Synopsis

Set in a dystopian future ruled by militarized Cyber-cops, the video follows a bystander who films the brutal beating of a civilian. When the authorities attack him and destroy his camera, the equipment falls onto his unconscious body and fuses with him. He awakens transformed into a cybernetic freedom fighter, joining the uprising against the regime. The imagery turns the camcorder into a symbol of witness, communication, and technology being redirected from state control toward rebellion.

Factoids & Trivia

• Billy Idol rewrote the song's lyrics after watching coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The video's scenario carries that inspiration into a science-fiction setting, with the camera evoking the videotaped Rodney King beating.

• Stan Winston supervised the video's creature and makeup effects. His work on the Terminator films makes the cyborg imagery especially fitting, although the video has its own more overtly punk and political identity.

• The transformation scenes used prosthetics and stop-motion-style performance. Idol had to move through the metamorphosis in carefully controlled stages to create the illusion of machinery taking over his body.

• The production embraced the technology celebrated by the Cyberpunk album. Hi-8 video cameras, computer-generated effects, and the Video Toaster system were used as part of the video's rough, electronic visual language.

• Separate streams of footage were reportedly assembled for different mixes of the song, reflecting the album's interest in remix culture and user-controlled technology.

• The video received two nominations at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards: Best Special Effects in a Video and Best Editing in a Video. It lost both awards to Peter Gabriel's "Steam."

• A VHS release paired the video with a making-of documentary, a remix, and the video for Idol's earlier single "Heroin."