Set around the year 2000, a mammoth city is ruled by the super-efficient industrialist Jon Fredersen (Alfred Abel) and, on the surface, appears to be a utopian dream with wealthy inhabitants living in palatial apartments set in colossal glass and concrete spires. But underground it's a different story - armies of slaves work gruelling shifts to maintain the luxurious lifestyles of their masters. The workers, a subhuman species of sluggish creatures are led by the "saintly" Maria (Brigitte Helm), who urges them not to rebel but to wait patiently for the arrival of the "mediator". Fredersen kidnaps Maria and orders mad scientist Rotwang (Rudolf Klien-Rogge) to create a robot replica to take her place. His plan is doomed when the evil mechanical Maria incites the massed workers to revolt and destroy everything in sight...
Taking 16 months to film, with a cast of 37,383, and costing over $2 million at 1920s prices, everything about this epic German science-fiction film, which was inspired by the towering Manhattan skyline, is gigantic. Although director Fritz Lang hated the ending of his film, it was an instant hit with Adolf Hitler and Goebbels, who first saw it in a small German town. When they came to power in 1933, they asked Lang to make prestige pictures for the Nazi party. He packed his bags and left for Hollywood the same day. On its first release it was a box-office flop and nearly bankrupted its financiers UFA, Germany's largest film production company. Metropolis is now a monument to Fritz Lang's artistic vision and film craftsmanship.