The Most Important SF Films of The 20th Century

341 Pages·2014·4.01 MB·English

by  Theresa M Moore

www.antellus.com
The Most Important Science Fiction Films of The 20th Century

Copyright 2013 by Theresa M. Moore, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in its entirety or in part by
print or electronic means without permission of the author. Permission to copy or quote from any part of the publication must be
obtained by email to [email protected]. This work is nonfiction and is rated for all readers.

Cover design by Theresa M. Moore Copyright 2013
Cover images courtesy/copyright ©
Universal Pictures, Inc.
Columbia Pictures, Inc.
Metro-Goldyn-Mayer, Inc.
Warner Bros. Inc.
20th Century Fox, Inc.
Paramount Pictures, Inc.
American International Pictures
BBC UK, and others
Published by Antellus, Los Angeles, CA, USA www.antellus.com. Catalog no. 10710906; ISBN 978-1-938752-09-4

Other books by Theresa M. Moore:
The Children of The Dragon vampire series: Destiny’s Forge  To Taste The Dragon’s Blood  Children of The Dragon: Illustrated
Vampire Quartet  Red Dragon  The Queen’s Marksman  A Pirate’s Daughter  Nagrasanti  Written In Blood  Swords of The
Dragon’s Blood  Other fiction: The Mystery of Cranewood Manor

Other nonfiction books: A Book of Five Rings: A Practical Guide to Strategy by Miyamoto Musashi  The 10% Solution: Simplifying
The Tax Code In The New Economy  Principles of Publishing In The Digital Age 2.0
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE 1982 Blade Runner
1925 The Lost World Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
1927 Metropolis TRON
1931 Frankenstein 1983 Star Wars: The Return of The Jedi
1936 Things To Come The Right Stuff
1950 Destination Moon 1984 1984
1951 When Worlds Collide Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
The Day The Earth Stood Still 2010: The Year We Make Contact
1953 The War of The Worlds The Terminator
1955 Conquest of Space 1986 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
This Island Earth 1989 The Abyss
1956 Invasion of The Body Snatchers Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Forbidden Planet 1990 Total Recall
1958 The Fly 1991 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
1959 The Angry Red Planet 1993 Jurassic Park
Battle Beyond the Sun 1994 Stargate
1960 The Time Machine Star Trek: Generations
1963 Atragon 1996 Star Trek: First Contact
1964 Robinson Crusoe On Mars 1997 Contact
First Men In The Moon 1998 Star Trek: Insurrection
The Last Man On Earth 1999 Galaxy Quest
1965 Dr. Who and The Daleks The Matrix
1966 Fahrenheit 451 The Thirteenth Floor
1967 5 Million Years to Earth/ In Conclusion
(Quatermass and The Pit)
1968 The Power
Charly
Planet of The Apes
2001: A Space Odyssey
1970 Colossus: The Forbin Project
Beneath The Planet of The Apes
The Andromeda Strain
1971 THX 1138
A Clockwork Orange
1973 Silent Running
Westworld
Soylent Green
1974 Dark Star
ZARDOZ
1976 Logan’s Run
1977 Star Wars: A New Hope
1979 Star Trek: The Motion Picture
ALIEN
1980 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
PREFACE
I think I started writing about the films I have selected partly because the spark of memory about them was revived with the
remastered, uncut version of Metropolis (1926) I saw recently on the Turner Classic Movies channel. Apart from various databases
and TCM itself, many of the films I came to love when I was younger seemed to disappear from the common American meme, and a
whole generation of children have since grown up without ever seeing them. Now, thanks to web sites like YouTube, Dailymotion
and Vimeo, as well as IMdb (International Movie data base), we can see them all over again without commercial interruption and in
their pure state. Some have been lovingly restored.
I remember that when I was younger, I was personally affected by these films in various ways. Some of the contemporary
directors and creators of modern film, people like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Ron Howard and James Cameron, all grew up
seeing and appreciating the same films I did. They were able to use the vast resources of the film industry to realize their visions
using the foundation of these earlier films as guides as to what to do (or what not to do) with their own works. This speaks to the
impact these films had on their ideas. The films I chose for this book were all major blockbusters for their day, though some were
underappreciated and never won many awards. But they were the most influential for their time. True, the special effects ranged
from primitive though inventive to the best there was at the time, but I chose them not only for their creative vision but for the scope
and depth of their stories.
Some were based on major best selling science fiction novels, others were based on classical works; but all were created with an
appreciation for the human condition, science and the consequences of littering the sandbox. Their underlying themes covered the
gamut from hard science gone wrong or right to questions about man’s inhumanity to man, or closer examination of social problems;
and to speculation about what might happen in future years to alter or destroy human civilization.
