Found: Mystery song in WATCHMEN

When I was watching WATCHMEN, a song playing in the background when Dan Dreiberg, (Night Owl II) met Laurel (Silk Spectre II) in a restaurant, and I was unable to find it in the Watchmen soundtrack.

It didn't quite sound English to me and I thought it had a French ring to it. So I tried my luck on Yahoo Answers. Within 24 hours, one response came in:

99 Luftballons by Blondie? Or 99 Red Balloons

I did a search in YouTube and found that it was actually a German song sung by Nena in the 1980s, and a few bands have since sung the English version.

Original German MTV by Nena:


English version by Blondie, but lip-synced by someone else:


I was puzzled. Why was this song included in the movie? A little Googling led me to the Wikipedia entry which mentioned that this was actually an anti-nuclear protest song in the 1980s, so it fitted well into the context of the Watchmen graphic novel & movie.

According to this site, the German lyrics can be translated literally as:

Do you have some time for me?
Then I'll sing a song for you
About 99 balloons
On their way to the horizon
Are you perhaps thinking of me?
Then I'll sing a song for you
About 99 balloons
And that something (like the war) comes from such a thing (the balloons)

99 balloons
On their way to the horizon
They thought they were UFOs from space
So a general sent
A flying squad out there
To raise the alarm if it was true
Yet there on the horizon were
Only 99 balloons

99 jet airplanes
Each one was a great warrior
Thought that they were Captain Kirk
There were great fireworks
The neighbors didn't understand anything
And felt immediately felt "pissed off"/provoked
Yet there they shot on the horizon
At 99 balloons

99 war ministers
Matches and petrol cans
Thought that they were clever people
Already caught wind of great spoils [of war]
Shouted: War, and wanted power
Man, who would have thought
That one day it would come to this
Because of 99 balloons

99 years of war
Don't leave a place for victors
There are no ministers of war any more
No jet planes either
Today I'm doing my rounds
Seeing the world lying in ruins
Found a balloon
Think of you and let it fly


And here are the lyrics for the English version:

You and I in a little toy shop
buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got
Set them free at the break of dawn
'Til one by one, they were gone
Back at base, bugs in the software
Flash the message, "Something's out there"
Floating in the summer sky
99 red balloons go by.

99 red balloons floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it's red alert
There's something here from somewhere red
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
Where 99 red balloons go by.

99 Decision Street, 99 ministers meet
To worry, worry, super-scurry
Call the troops out in a hurry
This is what we've waited for
This is it boys, this is war
The president is on the line
As 99 red balloons go by.

99 Knights of the air
ride super-high-tech jet fighters
Everyone's a Superhero
Everyone's a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify
To clarify and classify
Scramble in the summer sky
As 99 red balloons go by.

99 dreams I have had
In every one a red balloon
It's all over and I'm standin' pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenier
Just to prove the world was here...
And here is a red balloon
I think of you and let it go.


Beautiful song!
:-)