History Main / Metropolis

* The sci-fi franchise ''Franchise/{{Metropolis}}:

* ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'', the 1927 {{German Expressionis|m}}t sci-fi film
* ''Theatre/Metropolis1989'', the musical
* Creator/OsamuTezuka[='s=] ''Anime/Metropolis2001'', the 2001 {{anime}} film

* ''Theatre/{{Metropolis}}'', the 1989 musical

* ''Creator/OsamuTezuka''[='s=] ''Anime/Metropolis2001'', the 2001 {{anime}} film

* ''Creator/OsamuTezuka''[='s=] ''Anime/{{Metropolis}}'', the 2001 {{anime}} film

* The trope, MegaCity, which can also -- and in some cases, more correctly -- be known as a Megalopolis or Megapolis.

[[redirect:Film/{{Metropolis}}]]

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MetropolisPoster.jpg

--> \\
''Having conceived Babel, yet unable to build it themselves, they had thousands to build it for them. But those who toiled knew nothing of the dreams of those who planned. And the minds that planned the Tower of Babel cared nothing for the workers who built it. The hymns of praise of the few became the curses of the many...''

Silent [[GermanExpressionism German]] Sci-Fi film from 1927, directed by FritzLang. Considered one of the [[UrExample forerunners]] of the genre and one of the most expensive films ever made.

It tells the story of a society divided in two, the workers on the 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.

Aside from its progressive storytelling, it is also known for being heavily [[LostEpisode fragmented]], the results of both heavy Bowdlerization in its trip to foreign markets, and of poor preservation techniques back in the '30s (plus a little thing called World War II).

Up to 25% of the original footage was considered lost before turning up in a museum in Argentina in 2007, albeit in inferior picture quality. The rediscovered footage was cleaned up as well as possible and integrated into the existing restored footage. The rediscovered version also confirmed the exact running order of shots, which in previous versions could only be guessed at. This new version runs only about five minutes short of the original 1927 German cut, as opposed to nearly an entire hour shorter in some versions. Unfortunately, two scenes still remained too badly damaged to restore, and were replaced by title cards. It made its big US debut at the Turner Classic Movies festival in 2009 and on television on Turner Classic Movies in November 2010. This nearly complete version was released on DVD and BluRay in late 2010.

This {{Troperiffic}} film is either the TropeCodifier or possible UrExample for [[LudicrousPrecision approximately 65.4%]] of [[OlderThanTheyThink science fiction tropes]].

Also notable is the 1984 color-tinted restoration by composer Georgio Moroder, which is [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes only available on VHS and LaserDisc]] due to its [[BrokenBase controversial]] [[TheEighties 80's]] [[NotableOriginalMusic pop soundtrack]]. [[http://www.themortonreport.com/entertainment/video/kino-to-bring-giorgio-moroders-metropolis-to-blu-ray-and-dvd/ Until now, anyway.]] Moroder's version is now available on Netflix instant streaming (alongside the full restored cut), and a DVD/BD release is soon to follow.

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!!Works it has inspired:
* The anime film and manga, ''[[Anime/{{Metropolis}} Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis]]''.
* ''BladeRunner'' in particular is considered a SpiritualSuccessor to this film.
* An ''{{Elseworlds}}'' one-shot that combined this Metropolis with {{Superman}}'s.
* Singer JanelleMonae's ''Metropolis'' series of {{Concept Album}}s.
* A [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(musical) musical theater adaptation]] of the film.
* {{Music/Kraftwerk}}'s ''Man Machine'' album, which includes a track titled "Metropolis", a nod to the film.

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!!TropeCodifier, or UrExample for the following sci-fi movie conventions:
[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/metropolis2.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[-DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything-] ]]

* AIIsACrapshoot
* CathedralClimax
* CityNoir (with [[EvilTowerOfOminousness giant tower with heliports on top]] overshadowing everything)
* CollapsingLair
* EternalEngine
* EvilHand (quite possibly [[ArtificialLimbs robotic hand]])
* EvilKnockoff
* ExplosiveOverclocking (the Heart Machine)
* FlyingCar (possibly, as far as its usual sci-fi portrayal goes; the planes dashing between buildings may not look like cars, but seem to fill the same role, and similar shots remain popular today)
* GlovedFistOfDoom
* GratuitousJapanese / [[GratuitousEnglish English]] signs advertising {{Mega Corp}}s
* LuddWasRight: A human rebellion stopped when [[{{Morlocks}} the workers]] realize they are [[{{Aesoptinum}} dependent on the machines]] for their lives
* MadScientist with EinsteinHair (strangely enough, this was prior to most of Einstein's fame, but then again, who wants to have a trope called "Rotwang Hair?"
* MegaCity
* RaygunGothic (the future will be [[{{Zeerust}} Art Deco]])
* [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot Ridiculously Human]] RobotGirl (robots in general...)
* RobotMe
* VideoPhone
* YouAreNumberSix

