Synopsis
The video combines performance footage with a tense, cinematic scenario of separation and impending social collapse. Film clips from Choke Canyon are intercut with newly shot material, while Billy Drago appears in a brief cameo. Rather than adapting the movie, the promo follows the song's separate story: a man far from Earth tries to warn his wife and children about the anarchy and breakdown of society he knows is coming. The imagery gives the song's futuristic, ominous mood a visual action-film setting.
Factoids & Trivia
- The video includes footage from the 1986 film Choke Canyon, which was released in some territories as On Dangerous Ground. The movie connection explains the extended title used for the single and video.
- The video is not a direct adaptation of Choke Canyon. Its main storyline is based on the song's lyrics, with the movie footage serving as a cinematic tie-in.
- Billy Drago makes a cameo appearance in the video.
- "Silent Running" was originally released without the subtitle. "On Dangerous Ground" was added when the song was selected for the film.
- Mike Rutherford named the song after the 1972 science-fiction film Silent Running. He said the title suited the track's space-oriented atmosphere.
- The song's concept concerns a man who has traveled light-years into the future and attempts to warn his family on Earth about an approaching collapse of civilization.