The Influence of Metropolis (1927)

  How Fritz Lang's Metropolis has influenced the science fiction genre

Commentator Roger Ebert stated that Metropolis “fixed for the rest of the century the image of a futuristic city as a hell of scientific progress and human despair” where “Science and industry will become the weapons of demagogues.” 

Metropolis' influence has been seen countlessly in media since its inception and re-defined the science fiction genre as we see it today. From its Marxist and capitalist representations of class divisions in modern films such as Blade Runner (1982) and The Hunger Games (2012-15) to its aesthetically stylised references of metropolitan city skyscrapers that may display German Expressionistic exaggerated perspectives and structures intended to distort the viewers' perception and heighten the fiction within this technological genre. 

One example of this dystopian representation of the future is shown in Ridley Scott's 1982 classic, Blade Runner from the opening that establishes - as Roger Ebert stated - 'the image of a futuristic city as a hell of scientific progress and human despair' which was commented upon Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis and can suitably be applied to Blade Runner. For example, the spectator is shown an establishing wide shot of Los Angeles set in 2019 that clearly takes many influences from the city montages within Metropolis; tall and well-lit

buildings that seem to exceed function with industrial spikes spouting fire - suggesting a hellish creation of the wealthy upper rulers - and coiling cylinders comparable to suffocating tentacles, both architectural examples contrastingly reflecting animalistic threats that visually dominate the shot in high contrasting light. In Metropolis, the city montage is shown through German Expressionism by including sharp diagonal angles, hoards of traffic, and painted impossible overlaps of city structures, angled low to enhance the power of this industrialist vision. In addition to this set design, the two buildings in the background in Blade Runner can be compared to Metropolis' underground machine that the workers tirelessly maintain which becomes a sacrificial monster as Freder envisions this machine as the Biblical Moloch; both have a structure similar to that of an ancient Aztec temple that functioned as a house for human sacrifice, suggesting primitive ideas to capture the governmental-like authority that resides in these buildings in Blade Runner, and ruthlessly exploits - symbolic of human sacrifice - as Freder sees the workers trudge into the mouth of Moloch in Metropolis. The two temple-like corporate buildings In Blade Runner also show beams of light from the top that symbolically place a superior power over the lower slums as the highest point of the city, similar to the tower of Babel in Metropolis. Another aspect of Blade Runner's city montage that is directly influenced by metropolis is the use of airborne transport - with small planes that were still relatively new to 1920s society, and had only been widely recognised during WW1, whereas in Metropolis it is being suggested as commercial as part of the futuristic setting; and flying cars in Blade Runner which is still a futuristic concept. Audibly, both montages capture the same presentation of splendour, with melodic brass instruments and an influence of digital synthesisers in Blade Runner. Like from Metropolis, Blade Runner uses two types of instrumentals when showing the oppressors/upper class and the proletariat: the upper social class is depicted with soothing, classical music to emphasise their leisure, and of which is often associated to be elitist, intellectual music made by the rich for the rich, whereas down in the proletariat slums the music is synthesised that, contextually, appeals to the masses, often criticised for lacking intellectual substance. By combining these two sounds during the opening as the city of Los Angeles is shown, the spectator, after realising these divisions, can see the true mix of the dystopian city; grand in size, wealth, and power (classical), but ultimately tarnished with lower-level, overcrowded slums (synthesisers). This music makes the representation of the Marxist binary oppositions - the oppressors and the proletariat - clear to the audience.  To conclude these montages: both are dangerously beautiful and showcase the city's wealth (power) in a 'hell of scientific progress' - symbolically shown through the blasts of fire from the nightmarish technological buildings - 'and human despair' - shown through the unnatural, industrial imagery and lower-class music influenced over the stately brass instrumental, acting as a reminder of what this wealth has been built from. This idea of contrasting music is also present in Metropolis, where the workers are introduced moving in a depressing uniformity; the music is legato and low-pitched to match the rhythmic drudgery of their movement, which changes to become more foreboding as they move to the underground worker city. In contrast, the spectator is shown the upper-class who is introduced with a title card telling of the stadiums, theatres, and libraries that serves as their leisure before an example of an athletic race is shown with audibly staccato, triumphant horns that speak to their athletic prowess and freedom of movement. Much the same in Blade Runner, these representations of the ruling class is shown participating in intellectual activities with the privilege of knowledge, learning, culture, and an absence of work. 

