All that survive of the original "Metropolis" are an incomplete copy
of the negative and shortened and re-edited release prints.
Over a quarter of the film is now considered lost.
The present version, which combines all of the surviving elements,
attempts to recreate the film
as it was shown at its premiere.
The intertitles have been reproduced in their original form.
Intertitles in a different typeface (like this one)
Have been added to summarize the plot of the missing sections.
Black film stock indicates shorter sections of missing footage.
Epigram: The mediator between brain and hands must be the heart!
Shift change.
Deep below
the earth's surface
lay the workers' city.
As deep as lay
the workers' city below the earth, so high above it towered
the complex named the "Club of the Sons,"
with its lecture halls and libraries, its theaters and stadiums.
Fathers for whom every revolution of a machine wheel meant gold
had created for their sons the miracle of the Eternal Gardens.
"Which of you ladies shall today have the honor
of entertaining Master Freder, Joh Fredersen's son?"
"Look! These are your brothers!"
"Look...!"
"These are your brothers!"
"Who- was that?"
But this is what happened to Freder - son of Joh Fredersen,
master of Metropolis - when he went in search of the girl:
"To the new Tower of Babel - to my father-!"
"Why is it, Josaphat, that I learn of the explosion
from my son, and not from you...!"
"The details...!"
"What were you doing in the machine halls, Freder?"
"I wanted to look into the faces of the people whose little children
are my brothers, my sisters..."
"Your magnificent city, Father - and you the brain of this city -
and all of us in the city's light..."
"...and where are the people, father, whose hands built your city... - ?"
"Where they belong..."
"...In the depths?"
"What if one day those in the depths rise up against you?"
"The chief foreman of the Heart Machine, Grot -
with an important message..."
"Two more of those damned plans, Mr. Fredersen..."
"...in the pockets of two men involved involved in today's accident
at the M-Machine..."
"Why is it, Josaphat, that these plans were brought to me by Grot,
and not by you?"
"Apply to the G-Bank for your remaining wages..."
"Father, do you know what it means to be dismissed by you?
- It means: Go below! - Father! - Go below! Into the depths...!"
"Do you know what it means to be dismissed like that by Joh Fredersen?"
"Would you like to come with me, Josaphat?"
"Where do you live, Josaphat?" Freder asked,
and noted: Block 99, House 7, 7th Floor.
"Go home, Josaphat, and wait for me...
I still have a long way to go tonight..."
"Into the depths, - to be with my brothers..."
"Beginning today I wish to be kept informed of every step taken by my son..."
"Brother..."
"...the machine! Someone has to stay at the machine!"
"Someone will stay at the machine..."
"ME"
"Listen to me... I want to trade lives with you!"
Meanwhile, the Thin Man, Joh Fredersen's spy, is watching the spot
where Freder's chauffeur has parked his car.
Block 99, House 7, 7th Floor.
"Wait for me- both of you..."
The Thin Man watches Freder's car drive off.
Worker 11811 has shown the chauffeur the note with Josaphat's address...
But 11811 betrays his promise. Finding money, lots of money,
in Freder's clothes, he succumbs
to the temptations of the city and the night...
Instead of going to Josaphat's apartment,
he has himself driven to Yoshiwara, Metropolis's entertainment district.
In the middle of Metropolis is a strange house,
overlooked by the centuries.
Here lives Rotwang, the inventor.
In a high, gloomy room of the old house, Joh Fredersen waits for Rotwang.
He notices a small alcove concealed by a curtain. He draws it open.
There, on a pedestal as wide as a wall and as tall as a man,
he sees the stone head of a woman.
"Joh Fredersen's eyes fall on the words engraved on the pedestal."
HEL BORN FOR MY HAPPINESS AND MANKIND'S BLESSING.
LOST TO JOH FREDERSEN DIED GIVING BIRTH TO FREDER, JOH FREDERSEN'S SON.
Rotwang has silently entered the room with the monument.
Furious, he tears closed the curtain in front of the bust.
The angrier Rotwang becomes, the calmer grows Joh Fredersen.
"A brain like yours, Rotwang," he says to the raving man,
"should be able to forget..."
"Only once in my life did I forget anything:
That Hel was a woman, and you a man..."
"Let the dead rest in peace, Rotwang...
For you, as for me, she is dead..."
"For me, she is not dead, Joh Fredersen,
- for me, she lives...!"
"Do you think that losing a hand is too high a price
to pay for re-creating Hel-?!"
"Do you want to see her-?!"
