Genre: Science Fiction, Drama
Release date: 1927
Country: Germany
Languages: German intertitles
Silent Film
Technical data Video: Black and White.
In the future 2026 a group of rich industrialists govern the city of Metropolis from their skyscrapers and the proletarian class relegated to the underground city to continuous work. The entrepreneur-dictator is Joh, who lives on top of the tallest skyscraper; the step-son Freder instead lives in an unreal eternal garden populated by sensual girls.
Suddenly the teacher and prophet Mary bursts into the garden, accompanied by her, who invites him to look at her "her brothers". Freder is so impressed by the visit of this woman, that he decides to visit the underground and immediately realizes the inhuman conditions in which the workers are to work who, even if exhausted, cannot make the slightest mistake, under penalty of the explosion of the "machine M" they deal with (which supplies running water to the city, via steam pumps powered by diverting an underground river and superheating its water).
Shocked by so much horror and brutality he decides to talk to his step-father about it to change things, but the step-father is only concerned about the threat that the accident can pose to his power of him. Grot, the chief engineer of the Heart Machine (Herzmaschine, the generator that powers both the city and Machine M), brings Joh some maps found in the clothes of the workers in the Machine M accident, consequently, he fires the assistant Josaphat for not informing him in time of the accident and of the maps found in the workers' pockets. Freder, disapproving of his step-father's choice, runs after the assistant, after which he begins the journey to the suburbs of Metropolis to get in touch with his fellow citizens, unaware that in the meantime his step-father has hired the spy "the Thin" to follow him.
Freder decides to pretend to be a worker to live the hard work of the workers on his own skin: he gives the clothes to the 11811 worker, now exhausted from fatigue, and replaces him for the car. His job is to continually move the hands on a wheel in order to join two lights that light up on the edge. In a vision of him, his car transforms into a huge clock face that marks ten hours, the ten hours of the work shift, and when it is about to finish it seems to turn ominously back. Freder soon realizes the inhumane conditions in which his step-father's employees are to work, to endure heat, fumes and impossible hours that wear them on the verge of fainting. At the end of the shift, a worker with a conspiratorial air, mistaking Freder for a colleague, gives him an appointment in the underground because a "she" wants to see them.
This woman is Mary, who welcomes the workers exhausted from work by telling the story of the Tower of Babel: just as the Tower of Babel was built by slaves to get closer to heaven, Metropolis was built by the arms of the proletariat to make the rich live there. Mary preaches future peace and the advent of a mediator who will put an end to the iniquities perpetrated by the capitalists on the workers. However, exhausted by the hard working day, they listen reluctantly to Mary's words and one of them says in a loud voice that they won't wait much longer. As the workers leave, Freder remains on his knees, entranced by Maria's words so much that he falls in love with them. This love is reciprocated by the, who kisses him and gives him an appointment at the cathedral for the following day.
The robot designed by Professor Rotwang.
Meanwhile, Joh visits Professor C. A. Rotwang, a mad scientist with a prosthesis in place of his right hand, inventor of the machines that make the city work. Rotwang lives in isolation in an old house, pining for the loss of the woman he loved, Hel, who rejected the inventor, choosing Joh over him. The scientist still regrets it and keeps a bust of it at home, placed on a small monument. Rotwang presents Joh with his latest invention: a "man-machine", capable of replacing man in everything. The robotic prototype will become a female-like android indistinguishable from a real person.
Joh asks the inventor what the maps found in the workers 'pockets represent: the inventor understands that they are the catacombs, located on a third level of the city, below the workers' homes. By beckoning him to follow him, he leads him through an intricate path that will lead them to listen to Mary's speech. Joh realizes that his step-son was not completely wrong when he talked about possible workers' revolts and therefore decides to take countermeasures, instructing the inventor to Maria to give the robot his appearance, so as to be able to control the discontent of the workers through the preaching of a false Mary.
The inventor, by means of a device based on electromagnetic waves, copies Maria's exterior and transfers it to the robot. The robot-Maria is sent to Yoshiwara, a brothel in the Metropolis entertainment area, exhibiting all the beauty of the human-Maria in the presence of the Metropolis aristocracy; the public, all male, gasps in front of the and is unleashed in disputes and follies dictated by the relentless lust of the robot woman, the incarnation of the whore of Babylon. In the scene the fake Maria appears astride a monster that evokes the Apocalypse of John.
Young Freder, after discovering the robot in his step-father's office and convinced that it is the real Maria. In reality it is still in Rotwang's house that he confesses to having programmed the robot so that it induces the workers to destroy the machines, contravening in revenge the instructions of Joh, her old rival of her in love of her; then he orders her to stay with him. The Maria-robot incites the workers to whom it does not seem true to start the "revolution": only Freder, with Josaphat's help, immediately understands that the one who is speaking is not the real Maria, but she is not believed because she is recognized as being the master's step-son.
The workers rebel and escape en masse from the subsoil, partially destroying Machine M, without being able to put it completely out of use. Maria-robot herself urges us not to leave behind neither men nor women. Joh, warned by Grot of the situation, gives the order to open the gates and let the crowd arrive at the Heart Machine. The destruction of the generator would cause the definitive shutdown of Machine M, and therefore the flooding of the subsoil, and of the houses of the insurgents themselves. The false Maria, at the head of the rebels, overloads the exploding generator. Metropolis, the realm of luxury and well-being, collapses: the majestic lighting system ceases to function and the steep streets of the city become a cemetery of metal sheets. Joh realizes what is happening after going to Rotwang's house to receive advice and having discovered the plan of destruction of the latter: taken by desperation, he knocks the scientist out of the way, thus allowing Maria to escape.
Joh is desperate for his step-son's disappearance and the Skinny reminds him that the next day he will have to account to thousands of enraged people for what happened to their in the underground city. Maria descends into the underground city to try to quell the rebellion, but she is isolated from the fall of the elevators caused by the explosion. Meanwhile the workers, happy to have destroyed the causes of their oppression, dance and sing around the machines; the guardian of the central machine Grot thinks about bringing them back to reason, reminding them that he had not thought about the consequences of their actions, that is, that with the destruction of the machines their homes would be flooded.
Even the workers, after listening to the words of the foreman, fall into a state of prostration and in the grip of vengeful fury they decide to punish Mary who pushed them to revolt. Initially the real Maria is captured, who manages to escape by hiding in Yoshiwara. For a lucky exchange, the rebels capture the Maria-robot.
The real Maria is again captured by Rotwang. Maria manages to get rid of her but he chases her to the terrace of the gothic cathedral. Freder follows them and lashes out at the inventor to save Maria who is carried by Rotwang over the pitched roof. In the meantime Joh arrives at the square and watches the whole scene, with the fear that his step-son could be thrown to the ground by the inventor; luckily Freder manages to get it right. The final sequence marks the understanding between the workers and the boss through Freder, the mediator prophesied by Mary who has finally come to bring peace and harmony between the people.
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