next drew barry

so, obviously lie to me is about luke saying something along the lines of “i know you don’t actually love me, i know you’re probably cheating on me, but it will hurt too much to hear that from you, so i hope you just keep pretending you’re in love with me.” basically, luke is very aware that his relationship is going to hell in a handbasket. 

the music video opens with luke getting into the backseat of a car on an empty track. you can see, in the background of all the shots, a pair of driverless cars circling around his own car. this gets important in a little bit, but for dramatic effect we’re gonna pretend we don’t get it yet. cars pictured below.

also, fun fact, the car has a 96 written on it. luke was born in 1996 and his old yt channel name was hemmo1996. so this car is supposed to represent luke in some way. we’ll come back to that.

as luke sings the first verse, we get some shots of 3/4 entering the stadium. none of them are inside yet: michael is on the ground floor, calum is on a catwalk-lookin thing, and ashton is climbing into the bleachers. none of them can see luke yet. sight is the focal point of this music video. here’s ashton walking because i love him.

nothing else happens for a little while except luke continues to look very distressed, 3/4 continue entering the building, and the driverless cars continue to circle around him. then we get a shot of luke sitting on top of a car, alone:

again, pretending we don’t know what this means yet. this is all setup. but he’s there, on top of this car.

then things kinda go to shit. the other cars get closer. luke starts freaking the hell out. we get this still of everything just kind of... hanging ....

so now it sort of starts coming together. the car luke is in represents his relationship, the one he knows is a train wreck. this whole time, luke has been in the backseat of the car. he can’t reach the steering wheel. he has no control over the situation--his relationship--and he has no way of driving away from what is going to end up hurting him (the other cars).

can’t he just get out of the car? you ask. the answer is... maybe. but you have to remember. the first shot of the music video is luke looking around the stadium, seeing all the shit that was about to go down, and still getting into the car himself. he did this to himself. he doesn’t want to get out of the car.

this is why the other cars are important. if you consider the other cars as a metaphor for all the warning signs, all the potential for hurt, it means that luke saw that all coming for him and got into his relationship anyway. 

now shit really hits the fan. you get, in a back-to-back, the infamous luke crying shot and also the first clip of the other car moving towards luke.

and then, in this moment where everything is about to come crashing down on luke, where are 3/4? 

they’re all inside the stadium. they can all see him. but they’re all in the audience, or standing outside the track. none of them can actually reach him. it’s a similar theme as luke choosing to get in the car--he is participating in his own delusion, and now nobody can pull him out of it. they just have to sit there as he lets himself get hurt. 

they’re all watching, like this:

and they’re watching live. because: as the two cars close in on luke, all three of them have a physical reaction to it. michael tries to reach through the fence. ashton leans forwards with obvious distress on his face. calum’s hands come off his face in shock.

and then they save him!! haha no just kidding. luke gets hit by the cars.

then we get some very dramatic car crash shots--luke’s relationship is literally getting destroyed, falling apart, whatever u wanna call it. we also get the obligatory “this is a 5sos music video” band playing instruments together shots.

i have no idea if this was intentional, but i think it’s interesting that even in these shots, the whole band is facing away from one another. none of them can see each other. with sight being such an important theme in this music video, i like to think this is supposed to be like this.

there’s no way to get a good screen grab of it, but it’s also interesting that the band is being circled by motorcycles while this happens. again, it’s using vehicles making circles as a metaphor for being trapped. or maybe they just thought motorcycles were cool. but it does echo some of the car symbology!

also things are on fire because... of course they are. but seriously, luke’s whole world is sort of falling apart.

then we get these shots, using the same car luke was sitting on top of alone, except its 4/4:

i like to think--and this is just speculation--that this means they were able to reach him. obviously, they couldn’t keep him from getting hurt, but they were able to come together and join him on his car in the wreckage. they were able to be there for him after his own delusion and willingness to look away had run its course. and i like that!!!!

and then luke’s original car blows up. because..........of course it does.

i think this really just means luke’s relationship just. blew up. it’s over. and now he can see it clearly--he, at least, is not in the car as far as we can tell--but it was very damaging to him. 

i love the symbolism in this music video. i love the way it was shot. i love the way that they all deserve a performance oscar. i love this FUCKING music video, dude. also, because i gave michael and ashton 2 photos and calum 1, please enjoy this shot of calum walking through the stadium because i think it’s very cool and i love calum: