A Dystopian Labyrinth ‘Breaks the Man’ in Tears for Fears Video

It’s all a game. On Thursday, Tears for Fears released the music video for their single “Break the Man” — and it follows identical, black suit-sporting men as they go about their lives mindlessly walking through a labyrinth.

“No more wondering what happens now/No more holding your feet to the fire/When everything is running down/No more pain,” the duo sings on the track as the video becomes a kaleidoscope of dystopia.

By the end of the video, each man reaches the top of a ledge and jumps off to their seeming demise. But it seems they’re all being controlled by an omnipresent, God-like woman who holds their labyrinth world in her hand like Pandora’s box. (Perhaps she’s the “she” in the chorus lyrics, “She’s the fire and the fallout/She reminds you of the things we never talk about/She’s the lover with the best-laid plan.”)

Tears for Fears released the single — co-written by founding member Curt Smith and Charlton Pettus, and co-produced by Smith, Roland Orzabal, and Pettus — last month “about a strong woman, and breaking the patriarchy.” “I feel that a lot of the problems we’ve been having as a country and even worldwide to a certain degree has come from male dominance,” Smith said in a statement at the time. “It’s a song about a woman who is strong enough to break the man. For me, that would be an answer to a lot of the problems in the world — a better male-female balance.” 

Tears for Fears is gearing up to release their album The Tipping Point on Feb. 25, before they’re set to hit the road in May and June. Tipping Point is their first record in 17 years after dropping Everybody Loves a Happy Ending in 2004.