Metropolis

Metropolis (1927) is Fritz Lang's silent science-fiction epic, and you can watch it online on iFILM. A towering future city is split in two: pleasure gardens and skyscrapers above, and below them the workers who keep the machines running.

Freder, son of the city's ruler Joh Fredersen, has never questioned his comfortable life. Then he descends into the lower levels. He watches men collapse at scalding engines and meets Maria, who preaches patience and promises the workers a mediator. His father strikes back through the inventor Rotwang, who builds a mechanical double of Maria to turn the crowd against itself. Brigitte Helm plays both women — the gentle prophet and her metallic twin.

Lang spent close to a year on the sets, marshaled thousands of extras, and shaped a visual grammar that later fed Blade Runner and Star Wars. For decades the film survived only in butchered prints, until lost footage surfaced in Argentina and the picture was rebuilt almost in full. Stream Metropolis (1927) online on iFILM.