Consequently, many find that [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny Metropolis Is Unoriginal]]: This movie's tropes, characters, visual style, and special effects have been mimicked to the point of exhaustion. Ironically, on its release people criticized the plot for borrowing heavily from Victorian melodramas and other sci-fi stories; HGWells in particular [[http://erkelzaar.tsudao.com/reviews/H.G.Wells_on_Metropolis%201927.htm felt he'd been plagiarized]]. So some of it may be ''even older'' than people think.

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!!Shows examples of:

* AbsurdlyCoolCity: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0AlrH_K7Ko And don't you forget it.]]
* AlternativeCalendar: The workers' day has 20 hours (and their work takes ten), the rich people's the usual 24.
* AmbiguouslyGay: Freder. It may have to do with the make-up for the b/w movie, but still.
** Or it could be the fact that he seems to have the strangest affinity for hugging and caressing every human being he comes across, gender be damned.
* ApocalypseMaiden: Robot Maria.
* ArtificialLimbs: Rotwang's right hand.
* AsTheGoodBookSays: Maria reinterprets the story of the Tower of Babel as a failure of labor relations. A preacher quotes Revelation Chapter 16 in a missing scene, which is later reprised in flashback during Freder's fever dream.
* BackgroundHalo
* BadExportForYou: Up until 2003, nearly every version of this movie released in America was based on the [[{{Macekre}} heavily edited]] Channing Pollock version. And then there was the version made in TheEighties... an... [[LoveItOrHateIt interesting]] experiment.
* BeneathTheEarth: The workers' city. [[IncrediblyLamePun And deeply so]].
* BigElectricSwitch: Rotwang's lab has several of them.
* TheBigGuy: Grot
* BigWordShout: "MOLOCH!"
* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: Rotwang's house. With doors that open and close on their own, it's also a MobileMaze - and noticeably BiggerOnTheInside, as several reviewers pointed out.
* BrainFever
* BurnTheWitch: "Burn the witch!" [[RecycledInSpace On a pyre]] made of I-beams and [[MadeOfExplodium burning automobiles]]. Too bad [[spoiler:[[TheReveal she's a robot]]]].
* CharacterTics: Robot-Maria's jerking her shoulders and whiplashing her neck.
* ClockTower ending (CathedralClimax)
* ClothingDamage: Textbook male example, nearly four decades before Kirk.
* [[CollapsingLair Collapsing ]][[strike:[[CollapsingLair Lair ]]]][[CollapsingLair Underground City]]
* TheConstant: Rotwang's house is [[GeniusLoci beyond ancient]], and sticks out like a sore thumb wedged in amongst the skyscrapers. It also has a secret door leading to [[BeneathTheEarth The Catacombs]].
* CoolCar: The Rumpler Tropfen-Auto. Probably a greater percentage of the total production run of them were destroyed for ''Metropolis'' than Dodge Chargers were for ''TheDukesOfHazzard''.
* CrucifiedHeroShot: [[spoiler:With the Paternoster Machine turned into a metaphorical clock that is going backwards, all the while threatening to overload and explode.]]
* CrystalSpiresAndTogas: The upper class' city.
* DeathByChildbirth: [[spoiler:Freder's mother died giving birth to him, which is another reason Rotwang eventually decides on revenge against the Fredersens.]]
* {{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.
* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler: Rotwang]]
* DistressedDamsel: Maria
* DitzyGenius: Maria again. She is an amazing orator with the political will and ambition to push for equality among the upper and lower classes... and when sufficiently frightened she has a tendency to run with arms flailing away from safety, bouncing into walls along the way.
* ElvesVsDwarves: Rich, hedonistic millionaires against poor, dirty underground workers. Basically.
* EternalEngine: The entire underground is some sort of SteamAndFlameFactory.
* ExplosiveInstrumentation
* EyeTropes: In Yoshiwara, during Maria's dance, there's a montage of eyes watching her.
* FemmeFatale: The Machine Man.
* TheFilmOfTheBook
* GermanExpressionism
* {{Gonk}}: In a film where everyone looks uniform, Rotwang- the MadScientist with fuzzy hair, bulging eyes, and a hunchback figure- really stands out.
* GratuitousJapanese: The apparently European city contains a nightclub inexplainably called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshiwara Yoshiwara]].
** *[[GettingCrapPastTheRadar cough]]*
* TheGrimReaper
