In the future, year 2000. In the megalopolis of Metropolis, the society is divided into two classes: the rich, who have the power and the means of production and are surrounded by luxury, wide-open spaces and gardens; and the workers, condemned to live in dire conditions confined in an underground ghetto, which is the industrial heart of the city. One day, Freder (Alfred Abel), the son of the all-powerful Joh Fredersen (Gustav Frohlich), the man who controls the city, discovers the harsh working conditions of workers after falling in love with Maria (Brigitte Helm), a girl of humble origins, revered by the lower classes and who preaches good feelings and love. The son then warns his father that the workers might rebel.
VERSION with W. A. Mozart, Symphony No.38 in D major
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Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist science-fiction silent film directed by Fritz Lang and written by Thea von Harbou in collaboration with Lang from von Harbou's 1925 novel of the same name (which was intentionally 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).
In the future, 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 in disguise to find 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 hurries to tell his father about the accident.
Grot, foreman of the Heart Machine, brings Fredersen strange maps found on the dead workers. 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, assuming the identity of an ill worker.
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 that Rotwang's true plan is to usurp him as ruler by sparking a revolution. 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. Intercut with his 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 that threatens to drown their children. 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 flooded city. 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, believing Maria to be a reincarnated 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 city and the underworld by linking the hands of Fredersen and Grot to bring them together.
VERSION with W. A. Mozart, Symphony No.38 in D major
