"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 Spielberg had come out with Jaws and Close Encounters. This is the story of the people who were trying to be George Lucas and Steven Spielberg with a tenth of the budget, and came up with the craziest, weirdest Science Fiction 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."
— The director, Joseph Kahn, describes the video's influences
"Knights of Cydonia
" is a music video from the band Muse. The video is a six-minute Cattle Punk film, complete with beginning and ending credits.
It takes place in a Schizo Tech version of The Wild West, and includes, kung-fu, laser guns, laser blades, dirt-bikes, a few Badass Longcoats, execution by hanging, androids & robots, birds of prey, seduction, a holographic rock band, Communist imagery, and a heroine in a Chainmail Bikini on a unicorn. It ends with the hero using a CD to kill the corrupt sheriff, then riding into the sunset on a motorcycle.
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.
Not to be confused with Tsutomu Nihei's manga series Knights of Sidonia, which has fewer cowboys and more Humongous Mecha.
Tropes:
- After the End: Implied by the Statue of Liberty sticking up in the middle of a desert. Also, the Big Bad is seemingly worshipped for having a car.
- Anachronism Stew: The video appears to take place in the Old West, but there are holograms, lasers, robots, and 1970s' era cars and motorcycles.
- A Sinister Clue: In the final showdown, the bad guy draws and shoots left-handed.
- Badass Longcoat: The main character and villain sport long coats and are quite skilled at martial arts.
- Bar Brawl: With the requisite Destination Defenestration.
- Bring It: The hero makes this motion while fighting mooks.
- Canis Latinicus: 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 indecipherable.
- Chainmail Bikini: The love interest appears in one during a hallucination.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Muse CD provides the hero with the tool needed to deflect his laser.
- Concept Video: The video takes the form of a cheesy 70's B-movie.
- Crossing the Desert: The hero is banished to the desert and has to make his return.
- Epic Rocking: Muse's general style.
- The Gods Must Be Lazy: "I'll show you a god who falls asleep on the job."
- Great Balls of Fire!: The hero strikes a fighting stance called "Flaming Energy Ball".
- He's Back!: The hero makes a grand Big Damn Heroes moment at the end.
- Heroic BSoD: But he ends up seeing his girlfriend in a metal bikini on a white unicorn, so we're good.
- Holographic Terminal: The jukebox creates a hologram of Muse. The CD seems to be capable of doing this on a smaller scale.
- Hollywood Mirage: The hero drinks what he believes is water. It isn't.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Evil Sheriff is killed by his own laser blast when it was reflected by a disc.
- Laser Blade
- Lecherous Licking: The villain licks the love interest...a lot.
- Lock-and-Load Montage: 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.
- The Man They Couldn't Hang: The love interest is almost hanged near the end.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: The villain, played by Richard Brake.
- My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: Unfortunately for the hero, this is invoked when he first goes up against the villain.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The hero is a laser-dueling, martial-arts-mastering cowboy on a motorcycle.
- Painting the Medium: A camera crew can be seen reflected in the mirror.
- People's Republic of Tyranny: The "People's Republic of Socialist Romanistan" is credited as the location of filming.
- Refuge in Audacity: The video is so out there in Stylistic Suck that it is really awesome.
- Rule of Cool: The purpose of the video.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: The Director's Cut has our hero and Love Interest having sex after their Slap-Slap-Kiss. In a possible reference to this trope, we later pan from a scene of them in bed together to some irrelevant Russian dolls nearby.
- Schizo Tech: We have lasers and robots alongside old cars in The Wild West.
- Shoot the Rope: The way the love interest is saved from hanging.
- Shout-Out: Works that the video references include:
- Star Wars: Weird sci-fi bar, robots in the desert, lasers, the hero becoming more powerful through mystical mumbo-jumbo...yeah, it's all there.
- The Matrix: The hero dodges laser blasts with moves akin to Neo.
- Westworld
- Mad Max
- The Lone Ranger: The hero's costume at the end is almost identical.
- Batman (1989)
- Battlestar Galactica (1978): The robot resembles a Cylon.
- Buck Rogers: Wilma Deering's white Latex Space Suit.
- Kung Fu (1972): The idea of martial arts in a standard Western setting.
- Zorro: The mask that the hero wears resembles Zorro's mask.
- Dragon Ball: The hero briefly takes a stance similar to Goku's signature kamehameha wave attack.
- Street Fighter: The attack is called "Flaming Energy Ball".
- Legend (1985): The unicorn is shot in a similar fashion.
- Maverick: There is a brief poker scene. Apparently, the hero is very good.
- Heavy Metal: The love interest's metal bikini closely resembles one worn by a character in this film.
- The Searchers
- Planet of the Apes: There is a half-submerged Statue of Liberty in the sand.
- The Day After Tomorrow: Ditto.
- Blade Runner: The unicorn imagery and jukebox tech resembles imagery from this movie.
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: The hero staring down the villain just before their last shoot out.
- Richard II: The lyrics borrow directly from Richard's act V soliloquy
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: A very literal invocation thereof.
- Space Western: Emphasis on the Western.
- Spaghetti Western: Obviously, there are strong elements of this throughout.
- Surreal Music Video: If you've read this far, you'll know why.
- Stock Punishment: The hero is placed in the stocks as children Come to Gawk and throw feces at him.
- Stylistic Suck: The film is shot as if it were a bizarre, cheap '70s action movie.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.
- Training Montage: The hero receives one in the desert from a series of experts, although it's possible he imagines it during his Heroic BSoD.
- Troperiffic: It seems to be on a mission to cram as many tropes into six minutes of music video as possible.
- Unicorn: One is seen in the desert.
