“Understated” is not a word that exists in the 30 Seconds To Mars lexicon. This morning, they dropped a lavish, artsy, mysterious and altogether fascinating sneak preview for their new short film, “Up In The Air.”
In case you were wondering, “Up In The Air” is not, insofar as we can tell, in any way related to the George Clooney/Anna Kendrick movie about the collapse of our economy from a few years ago. Rather, from what we could gather from this trailer, it seems to be a haunting mix of Prometheus, Inception, and Matthew Barney’s transgressive Cremaster Cycle. How did we arrive at that conclusion? Well…
There’s this mysterious symbol, which contains the Latin phrase “Provehito In Altum”; 30STM superfans will recognize this as the band’s motto which, roughly translated —thanks Babelfish!— means “Launch Forth Into The Deep”:
There’s a wolf (who, if you’ll pardon the Duran Duran reference, looks mighty hungry):
There’s this mechanical bull, which looks like something you’d find at Saddle Ranch if it were designed by Liberace:
There’s a spinning ring, a la Inception. Or, is it a hula hoop? Perhaps something a gymnast would use in a floor routine?
Speaking of gymnastics, there’s McKayla Maroney! (No, really, it IS McKayla Maroney. We swear.)
There’s a zebra!
And a lion! It’s a regular menagerie up in this danceary.
And, then, there’s this lady.
But what, praytell, does it all MEAN? We dunno! We’ll just have to wait until the premiere of 30 Seconds To Mars’ new short film, “Up In The Air,” to find out.