The Fritz Lang's cult film Metropolis seen in the context of ideas presented by Frederick Winslow Taylor, the father of scientific management, reveals a powerful message that the modern cult of efficiency, according to which things can be done "in one best way", dehumanizes labour and turns humans into machines thus preventing their spiritual accomplishment. The paper examines the presence of Taylor's ideas in Germany during the 1920s, as well as their global impact on the art and culture trends, underlying their dystopic potential. Through intersemiotic references to other literary and cinematographic works, primarily Yevgeny Zamyatin's novel We and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, this interdisciplinary study confirms conclusions of certain authors about the crucial importance of Taylor's ideas in understanding the world we live in.
