Synopsis

Björk drives a gigantic tanker through a bleak, surreal city, determined to reach someone who refuses to wake up and take responsibility. After stopping at a dentist, she discovers that the gorilla-like practitioner has stolen a diamond from her mouth. She recovers the enlarged gem and uses it to power her vehicle to an art museum, where her loved one is displayed as an exhibit. A bomb blast destroys the building and releases him, turning the song's confrontational message into a strange act of tough love.

Factoids & Trivia

• "Army of Me" was released in 1995 as the lead single from Björk's album *Post*. The song was co-written by Björk and Graham Massey.

• Although the track also appeared on the *Tank Girl* soundtrack, Björk and her label chose not to fill the music video with footage from the film. The clip instead builds its own self-contained fantasy world.

• The visual style uses deliberately artificial-looking environments, including cardboard- and papier-mache-like sets, miniature effects, and exaggerated props. This gives the video a handmade, dream-logic quality rather than the polished look of a conventional action clip.

• The video's closing explosion became controversial in 1995. MTV restricted the clip to late-night programming because its imagery of a bomb detonating at a public building was considered especially unsettling in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing.

• Björk described the diamond as something valuable inside her that she did not initially know she possessed. Its growth after she reclaims it turns the surreal gag into a metaphor for self-defense and recognizing one's own strength.