Very often the special effects only underscored the starkness of contrast between mankind’s technical prowess as compared to its
ability to excercise compassion for one’s fellow man, or the primitive imperative for survival against impossible odds.
In previous years, broadcast television stations savaged these films mercilessly in order to keep them within a set broadcast time.
It seemed that over time, key or important scenes were left out, rendering the stories as simple and direct as possible while allowing
time for commercials. When I saw the newly restored Metropolis in full letterbox for the first time I realized that the true meaning of
the film was lost to my generation when and if the film was shown at all. In the same month I was able to watch a film which was
only seen at the wee hours of the morning, also uncut, called Things To Come. Again, key scenes which would have rendered it more
meaningful and provocative were cut out over time by broadcast television.
There are many review books which list the films I have chosen to highlight as nothing more than a couple of lines with a less
than full rating; and with only a cursory summary to explain their plots. I have compiled them with notations of my own so that you
can understand why they are so important. I have taken care to present each plot as completely as possible and included features
which struck me as particular to each film for their innovation or evocation; it is up to you to determine how the film affects you on a
personal and visceral level. I have also added notes which point to technological innovations which have come to pass and were
inspired by what was seen.
I hope you will find this book useful to help you appreciate the level of quality these films possess as well as their influence on
films made in the 21st century; and that you will find them to be entertaining, educational and thought provoking. Enjoy.
-- Theresa M. Moore

THE LOST WORLD (1925)
Directed by Harry Hoyt
Produced by Jamie White (executive), Earl Hudson (uncredited)
Written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (novel); Marion Fairfax (screenplay)
Cinematography: Arthur Edeson
Distributed by First National Pictures; Release date February 2, 1925 (USA); June 22, 1925 (USA, wide release); Running time in
minutes: 106 (original); 55 (Kodascope 16 mm); 64 (1991); 100 (1998); 93 (2000)
Budget $700,000

Cast:
A herd of Triceratops from the film
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – Himself (appears in a frontispiece to the film, missing from some prints)
Bessie Love – Paula White
Lewis Stone – Sir John Roxton
Lloyd Hughes – Edward Malone
Wallace Beery – Professor Challenger
Arthur Hoyt – Professor Summerlee
Alma Bennett – Gladys Hungerford
Virginia Browne Faire – Marquette the half-caste girl (uncredited)
Bull Montana – Ape Man/Gomez
Francis Finch-Smiles (billed as "Finch Smiles") – Austin
Jules Cowes (in blackface) – Zambo
Margerette McWade – Mrs. Challenger
George Bunny – Colin McArdle
Charles Wellesley – Major Hibbard (uncredited)
Nelson MacDowell – Attorney (uncredited)
Chris-Pin Martin – Bearer/Cannibal (Scenes Deleted)
Jocko the Monkey – Himself
Mary the Chimpanzee – Herself (uncredited)
Note: All human cast members who are listed in the on-screen credits are billed as "Mr..." or "Miss...."

In 1998, the film was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation
in the United States National Film Registry.

Plot: From a lost expedition to a plateau in Venezuela, Paula White brings the journal of her father, explorer Maple White, to the
eccentric and outspoken Professor Edward Challenger in London. The journal features sketches of dinosaurs, which is enough proof
for Challenger to publicly announce that dinosaurs still walk the earth. Met with ridicule at an academic meeting held at the
Zoological Hall, Challenger reluctantly accepts a newspaper's offer to fund a mission to rescue Maple White. Challenger, Paula
White, sportsman and explorer Sir John Roxton, news reporter Edward Malone, who is a friend of Roxton and wishes to go on the
expedition to impress his fiancée, a sceptical professor Summerlee, an Indian servant Zambo, and Challenger's butler Austin, all pack
for travel and leave England to go to the plateau.
They establish a campsite at the base of the plateau, where the explorers are menaced from the top of an overhead ledge by a
rock fall, started by what appears to be an ape man. When they look up and see their assailant, Prof. Challenger sees a pteranodon
flying overhead and mistakenly calls it a pterodactyl. To him this is solid proof that the statements in Maple White's diary are true.
Leaving Zambo and Austin guarding the camp, the explorers cross a chasm onto the plateau by cutting down a tree and using it as a
bridge. It is knocked over by a brontosaurus, leaving them trapped on the plateau.
