10 Best Music Videos Based On Or Inspired By Movies

It's rare these days when a music video completely captures the public's attention in the ways they used to. While the 2000s still saw MTV as a kingpin of music video distribution, the advent of YouTube and Internet streaming completely changed the game, allowing for independent artists to self-produce music videos or for music fans to contribute to a song's lifespan via their own visuals. 

Nowadays, there are lots of popular artists who don't even bother to make music videos for their hit songs (see: Chappell Roan's "Good Luck, Babe!"), but every so often, there's still the occasional music video that dominates the conversation, like Cardi B's "WAP" or Lil Nas X's "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)." Because the ability to create music videos has gotten so accessible for the common fan, artists have over the years gotten more ambitious with their efforts, churning out videos that draw from some of the very best movies in the history of cinema. 

For these 10 music videos that span the medium's history, as well as mainstream music, they not only assisted their respective songs rise in popularity on the charts, but they were just as helped by their influences in film. From the biggest pop stars in the world to indie rock acts, these are the best music videos that were inspired by or based on movies, whether they be popular romantic comedies or sci-fi cult classics. 

When you think of "California Love," you probably picture riding with the top down Sunset Boulevard while the Tupac Shakur song blares from the stereo. Surprisingly, the music video is not too far off in its vibes... only it's in the style of "Mad Max." The video was actually the brainchild of Jada Pinkett Smith, who was slated to direct it before handing the reins off to Hype Williams, whose other video credits include songs by the Wu-Tang Clan, Missy Elliott, and Busta Rhymes. 

Despite being inspired by 1985's "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome," the third film in the franchise by George Miller, it's not officially a part of the "Mad Max" saga. Instead, the "California Love" video takes place in a post-apocalyptic California in the year 2095, with Shakur and Dr. Dre freeing captive women from a barbaric tribe, whose members include cameos by Clifton Powell and Chris Tucker. Dre and 'Pac rap from inside a massive human cage, but the real set-piece is the practical car chase sequence through the California desert. 

Though it seems like quite a far cry to have even thought to merge 2Pac with "Mad Max," it harkens back to an era when music videos felt larger than life, with Tucker telling "The Late Late Show with James Corden," "It was fun and dangerous at the same time. Tupac just got out of jail, Suge Knight was walking around with a Rottweiler ... it was a great time."

When you think of the most iconic music videos by Linkin Park, you probably think of ones inspired by the likes of "Transformers" and the films of Hayao Miyazaki. However, you probably don't remember one music video from their 2007 album "Minutes to Midnight," for the single "Leave Out All The Rest," which has a pretty ambitious video inspired by the 2007 film "Sunshine," which starred Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, and Rose Byrne as astronauts tasked with the dangerous mission of reviving a dying sun. 

In the "Leave Out All The Rest" video, the six original members of Linkin Park (the late Chester Bennington, Mike Shinoda, Joseph Hahn, Brad Delson, Dave Farrell, and Rob Bourdon) aren't performing their own song but are crew members living their regular lives on a spaceship, performing menial maintenance tasks and killing time by playing futuristic chess. While the band (sans Bennington) sleeps, a solar flare from the nearby sun hits the ship, sending them out of orbit. In the video's final stunning moments, the band gathers to watch the encroaching sun from a flight deck window, silhouetted a la the 2007 album's artwork. 

The video was directed by Hahn, the band's DJ, who has also helmed the majority of the band's music videos. "Sunshine" was a specific reference point for Hahn both narratively and visually, according to visual design studio Giantsteps co-founder Ryan Thompson, who worked on the special effects for the video.

It shouldn't be too surprising that Sabrina Carpenter's videography includes some deep cut film references, considering Carpenter's own movies and TV shows span many genres from teen sitcom to topical dramas. Her 2018 single "Sue Me" has clear references to "Legally Blonde," and her video for "Taste" off her album "Short n' Sweet" co-starring Jenna Ortega is heavily based off of "Death Becomes Her." However, for Carpenter's very-first Billboard number one single, "Please Please Please," her cinematic references were much more subtle.

A sequel to the "Espresso" video that ends with Carpenter being arrested, "Please Please Please" opens on Carpenter being let out on bail, only to encounter Barry Keoghan (who the pop star was dating at the time of the video's release) as another troubled criminal who she partners up with. Aside from the obvious "Bonnie & Clyde" allusions, director Bardia Zeinali named several other inspirations in an interview with GQ, "Tarantino was a big reference point. 'Natural Born Killers' ... Even 'Thelma and Louise.'"