"So, Joh Fredersen-?! Isn't it worth the loss of a hand
to have created the man of the future, the Machine-Man-?!"
"Give me another 24 hours-, and no one, Joh Fredersen,
no one will be able to tell a Machine-Man from a mortal...!"
"The woman is mine, Joh Fredersen! The son of Hel was yours!"
"And what brings you to me, Joh Fredersen?"
"As usual, when my experts fail me,
I come to you for advice..."
"For months now, we have been finding these plans in my workers' clothes.
What do they mean?"
"...at two... at the end of the shift! She has summoned us again..."
"Father-! Father-! Will ten hours never end...??!!"
"-It is a plan of the 2000-year-old catacombs deep below the lowest levels
of your Metropolis..."
"I should like to know what my workers are doing in the catacombs..."
"Today I will tell you
the legend of THE TOWER OF BABEL..."
The legend of THE TOWER OF BABEL.
"Come, let us build us a tower whose top may reach unto the stars!"
"And on the top of the tower we will write the words:
Great is the world and its creator! And great is man!"
...but the minds that had conceived the Tower of Babel could not build it.
The task was too great. So they hired hands for wages.
But the hands that built the Tower of Babel knew nothing
of the dream of the brain that had conceived it.
One man's hymns of praise became other men's curses.
People spoke the same language, but could not understand each other...
GREAT IS THE WORLD AND ITS CREATOR, AND GREAT IS MAN
"HEAD and HANDS need a mediator."
"THE MEDIATOR BETWEEN HEAD AND HANDS MUST BE THE HEART!"
"But where is our mediator, Maria-?"
"Wait for him! He will surely come!"
"We will wait, Maria...! But not much longer...!"
"Oh mediator, have you finally come?"
"You called me - - here I am!"
"Rotwang, give the Machine-Man the likeness of that girl."
"I shall sow discord between them and her!
I shall destroy their belief in this woman..."
"Leave me alone now, Joh Fredersen...
You will find the way back without me..."
"You fool! Now you will lose the one remaining thing you have from Hel -
your son!
"Until tomorrow, in the cathedral!"
End of the prelude.
Intermezzo.
Feder sees a monk in the pulpit who preaches: "Verily,
I say unto you, the days spoken of in the Apocalypse are nigh!"
The monk's hand points to the Bible, in which is written:
"And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast,
full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns...
...And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color,
having a golden cup in her hand...
...And upon her forehead was a name written, mystery,
Babylon the Great, the mother of abominations of the earth."
In Rotwang's laboratory the Machine-Man sits,
looking like an Egyptian deity. Light streams from above.
Rotwang takes its hands and speaks to it:
"You will destroy Joh Fredersen - him and his city and his son."
"If you had come earlier, you wouldn't have scared me...
But now I beg you: Stay away from me and my beloved...!"
Disappointed that Maria has not come, Freder goes to Josaphat's home,
where he hopes to find Worker 11811.
But after his night in Yoshiwara, 11811 was caught by the Thin Man
and sent back to his machine.
"I must go, "Freder tells Josaphat.
"I must look on my own for the person to whom 11811 was supposed to lead me."
Soon after Freder leaves, the Thin Man forces his way
into Josaphat's apartment and tries to get him to leave Metropolis...
He tries to bribe him, then threatens him,
but Josaphat cannot stop thinking of the man who trusts him...
In Josaphat's apartment a fight breaks out between Josaphat and the Thin Man.
Josaphat is overpowered.
"Come! It is time to give the Machine-Man your face!"
"Where is Maria-?!"
"She is with your father..."
"I tell you, she is with your father... - !"
"I want you to visit those in the depths, in order to destroy the work
of the woman in whose image you were created!"
In Freder's delirium the Thin Man appears to him as the monk in the cathedral.
The Thin Man in the form of a monk preaches: "Verily, I say unto you,
the days spoken of in the Apocalypse are nigh...!"
The Thin Man in the form of a monk shows Freder the verse in the Bible:
"And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color
having a golden cup in her hand..."
"For her- all seven deadly sins!"**
"Death descends upon the city... - !"
End of intermezzo
Furioso
The Book of Revelations
"I put on this disguise to escape from the Thin Man... But for ten days
your father's spy has been making even the workers' city risky..."
The Thin Man reports to Fredersen in his office:
"Only their hope for a mediator is keeping the workers in check."
Josaphat relates to Freder more of the strange events
after his collapse: "On the evening you fell sick..."
"...once the best of friends... because of that woman..."
"...the other man... the same evening..."
