Synopsis

Björk lies motionless in a rugged, mountainous landscape as projected images move across her face and body. A digital version of the singer races through a stark, two-dimensional world of pylons and flashing lights, then repeatedly throws herself from a cliff. The video shifts between virtual animation, live performance, and layered close-ups, turning the song's imagery of release, risk, and emotional self-preservation into a dreamlike collision of human and machine.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was shot at Telecine Cell in London using a motion-control system and multiple exposures.

• Almost the entire clip was created on a single 400-foot roll of film. The crew repeatedly rewound and re-exposed the same strip, combining the live-action footage, computer graphics, television images, and flashing lights.

• Michel Gondry reportedly insisted that the exposed film receive no conventional editing. Apart from color correction during the transfer to videotape, the finished structure was created in-camera.

• The computer-game imagery was played back on television monitors during filming rather than being added entirely in post-production.

• Production assistant Francois Nemeta recalled that the shoot involved eight superimposed layers, long exposure times, and highly complex computer-controlled camera movements.

• Björk sang the verses live while filming. That vocal performance was later used on the second CD single of "Hyperballad" and on the 5.1 edition of *Surrounded*.

• The video became one of the clearest examples of Björk's early visual language: physical performance and digital imagery are presented as overlapping versions of the same identity.

• Its combination of game-like graphics, analog film tricks, and electronic music helped establish the clip as an influential example of 1990s experimental pop video.