Line #53 Music/KnightsOfCydonia


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7	->''"I think this video is ultimately, in its own way, a tribute to 1980s action films. There was this really cool era of films that came out after 1979, you know, after [[Creator/StevenSpielberg Spielberg]] had come out with ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' and ''[[Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind Close Encounters]]''. This is the story of the people who were trying to be Creator/GeorgeLucas and Creator/StevenSpielberg with a tenth of the budget, and came up with the craziest, weirdest ScienceFiction films. They were American movies like westerns and science fiction, but usually funded by some European arms dealer, and directed by a crazy, completely coked-out director."''
8	-->-- The director, '''Joseph Kahn''', describes the video's influences
9
10	"[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_sBOsh-vyI Knights of Cydonia]]" is a music video from the band Music/{{Muse}}. The video is a six-minute CattlePunk film, complete with beginning and ending credits.
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12	It takes place in a SchizoTech version of TheWildWest, and includes, kung-fu, laser guns, {{laser blade}}s, dirt-bikes, a few {{Badass Longcoat}}s, execution by hanging, androids & robots, birds of prey, seduction, a holographic rock band, Communist imagery, and a heroine in a ChainmailBikini on a unicorn. It ends with the hero using a CD to kill the corrupt sheriff, then riding into the sunset on a motorcycle.
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14	It is apparently set in a gold-rush town named after the Martian region of Cydonîa--or possibly a gold-rush town ''in'' the Martian region of Cydonîa.
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16	Not to be confused with Creator/TsutomuNihei's manga series ''Manga/KnightsOfSidonia'', which has fewer cowboys and more HumongousMecha.
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18	----
19	!!Tropes:
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21	* AfterTheEnd: {{Implied}} by the Art/StatueOfLiberty sticking up in the middle of a desert. Also, the BigBad is [[KneelBeforeZod seemingly worshipped]] for having a car.
22	* AnachronismStew: The video appears to take place in the Old West, but there are holograms, lasers, robots, and 1970s' era cars and motorcycles.
23	* ASinisterClue: In the final showdown, the bad guy draws and shoots left-handed.
24	* BadassLongcoat: The main character and villain sport long coats and are quite skilled at martial arts.
25	* BarBrawl: With the requisite DestinationDefenestration.
26	* BringIt: The hero makes this motion while fighting mooks.
27	* CanisLatinicus: The title card has the Roman number MCLMXXXI under it, just as many films will show the release year in Roman numerals. However, this particular number means nothing. It goes 1000-100-50-1000-10-10-10-1, which is impossible to convert to Arabic numerals. It was either meant to be MCMLXXXI, which would be 1981, or it was intentionally meant to be [[MindScrew indecipherable]].
28	* ChainmailBikini: The love interest appears in one during a hallucination.
29	* ChekhovsGun: The Muse CD [[spoiler: provides the hero with the tool needed to deflect his laser]].
30	* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: The villain wears [[EvilWearsBlack black]] while in their final confrontation the hero and heroine wear white (except for a black DominoMask by the hero).
31	* ConceptVideo: The video takes the form of a cheesy 70's B-movie.
32	* CrossingTheDesert: The hero is banished to the desert and has to make his return.
33	* EpicRocking: Muse's general style.
34	* TheGodsMustBeLazy: "I'll show you a god who falls asleep on the job."
35	* GreatBallsOfFire: The hero strikes a fighting stance called "Flaming Energy Ball".
36	* HesBack: The hero makes a grand BigDamnHeroes moment at the end.
37	* HeroicBSOD: But he ends up seeing [[MindScrew his girlfriend in a metal bikini on a white unicorn]], so we're good.
38	* HolographicTerminal: The jukebox creates a hologram of Muse. The CD seems to be capable of doing this on a smaller scale.
39	* HollywoodMirage: The hero drinks what he believes is water. It isn't.
40	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: The Evil Sheriff is killed by his own laser blast when it was reflected by a disc.]]
41	* HowWeGotHere: The video opens with our hero in the stocks, hallucinating, then he wakes up the day before he rides into Cydonia.
42	* LaserBlade
43	* LecherousLicking: The villain licks the love interest...a lot.
44	* LockAndLoadMontage: This is done at the beginning when the hero gears up and before the climax after being banished to the desert. In both instances, he is getting ready to fight the villain.
45	* TheManTheyCouldntHang: The love interest is almost hanged near the end.
