Sophia Michaels
Fate catches up with a star-crossed couple in the music video for 5 Seconds of Summer’s “Bad Omens,” which appears on their newly released fifth studio album 5SOS5. The band plays an off-screen role as narrators for the pair, attaching the song about testing the limits of how far they would go for love to a visual that suggests a willingness to follow their partner over a cliff if it meant they’d be together.
Helmed by Ukranian directors Alyona Shchasnaia and Danny Mitri, the video finds the leading couple literally haunted by giant red flags. The pair wake up in a totaled vehicle, disheveled and disoriented. Outside, large swaths of silky crimson fabric float through the air. When one completely overtakes the car, the video flashes back to the origin of how they ended up in the middle of a ditch in the first place: they couldn’t let each other go.
“We go ’round again, we jump back in bed/That’s what you do when you love somebody,” 5SOS sings as the camera pans in a circle, showing the couple arguing in the front seat, but devouring each other in the back. “These bad omens, I look right through them/That’s what you do when you love somebody.”
But the red flags eventually consume them. Soon enough, the backseat is empty and a moment later the fabric becomes a cape for the vehicle as it drives directly over the edge of a cliff — but it doesn’t save them from the comedown that leaves them back where we found them.
“We are really proud to have worked with Ukrainian directors Danny Mitri and Alyona Shchasnaia to shoot the video for ‘Bad Omens,’” 5SOS shared in a statement on Instagram. “Ashton had a vision that Alyona and Mitri took and developed into the beautiful metaphorical video you see today.”
They added: “This was the very first international commercial/video shoot in Ukraine since the war began so we want to thank Alyona, Mitri and all the people involved in Ukraine who made this video possible. They were so passionate about shooting it and we are so grateful to have worked with them on it.”