* HoYay: Freder is a [[http://cboye.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/freder.png very physical person]]. Especially with Josaphat and 11811. [[spoiler:On the other hand, it's very firmly established that he loves Maria...]]
* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: Every scene between Rotwang and Maria. ''Especially'' the one before the transformation sequence.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Every version was different for ''decades''.
** And the only full version surviving was apparently acquired by a collector before the first cuts were made, then wound up in an archive.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Pretty much each character and event.
* LaserGuidedKarma
--> '''Fredersen''': I must know! ''Where is my son?!''\\
'''Thin Man''': [[spoiler: Tomorrow, thousands in this city will be asking the same question, in fury and desperation: "Joh Fredersen, where is ''my'' son?"]]
* {{Leitmotif}}: Gottfried Huppertz's original score, as reconstructed and recorded in 2003 (and again in 2009), features these significantly. Freder, his father, Rotwang, Maria, Robot Maria, the machines of Metropolis, the nightclub-goers in Yoshiwara, and the uprising workers all have their own recurring themes.
* LostForever: The rest of the film until, like other things German, it turned up in Argentina.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler:Rotwang wants to destroy the city because Freder's mother chose the city's ruler over him. And then died giving birth to said ruler's son.]]
** LoveMakesYouCrazy: The Hundreds club start killing themselves and each other over the Maria Machine.
* MadScientist: Rotwang
* MadScientistLaboratory: Rotwang's house
* MacGuffinGirl: Maria
* MagicFromTechnology: Robot Maria's transformation. Of course, Rotwang's whole theme has all the trappings of [[AWizardDidIt a wizard]] as well as a scientist...
* MaleGaze: Dramatically demonstrated with the montage of eyes watching Robot Maria during her striptease.
* MeaningfulName / OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: "Der Schmale", meaning "the thin one" (SlenderManMythos?)
* MilkingTheGiantCow: Rotwang only loves one thing more than Hel, and that is wild gesticulation. Robot-Maria shares his liking for it, too.
* MissingEpisode: Missing ''a third of the entire movie'' for many years.
** Even with the rediscovered version, there are still two missing scenes; one of which is heavily plot-relevant.
* {{Monologuing}}: Rotwang
* MobileMaze: Rotwang's house
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: Rotwang
* TheMorlocks: HGWells got one up on ''Metropolis'' with this plotline, but FritzLang is more sympathetic.
* {{Necromantic}}
--> '''Joh''': Let the dead lie. She's as dead for me as she is for you.\\
'''Rotwang''': She isn't dead for me, Joh Fredersen! For me, she lives! [''gesticulates wildly'']
* NightmarishFactory
* NoWaterProofingInTheFuture: The plumbing and electrical systems are tragically intertwined.
* NotableOriginalMusic: The original soundtrack, plus the entirely different [[TheEighties Moroder]] version (see below).
* NoOSHACompliance: Something of a plot point: The "M-Machine" that Freder stumbles upon during his trek through the underground city overheats and explodes, killing everyone in its vicinity. The dead workers are casually hauled off and a new set comes in to take their place. Witnessing this scene is what makes Freder sympathetic to the workers' plight.
** Case of TruthInTelevision and JustifiedTrope: Safety-oriented machine design, safe operation rules and reimbursements for incidents are relatively modern concepts. Work conditions depicted in the movie were not so different from the work in early 20th-century factories.
* OedipusRex: Freder fighting his father and Rotwang with Rotwang's confusion of Maria with Hel together make a Freudian theme. Freder just thinking he's seen Maria with his father causes him instant mental collapse.
* OmnicidalManiac: Rotwang wants to kill the Fredersens and destroy the city.
* OverclockingAttack: To destroy the Heart machine. The Foreman tries to stave off Robot-Maria with a big wrench.
* PsychoticSmirk: Robot-Maria.
* RealitySubtext: Maybe. Fritz Lang's wife, Thea von Harbou, was originally married to actor Rudolf Klein-Rogge, but she had an affair with Lang and ultimately divorced Rogge. In the movie and in the original book, the woman Hel was married to Rotwang (played by Rogge) but eventually had an affair and married Joh Fredersen. As Harbou wrote the original screenplay and story, it's possible she wrote it as a parallel to her own life situation, so [[RealLifeWritesThePlot a lot gets made of this coincidence]]. But on the other hand, Lang and Rogge remained good friends and worked together until Lang left Germany, while Rogge also continued to work with Harbou on several other movies. Needless to say, [[YourMileageMayVary there's been debate]].
