History Film / Metropolis

* MegaCity: Metropolis seems to be pretty big.

* SpringtimeForHitler: Director Creator/FritzLang later claimed he intended this film to be anti-Nazi propaganda (the party was still rising to power during the time this film was released). Ironically, the Nazi Party ''loved'' the film because it considered itself to be the heart that would mediate between the head and the hand, [[CreatorBacklash causing Lang to despise his own work.]] Lang's wife Thea von Harbou, who co-wrote the ''Metropolis'' script and had written the original novel, joined the Nazi Party in the early 1930s. The couple divorced not long after that. While Lang emigrated to America soon after the Nazi takeover, von Harbou remained in Germany and made movies for the Nazis until the end of World War II also brought an end to her career.

* The original Ralph McQuarrie concept art of [[Franchise/StarWars C-3PO]] looked nearly identical to a male version of robot-Maria.

* Mechanique, a DC comics robots villainess featured in ''Comicbook/InfinityInc'' and ''Comicbook/AllStarSquadron'', '''is''' supposed to be the (time traveling) creation of Rotwang (and is obviously based on Robot!Maria.)

* [[Franchise/StarWars C-3PO]] is based on Maria's metal form. Also, the transformation sequence itself was elaborated and refined in Film/{{Frankenstein|1931}}.

* Mechanique, a DC comics robots villainess, '''is''' supposed to be the (time traveling) creation of Rotwang (and is obviously based on Robot!Maria.)

* The ''Comicbook/InfinityInc'' and ''Comicbook/AllStarSquadron'' villain Mekanique is blatantly robot-Maria, sent back in time by Rotwang to MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight.

* MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness: It rates 2, due to a few acts of fatal violence, although it's all bloodless (except for a couple of minor nicks and scratches).

* Except for the heads and chests, the recent redesign of ''Series/DoctorWho'''s [[Characters/DoctorWhoCyberman Cybermen]] borrows heavily from the film's Robot.

* A mad scientist named Rotwang appears in ''Anime/TigerAndBunny'' - complete with RobotGirl creation.

* CyberPunk: This movie could be considered an UnbuiltTrope for the genre-while the technology is closer to DieselPunk, the theme of a technologically advanced society divided between an ultra-rich elite and an impoverished lower class would be very familiar to cyberpunk fans.

** Characters even hallucinate allegorical scenes out of the Old Testament.

** The sheer size of the Hel statue - which dwarfs both Rotwang and Fredersen - is obivously meant to show Rotwang's devotion to her, but ut also shows the power she still holds over both men, even in death.

* {{Disneyfication}}: Fritz Lang admitted after making the movie that saying "The mediator between the head and hands must be the heart!" is too simplistic of a way to deal with labor-management relations. The musical took this statement and ran with it, choosing to go with a complete DownerEnding where the mutual hate between both classes combines to doom ''the entire city'' but a small handful of survivors, mostly Maria's students.

* The titular character [[Film/DrStrangelove Dr. Strangelove]], played by Creator/PeterSellers, is described as being inspired from ''Metropolis''' Rotwang, with both having a black-gloved artificial hand and white hair, and being mad scientists with obsessions towards females.

* A restoration commissioned by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung in 1998, incorporating footage discovered in film archives around the world and a new recording of the original score. This version had its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in 2001 and was released on home video in 2003; it runs 124 minutes.

* ''The Complete Metropolis'', a restoration based on a full copy of the original film that was discovered at a museum in Argentina in 2008. Although heavily damaged, it confirmed the exact running order of scenes, which could only be guessed at in earlier projects. Footage from both this copy and a second one archived in New Zealand was cleaned up as much as possible and integrated into the 2001 version, but two scenes (of a monk preaching and a fight between Rotwang and Fredersen) were too damaged to be of use. This version runs about five minutes short of Lang's original cut, as opposed to nearly an hour short in some earlier versions, with title cards inserted to describe the missing scenes. It made its big US debut at the Turner Classic Movies Festival in early 2010 and on television on Turner Classic Movies in November 2010.
This nearly complete, 148-minute version was released on DVD and UsefulNotes/BluRay in late 2010.