The vibe of those iconic crime movies certainly seems to have influenced Carpenter even further, given that those references pop up against in the follow-up video to "Please Please Please," for her remix featuring Dolly Parton, as well as her most recent video for "Manchild," which specifically is edited in the style of fast-paced action movie trailers. Nevertheless, there's something so nostalgic and familiar about the original "Please Please Please" video, aided by the (obvious) chemistry between its leads. 

Jack Antonoff is notable for being the producer for Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, and other singer-songwriters, but many know him for his other, important job: being Margaret Qualley's husband. Oh, and there's also his band, Bleachers, who have been making Springsteen-coded pop rock since their 2014 album "Strange Desire." In 2023, Antonoff married the actress you didn't know was a nepo baby, who inspired much of the super-producer's latest self-titled record, including the single "Tiny Moves." 

The video for "Tiny Moves" not only stars Qualley, but the actress also made it her directorial debut, sharing credit with Alex Lockett. As a continuation of Bleachers' video for "Alma Mater," which depicts Antonoff driving through New Jersey late at night, "Tiny Moves" mainly sees Qualley doing a self-choreographed interpretive dance to the tune, which was inspired by dances from Bob Fosse's films "The Little Prince" and "All That Jazz." As Qualley told Rolling Stone, "He's the ultimate reference, both for choreography and cinematic style ... But I have more ambition as a choreographer than a director."

It's an appropriate obsession for Qualley, who previously appeared in the FX limited series "Fosse/Verdon" as dancer Ann Reinking. She was even tapped to lend her dancing in a James Bond tribute at the 2025 Academy Awards. The real love letter of the video isn't just to Fosse but to Antonoff, who Qualley embraces as the sun rises over the New York City skyline at the end of the "Tiny Moves" video. 

Before Gerard Way was the mind behind "Umbrella Academy," one of the best TV shows based on comic books, he was known as the frontman of "My Chemical Romance," bringing his distinct artistic flair to the band's own album artwork and music videos. That includes their harrowing video for "The Ghost of You," off their 2004 album "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge." While previous videos from this album cycle included references to films like "Rushmore" and other music videos by The Smashing Pumpkins and Iron Maiden, "The Ghost of You" draws its inspiration from a classic movie by Steven Spielberg.

That movie is "Saving Private Ryan," one of the most brutal war movies of all time, which dramatizes the 1944 invasion of Normandy during World War II. In "The Ghost of You," directed by future "The Amazing Spider-Man" director Marc Webb, the action cuts between the band performing at a USO gala and the band storming the beach on D-Day, during which Way's bandmate and brother, Mikey Way, is shot and killed. 

While Gerard Way was not the video's director, he was instrumental in its creative direction, with Webb citing "Saving Private Ryan" and "Memphis Belle" as specific references from the emo band's frontman. Way's vision also led Webb to prioritize shooting the video as if it was a period piece, resulting in its cinematic look and chaotic cinematography. 

If the music video is an art form, Madonna is its Michelangelo. Throughout her reign as the queen of pop, Madonna is responsible for creating some of the most iconic music videos of all time, many of which, like 1989's "Like a Prayer," were controversial at the time of their debut. Madonna has never shied away from cinematic references in her videos, with the David Fincher-directed "Express Yourself" visually inspired by Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" or 1999's "Beautiful Stranger" featuring a cameo from Mike Myers as Austin Powers trying (and failing) to seduce the pop star. 

Then, there's "Material Girl," one of Madonna's biggest hits off her 1984 album "Like a Virgin." The video depicts Madonna in a nearly shot-for-shot remake of Marilyn Monroe's performance of "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" from 1953's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," intercut with a behind-the-scenes narrative in which the singer is wooed by a wealthy producer (Keith Carradine) who slowly realizes, contrary to the song's thesis, he can't buy her love. 

Just like "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" called for a complete reinvention of Marilyn Monroe, "Material Girl" refined Madonna's image in the mid-80s as a pop diva. The video was ultimately a tribute to Monroe's struggles in the spotlight, as Madonna told the New York Daily News (via Dig!), "Marilyn was made into something not human in a way, and I can relate to that ... there were certain things about her vulnerability that I'm curious about and attracted to."

We all remember where we were when we saw the music video for "This is America" by Childish Gambino, the musical alter ego of comedian Donald Glover. The song, with its video, were both surprise-dropped while Glover was a guest host on "Saturday Night Live," and within 24 hours it broke the Internet as an anthem for systemic racism in America and violence against minorities. The video was directed by Hiro Murai, a collaborator on every season of Glover's "Atlanta," who has spoken much more about the video's influence than the artist himself. 

