Synopsis

Presented as an intentionally over-the-top school play, the video follows Justin Pierre through a series of absurd vignettes that mirror the song's nervous anticipation of adulthood. He appears as a drunken Old West character, an office worker trapped in a repetitive day, and a sailor swept into the ocean. After a staged funeral, Pierre unexpectedly rises from his coffin and joins Motion City Soundtrack for a celebratory performance. The deliberately cheap scenery and rapid changes give the video a playful, theatrical style while balancing the song's anxious lyrics with an upbeat ending.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video is a loose take on Wes Anderson's 1998 film "Rushmore," especially in its use of school-play staging and deliberately artificial sets.

• The production moves through several miniature theatrical scenarios, including the Old West, an office, a stormy ocean voyage, a funeral, and the band's final concert.

• Guitarist Joshua Cain's family helped with the production and also appear in the video.

• The scenery was designed to look knowingly cheap and homemade, like a junior-high production. That limitation became one of the video's central visual jokes.

• The video was made for the band's 2003 debut album, "I Am the Movie," and helped introduce Motion City Soundtrack during the group's early breakthrough period.

• "The Future Freaks Me Out" was the album's first single and received enthusiastic MTV2 support in the United States.

• The song nearly did not make it onto "I Am the Movie," making its later status as one of the band's defining early songs particularly notable.

• The video was included on the DVD accompanying "Punk-O-Rama Vol. 9," giving it additional exposure within the Epitaph punk audience.