The explorers become witnesses to various struggles between the prehistoric beasts of the jungle plateau as they try to make their
way back to the camp. An allosaurus attacks a trachodon and knocks it into a bog. The allosaurus then attacks and is driven off by a
triceratops.
Eventually, the allosaurus makes its way down to the campsite and attacks the exploration party. It is finally driven off by Ed,
who tosses a torch into its mouth. Convinced that the camp is no longer safe, Ed climbs a tree to look for a new location, when he is
attacked by the ape man. Roxton shoots the ape man, but the creature is merely wounded, and escapes before he can finish him off.
Meanwhile, an agathaumas is attacked by a tyrannosaurus, and gores it to death. Suddenly, another tyrannosaurus attacks and
kills the agathaumas, along with an unfortunate pteranodon.
The explorers then make preparations to live on the plateau, possibly on a permanent basis so that they can study the fauna in
more depth. A catapult is constructed to deter the tyrranosaurus and other large animals.
During a search around the common area, Roxton finally finds the remains of Maple White, confirming his death. It is at this
time that Ed confesses his love for Paula; and the two are unofficially wed by Summerlee, who used to be a minister.
Shortly afterwards, as the paleontologists are observing a brontosaurus, an allosaurus attacks it and the brontosaurus falls off the
edge of the plateau, becoming trapped in a mud bank at the base of the plateau. Soon afterwards, a volcano erupts, causing a mass
stampede among the giant beasts of the lost world. The explorers are saved when Paula's pet monkey Jocko climbs up the plateau,
carrying a rope. The explorers use the rope to pull up a rope ladder constructed by Zambo and Austin, and then climb the ladder
down the escarpment.
As Ed makes his descent, he is again attacked by the ape man who pulls at the the rope ladder to dislodge him. The ape man is
finally killed by Roxton. They discover that the brontosaurus had made a soft landing near the river, still alive but mired in the mud,
and Challenger decides to bring it back to London, as he wants to put it on display as proof of his story. After a massive struggle to
trap and cage the monster, they manage to put it on a raft to float down river toward the port, where it is loaded aboard a ship bound
for England.
However, while it is being unloaded from the ship in the London port it escapes and causes havoc until it reaches Tower Bridge,
where its massive weight causes it to collapse. Obeying some instinctual homing signal, it swims down the River Thames toward the
ocean.
Challenger is morose as the creature leaves, his hopes of corraling the brontosaurus for study now dashed.
Ed discovers that the love he left in London has married in his absence, allowing him and Paula to be together. Roxton gallantly
hides his love for Paula as Paula and Ed make arrangements to marry, while two passersby note: "That's Sir John Roxton--
sportsman." END

Analysis and Additional Notes: Of course, I only caught a few minutes of it late at night on what was then the public channel
when I was 6 years old, and later a few minutes more on a late night television horror show hosting films in syndication. I recall how
jerky the images were, sometimes faded and blurry. What captivated me, however, was the amazing stop action animation of the
dinosaurs inhabiting the primitive jungle plateau. It was the first attempt at realistic special effects which would influence film
makers later on. It was also the first movie I saw about intrepid explorers boldly going where no one had gone before; a concept
about the human endeavor which has stayed with me all my life.
It is too bad that at the time I had no idea who the people were in the film. I also did not know that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had
written the book on which it was based. I had originally thought it was someone like Jules Verne or HG Wells. But now that I have
rediscovered the film in all its cinematic glory, I am doubly glad that Doyle was of the same adventurous spirit and daring as many
other writers of that time. For more about his amazing life, read The Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle by Russell Miller, a biography
based on Doyle’s own papers and journals.
Restorations of The Lost World: George Eastman House - Laserdisc preservation with stills showing missing scenes - the
restoration was done using materials from the Czech National Film Archive. Some sequences are still missing and some were
inadvertently left out.
In 2004 an incomplete, original tinted, toned and hand-colored nitrate 35 mm print of the original version of The Lost World was
discovered and purchased by Film Preservation Associates.
Product placement: Recognizable brand name products on screen were uncommon prior to the 1950s. However, an editorial in
Harrison’s Reports criticized the collaboration between Corona Typewriter company and First National Pictures when a Corona
typewriter appeared in this movie. In a bit of self promotion of a film within a film, First National promoted The Sea Hawk, a big hit
produced by First National the previous year. A theatre showing a run of the film is seen by the explorers when they return to
civilization.
Background: Willis O'Brien combined animated dinosaurs with live action footage of human beings, but at first he was able to do
this only by separating the frame into two parts (also known as split screen). As work went on, O'Brien's technique grew better and he
could combine live action and stop-motion footage in the same part of the screen.
