"In the End" is a song by Linkin Park, appearing on their 2000 debut album Hybrid Theory.
It was released as a single and received a music video in 2001 and peaked at number two on the Hot 100 in 2002, becoming the band's highest charting song and solidifying Linkin Park as a household name.
The video was shot on multiple stops on the 2001 Ozzfest tour. The background of the video was shot in a California desert, though the band's parts were done in a studio with heavy CGI effects used throughout.
The video — inspired by Princess Mononoke, according to Mike Shinoda — features a giant Egyptian statue isolated in a desert wasteland, grass and plants that grow only to shatter, and a whale that flies around. At the end of the video, after the climactic rain stops, the wasteland has become a grassland with flowers.
Watch the music video here.
I put my tropes in you:
- All for Nothing: "I tried so hard and got so far, but in the end, it doesn't even matter."
- Bizarrchitecture There is a giant statue in the middle of a desert with no other structures anywhere in sight. The statue is also a tower that has some gargoyles. The top of the tower has some smaller statues that come to life.
- Cue the Sun: In the outro, after the rain stops and the sun returns, the camera zooms out of the tower to show the desert having become fully fertile.
- Fertile Feet: Grass is seen growing as Mike walks.
- Flying Seafood Special: The whale that flies around the tower.
- Gray Rain of Depression: The rain starts on cue during the bridge, when the guitars come in at "I put my trust in you."
- Instant Mass: Just Add Water!: All it takes is about 30 seconds of rain for life in the desert to fully grow.
- Living Statue: The statues at the top of the tower are briefly seen coming to life near the end.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: The video is largely CGI, but the band members are real.
- Space Whale: A whale is seen flying throughout, most notably at the end.
- Vine Tentacles: The vines that grow and shatter behind Mike.