"This is America" features a shirtless Glover dancing in an abandoned warehouse, interspersed with moments of violence including a mass-shooting of gospel singers, high school students dancing amidst a riot, and a final sequence in which Glover is being chased through a dark corridor. As Murai told Variety, the main premise was a "dance video that took place in the last 20 minutes of the movie 'mother!' or in the world of 'City of God,'" referencing the abstract and chaotic works by Darren Aronofsky and Fernando Meirelles.

Aside from Murai and Glover, other comparisons were drawn, particularly in those haunting final shots, to fellow comedian Jordan Peele's directorial debut "Get Out," which had in the months before "This is America" dropped won Peele an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. There's probably a thousand more Easter eggs hidden in the video elsewhere, which critics have analyzed for years since its release. 

Some could argue it might not be fair to include Beyoncé's "Lemonade" here, considering it's less a music video and more a visual album set to her 2016 album of the same name. Counterpoint: come on, it's Beyoncé! "Lemonade" was nothing short of a cultural moment, surprise-dropped as Knowles' response to publicized infidelity from her husband, Jay-Z, featuring a mosaic of genre encompassing the African-American experience. The film itself, directed by a plethora of filmmakers including Beyoncé herself, premiered on HBO the same day as the album's release.

If we were to count all the Easter eggs and references in "Lemonade," we'd have an article ten times as long as this one, but thankfully there are some who have reverse-engineered the film's cultural and cinematic references better than we ever could. According to Nelson Carvajal for Free Cinema Now, "Lemonade" takes inspiration from "Mulholland Drive" by David Lynch, as well as the work of Terrence Malick, writing, "Imagery from his films 'To The Wonder' and 'The Tree of Life' ... definitely inspired a lot of the overall tone of introspection and spiritual reflection that Beyoncé is striving for here."

"Lemonade" may have just been the start to Beyoncé's Oscar-worthy efforts, but like the Queen B's best work, it encompasses decades of African-American art to create some bigger than just one pop star. The climax of it all is the final track, "Formation," for which director Melina Matsoukas drew inspiration from "Daughters of the Dust." 

Taylor Swift is the type of artist who has always worn her influences on her sleeve, especially when it comes to her music videos. "You Belong With Me" feels like the best 2000s rom-coms, "Cardigan" invokes the work of Guillermo del Toro, and "The Man" even brought on the cinematographer for "The Wolf of Wall Street" to parody the Scorsese film. However, Swift truly leveled up as a director with the video accompaniment for her magnum opus as a songwriter. 

"All Too Well: The Short Film" released alongside Swift's re-recording of her 2012 album "Red," with the long-awaited 10-minute cut of the song soundtracking the short. Its leads include Sadie Sink as "Her" and Dylan O'Brien as "Him," a couple on an autumn getaway whose age-gap relationship reveals cracks, eventually leading to their break-up as an older "Her" (in Swift's best acting role, hands-down) turns her heartbreak into a novel. 

While screening the film at TIFF, Swift cited a handful of films as inspirations, including '70s tear-jerkers like "Kramer vs. Kramer," "The Way We Were," and "Love Story," as well as more modern films like "Marriage Story" by Noah Baumbach. These inspirations are most evident in a scene midway through the short, where in one take, Sink and O'Brien argue after a dinner-with-friends-gone-wrong. What "All Too Well" boasts above all these other great videos is that, for a brief moment during this scene, you forget you're even watching a music video. 

Michael Jackson is a controversial figure in this day and age, for good reason, but it's hard to deny that "Thriller" as both a song and album is one of the great masterworks of pop music. Released in 1983, the Quincy Jones-produced track already embodies horror elements, taking inspiration for its eerie intro from classic horror movies, with a spoken word outro by none other than king of horror Vincent Price himself. It's not surprising, then, that its now iconic video, "Michael Jackson's Thriller," plays out like a horror movie all by itself.

"Thriller" was directed by John Landis, recruiting the director based on his 1981 horror film "An American Werewolf in London," which served as Jackson's primary inspiration. The movie begins with a short in which Jackson is revealed to be a werewolf to his date (played by model Ola Ray), only for that to be just a movie watched by Jackson and his girlfriend. As they walk home, they pass a graveyard with zombies that rise from their tombstones to dance, and a turned Jackson joins them. 

The video's most iconic moment, however, is the girlfriend waking up as if it was all a dream, only for Jackson to turn to the camera and reveal his evil wolf-like eyes. As a music video, "Thriller" completely changed the game with the medium, establishing the music video as not only an art piece in its own right but worthy of being considered quality cinema.