Synopsis

Tom Petty and Mike Campbell cross a barren desert in a futuristic vehicle and discover a mysterious black tent. Inside, they find a cassette player, old televisions, recording equipment and other remnants of a vanished civilization. Once the cassette begins playing "You Got Lucky," the rest of the Heartbreakers arrive and explore the abandoned shelter. Their discoveries include past music videos, a working slot machine and a guitar that Campbell uses for the song's solo. After a brief celebration, the band leaves the ruins behind.

Factoids & Trivia

• Petty and the Heartbreakers created the video's treatment themselves, drawing heavily on the post-apocalyptic look of *Mad Max 2*.

• Petty later described "You Got Lucky" as a real groundbreaker and identified it as one of his earliest narrative music videos.

• The opening instrumental passage runs for roughly a minute before the song begins, making the clip function more like a short science-fiction film than a conventional performance video.

• The futuristic vehicle used by Petty and Campbell originally appeared in the television series *Logan's Run*.

• The desert scenes were filmed around Vasquez Rocks, a distinctive California location often used for science-fiction and Western productions.

• The televisions inside the tent show earlier Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers videos, including "Here Comes My Girl" and "A Woman in Love (It's Not Me)."

• Petty said Michael Jackson called to praise the video. He also credited its success with showing the band how strongly MTV could expand its audience.

• The song nearly failed to make the *Long After Dark* album, despite eventually becoming a Top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.