Duran Duran - “Come Undone”

  We start off with a knotted piece of blue silk that comes undone before our eyes.

  Gee, a little heavy on the symbolism, eh?

  Shots of something like red dye billowing in water, and other shots of various sea creatures swimming. Then something really big splashes in golden water, and it turns out to be someone wrapped in tinfoil and chains. Whoever they are, it’s probably not a good day.

  Cut to the band performing in an aquarium somewhere. The camera jumps around a bit so we can see who exactly is in this version of the band, mixed with shots of Chain Girl struggling in the water. Simon finally starts singing just as a shark swims by in the tank. Not sure if they actually meant for those two images to be so close together.

  Simon is doing something with his hands, while wearing an outfit that Prince threw out of his closet years ago. (Quick shot of a little girl somewhere else, peeking at something.) Chain Girl continues to struggle, whipping her head about. This makes her long hair look really pretty and swirly in the water, but it doesn’t actually do much for her situation. (The little girl again, doing something with a teddy bear under a bed. Did we edit together two unrelated videos?)

  Chain Girl, while still fiddling with her manacles and avoiding the nearby sharks, manages to sing part of the song. (I hope she got paid well for this.) In case you ever wondered, people who sing underwater do not look especially attractive. And if she’s part of the band, why the hell isn’t the rest of Duran Duran trying to help her out? Rude, don’t you think?

  Simon continues to sing back at the aquarium, while the camera jumps around to other band members again. One of them is even more invested in Prince’s wardrobe than Simon, and another one is apparently using butter cream frosting as a styling gel. (I guess if Craft Services runs out of desserts before the shoot is over, they can serve this guy up with some shortcake.)

  New series of shots, with an older couple sitting on a blue bench in the middle of some rising flood waters. Personal belongings are floating about and the situation looks grim. (Well, not as serious as Chain Girl, but still.) But instead of getting all mopey about it, the couple just smooches each other lovingly. Aww. Love does conquer all. Especially if you have flood insurance.

  Oh look, Chain Girl managed to break some of her bonds. That’s nice. But she’s been under water a long time. She needs to step it up or pots and pans won’t be the only things floating past the loving couple on the bench. (And of course, Duran Duran keeps playing instead of lending a hand. Chain Girl probably won’t be sending them a Christmas card.)

  More shots of sharks, turtles, Simon, Prince, and butter cream frosting.

  Then we have images of a hammer smashing a chicken sandwich, a doll, a rose and a football. (For some reason, this makes me think of Seal getting his daughter a snack during halftime, but that’s probably not what was intended.) This video is really getting dark. Then again, we’ve been watching a woman drown for three minutes, so it’s not like we started out in a happy place.

  Now we have a woman making herself a nice health shake, and then pouring a bottle of alcohol into the mix. (She’s probably really despondent about the ugly pink headband they made her wear for this scene.) She guzzles the concoction with gusto, so she might be a little sad but she still has her motor skills.

  Speaking of, Chain Girl manages to belt out some more lyrics to the song despite running out of oxygen and new ways to flip her hair around. She’s ripped off a few more of the chains, but she’s still got a ways to go. (Almost two more minutes, if the time stamp on this video is right.)

  Next up, an attractive man arrives home, starts to take his clothes off (yay!), then reveals that he is wearing lacy feminine garments underneath his shirt (Oh. Not so enthused now.). While the band continues to play, the sharks continue to circle, and Chain Girl continues to kick her feet instead of settling down and trying to determine a rational way to get out of the chains, the attractive man dons a nice cocktail dress and proceeds to put on lipstick. He apparently misunderstood something he read in the directions, because he starts smearing the lipstick all over the face. I didn’t know that the application of lipstick could be this tricky, but apparently it is.

  Oh look, Chain Girl is almost free.

  Now we’re on a street, and out of nowhere some fool comes running up belching fire out his mouth. (I have never understood why anyone would want to breathe fire like that. It can’t possibly feel good, and there’s that whole “accidental death” thing.) Fire Man jump starts the final montage of the video. As he continues to randomly spew, we revisit all the lovely, depressing vignettes that we’ve seen so far. This is capped off by Chain Girl finally making it to she surface, free at last. She starts swimming toward a new destination.

  Which is probably the aquarium, because she is ready to kick herself some Duran Duran ass for not helping her. Bastards.


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