"The Eternal Gardens lie abandoned... but night after night in Yoshiwara..."
"And this woman, at whose feet all sins are heaped..."
"...is also named Maria..."
"The same woman who those in the depths
look up to as a saint...?!"
Freder reminds Josaphat: "Many now go to the city of the dead,
to a woman who has proven herself as true as gold...
...But the mediator must appear!"
"Whatever happens tonight," Fredersen instructs the Thin Man in his office,
"it is my express order to let the workers do as they will..."
"Joh Fredersen wants to let those in the depths use force
and do wrong, so that he can claim the right to use force against them...
"When you spoke you spoke of peace, Maria...
Today a mouthpiece of Joh Fredersen is inciting them to rebel against him..."
"She will destroy their belief in a mediator!"
"You know that I have always spoken that I have always spoken of peace...
but your mediator has not come..."
"You have waited long enough! Your time has come-!"
"...but I have tricked Joh Fredersen! Your double does not obey his will -
only mine!"
"Who is the living food for the machines in Metropolis-?!"
"Who lubricates the machine joints with their own blood-?!"
"Who feeds the machines with their own flesh...?!"
"Let the machines starve, you fools-! Let them die-!!"
"Kill them- the machines-!!"
"You are not Maria-!!!"
"YOU ARE NOT MARIA-!"
"Maria speaks of peace, not killing-!
This is not Maria-!!"
"Joh Fredersen's son-!!"
"Kill him, the dog, in his white silken fur-!!!"
"Get your women, your sons, from the workers' city! Let no one stay behind!
Death to the machines-!!!"
In the attic with Maria, Rotwang grows ever more intoxicated
by his triumph over Fredersen.
"...and I tricked Joh Fredersen twice over-! For I concealed from him
that his son wants to be your brothers' mediator - and loves you-!"
Maria is not the only one listening to Rotwang.
Outside the attic window Joh Fredersen has been eavesdropping...
"...faithful after all..."
Joh Fredersen breaks into Rotwang's attic.
He battles with his old rival, overcoming him. Maria is free.
"Women and men, let no one miss today-! Death to the machines-!!"
"Not one man- or woman remained behind-!"
The mob storms the M-Machine and rushes toward the Heart Machine,
the power house of Metropolis.
Grot closes the gates and tries to notify Fredersen.
"Open the gates!"
"Open the gates, I said!"
Grot warns Fredersen: "If the Heart Machine is destroyed,
the entire machine district will end up in ruins."
Finally Grot obeys Joh Fredersen's order and opens the gates.
The workers race to the Heart Machine. *
"Have you gone mad-?? If the Heart Machine is destroyed,
the entire workers' city will be flooded-!!"
"Do you know that your son is with the workers?"
"Yes... you! You are Maria-!"
"To the air shafts- quickly! Quickly! The reservoirs have burst!
The city is flooding-!"
At the upper end of the shaft a metal fence blocks the children's path.
More and more children press forward. Panic threatens.
Freder and Josaphat scale the outside of the stair railing and hurl
themselves against the bars.
Finally Freder and Josaphat succeed in breaking down the metal gate.
Freder climbs back down to get Maria and the last of the children.
"We'll take the children to the Club of the Sons!"
"Why are all the lights out?"
"I must know! Where is my son?!!!"
"Tomorrow thousands will ask in fury and desperation:
Joh Fredersen, where is my son-!"
"Where are your children??!"
"The city lies underwater, the shafts are completely flooded-!!"
"Who told you to attack the machines, you idiots?
Without them you'll all die!!"
"It's the witch's fault-!"
"Let's all watch as the world goes to the devil!"
"Find the witch, this is all her fault-!
Strike her dead-!!"
In front of Hel's monument Rotwang decides:
"Now I'm going to take you home, my Hel!"
Maria leads the last of the children to safety in the Club of the Sons.
Then she is spotted by Grot and the mob.
"The witch-! The witch-! There she is-! There she is-!"
"Where are our children, you witch-??!"
"Burn the witch. - To the stake with her!!!"
Suspecting nothing, Maria tries to speak.
But the mob roars and throws hammers at her.
Maria is hit. Only at the last minute does she escape
the mob's wrath.
Maria, pursued by the mob, runs headlong into the revellers from Yoshiwara.
"To the stake with her-!"
"Hel-! My Hel-!!"
"Your children... saved...!!!"
"Head and hands want to join together but they don't have the heart
to do it... Oh mediator, show them the way to each other..."
THE MEDIATOR BETWEEN HEAD AND HANDS MUST BE THE HEART!
THE END.