Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records Intel Music Group (IMG)
The music video for "What I've Done" explores the many ironies of humanity and its ill effects on the earth and the environment. It juxtaposes various pieces of footage: a large, well-fed man eating fast food, a woman measuring her waist and a man who is so malnourished that his ribcage is visible through his skin; African Americans being hosed down and the Ku Klux Klan; nuclear explosions, the World Trade Center towers collapsing, children waving American flags, a Middle Eastern child holding an AK-47, clips of oil tankers torn in half and birds covered in an oil slick. The band's turntablist Joe Hahn directed the video for the single, which was shot in the California desert. The video premiered on April 2, 2007 on MTV and Fuse. It premiered on MTV-Asia, MTV-Germany, TMF Netherlands and Canada's MuchMusic on April 3, 2007.
It features footage of the band performing in the desert, interspersed with stock footage reflecting on a variety of social and environmental issues including pollution, global warming, racism, Nazism, the Ku Klux Klan, abortion, starvation, terrorism, warfare, deforestation, poverty, drug addiction, obesity, destruction, rising gasoline prices and crimes committed by humanity. The video also features short views of important historical figures, such as Mother Teresa, Abraham Lincoln, Robert Kennedy, Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Mao Zedong, and Mahatma Gandhi. Some cut scenes like the traffic scene and the napalm exploding were also featured on the Rise Against music video for Ready To Fall.
The video clip was featured and won on MTV's Battle of the Videos against videos by Evanescence ("Sweet Sacrifice") and Lil' Mama ("Lip Gloss"). The video also marks the first appearance of a Linkin Park video in the #1 spot on MTV's TRL, hitting #1 six times so far. The video was among the all-time top 50 most viewed on YouTube with over 36 million views but was removed as a result of Warner Music Group's feud with YouTube. AOL currently has a live performance of "What I've Done" on their website.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of historical and/or stock footage in the music video:
- A scorpion
- Clockwork
- A soaring bald eagle
- Desertification
- Aerial targeting footage of a missile strike from the Gulf War
- A rear shot of riot police
- A 1960s civil rights demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama
- A firefighter carrying a child from a burning building
- A riot in South America
- A Canadian Forces CH-113 Labrador search and rescue helicopter
- The Vietnam War
- Global Warming
- Urbanization
- Pollution
- Poaching (Ivory)
- Deforestation
- a Polar Bear
- Citizens of the world's least developed countries
- Obesity
- An anorexic woman
- Starvation
- Effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans
- Stonehenge
- Hagia Sophia
- Great Pyramid of Giza
- Parthenon
- Vitruvian Man
- Mother Teresa
- Robert F. Kennedy
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Buddha
- Mao Zedong
- Abraham Lincoln Memorial
- Fidel Castro
- Ku Klux Klan
- Adolf Hitler
- Saddam Hussein
- 9/11
- Cellular meiosis
- Reproduction
- Birth
- Genetic engineering
- Drug abuse
- a Penguin
- Oil spills
- The Trinity Test mushroom cloud and other Atomic weapons testing
- Ethnically diverse children with American Flags
- Palestinian child (holding an AK-47)
- Auschwitz concentration camp
- Joseph Stalin
- Nationalism (particularly Americanism)
- Acropolis of Athens
- Sultan Ahmed Mosque
- Robert Mugabe
- Benito Mussolini
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Oklahoma City Bombing
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