Synopsis
Trent Reznor leads a large group of black-clad figures through deserted streets, across a train and into an expansive, sun-baked landscape. The black-and-white imagery alternates between the group's determined movement and stark portraits of elderly people, with a brief appearance by a young woman in red. The video builds a sense of collective escape, resistance and apocalyptic momentum, ending with the crowd surging together across the dry lakebed.
Factoids & Trivia
- The video was released on August 27, 1999, ahead of the European and Japanese release of "We're in This Together."
- Filming took place in Guadalajara, Mexico, and at the dry lake of Sayula in the state of Jalisco.
- Several Guadalajara locations appear in the video, including streets in the Mexicaltzingo neighborhood, a railroad station and a large street ramp.
- Production reports described approximately 250 young men being used as extras, with groups of them dressed in black for the street scenes.
- The climactic crowd sequence at Sayula was filmed with three movie cameras while the production's sound crew played the song's climactic section to help coordinate the movement.
- An extended version of the video has circulated in addition to the shorter promotional edit.
- The video was made during the campaign for *The Fragile*, Nine Inch Nails' first studio album in five years. Its stark locations and massed figures complement the album's bleak, monumental visual identity.