* RedRightHand: Rotwang. As he says: "Isn't it worth the loss of a hand to have created the workers of the future?"
* ReluctantMadScientist: In some versions of the edit, Rotwang really just wants his lover back.
* ReplacementGoldfish: Rotwang originally wanted the robot to replace Hel, before Joh ordered him to make it into a duplicate of Maria.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized
* RidiculouslyHumanRobot: Futura/Robotrix/Fake Hel/Fake Maria/Machine Man/etc.
* RobotGirl: Futura/Robotrix/Fake Hel/Fake Maria/Machine Man/etc.
* SayMyName: A rare silent example occurs after [[spoiler: Maria's kidnapping]], where Freder runs through the city "shouting" Maria's name via intertitle cards.
* ScienceFictionVersusFantasy: This is Rotwang's whole theme. Inside a giant future MegaCity is a little [[TheConstant thatched cottage]] inside of which is a pentagrammed MadScientistLaboratory inside of which is a man dressed in robes with a robot hand. Robot Maria's transformation makes him practically a necromancer. In fact the whole film is both a pioneer of sci fi despite being very heavy on biblical imagery.
* SchizoTech owing mainly to {{Zeerust}}. Notable in the use of ticker-tape machines and 1920's era automobiles everywhere.
** Specifically, consultation of the ticker tape causes Fredersen to immediately contact the Foreman on a flatscreen video phone/surveillance monitor.
* SevenDeadlySins: [[spoiler:Fake Maria]] is seen as the epitome of this. Statues of the seven deadly sins are shown and even animated during a dream sequence, while she sits on top of a statue of a seven-headed dragon.
* ShoutOut: OscarWilde's quote "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it" on a Yoshiwara flyer.
* ASinisterClue: Rotwang's left hand.
* SoundtrackDissonance / CrowningMusicOfAwesome: Giorgio Moroder's version is a [[LoveItOrHateIt love it]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks or hate it]], [[CultClassic cult adaptation]]. Featuring [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epuUqdkO47w Jon Anderson]] (of {{Yes}}), PatBenatar, Adam Ant, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNEjSi9SVAU#t=2m45s "Destruction"]] by Loverboy, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLUo2UQxSts Bonnie Tyler]], [[{{Queen}} Freddie Mercury]], [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7CLLBZpT_Q Cycle V and Moroder himself]]. Yes. [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes Hard to find]].[[hottip:**: even on Youtube -- apparently FW Murnau Foundation is against it, [[SarcasmMode though they aren't against any other version appearing on Youtube]]...]]
* SpiritualSequel: This film was to the 20's what ''BladeRunner'' was to the 80's.
* SpringtimeForHitler: Director FritzLang 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, [[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.
* StandardSnippet: The "Dies Irae" theme figures heavily in the original soundtrack by Gottfried Huppertz, as does a tweaked version of the Marseillaise.
* TechnicolorScience: In a black and white film no less. Rotwang's lab when he is transforming his mechanical girl has milky white liquids, transparent liquids, and dark colored liquids all boiling and bubbling away in strangely shaped glass containers.
* TheThreeFacesOfEve: Maria - Mother, maiden and sex machine. The Oedipal themes come free with the package.
* ThousandYardStare: Josaphat's BSOD after being fired by Fredersen. He's so shocked and unable to focus that he ''can't find the doorknob'' on his way out.
* ThunderboltsAndLightning: The destruction of the machines.
* TitleDrop: Rotwang talking to Joh Fredersen calls the city "your metropolis". NoNameGiven?
* TorchesAndPitchforks: Or rather wrenches and lanterns. [[spoiler:For the workers and upper classes respectively (although the latter did not initially intend anything destructive. But once they collide with the workers...)]].
* TheTower: "Gigantic, unimaginably huge, looms-over-everything" variety.
