Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist science-fiction silent film directed by Fritz Lang and written by Thea von Harbou in collaboration with Lang, based on von Harbou's 1925 novel of the same name (which was written as a treatment). It stars Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, and Brigitte Helm. Erich Pommer produced it in the Babelsberg Studio for Universum Film A.G. (UFA). Metropolis is regarded as a pioneering science-fiction film, being among the first feature-length ones of that genre."Metropolis (1927)" Science Fiction Film History. Retrieved 15 May 2013. Quote: "Although the first science fiction film is generally agreed to be Georges Méliès' A Trip To The Moon (1902), Metropolis (1926) is the first feature length outing of the genre." Filming took place over 17 months in 1925–1926 at a cost of more than five million Reichsmarks, or the equivalent of about € million.
Made in Germany during the Weimar period, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and follows the attempts of Freder, the wealthy son of the city master, and Maria, a saintly figure to the workers, to overcome the vast gulf separating the classes in their city and bring the workers together with Joh Fredersen, the city master. The film's message is encompassed in the final intertitle: "The Mediator Between the Head and the Hands Must Be the Heart".
Metropolis met a mixed reception upon release. Critics found it visually beautiful and powerful – the film's art direction by Otto Hunte, Erich Kettelhut, and Karl Vollbrecht draws influence from opera, Bauhaus, Cubist, and Futurist design, along with touches of the Gothic in the scenes in the catacombs, the cathedral and Rotwang's houseBrosnan, Joan and Nichols, Peter. "Metropolis". In Clute, John and Nicholls, Peter (eds.) (1995). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. New York: St.Martin's Griffin. p. 805. – and lauded its complex special effects, but accused its story of being naïve. H. G. Wells described the film as "silly", and The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction calls the story "trite" and its politics "ludicrously simplistic". Its alleged communist message was also criticized.
The film's long running time also came in for criticism. It was cut substantially after its German premiere. Many attempts have been made since the 1970s to restore the film. In 1984, Italian music producer Giorgio Moroder released a truncated version with a soundtrack by rock artists including Freddie Mercury, Loverboy, Bonnie Tyler, and Adam Ant. In 2001, a new reconstruction of Metropolis was shown at the Berlin Film Festival. In 2008, a damaged print of Lang's original cut of the film was found in a museum in Argentina. Footage from this print and a second one archived in New Zealand was restored and re-integrated into the film, bringing it to within five minutes of its original running time. This version was shown on large screens in Berlin and Frankfurt simultaneously on 12 February 2010.
Metropolis is now widely regarded as being one of the greatest and most influential films ever made, ranking 67th in Sight and Sounds 2022 critics' poll, and receiving general critical acclaim. In 2001, the film was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World International Register, the first film thus distinguished."Metropolis – Sicherungsstück Nr. 1: Negative of the restored and reconstructed version 2001" UNESCO Memory of the World Programme. Accessed: 16 June 2025 On 1 January 2023, the film's American reserved copyright expired, and the film entered the public domain in the U.S.
Plot
In a dystopian world, wealthy industrialists and business magnates and their top employees reign over the city of Metropolis from colossal skyscrapers, while underground-dwelling workers toil to operate the great machines that power it. Joh Fredersen is the city's master. His son, Freder, idles away his time at sports and in a pleasure garden, but is interrupted by the arrival of a young woman named Maria, who has brought a group of workers' children to witness the lifestyle of their rich "brothers".
Maria and the children are ushered away, but Freder becomes fascinated by her. Against the strict rules of the city, he enters the lower levels to search for her. In the machine halls, he witnesses the explosion of a huge machine that kills and injures numerous workers. Freder has a hallucination that the machine is a temple of Moloch and the workers are being fed to it. When the hallucination ends, and he sees the dead workers being carried away on stretchers, he rushes to tell his father about the accident.
Grot, foreman of the Heart Machine, brings Fredersen two maps found in the dead workers' pockets. Fredersen fires his assistant Josaphat for not being the first to bring him details about the explosion or the maps. After seeing his father's cold indifference towards the harsh conditions faced by the workers, Freder secretly rebels by deciding to help them. He enlists Josaphat's assistance and returns to the machine halls, taking the place of a worker who has collapsed from exhaustion.
Fredersen takes the maps to the city's greatest inventor, Rotwang, to learn their meaning. Rotwang had been in love with a woman named Hel, who left him to marry Fredersen and later died giving birth to Freder. Rotwang shows Fredersen a robot he has built to "resurrect" Hel. The maps show a network of catacombs beneath Metropolis, and the two men go to investigate. They eavesdrop on a gathering of workers, including Freder. Maria addresses them, prophesying the arrival of a mediator who can bring the working and ruling classes together. Freder believes he can fill the role and declares his love for Maria.