This shot in Blade Runner has similarities to Fredersen's office in Metropolis. Most noticeably, the man is introduced in a corporate suit waiting in an office-like room, establishing an air of control in comparison to the dishevelled worker that enters to be interviewed. The head of Metropolis, Fredersen, is introduced in a similar way, wearing the same corporate clothing and pacing around his office with a large view of his city that tells the spectator of his - quite literal - high status. Grot - a lower-class worker - entering this scene to give news of the Worker's plans of rebellion is seen in the same

manner in Blade Runner. Although the interviewer in Blade Runner only represents the excessively powerful Tyrell Corporation that runs the city of Los Angeles, the relationship and power-dynamics presented as he interviews Leon, a supposed worker of the corporation, takes influence from Metropolis. This interview, called the Voight-Kampff test, is designed to identify replicants - genetically engineered humans created by the Tyrell Corporation for slave labour out of Earth. As these replicants have a four-year lifespan, showing their disposability similar to that of the exploited workers in Metropolis (as an accident occurs in the Moloch machine, the injured worker is taken away swiftly and work continues unsympathetically with a replaced worker), a talk of rebellion is noticed by the totalitarian corporation, so, in order for their exploitation of engineered workers to remain, they designed the Voight-Kampf test that measures bodily functions in response to provocative questions to identify infiltrated replicants, shown menacingly to the spectator as a machine similar to a recording device. This shot places this device central to the frame, with a pressuring red dot that gives the viewer a presence of a spying eye, to which Leon becomes increasingly aggressive as he is asked questions. The nature of these two scenes in Blade Runner and Metropolis places control with the corporate leaders, with a shot of the interviewer waiting comfortably and the back of the worker in a noticeably disordered state directly influenced by Metropolis, where Grot and Fredersen are framed in the same way. This effectively shows their power dynamic where the worker's reaction is shrouded from the spectator as the oppressors lay before them; their role has the power to destroy the workers, so this framing represents their dominating presence within the scene and pressure upon the workers to conform to their surveillance. This framing also places the spectator with the workers, so we can understand this dominance from their perspective. Metropolis presents the workforce as collective, void of any human identity or seen to be rewarded for the exploitation. This influenced Blade Runner in the sense that the ruling Tyrell Corporation uses slave labour in the from of genetically-engineered replicants. Narratively, this parallel of a lack of traditional Government, where the city's are ruled by a corporate iron fist, inevitably sparks a revolution from the exploited. 

Perhaps one of the most iconic influences of Metropolis is the mad-scientist archetype; the antagonist Rotwang who becomes obsessed with his unnatural creation, 'The Man-Machine', that wreaks havoc onto society. This influence can be seen less than 10 years after Metropolis' release in Frankenstein (1931). Most noticeably, Frankenstein's lab is filled with chaotic scientific contraptions similar to that in Metropolis, with the clearly influenced cylinder exam table that the unethical practises take place on; seeking to make the undead alive, ultimately playing God and, in German Expressionistic fashion, becoming mad from it. However, Rotwang's obsession comes from romantic desire in the form of Fredersen's dead wife, Hel, that he replicates into the Man-Machine from Maria, pretending to act under Fredersen's instruction rather than his true intent of revenge.

His creation is technologically perfect and intentional, whereas Frankenstein exemplifies science gone wrong on a personal scale of guilt and madness and the destruction that follows to the monster and its creator.  Rotwang idolises his creation while Frankenstein abhors it, yet Rotwang will not bring himself to destroy his machine after it wreaks havoc on the city of Metropolis as this was his primal goal in his redemption towards Fredersen; destroy his love and creation as he destroyed Rotwang's love, Hel. Although both characters create destruction within the story, Rotwang is far more antagonistic as his individual goals do not benefit any classes within Metropolis, making his death by being pushed off a roof more redeemable. This scene illustrates how Rotwang’s obsession with the creation of an artificial perfect woman has blinded him to the point where he cannot tell reality from the reality he has created. 

Metropolis has had an incredibly large aesthetic influence on films, which can be seen in the costume of The Hunger Games. Like from Metropolis, the rich residing in the futuristic, seemingly utopian, and technologically advanced capitol is presented wearing extreme fashion choices, from bold colour, non-traditional fittings, and exaggerated accessories that exceed function - purely as a display of wealth and extravagance. Although it is common for film and media to represent the rich with expensive fabrics and

fashion trends of the period, The Hunger Games take direct influence from the assumed prostitutes residing in the upper-level eternal gardens in Metropolis who serve to 'entertain' the protagonist, Freder. In these two film examples, the rich are being used to represent entertainment that they can afford and give without judgement. However, despite the spectator being told of the many intellectual and cultural centres at their disposal, we are never actually shown the rich indulging in these activities, rather only being presented with a superficial image of over-indulgent parties - such as the Yoshiwara sequence where the Man-Machine Maria sexually provokes the wealthy male onlookers and the montage of an escaped worker seeing the gambling, sex, and exoticism that the rich participate in Metropolis, and at President Snow's hosted party where the resources available are so plentiful that the rich take pills to vomit their food in order to eat more while the divided lower districts are starving in The Hunger Games- all in the name of entertainment and vanity. These two presentations of the upper-classes exude excessive lifestyles that have always been historically common, yet Metropolis pioneered this idea to the extreme in which films have suitably followed.

C-3PO in the Star Wars (1977-present) trilogy takes direct influence from Metropolis' Man-machine design; the first to present robots in an humanoid form.