In 1922, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle showed O'Brien's test reel to a meeting of the Society of American Magicians, which included
Harry Houdini. The astounded audience watched footage of a Triceratops family, an attack by an Allosaurus and some Stegosaurus
footage. Conan Doyle refused to discuss the film's origins; possibly to conceal the project’s full scope. On the next day, the New York
Times ran a front page article about it, saying "…Conan Doyle’s monsters of the ancient world, or of the new world which he has
discovered in the ether, were extraordinarily lifelike. If fakes, they were masterpieces".
The dinosaurs of this film were based on the artwork of Charles R. Knight. Some of the dinosaur models used in the film came
into the famous collection of fantasy fan Forrest J Ackerman (no period on the J). The models were not specially preserved, and with
time the rubber dried out and fell to pieces, leaving only the metallic armatures.
I should note here that I spent the summer of 1987 working for Mr. Ackerman as a library assistant and part time secretary. I saw
a great many model pieces which sat on shelves unpreserved and falling to pieces. I also got to see some of the dinosaur models
made for the film and lamented their condition, but there was no budget at the time for making copies or restoring what was there.
Besides, replicas do not count as the original artwork.
The Lost World became the first film to be shown to airline passengers in April of 1925 on a London to Paris flight by Imperial
Airways. As film stock of the era was made of nitrate and highly flammable, this was a risky undertaking for a wood and fabric
plane, which was a converted WWI bomber and not capable of surviving a fire.
This was also the first feature length film made in the United States, possibly the world, to feature model animation as the
primary special effect or stop motion animation in general. This is also the first dinosaur oriented film hit, and it led to other
dinosaur movies, from King Kong in 1933 to the Jurassic Park trilogy.
About the book: The Lost World was released in 1912 as a novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about an expedition to a plateau in the
Amazon basin of South America, where prehistoric animals (dinosaurs and other extinct creatures) still survived. It was originally
published as a serial in the popular Strand magazine during the months of April to November of 1912. The character of Prof. George
Edward Challenger was introduced in this book. The novel also describes a war between Native Americans and a vicious tribe of ape
like creatures, presumably to spice up the plot and render an escape for the protagonists.
Additional notes: In 1915, the Russian scientist Vladimir Obruchev produced his own version of the "lost world" theme in the
novel Plutonia, which places the dinosaurs and other Jurassic species in a fictional underground area of Russian Siberia. In 1916,
Edgar Rice Burroughs published The Land That Time Forgot, his version of The Lost World, where lost submariners from a German U-
Boat discover their own lost world of dinosaurs and ape men in Antarctica. Two other books in the series followed. A 1994 release
for the Forgotten Futures role-playing game was based on and includes the full text of the Professor Challenger novels and stories.
Author Greg Bear set his 1998 novel Dinosaur Summer in Conan Doyle's The Lost World.
Conan Doyle's title was reused by Michael Crichton in his 1995 novel The Lost World, a sequel to Jurassic Park. (Its film adaptation,
The Lost World: Jurassic Park, followed suit.) At least two similarly named TV shows, Land of the Lost and Lost, nod to this source
material. At least two of the characters in Michael Crichton's novel of The Lost World mention a palaeontologist called John Roxton.
However, Crichton's Roxton, who is never seen in the film, is something of an idiot, wrongly identifying one dinosaur and
publishing a report stating that the braincase of Tyrannosaurus rex is the same as that of a frog and thus possesses a visual system
attuned strictly to movement. As is rightly observed, T. rex’s braincase is about the size of a small cat and it was clearly more
dexterous than its limited forelimbs would indicate, making it one of the cleverest and most cunning predators in the Cretaceous Era.
One of the Neopets plots, "Journey to The Lost Isle" is based on this book, with Roxton A. Colchester III, Hugo & Lillian
Fairweather, and Werther as the adventurers and with Captain Rourke and Scrap as the guides.
It should be noted that the idea of prehistoric animals surviving into the present day was not new, but had already been
introduced by Jules Verne in Journey to the Center of the Earth. In that book, published in 1864, the creatures live under the earth in and
around a subterranean sea, which is rumored to run directly through the planet. This is of course geologically impossible. But the
idea was better depicted in the film of the same title for its fantasy impact. The reason I have not included Journey in my list of
impactful films is that it is largely fantasy and did not add very much to the narrative on film in general.
The Lost World was adapted in Czech comics by Vlastislav Toman/Jirí Veškrna (1970, 24 pages), followed by a sequel The Second
Expedition (Vlastislav Toman/František Koblík, 26 pages) (reprinted together in Velká kniha Komiksu, ISBN 80-7257-658-5).
