MASTER gestures toward a burning sigil shaped like a phoenix rising from ruins.
“One war to gain power.
One war to remake the world.
One war to end it all.
33. 66. 99.”
Hitler raises his right hand. The 99 members chant:
“He is the third seal. The sword. The man of iron and smoke.”
Visual Montage:
Flames consuming the Reichstag
Typewriters printing emergency laws
Jews being marked
Crowds saluting
Balloons rising in a red-sky dream sequence
The lyrics fade into English, distorted like a ghost-radio transmission from the Cold War:
🎶 “This is what we’ve waited for / This is it, boys, this is war…” 🎶
CUT TO:
INT. CATHEDRAL – 1933 – LATER
A priest nervously reads Psalm 33 at a state service:
“He who saves from famine… foils the plans of nations.”
But outside, Hitler signs the Enabling Act.
Democracy dies in silence.
Only the future will scream.
Voiceover (Final line of the scene):
“He learned the number of the beast… and it added up to 99.”
NEW STRUCTURAL TIMELINE UPDATE:
1901 – Psalm 1
1907 – Psalm 7
1914 – Psalm 14
1933 – Psalm 33 / Scene: The Lodge of 99
1945 – Psalm 45
1946 – Psalm 46