In this video thom is in some
sort of helmet which slowly fills with water until Thom is completely
submersed for a lengthy period of time. There is lighting which
reflects off the helmet and the lyrics of the song appear as
in the OK Computer booklet but in reverse and back to front.
The director, Grant Gee, who also directed the band's full-length
documentary, Meeting People is Easy, had this to say: "It's
the perfect image of anxiety and helplessness in the face of
technology." On Meeting People is Easy, there's a nice little
excerpt of the making of the video (Thom nearly dies!), and
a 'great' analysis from the Sky news team....
Review by Karen Hands:
Originally called No Surprises Please, the accompanying video
lives up to the Radiohead tradition of being good but odd. This
video features just Thom on his own, trapped inside a 'fish
tank' of sorts, while various lights go on and off and the words
go past him, but to us they're back to front. As the water level
rises, Thom decides to take a dive underneath and holds his
breath for an extremely long period of time. From "This is my
final fit" until "Such a pretty house". Surely there must be
camera trickery involved, nobody could hold their breath that
long. But maybe Yorke could, when he sings he does seem to have
an enormous lung capacity. Contains some good 'Thom moments',
but only if you like him stubbly. Good it maybe, but we almost
lost the great man himself. It seems that he did stay under
all that time because during the filming Thom nearly drowned.
And that would be too great a tragedy to even discuss.
