Synopsis

Cy Curnin plays a painter isolated inside a stark apartment, where the creative process becomes a doorway into memory and self-reflection. He works on the artwork associated with The Fixx's Reach the Beach album, recalls images from childhood, and covers his bare torso with broad strokes of red and white paint. The band perform amid the video's surreal, theatrical imagery, which shifts between claustrophobic interiors, dreamlike tableaux, and symbolic close-ups. The result is an atmospheric portrait of artistic release and the search for calm by returning to zero.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video's opening pays homage to Orson Welles' 1941 film Citizen Kane, particularly in its dramatic visual language and camera movement.

• Cy Curnin's painter character is shown creating the artwork connected with Reach the Beach, linking the promotional film directly to the album's visual identity.

• The production was unusually lavish for The Fixx at the time. Reports described a large MCA budget that included extensive styling and on-set perks. The expense reportedly made the label more cautious about funding the band's later videos.

• The song's central idea came from Curnin's interest in Buddhist concepts of emptiness and mental release. The video's stripped-down apartment, solitary artist, and ritual-like painting scenes reflect that inward-looking theme without presenting a literal narrative.

• "Saved by Zero" became one of The Fixx's most recognizable concert songs. Its later exposure through the television series Breaking Bad and a heavily repeated Toyota advertising campaign introduced the track, and consequently its video, to audiences beyond the band's original 1980s following.