The 2002 animated adventure Dinosaur Island is an attempt to blend the original story with the popular reality series format, and
was written by John Loy, writer of similar productions such as The Land Before Time.
Other scientific notes: The characters of Ed Malone and Lord John Roxton were modeled, respectively, on the journalist E. D.
Morel and the diplomat Roger Casement, leaders of the Congo Free State reform campaign (later the Congo Reform Association),
which Conan Doyle actively supported. The setting for The Lost World is believed to have been inspired by reports of Conan Doyle's
good friend Percy Harrison Fawcett and his expedition to the Huanchaca Plateau in Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, Bolivia.
Fawcett organized several expeditions to delimit the border between Bolivia and Brazil; an area of potential conflict between both
countries. Conan Doyle took part in Fawcett’s lecture at the Royal Geographic Society on February 13, 1911, and was impressed by
the tale about the remote province of Caupolican (present day Huanchaca Plateau) in Bolivia, decribed by Fawcett as a dangerous
area with impenetrable forests, where Fawcett himself saw "monstrous tracks of unknown origin".
Fawcett wrote in his posthumously published memoirs: "monsters from the dawn of man's existence might still roam these heights
unchallenged, imprisoned and protected by unscalable cliffs. So thought Conan Doyle when later in London I spoke of these hills and showed
photographs of them. He mentioned an idea for a novel on Central South America and asked for information, which I told him I should be glad to
supply. The fruit of it was his Lost world in 1912, appearing as a serial in the Strand Magazine [sic], and subsequently in the form of a book that
achieved widespread popularity."
The allosaurus that attacks the camp is described as being as large as a horse, whereas in real life any allosaurus species was
much bigger. However, the book allowed for the possibility that the one which attacks the camp was a megalosaurus or a juvenile
allosaurus, which would be a much more ideal size. Both Summerlee and Challenger are undecided if the attacking beast was a
megalosaurus or allosaurus but they imply it is a megalosaur as "…any one of the larger carnivorous dinosaurs would meet the case."
Inaccurate size measurements are also given to the iguanodon and phorusrhacos described in the book; probably to give the smaller
humans a better chance to fight back. Following the stereotypes for the time in which the book was written, the dinosaurs are
described often as extremely stupid. This idea is generally omitted in the modern film versions. For example, at some point an
iguanodon pulls down the tree in which it is feeding and injures itself in the process. Given what we know about survival
adaptations among species in the current century, it may have happened for a baby or juvenile, but not for an adult.
METROPOLIS (1926)
Director: Fritz Lang
Screenplay: Fritz Lang & Thea von Harbou
Producer: Erich Pommer
Original Music Score: Gottfried Huppertz
Cinematography: Karl Freund & Günther Rittau

Cast:
Gustav Fröhlich as Freder Fredersen
Brigitte Helm as Maria / The Robot
Rudolf Klein-Rogge as Rotwang
Theodor Loos as Josephat
Heinrich George as Grot (Foreman
Fritz Rasp as Slim
Heinrich Gotho as Master of Ceremonies
Erwin Biswanger as Georgi, 11811
Hans Leo Reich as Mafinus
Olaf Storm as Jan
Plot: Metropolis is revealed to be a towering city of the future where society is divided into two classes: one of planners and
management, who live high above the Earth in skyscrapers; and one of workers, who live and toil in the lower levels. The workers
appear to be slaves to the whistle of Metropolis’s ten-hour clock, where the men hand adjust an enormous control mechanism which
regulates the master machines of industry.
Like the other children born into the privileged upper class, Freder Fredersen, the only son of Metropolis’ mayor Joh Fredersen,
lives a life of luxury. One day, as he and his friends play games of the idle rich in the lush, private Eternal Gardens, they are
interrupted by a beautiful girl, accompanied by a group of workers’ children. The group is approached by the guard, who tells them
they cannot visit there. The group is quickly ejected, but Freder is transfixed by the girl — and decides to follow her down to the
machine rooms below.
When he arrives, a worker collapses at his station, leading to a chain of events as the enormous machine violently explodes and
kills dozens of workers. Caught in the smoke and chaos, Freder has a vision of the giant machine as Moloch, the god of fire, gobbling
up chained slaves offered in sacrifice. Horrified by what he has seen, Freder returns to a massive skyscraper owned by his father.
(Allusions to the idea of Nimrod and his aspiration to reach heaven using the Tower of Babel run rampant through this part of the
story.)
