Recently, I saw a tweet on Pinterest from a fellow ARMY (@all_hail_bts) pointing out the wheelchair in the music video for Run. This got my brain gears spinning, as I very quickly came to the same conclusion I’m sure many of you have come to at this point -- the wheelchair in Run most likely connects to the wheelchair Jungkook is confined to after the car accident in the Love Yourself Highlight Reel. Eventually, I ended up with a whole full-blown theory on this wheelchair, but to explain it, I first have to explain a theory of my own that is the catalyst of my wheelchair theory, and that is that: Run is a dream.At the beginning of the video, before the music even starts, we see a shot of someone falling backwards into a pool of water (Spoiler: it’s Taehyung). Following this, throughout the music video, the clips of action are randomly interspersed with clips of Taehyung trapped underwater. Sometimes he’s calm, other times he thrashes like something is horribly wrong. At the very end, we see the person reemerge from the pool (once again, it’s Taehyung.). [All four clips from RUN - Big Hit Entertainment] At first, these underwater scenes didn’t make much sense to me, and I just accepted them as a piece of plot I would never figure out. (Kind of like the entirety of Blood Sweat and Tears.) But once I read the SAVE ME webtoon, all the pieces finally fell into place. You see, Taehyung has these prophetic dreams, but whether they’re of past timelines or future ones, it’s hard to tell. And the way the webtoon differentiates between a dream and reality is by showing Taehyung underwater, almost drowning, in a way. Some of the scenes from these dream chapters are highly similar to the underwater shots in the music video for Run. This brings me back to my original theory. [First picture is from Chapter 8 of the SAVE ME webtoon - Big Hit Entertainment and LICO. Second clip is from RUN - Big Hit Entertainment] Run mv is Taehyung's dream -- specifically, of Jungkook's car accident.At the very beginning of the video, Namjoon opens the door to his container-house to reveal a wild party thrown by the other six boys. There doesn’t seem to be an obvious reason as to why the party is being thrown until you look a little closer. Take this shot. In this scene, someone (I can’t quite tell who, but I think it's Hoseok) rides a wheelchair which ends up being shoved into a stack of red Solo cups. This wheelchair is connected to the wheelchair Jungkook rides in the Love Yourself Highlight Reel, showing that this is, quite possibly, what could have been his discharge party. What I mean by "what could've been his discharge party" is that this time, Taehyung is dreaming of a future timeline, or even an alternative universe, rather than a past timeline. [Side note: I think the red Solo cups are connected to the Yoonkook fight a little later on.] [Clip from RUN - Big Hit Entertainment] “But wait,” you question, “what about the next scene? This is a completely different setting!” [Clip from RUN - Big Hit Entertainment] You’re absolutely correct. Because that involves what is happening outside of the dream. The music video for Run combines two points of view -- Taehyung’s dream of a future timeline and the events that are currently happening at the time of this dream. The scenes such as Namjoon and Taehyung spray-painting and then running from the police, Hoseok and Jimin with each other in a hospital room, the Yoonkook fight -- all of these represent what is going on in the real world at the time that the dream was taking place. Soon after this shot, Seokjin is seen building a house of cards. This represents the fragile reality that he is desperately trying to piece back together after the events in SAVE ME ripped it apart. A moment later, Taehyung knocks it down. This can be interpreted as Taehyung being the ‘wild card’ (pun intended) in Seokjin’s perfect equation. Seokjin is never quite sure what to do with Taehyung, only that he needs to fix him somehow. Seokjin doesn’t seem concerned, however, as he looks sheepishly around him. But not even ten seconds later, he looks up as if he heard something. The camera immediately cuts to a shot of Taehyung underwater. [Clip from RUN - Big Hit Entertainment] At the risk of sounding cringe-y, I quote The Incredibles: Coincidence? I THINK NOT!!! The Taehyung/Seokjin parallels