Synopsis

Set in a seemingly ordinary Los Angeles suburb, the video follows residents as they go about their daily routines while quietly breaking down in tears. Their distress grows increasingly disturbing, with several characters appearing to contemplate suicide. Muse perform in a high school gym after a party, while a janitor cleans up around them. The polished, uniform neighborhood becomes a portrait of emotional repression, ending with the janitor succumbing to the same despair as the people he has been observing.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed in Los Angeles in 1999, while Muse were in the city supporting the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

• The concept was intended to show people carrying out mundane tasks before emotionally collapsing. The finished video became more relentlessly tearful than originally planned.

• The production was reportedly very expensive. Matthew Bellamy later connected the overspending with Maverick Records' enthusiastic promotion of Muse in the United States and the band's eventual friction with the label.

• During filming, a camera van nearly struck the video's production team. Actor Daniel Bilodeux, who plays the crying fireman, reportedly pulled the director out of the vehicle's path.

• A Director's Cut contains additional and alternative footage, including scenes involving a naked woman on a bed and a woman sitting on a toilet.

• A separate US mix was made for the American release and incorporates live footage of the band.

• Several earlier proposals for the video were rejected for being considerably darker, including ideas involving hospitals, torture, and disturbing child imagery.

• The song's title comes from the words "muscle" and "museum" appearing immediately before and after "muse" in some dictionaries.