Freder confronts his father and describes the deplorable conditions and horrific accident in the machine room, but Fredersen is
more focused on hearing about the accident from his assistant Josephat and not from Freder himself; with a cold rationality that
shocks Freder. Freder leaves his office reeling with doubt and a newfound sense of inadequacy in the foreground of the bigger
picture.
Grot, foreman of the Heart Machine (which supplies the energy needs of Metrpolis) informs Fredersen of papers resembling
maps or plans that have been discovered in the dead workers’ pockets. Sabotage is implied, and that there was a plan in the works
long before the event. Furious, Fredersen fires Josephat and tells his brooding henchman, Der Schmale, to start following his son to
make sure he is not going to disrupt the status quo. Outside the office, Freder sees Josephat with a gun in his hand and keeps him
from committing suicide. They commiserate together about the situation, finally agreeing to meet later at Josephat’s dwelling.
Freder, now awash in remorse for leading an idle lifestyle, returns to the factory and takes over for Worker No. 11811 (Georgy),
who works a machine that directs electrical power to the enormous series of elevators in the great tower, and has collapsed at his
station from exhaustion. They exchange clothes while Freder tells Georgy to go to Josephat’s apartment and to wait for him there.
When he reaches Freder’s car, however, Georgy finds a large amount of money in the pockets of Freder’s pants and decides instead
to go to Yoshiwara, the city’s red-light district, there to drown his sorrows in drink and good times. We don’t know why this is
Georgy’s decision. There is no rational explanation to this sudden loss of focus except to advance the script’s direction.
Der Schmale follows and records Georgy’s movements, mistaking him for Freder because of the clothes; and reports his
observations to Fredersen. Fredersen decides to consult with the scientist Rotwang, an old collaborator of his rise to power, who lives
in a house contained in the lower levels of the city.
At Rotwang’s house Fredersen discovers a monument dedicated to Hel, his late wife. Though Rotwang loved Hel, she
abandoned him for the wealthy, powerful Fredersen, and died giving birth to their son Freder. Rotwang has never been able to get
over the loss, and is furious when he sees that Fredersen has discovered the hidden shrine. After railing against his past rival,
Rotwang presents his latest invention: a machine woman who is to replace his lost Hel. He tells Fredersen that he is tweaking the
design, and that soon the machine woman will be indistinguishable from his dead beloved. Fredersen is outraged, yet he is also
intrigued by the idea.
Meanwhile, Freder works at Georgy’s machine until he becomes delirious with exhaustion, and has visions of being crucified to
the factory clock. He is quickly replaced by another worker before the clock loses its rhythm.
When Fredersen asks Rotwang to help him decipher the papers, Rotwang identifies them as maps to the ancient catacombs that
lie deep under the lower levels of the city. Back in the factory, the shifts change, and a few workers take Freder down into the
catacombs for their secret meeting. Fredersen and Rotwang follow their map to the catacombs at the same time.
There, the beautiful missionary Maria appears and begins preaching to the workers about the Tower of Babel, destroyed by the
slaves who built it because no common language could be found between them and their rulers. She predicts the arrival of a
mediator who will ease the unspeakable hardships that the workers of Metropolis endure. Fredersen is there in disguise with
Rotwang. As he listens to Maria’s sermon, Fredersen realizes that Maria could pose a threat to his authority over the workers.
Rotwang notices Freder in the crowd, but does not mention this to Fredersen. Freder is too overcome with his passion for Maria
and for her cause to notice his father. As the crowd adjourns, Maria identifies Freder as the awaited mediator she spoke of, and she
and Freder exchange kind words to each other. Then Freder and Maria kiss, and agree to meet the next day at the cathedral in the
Upper City.
Fredersen instructs Rotwang to give his machine woman the appearance of Maria, thus enabling him to mislead the workers and
destroy their bid for independence. Rotwang agrees, but has ulterior motives and intends to use the android to ruin Fredersen’s life
instead.
When the workers leave the chapel, Rotwang pursues Maria through the catacombs, terrorizing her with the beam of his
flashlight before abducting her. A weak method of intimidation, to be sure, but Maria is young and not a prime example of the
independent woman of today. Maria is overcome by fear and faints. He scoops her up and carries her off into the shadows.
The next day, Freder enters a cathedral and listens to the sermon of a monk who declares that the apocalypse is drawing near
and will announce itself in the form of a sinful woman. (I’m sure that the monk must have heard Maria’s sermon and judged it sinful,
but that is in the background of the story.) Freder is both shocked and angered at the allusion to his beautious Maria as the whore of
Babylon. As Freder wanders through the cathedral, he finds a group of figures representing Death and the Seven Deadly Sins and
reflects on his past life, which has been free of trouble up to now. We don’t know what he is thinking, but his reaction to the
sculptures demonstrates his sense of guilt for taking his life of luxury for granted. But Maria never arrives at the appointed time. He
searches briefly for her but soon gives up.