Fredersen orders Rotwang to give Maria's likeness to the robot so that it can discredit her among the workers, but is unaware of Rotwang's true plan to destroy Metropolis and kill Freder in revenge. Rotwang kidnaps Maria, fashions the robot in her image, and presents her to Fredersen. Freder finds the two embracing and, believing his father to have betrayed him, falls into a prolonged delirium. The false Maria dances sensuously at Rotwang's house and the Yoshiwara club, causing mayhem—the wealthy men do not recognize she is a machine. Intercut with Freder's hallucinations, the false Maria preaches to the workers that they must rise up against the surface world, resulting in chaos and dissent.
Freder recovers and returns to the catacombs, accompanied by Josaphat. Finding the false Maria urging the workers to destroy the machines, he accuses her of not being the real Maria. The workers ignore him and carry out her wishes, smashing the machines and triggering a great flood in their underground city that threatens to drown their children. Fredersen and Rotwang struggle, and the real Maria, having escaped from Rotwang's house, rescues the children with help from Freder and Josaphat. Grot berates the celebrating workers for abandoning their children in the flood. The workers become hysterical and condemn the false Maria, burning her at the stake. A horrified Freder watches until the fire reveals her to be a robot. Rotwang, now suffering from a delusion that Maria is Hel, chases her to the roof of the cathedral, pursued by Freder. The two men fight as Fredersen and the workers watch from the street, and Rotwang falls to his death. Freder fulfills his destiny to unite the two halves of Metropolis' society by linking the hands of Fredersen and Grot to bring them together.
Cast
Alfred Abel as Joh Fredersen, the master of Metropolis Gustav Fröhlich as Freder, Joh Fredersen's son Rudolf Klein-Rogge as Rotwang, the inventor Fritz Rasp as the Thin Man, Fredersen's spy Theodor Loos as Josaphat, Fredersen's assistant and Freder's friend Erwin Biswanger as 11811, a worker, also known as Georgy Heinrich George as Grot, guardian of the Heart Machine Brigitte Helm as Maria / the Machine Human Heinrich Gotho as Master of Ceremonies in Pleasure Gardens (uncredited)
Cast notes Four roles (The Creative Man, the Machine Man, Death, the Seven Deadly Sins) are included in the opening credits but do not list any actors' names. Among the uncredited actors are Margarete Lanner, Helen von Münchofen, Olaf Storm, Georg John, Helene Weigel and Fritz Alberti. One scene in which Freder listens to a monk preaching in the city cathedral has been lost. However, the 2010 restoration includes a call-back to the scene, with Freder hallucinating that the Thin Man is the monk.
Influences
Metropolis features a range of elaborate special effects and set designs, ranging from a huge gothic cathedral to a futuristic cityscape. In an interview, Fritz Lang reported that "the film was born from my first sight of the skyscrapers in New York in October 1924". He had visited New York City for the first time and remarked "I looked into the streets—the glaring lights and the tall buildings—and there I conceived Metropolis," although in actuality Lang and von Harbou had been at work on the idea for over a year. Describing his first impressions of the city, Lang said that "the buildings seemed to be a vertical sail, scintillating and very light, a luxurious backdrop, suspended in the dark sky to dazzle, distract and hypnotize". He added "The sight of Neuyork [sic] alone should be enough to turn this beacon of beauty into the center of a film..."
The appearance of the city in Metropolis is strongly informed by the Art Deco movement; however, it also incorporates elements from other traditions. Ingeborg Hoesterey described the architecture featured in Metropolis as eclectic, writing how its locales represent both "functionalist modernism [and] art deco" whilst also featuring "the scientist's archaic little house with its high-powered laboratory, the catacombs [and] the Gothic cathedral". The film's use of art deco architecture was highly influential, and has been reported to have contributed to the style's subsequent popularity in Europe and America. The New Babel Tower, for instance, has been inspired by Upper Silesian Tower in Poznań fairgrounds, which was recognized in Germany as a masterpiece of architecture.
Lang's visit to several Hollywood studios in the same 1924 trip also influenced the film in another way: Lang and producer Erich Pommer realized that to compete with the vertical integration of Hollywood, their next film would have to be bigger, broader, and better made than anything they had made before. Despite UFA's growing debt, Lang announced that Metropolis would be "the costliest and most ambitious picture ever."
The film drew heavily on biblical sources for several of its key set-pieces. During her first talk to the workers, Maria uses the story of the Tower of Babel to highlight the discord between the intellectuals and the workers. Additionally, a delusional Freder imagines the false-Maria as the Whore of Babylon, riding on the back of a many-headed dragon.
The name of the Yoshiwara club alludes to the famous red-light district of Tokyo.
Much of the plot line of Metropolis stems from the First World War and the culture of the Weimar Republic in Germany. Lang explores the themes of industrialization and mass production in his film; two developments that played a large role in the war. Other post-World War I themes that Lang includes in Metropolis include the Weimar view of American modernity, fascism, and communism.
Production Pre-production