Beyond the Skyline: Exploring the Timeless Vision of “Metropolis”

Plot Summary:  

Directed by Rintaro,  Metoroporisu is a 2001 animated film that revolves around the complex relationship between robots and humans in a futuristic city. The movie starts with Duke Red announcing the opening of The Ziggurat which is in the form of a towering skyscraper. The opening scenes show the massive creation and the swarm of citizens celebrating its introduction. In the midst of the crowd is a Japanese private detective, Shunsaku Ban, and his nephew, Kenichi Shikishima. The main purpose of their visit is to track down the evil Dr. Laughton, who is responsible for nefarious acts such as organ trafficking and vile human experiments. During the celebration, a rogue robot is hunted down mercilessly, portraying the role of the robots in this society. They are only for specific purposes, and once they go outside of their “boundaries,” they are destroyed and disposed of without a second thought.

In order to track down Dr. Laughton, Shunsaku Ban hires a robot who serves as his partner during the investigation. The private detective is certain that Dr. Laughton is hiding out somewhere underground in Zone 1. While they are investigating, Duke Red is revealed to be colluding with Dr. Laughton in order to create a humanoid robot that identically looks like his deceased daughter, Tima. Duke Red’s adopted son, Rock, secretly follows his father and discovers his hidden secret and decides that “Tima” is in the way of Duke Red’s happiness. Rock, in order to fulfill his goal, attempts to kill both Tima and Dr. Laughton by shooting them relentlessly with his gun and burning the facility down.  

Due to how large the fire becomes, Shunsaku Ban and his nephew arrive at the scene and try to help whoever is inside. Detective Ban tries to save Dr. Laughton; however, it is too late. The only thing that he can safely recover is the red notebook, containing the secrets of Tima’s creation. His nephew, Kenichi Shikishima, goes around the back way and discovers Tima. By accident, both of them fall into the lower Zones and end up in Zone 3, where they end up being helped by a cleaning robot, Albert II. Rock is trying to find where Tima went, and Shunsaku Ban is suspicious of him. Above ground, Duke Red tests The Ziggurat’s power and discovers that it successfully makes all of the robots malfunction. The Marduks, a political party run and funded by Duke Red, easily take out the robots. The current president is revealed to be plotting with his subordinates a plan to overthrow Duke Red’s power.  

Rock eventually discovers Tima and Kenichi and hunt them down fervently. They eventually make it into a dump pile and are saved by the leader of the underground rebellion. Tima and Kenichi spend some time with the rebel group. It is exposed that the subordinate of the president is colluding with the rebel group and promises that they will have their time in the sunlight if they go through with the rebellion. On the chosen day, the rebel group goes through with their attacks but are thwarted by the Marduks. The president is betrayed his own subordinate and dies, leaving the rebel group without any protection. The rebel group is wiped out, and the leader dies. Rock shoots both Detective Ban and beats up Kenichi. Before things can further escalate (as Tima has a gun pointed at Rock), Duke Red appears and disowns Rock. After this, he takes Tima with him into The Ziggurat and brings Kenichi into a different area.  

Tima’s maid delivers a message to her from “Kenichi.” Tima goes with the maid to where they are supposed to meet to discover Rock bribed the maid and tricked her. She is disabled by Rock and is about to be torn apart with a laser, when Detective Ban shows up, knocks Rock out, and saves her. He escapes with her to a train motel and fixes her. When they leave, however, they are surrounded by the Marduks and taken back into The Ziggurat. 

Duke Red exposes his true plans for Tima: She is an advanced humanoid robot that was meant to be the true leader of Metropolis. His true intentions for her, however, are to be a superhuman weapon that controls all of Metropolis and then the world. Tima has a long discussion with Duke Red over whether or not she is truly human or a robot. Tima’s “maid” appears and then reveals themselves as Rock. He pulls out a gun and tries to kill Tima.

Tima is shot as well as Rock in a double crossfire. She realizes that she is indeed not a human being as can be shown from the mechanical chest she has. Her mechanical heart activates, and she starts to fulfill her true purpose. She sits down onto the “throne” and fuses with the system. Duke Red was shocked when she fused directly with the computer system and targeted the human race. She began a timer that would eventually completely destroy humanity. Kenichi spends the remainder of the movie trying to get to her to pull her out of the machine. Rock ends his life and the life of his father by blowing up the facility.  

In the final sequence of events, Tima tries to kill Kenichi. By a stroke of luck, they are separated by a fall, and Kenichi is safe. He is unable to save Tima, as she drops hundreds of feet to her eventual “death.” After The Ziggurat has been destroyed in its entirety, Kenichi finds the bits and scraps that is left of Tima. One of the cleaning machines, Albert II, nicknamed Fifi by Kenichi, gives to him Tima’s mechanical heart that is still intact. With this unexpected gift, Kenichi cries and tells his uncle that he is going to stay in Metropolis, alluding to the fact that he might try and find a way to rebuild Tima.  

Personal Thoughts:

While the art style of Metropolis is very childlike, the actual story is surprisingly complicated and deep. Rebellion, identity, greed, recognition, and survival are common themes throughout the film and serve to display the subtle cracks in the perfect Metropolis. Each character displays a different view of robots and presents this dilemma throughout their relationship with Tima and the other working robots. For example, Kenichi is very sympathetic toward Tima and the cleaning robot, Albert II, who he nicknames, Fifi. Whereas, Rock, as the main antagonist, does not see robots as anything more than scraps of metals that are meant to be fully subservient to humans. Duke Red holds a similar view: Although he makes a robot that looks like his deceased daughter, he still treats her like a tool. Kenichi’s uncle is closer to Kenichi, as he is devastated by the death of his robot partner after the rebellion and saves Tima from being dissected by Rock.  

The most important character, however, is Tima herself. Tima represents what would happen if robots became so “humanlike” that it is hard to differentiate them from both a soulless robot and a real human. This internalized dilemma builds all the way until the end. Tima learns to read and write at an astonishing rate. She forms genuine connections with Kenichi and believers herself to be no different than Kenichi since she loves and cries like him. During the climax, she loses her identity to the computer system, but in the end, she regains it. At her core, she is as human as anyone else with thoughts and emotions. What is even more impressive that she is seen before her fall to her death connecting with Kenichi. This fall scene mimics a lot of dramatic film sequences from action and tragedy films.  

Metropolis, as a whole, reveals the truths behind the creation of a sentient humanoid robot capable of showing genuine emotions. Each of the characters’ individual reactions can be traced to how people feel about these forms of robots today. Whether they should be treated with respect, suspicion, or contempt is a prevalent discussion that would be birthed from watching this film. In my opinion, this specific film is the cumulation of the hopes and fears of a society which does not have a clearly-defined line of what constitutes a machine versus a “true” human being.