Back at work in his laboratory, Rotwang instructs his new female android “Maria” to destroy Fredersen’s city and murder his
son. A tall order for an untested prototype. “Maria” neither likes nor dislikes the idea, but proceeds with machine precision to obey
his commands.
Meanwhile, a bleary eyed Georgy emerges from Yoshiwara after a long night of pleasure. As he gets into Freder’s car, he is
apprehended by Der Schmale and forced to reveal details of the planned meeting at Josephat’s house. Freder goes to Josephat’s place
so that Georgy can take him to the lower levels of the city for the meeting. He is surprised to learn from Josephat that Georgy never
showed up. Freder leaves to continue his search for Maria, but moments later Der Schmale arrives and discovers Georgy’s cap,
further evidence of the link between Freder, Josephat and Georgy. He tries to get Josephat to betray Freder, first through bribery,
then through threats and intimidation, and finally by force. The two men struggle, but Der Schmale is too strong for Josephat. After
defeating him, Der Schmale tells Josephat that he will return for him in three hours.
Freder walks through the streets and soon hears Maria’s cries as she is struggling with Rotwang, who is taking a peculiar delight
in her torture. Freder follows the sounds to the door of Rotwang’s house, where a further series of doors open for him, trapping him
inside. When Freder demands to know where Maria is, Rotwang tells him that she is with Joh Fredersen. Freder is hard pressed to
know what business Maria has with his father, but he leaves Rotwang’s house in a state of confusion.
In a letter to Fredersen, Rotwang invites him to a demonstration of “Maria” and her functions: a dance performance before the
male elite of Metropolis that will prove that no one will be able to tell that she is a machine. Later, Fredersen ogles at “Maria” in her
glory and instructs her on what to do to sabotage the workers’ aims. Freder is shocked and dismayed yet again, thinking that his
Maria has betrayed him with his father, and he collapses from the shock. As Freder languishes in bed, “Maria” entertains the male
elite with an erotic dance which has them spellbound; Jan and Marinus, sons of upper class citizens, are entranced; and not only
willing but eager to commit “all seven deadly sins” for her sake.
Der Schmale keeps watch over Freder who is now in complete delirium. Freder sees him transformed into the monk who
preached about the apocalypse in the cathedral. When he awakes, he finds the invitation to “Maria”‘s unveiling on his nightstand,
where a doctor has carelessly left it. (Or not. This is also probably another deus ex machina.) As his nurse tends to him, Freder has
another vision of the cathedral statues of Death and the Seven Deadly Sins coming toward him, with Death’s scythe sweeping
through the sickroom. He is wracked with terror and a looming sense of doom in his dreams, but can tell no one what he is seeing.
Josephat escapes his confinement and goes to meet with Freder. Der Schmale reports to Fredersen about the increasing unrest in
the lower levels, warning that “the only thing keeping the workers in check is their expectation of getting the mediator promised to
them.”
Jan is killed in a duel with Marinus over “Maria”, and the Eternal Gardens are deserted as the scions of Metropolis gather in
Yoshiwara to vie for the alluring android’s favors, and even more of them die in confrontations with each other for her attentions.
Freder escapes from his bed, eludes Der Schmale, and goes down to meet Josephat. Josephat then tells Freder that “this woman, at
whose feet all sins are heaped, is also named Maria,” and that it is the same Maria who gives sermons to the workers in the
catacombs. At first Freder grows angry at his intimation, then suddenly it dawns on him what is going on. There are two Marias.
The shift whistle sounds, signaling the workers to go down the catacombs. Freder tells Josephat that it is time for the mediator to
appear at last. He and Josephat descend into Lower Metropolis together.
Fredersen instructs Der Schmale that the workers should not be stopped, no matter what they decide to do. He sets off to meet
Rotwang, who is still holding the real Maria prisoner. Rotwang explains to Maria that the android Maria only seems to follow
Fredersen’s orders, when in fact she obeys Rotwang’s will alone. Bewildered, Maria is helpless to stop him from carrying out his plan
against Fredersen.
At the secret meeting in the catacombs, the android “Maria” urges the workers to rebel and destroy the machines. When Freder
and Josephat arrive, Freder cries out that this agitator cannot be the real Maria. A worker under the android’s spell identifies Freder
as Joh Fredersen’s son, and the mob attacks both Freder and Josephat. Georgy is stabbed as he shields Freder with his own body. The
workers, led by the android Maria, rush off to destroy the machines en masse, leaving Georgy to die in Freder and Josephat’s arms.
