Werner Herzog narrated a documentary about space—and talks to Ars about it

Could humans eventually fly to exoplanets on massive “generational” spaceships? Last Exit: Space explores such a hypothesis with intriguing and sometimes darkly hilarious results.

Last Exit: Space is a new documentary on Discovery+ that explores the possibility of humans colonizing planets beyond Earth. Since it is produced and narrated by Werner Herzog (director of Grizzly Man, guest star on The Mandalorian) and written and directed by his son Rudolph, however, it goes in a different direction than your average space documentary. It’s weird, beautiful, skeptical, and even a bit funny.

In light of the film’s recent streaming launch, father and son Herzog spoke with Ars Technica from their respective homes about the film’s otherworldly hopes, pessimistic conclusions, and that one part about space colonists having to drink their own urine.

“My accent is a joke”

Writer/director Rudolph Herzog (left) poses with producer/narrator Werner Herzog (right). (credit: Lena Herzog)

“[As a narrator], I always spoke in a deadpan [voice], and of course there’s a certain humor in it because listening to my accent is a joke already,” Werner says from his current home in Los Angeles. His son Rudolph, phoning in from Germany, scoffs at this, to which Werner replies, “Well, to some!”