46	* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: The villain, played by Richard Brake.
47	* MyKungFuIsStrongerThanYours: Unfortunately for the hero, this is invoked when he first goes up against the villain.
48	* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: The hero is a laser-dueling, martial-arts-mastering cowboy on a motorcycle.
49	* PaintingTheMedium: A camera crew [[VisibleBoomMic can be seen reflected in the mirror]].
50	* PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny: The "People's Republic of Socialist Romanistan" is credited as the location of filming.
51	* RefugeInAudacity: The video is so out there in StylisticSuck that it is really awesome.
52	* RuleOfCool: The purpose of the video.
53	* SexyDiscretionShot: The Director's Cut has our hero and LoveInterest having sex after their SlapSlapKiss. In a possible reference to this trope, we later pan from a scene of them in bed together to some irrelevant Russian dolls nearby.
54	* SchizoTech: We have lasers and robots alongside old cars in TheWildWest.
55	* ShootTheRope: The way the love interest is saved from hanging.
56	* ShoutOut: Works that the video references include:
57	** ''Franchise/StarWars'': Weird sci-fi bar, robots in the desert, lasers, the hero becoming more powerful through mystical mumbo-jumbo...yeah, it's all there.
58	** ''Film/TheMatrix'': The hero dodges laser blasts with a Neo-style backflip.
59	** ''Film/{{Westworld}}''
60	** ''Film/MadMax''
61	** ''Franchise/TheLoneRanger'': The hero's costume at the end is almost identical.
62	** ''Film/Batman1989''
63	** ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'': The robot resembles a Cylon.
64	** ''ComicStrip/BuckRogers'': Wilma Deering's white LatexSpaceSuit.
65	** ''Series/KungFu1972'': The idea of martial arts in a standard Western setting.
66	** ''Franchise/{{Zorro}}'': The mask that the hero wears resembles Zorro's mask.
67	** ''Manga/DragonBall'': The hero briefly takes a stance similar to Goku's signature kamehameha wave attack.
68	** ''Franchise/StreetFighter'': The attack is called [[KamehameHadoken "Flaming Energy Ball"]].
69	** ''Film/{{Legend 1985}}'': The unicorn is shot in a similar fashion.
70	** ''Film/{{Maverick}}'': There is a brief poker scene. Apparently, the hero is very good.
71	** ''WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal'': The love interest's metal bikini closely resembles one worn by a character in this film.
72	** ''Film/TheSearchers''
73	** ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes'': There is a half-submerged Statue of Liberty in the sand.
74	** ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'': Ditto.
75	** ''Film/BladeRunner'': The unicorn imagery and jukebox tech resembles imagery from this movie.
76	** ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'': The hero staring down the villain just before their last shoot out.
77	** ''Theatre/RichardII'': The lyrics borrow directly from Richard's act V soliloquy
78	* SlapSlapKiss: A very literal invocation thereof. The love interest slaps the hero in a bar, SmashCut to the slap shown again, but they're now in a bedroom and wearing fewer clothes. Again, with fewer clothes, but this time he grabs her arm, and they kiss.
79	* SpaceWestern: Emphasis on the Western.
80	* SpaghettiWestern: Obviously, there are strong elements of this throughout.
81	* StockPunishment: The hero is placed in the stocks as children ComeToGawk and [[KidsAreCruel throw feces at him]].
82	* StylisticSuck: The film is shot as if it were a bizarre, cheap '70s action movie.
83	-->'''Joseph Kahn (Director):''' (''on lead actor Russ Bain'') He didn't know any kung fu, but that was exactly the type of kung fu I wanted.
84	* SupernaturalAid: After nearly dying of thirst in the desert, our hero is rescued by the woman riding a {{unicorn}}, who brings him to a Chinese kung fu master who apparently brings him BackFromTheDead and teaches him better kung fu.
85	* SurrealMusicVideo: If you've read this far, you'll know why.
86	* TrainingMontage: The hero receives one in the desert from a series of experts, although it could be a hallucination.
87	* {{Troperiffic}}: It seems to be on a mission to cram as many tropes into six minutes of music video as possible.
88	* {{Unicorn}}: One is seen in the desert even though the video makes it clear both the hero and the rider [[UnicornsPreferVirgins aren't virgins]]. Though the hero may have been hallucinating it, since it appears to be ridden by his LoveInterest who's a prisoner of the BigBad at the time.

Context Music / KnightsOfCydonia