Synopsis

Bastille perform "Laura Palmer" in an open desert landscape, where the straightforward performance is disrupted by a group of masked youths on quad bikes. They abduct frontman Dan Smith and record the incident on a handheld camera, creating a deliberately unstable, found-footage feel. Smith is released shortly afterward, but the strange encounter continues when the group offers him one of their rubber masks. He puts it on briefly before removing it, leaving the video on an unsettling, unresolved note.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was released online in April 2013, ahead of the song's UK single release.

• Its kidnapping sequence deliberately breaks the performance format and the fourth wall: the group appears to invade the production itself rather than simply enter the video's fictional world.

• The handheld footage includes a sudden interruption in the music, including a cut to a howling dog. The awkward edit imitates the look and feel of a damaged or poorly assembled VHS recording.

• Dan Smith described the song as a love letter to David Lynch's "Twin Peaks" and its doomed central character. Rather than recreate the television series directly, the video uses mystery, disorientation, masks and unexplained behavior to echo its atmosphere.

• Smith later recalled that the masked youths became one of the video's defining images. The masks also fed into Bastille's subsequent artwork, merchandise and visual identity.

• The shoot was filmed in a desert setting, contrasting the song's dark subject matter with bright, exposed surroundings.