Metropolis is a silent science fiction film created by the famed Austrian-German director Fritz Lang. It was produced in Germany in the Babelsberg Studios and released in 1927. In addition, it was the most expensive silent film of the time, costing approximately 7 million Reichsmark (equivalent to around $200 million in 2005) to make.
The screenplay was written in 1924 by Lang and his wife, Thea von Harbou, and novelized by von Harbou in 1926. It is set in a futuristic urban dystopia, and, like its contemporary The Battleship Potemkin, addresses the then-current political themes of capitalism vs. communism.