Matthias Schweighöfer makes a film for Polestar

A film instead of a testimonial

On the evening of 8 September 2025, at IAA Mobility in Munich, Polestar presents the Polestar 5, a four-door electric performance GT with 884 hp, at its world premiere.¹ Alongside the car it premieres a short film made with the German actor, director and producer Matthias Schweighöfer: "Wake-Up Call from the Future", in German "Weckruf aus der Zukunft".^1,2

The partnership is announced on 4 September 2025 from Gothenburg as a creative collaboration, not as an endorsement deal.¹ It starts with the jointly produced film and is meant to lead to creative projects beyond the automotive field.¹ Michael Manske, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Polestar, calls it "something truly unique."¹

What the film says

The script is developed by Schweighöfer and Polestar together, and the film is shot in Gothenburg, the brand's home city.¹ According to a Polestar spokesperson quoted by Horizont, the spot is largely self-produced rather than choreographed by an agency.³ It runs for about two minutes.³

Schweighöfer appears as a scientist from the future in a traditionally furnished luxury hotel room with a rotary telephone, and closes the window against traffic noise and exhaust fumes.³ The film dismisses both a flight to Mars and a return to the combustion engine as forms of escape, and presents the electric car as the way forward, including a reference to the Polestar 5's acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.2 seconds.³ One of its lines asks what is so hard about driving fully electric.⁴ At the presentation Schweighöfer adds that ignoring facts and running away is no solution.⁴

The message is pointed. The film argues for electric mobility against the political and industrial shift back towards combustion engines, with the Polestar 5 as the brand's answer.¹ The rejection of Mars as an escape echoes the "No conquering Mars" line of Polestar's first Super Bowl commercial in 2022, now delivered in German and in the voice of a familiar actor.⁵

Culture as the playing field

Michael Lohscheller, CEO of Polestar, frames the brand in the release: "Polestar stands for bold ideas, progressive technology, and a clear stance."¹ In the German version he names the film's purpose directly: with the short film, he says, Polestar creates attention for the discourse around electric mobility.² Manske calls the IAA the ideal stage for presenting the joint short film.²

In an interview with W&V, Manske explains why the brand is discovering culture as a playing field and how sport and film work together; the headline carries his summary that, as a young brand, Polestar challenges the traditional car industry.⁶ The sport half of that strategy is already in place, announced with the same confrontational tone: "We're going all in and will prove that our vehicles are better than those of most traditional manufacturers," Manske says.⁷ On 4 August 2025 Polestar becomes Official Mobility Partner and sleeve sponsor of Borussia Dortmund for three years, with its logo on the professional jerseys in the Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal and the Champions League.⁷ Horizont places the sponsorship in a campaign to raise awareness in Germany, Europe's largest car market.⁸

Why a German actor

Polestar's earlier brand campaigns spoke with a Scandinavian, international voice. In Germany the brand meets domestic carmakers with a long head start in recognition and loyalty. A German film star who co-writes the script gives Polestar a local voice it does not have as a Swedish newcomer, and takes the argument for the electric car into the country's own debate instead of addressing it from outside. Schweighöfer describes his interest in the car in terms of feeling rather than specification: "I am fascinated when design and tranquillity combine to create a new form of freedom."¹ To Horizont he says that the Polestar 5 shows him a completely new kind of mobility, and that the film is about atmosphere, movement and emotions.³

The film is distributed digitally, including on YouTube and Instagram, through the channels of both Polestar and Schweighöfer, with excerpts planned as print advertisements in German media.^3,4 On 9 September Schweighöfer also appears at the Polestar stand in the IAA Open Space on Ludwigstraße.^1,9

A month later Polestar follows with a second Polestar 5 film, a three-minute spy story distributed on its social channels, starring the Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård.¹⁰ The pattern is set: the brand launches the Polestar 5 not with a conventional commercial but with actors who carry its position on electric driving into their own cultural context.