continue through the chorus, combined with some random ‘music video-esque’ clips to make it seem more...normal as well as some more shots from the real timeline. (I’m sure all of the running has meaning, I’m not saying it doesn’t--just that that is a rant for another day.) A few minutes later, the boys start a pillow fight in Namjoon’s container. One thing I do not want to forget to mention is that in some of these music video-y scenes there is a train that runs past, specifically near Seokjin and Taehyung. This train looks an awful lot like the train from the Love Yourself Highlight Reel, when Seokjin sees his girl *cough anima cough* for the first time. [Top two clips from RUN - Big Hit Entertainment. Bottom clip from Love Yourself Highlight Reel - Big Hit Entertainment.] Fast-forwarding ever-so-slightly to the Yoonkook fight: this actually belongs in the real timeline section of this theory. This fight represents the sixth chapter of The Notes 1, "The Things with Wings," in which Seokjin sort of tricks Jungkook and Yoongi into talking to each other in the hopes that they will finally sort out their differences and save each other. A little bit into the fight, Yoongi throws Jungkook to the ground and hurls a wooden chair through a glass mirror. Two things happen: [Both clips from RUN - Big Hit Entertainment] 1. The mirror shatters. 2. The house of cards collapses. Anyone who has seen almost any BTS music video knows the mirror cracking means time-travel, and you especially know this fact if you’ve read SAVE ME. Whenever Seokjin goes back in time, a mirror (and with it, reality) cracks. Here, when the mirror cracks to show Seokjin reversing time, they use the added metaphor of the house of cards collapsing and the shot of a dazed-looking Seokjin to enforce this. The clip immediately following: ah, yes, this shot. This one stumped me for quite a bit. Until I realized that the reason the boys disappear is that Seokjin went back in time. Notice all the glass on the floor from the shattered mirror? How about the flowers that fell over from the shockwave? Recognize that from anywhere else? Ding! That’s correct! Love Yourself Highlight Reel. [Top left, middle, and bottom left clips from RUN - Big Hit Entertainment. Top right clip from Love Yourself Highlight Reel - Big Hit Entertainment. Bottom left picture from Chapter 2 of SAVE ME webtoon - Big Hit Entertainment and LICO.] As if all of this wasn’t enough, once we wait through the endless “dasi run run run”-ing and some more reality timeline scenes (including Hoseok on the hospital bed and the boys going absolutely ham on some cars), we get back to the dream. Once Jimin opens the door to the bathroom, everything seems to start moving again. We hadn’t gotten an underwater scene in a while, but they suddenly return as Taehyung thrashes harder than ever. (The bathtub looks a lot like the one from Lie MV by the way...could this be their way of showing how Taehyung worried about Jimin after his nightmare in SAVE ME?) [Both right-hand side clips from RUN - Big Hit Entertainment. Left image from Chapter 8 of SAVE ME - Big Hit Entertainment and LICO.] After some more underwater-ing, running, and playing, there is a cryptic shot of Jungkook and five of the boys. There is also a spotlight on them that eerily mimics a headlight on a car. If you take this shot and compare it to the car accident at the end of Euphoria MV...well, I don’t need to point out the similarities, do I? I’m guessing that Seokjin is the one missing from the shot, although it’s difficult to tell. (I have a whole ‘nuther theory on the car crash, but that is also for another time.) [Left clip from RUN - Big Hit Entertainment. Right clip from Euphoria - Big Hit Entertainment.] [A.N.: The text in the clip from Euphoria reads "Jin, is that all? Aren't you hiding something from us?"] I hope you enjoyed reading my theories on the music video for Run! Please remember that these are just my personal opinions, and are not formally connected to the BU or Big Hit Entertainment in any way.
Happy sleuthing! - Ilona O'Connor <3
1 Comment
Cyndra
1/23/2024 02:11:17 pm
it's a pleasure to find all these theories
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AuthorI'm just a tiny ARMY and multistan that wants to contribute. <3 Archives
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