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Lady Gaga's '911' music video is surreal with a heart-stopping plot-twist, fans compare imagery to 'Midsommar'

Lady Gaga wrote about the music video, “This short film is very personal to me, my experience with mental health and the way reality and dreams can interconnect to form heroes within us and all around us"

On Friday, September 18, American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, known to the world as Lady Gaga, in an Instagram post released the music video for her song ‘911’, the third official single off her latest album Chromatica. 

Gaga wrote about the music video, “This short film is very personal to me, my experience with mental health and the way reality and dreams can interconnect to form heroes within us and all around us. I’d like to thank my director/filmmaker Tarsem for sharing a 25-year-old idea he had with me because my life story spoke so much to him. I’d like to thank Haus of Gaga for being strong for me when I wasn’t, and the crew for making this short film safely during this pandemic without anyone getting sick.” 

“It’s been years since I felt so alive in my creativity to make together what we did with ‘911’,” she wrote. “Thank you @Bloodpop for taking a leap of faith with me to produce a record that hides in nothing but the truth. Finally, thank you little monsters. I’m awake now, I can see you, I can feel you, thank you for believing in me when I was very afraid. Something that was once my real-life every day is now a film, a true story that is now the past and not the present. It’s the poetry of pain.”

The song’s lyrics reflect what Gaga said about her experience with mental health. The song goes, “Turning up emotional faders/Keep repeating self-hating phrases/I have heard enough of these voices/Almost like I have no choice/This is biological stasis/My mood's shifting to manic places/Wish I loved, and kept the good friendships/Watch life, here I go again/I can't see me cry/Can't see me cry, ever again/My biggest enemy is me/Pop a 911.”

Talking to Apple Music in May, Gaga explained that this song is "about an antipsychotic that I take. And it’s because I can’t always control things that my brain does. I know that. And I have to take medication to stop the process that occurs."

She said that when she sings, "I can't see me cry," it's a reference to a potential side effect of the medication -- a decline in emotional responses, like sadness and crying. She uses the 9-1-1 emergency line as a metaphor for her medication.

In the video for ‘911’, we see Gaga blindfolded in the desert. She heads to a temple of sorts where she participates in rituals. Near the end, it’s revealed that Gaga was imagining the scene as she lies and gets assistance after a serious car accident. As Gaga is shocked back to life and hyperventilates, we see the clues all around -- the people around, the posters, that wall painting of a car crash, even that bracelet/tourniquet around Gaga’s leg. It was all in her mind.

The twist in the music video has fans going crazy. One fan wrote, “911 short film everyone! Lady Gaga really has a mind like a mastermind.” Another said, “Lady Gaga’s new music video '911' sheds a light onto the effects of mental illness and how one can perceive a traumatic event in different ways while fighting internal struggles. Such a beautiful piece of art. Thank you Lady Gaga.” Another fan, talking about the plot twist, wrote, “my heart broke in this scene..”

As far as visual aesthetics were concerned, fans seemed only ecstatic about just how beautiful the imagery was. For many, the imagery was very close to Ari Aster’s 2019 horror film, ‘Midsommar’. One fan wrote, “The 'Midsommar' parallels from Lady Gaga’s '911' music video,” sharing comparative photos from the two. Another fan said, “The music video for Lady Gaga's 911 reminds me of Ari Aster's films, Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019). This goes to show that Gaga and her team are pure genius.” Another fan said, “The Lady Gaga 911 video is giving me Ari Aster final scene vibes.”