* A restoration based on a full copy of the original film that was discovered at a museum in Argentina in 2008. Although heavily damaged, it confirmed the exact running order of scenes, which could only be guessed at in earlier projects. Footage from both this copy and a second one archived in New Zealand was cleaned up as much as possible and integrated into the 2001 version, but two scenes (of a monk preaching and a fight between Rotwang and Fredersen) were too damaged to be of use. This version runs about five minutes short of Lang's original cut, as opposed to nearly an hour short in some earlier versions, with title cards inserted to describe the missing scenes. It made its big US debut at the Turner Classic Movies Festival in early 2010 and on television on Turner Classic Movies in November 2010. This nearly complete version (148 minutes) was released on DVD and UsefulNotes/BluRay in late 2010.

* The French animated film ''WesternAnimation/TheKingAndTheMockingbird'' takes place in the city-state kingdom of Takicardia; which is inspired by Metropolis. The upperclasses live in skyscrapers, while the poor living in the undercity have never even seen the sun.

''Metropolis'' is a silent 1927 {{German|Expressionism}} sci-fi film directed by Creator/FritzLang. Considered one of the [[UrExample forerunners]] of the genre, it remains to date one of the most expensive films ever made. The plot follows a society divided in two, the workers underground and the wealthy on the exterior, how Freder, the son of the supreme ruler of the city, falls in love with a worker named Maria and the class confrontation between them fueled by Rotwang, a MadScientist rival of Freder's father, Fredersen.

* CyberPunk: This movie could be considered an UnbuiltTrope for the genre-while the technology is closer to DieselPunk, the theme of a technologically advanced society divided into an ultra-rich elite and an impoverished lower class would be very familiar to cyberpunk fans.

* IndustrializedEvil: Every day is the same bleak routine for the workers. Report to the machine rooms, perform unrelenting physical labor for ten hours, go home filthy and exhausted, lather, rinse, repeat. And if you're lucky, you won't collapse from exhaustion or be injured/killed when a machine blows its top.

* IndustrializedEvil: The workers lead a cruel, bleak existence amongst the machines.

* NightmarishFactory: The machine city is a bad place.

* ShoutOut: A German translation of Creator/OscarWilde's quote "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it" appears on a Yoshiwara flyer. (Literally translated: "He who wants to defeat his vice must pursue his vices.")

* UrbanSegregation: Again, almost a TropeCodifier, with the rich living in gardens and clubs high above the city, and the workers living in a poorly built underground city.

* BigElectricSwitch: Rotwang's lab has several of them.

''Metropolis'' is a silent 1927 {{German|Expressionism}} sci-fi film directed by Creator/FritzLang. Considered one of the [[UrExample forerunners]] of the genre, it remains to be one of the most expensive films ever made. The plot follows a society divided in two, the workers underground and the wealthy on the exterior, how Freder, the son of the supreme ruler of the city, falls in love with a worker named Maria and the class confrontation between them fueled by Rotwang, a MadScientist rival of Freder's father, Fredersen.

* NoWaterProofingInTheFuture: The plumbing and electrical systems are tragically intertwined.

* IdleRich: Most of the upperclass seem to be this. Freder starts out this way, but he gets better rather quickly.
* IndustrialGhetto: The workers live in an underground city. During their work shift, they move to an upper underground level to operate the machinery and generate power for Metropolis.

* ShamingTheMob: Foreman Grot finally manages to calm down the rioting workers and make them realize what they'd done in flooding their own city by saying "[[WhamLine Where are your children?!]]"
* ShoutOut: A German translation of Creator/OscarWilde's quote "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it" appears on a Yoshiwara flyer. (Literally translated: "He who wants to defeat vice must pursue his vices.")