* TowerOfBabel: referenced, with significant alterations. Maria's retelling alters the facts and changes the moral. The hubris is inverted ("And on the pedestal these words appear: 'Great is the world and its Maker, and great is Man!'") and retribution comes from paying too much attention to the idea and ignoring the workers. There is no confusion of tongues, but another clever inversion ("The praises of one became the curses of another. Although they spoke the same language, they could not understand one another's words"). The New Tower of Babel at the heart of the city is [[spoiler: absolutely untouched by the destruction and the divided classes are reunited.]]
* TwoGuysAndAGirl: The backstory of [[spoiler: Rotwang, Hel, and Joh.]] It didn't end well.
--> '''Joh''': Surely a mind like yours must be able to forget...\\
'''Rotwang''': ''([[MilkingTheGiantCow shaking a fist in Fredersen's face]])''I only ever forgot one thing: that Hel was a woman and you a man!
* UnfortunateName: Oh, poor [[InMyLanguageThatSoundsLike Rotwang]]. A child with a name like that was doomed to become evil. (Needless to say it probably wasn't the case when the film was made, but today...)
** Why? What's wrong with "Rotwang"? It doesn't sound too awkward for a German surname. But it does literally mean "Red-Cheek". Make of that what you will.
** Also having a character called Hel was too close to Hell for the liking of American censors, who removed all reference to her - along with several important plot-points.
*** This could arguably be considered CompletelyMissingThePoint paired with ViewersAreMorons, as Hel in Norse myth is the goddess of the underworld.
* UrbanSegregation
* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:Rotwang, after Joh Fredersen ambushes and beats the crap out of him.]]
* WeWillUseManualLabourInTheFuture
** In an audio commentary it is suggested that this is ''intentionally'' done by the city's leaders, so they have better control over the lower classes. In reality, machines are supposed to make life easier and be able to function without humans.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Moroder made the rock opera version after outbidding DavidBowie, among others, for the rights. God knows what he... scratch that, probably even ''God'' doesn't know what Bowie would have done with ''Metropolis''.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: the whole film.
** RuleOfSymbolism, for the most part. You have crucifixion imagery, giant clock face, personified Whore of Babylon, retelling of the Tower of Babel story, animated gargoyles personifying Death and the Seven Deadly Sins, a hidden church in catacombs, an inverted pentagram, talk about "brothers and sisters", the machine as Moloch...
** The Moroder lyrics add a bunch more, with [[GeorgeOrwell Orwellian]] {{shout out}}s (the edition was timed to release in [[NineteenEightyFour 1984]]), references to "[[{{Ouroboros}} infinite circles of snakes eating their own tails]]" and the like.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Georgy ([[YouAreNumberSix 11811]]), the worker Freder takes the place of at the dial machine, after he goes into Yoshiwara. His story was expanded on in the footage that was later cut and, until recently, LostForever.
** Much of the lost footage also pertains to the Thin Man, who follows Freder, Georgy, and Josaphat at Joh Fredersen's behest.
* WhileRomeBurns: [[spoiler:The happy crowd from the Yoshiwara club while the city is being blacked out by the workers' revolution.]]
* WitchHunt: Literally.
* XanatosGambit: [[spoiler:Initially shown to be Joh Fredersen]], though it turns out that [[spoiler:Rotwang was the real {{Chessmaster}} behind the near-destruction of Metropolis]].
** In the novel, it's strongly implied that [[spoiler: Fredersen]] was in control the whole time, including over [[spoiler: Rotwang]]'s plan, and was just waiting for [[spoiler: Rotwang]] to [[{{Monologuing}} monologue about it]] so he'd have an excuse [[spoiler:to finally kill him, which is why he was waiting outside the window]]. ''This [[FridgeBrilliance mirrors his plan]] for the workers.''
* YesMan: Josaphat
* YouAreNumberSix: Georgy 11811
* YouCanLeaveYourHatOn: That's right. In 1927.
* {{Zeerust}}: doubly so for the '80s New Wave soundtrack version.
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Also notable is the 1984 color-tinted restoration by composer Georgio Moroder, which is [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes only available on VHS and LaserDisc]] due to its [[BrokenBase controversial]] [[TheEighties 80's]] [[NotableOriginalMusic pop soundtrack]]. [[http://www.themortonreport.com/entertainment/video/kino-to-bring-giorgio-moroders-metropolis-to-blu-ray-and-dvd/ That may be changing, though...]]