Lang’s extravagant The Spiders shares affinities with other serials of its day, notably those made by Louis Feuillade in France and by Louis J. Gasnier and Donald MacKenzie in the US. Lang also drew inspiration from sensational newspaper items and contemporary pulp fiction. The story begins in a high-society club in San Francisco where Kay Hoog, an American sportsman, tells of a message he found in a barnacle-encrusted bottle. In short order, Lang’s artful montage sequences lead us through Hoog’s globetrotting encounters with femme fatale Lio Shia, leader of the worldwide criminal organization called The Spiders.