Freder shouts after the workers that there is danger if they destroy the machines but his entreaties fall on deaf ears.
Meanwhile, Fredersen has now heard what Rotwang has revealed to the real Maria, and he attacks Rotwang. While the two fight
to the death, Maria escapes into the city alone.
Wave after wave of enraged workers mass at the gates and elevators leading to the machine rooms, and the real Maria follows
them. The android Maria and the rioters attack the Great Machine, convincing the workers there to join them; but when they attempt
to move on to the Heart Machine, Grot closes the giant gates to the factory to shut them out.
Fredersen returns to his office and receives a desperate report from Grot over a videophone about the rioting. He orders Grot to
open the gate and to let things take their course. Grot reluctantly obeys, but holds the surge of workers and their wives at bay armed
only with a wrench. He is violently thrown aside and nearly trampled in the melee’. As the real Maria draws close, the android Maria
damages the Heart Machine and escapes to the upper levels of Metropolis. We then see the true purpose of the machines the workers
have worked so hard to operate. The lower levels of the city have been protected from flooding by the river, which has been held in
check by these machines. As the deeper levels begin to flood, Maria sees that most of the children of the workers have been
abandoned by their mothers, who stand with their husbands during the riot. Maria sounds the alarm and gathers the workers’
children together to escape, but their exit is blocked by an avalanche of wreckage from above. As the water rushes in from all sides
and quickly rises around them they become trapped and increasingly desperate.
We see a long scene of screaming, panicking children trying to climb as high as they can to escape the water, cutting back and
forth to their mothers, who are assisting their husbands and dismantling the machines which have kept them safe for so long,
unaware of the consequences. Josephat and Freder finally reach Maria and the children to help them escape, but their attempts to
reach safety through the stairwell of a towering airshaft is blocked by a locked steel grille. As countless children continue to climb
into the stairwell, Freder and Josephat are able to break through the grille and guide the children to safety as the level they were on is
engulfed by the surging water.
Fredersen learns where Freder is and fears for his safety, realizing that his bid for power over the workers has overreached him.
Grot crawls from the Heart Machine wreckage and stops the workers’ victory dance, telling them that their children must have all
drowned in the flooding. The workers then blame Maria for inciting them to riot, declaring her a witch. Meanwhile, in the Yoshiwara
district, the android Maria urges the dancing crowd out onto the street, crying, “let’s watch the world go to hell!” The men leave the
district and go down into the lower levels, following the machine woman like automatons out of control.
Rotwang has survived Fredersen’s attack, regains consciousness and drags himself to Hel’s monument shrine. With the words,
“now I am going to take you home, my Hel!,” he sets out to recapture his machine woman and claim her for himself.
Freder, Josephat and Maria find refuge for the children at the Club of the Sons, but an exhausted Maria is separated from the
group when she pauses to rest. At the same time, Grot leads the riotous workers through the streets, and when they come upon
Maria outside the club, Grot calls her a witch and declares that she must be burned at the stake. Terrified, she runs from the
menacing workers into the city streets, unaware that the Yoshiwara revelers are coming toward her from the other way.
As the angry mob of workers and revelers meet, Grot seizes the android Maria, mistaking her for the real one. The workers tie
the machine woman to a stake in front of the cathedral and prepare to burn her. Freder’s frantic search for the real Maria brings him
to the cathedral, where he sees the android Maria, who is tied to a stake and about to be burned.
Meanwhile, the real Maria is chased into the cathedral by Rotwang, who mistakes her for his android woman and wants to give
her the likeness of his lost Hel. She flees into the bell tower, where she hangs desperately from the cathedral bell’s massive rope. As
the bell rings, the laughing android Maria is unmasked by the rising flames of the bonfire. The crowd is at once terrified and
confused. Josephat brings Fredersen to the cathedral square, where he reassures the assembled workers that their children were
rescued and are safe.
When Freder and the workers realize that they have been tricked, they look up and see Rotwang chasing Maria across the
cathedral roof. Freder races into the cathedral to rescue Maria. Rotwang carries Maria farther up the steep roof to escape, but Freder
frees her in a fierce fight with Rotwang, who falls to his death.
Later, the workers gather before the cathedral’s portal. Maria and Freder declare an alliance between the rulers and the ruled.
Freder places Fredersen’s hand in Grot’s and declares that “the mediator between brain and hands must be the heart.” END