Background were filmed in
Fillmore, California. The video was directed by
Wayne Isham, and was released on January 11, 2000. The budget was estimated to be $1 million, which was attributed to the band wanting to be noticed on
MTV. The song's dance routine was choreographed by
Darrin Henson, who received a phone call from NSYNC's manager
Johnny Wright, as he was about to quit the music industry after missing out on a
MTV Video Music Award for
Jordan Knight's "
Give It to You". Henson flew to
Las Vegas, Nevada in 1999, where the band were performing at the
1999 Billboard Music Awards, so that he would be able to listen to the track. The band rehearsed at the Alley Kat Studio in Los Angeles over a few days, where Henson stated in a 2020 interview with
Entertainment Weekly that he implemented moves that cannot be replicated by other groups such as the "
black power fist", which he defined as "stop talking s—" when used in the song's title lyric. Henson won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, while NSYNC also won Best Pop Video at the same ceremony. The group contacted Isham through the phone, before he met them during dance rehearsals for the song. The band were fastened to bungee cords during the music video's shoot to mimick
puppets on strings. Choreography was performed in a blue
gimbal room, which Isham pointed out was inspired both by
Fred Astaire in
Royal Wedding and
Lionel Richie's "
Dancing on the Ceiling" music video (both directed and choreographed by
Stanley Donen). On the January 24, 2000, episode of
Making the Video, Timberlake explained his reaction to shooting his scene in the music video, stating that he had the easiest time with the stunts in comparison with the other band members, but wanted to "look good" while running instead of appearing like a "dork".
Synopsis s, in reference to their destiny being controlled by their manager
Lou Pearlman, during their legal dispute. The video starts with the puppet master,
Kim Smith, manipulating the NSYNC members as they are tied to strings. She cuts Kirkpatrick and Fatone loose first, as they run atop a speeding train and hide among the passengers to elude her. She cuts Timberlake loose next, as he outruns her trained dogs inside a warehouse and escapes into the pouring rain. Chasez and Bass are finally cut loose, as they fall into a red
Dodge Viper RT/10. When the music pauses, Chasez cleans the disc and reinserts it before continuing. They flee from her, as she pursues them in a silver
BMW Z3. They eventually make a sudden U-turn when a truck blocks them, forcing the puppet master to brake more slowly and spend more time performing a U-turn, allowing the two to flee in the opposite direction. All the scenes are interspersed with shots of the band dancing in a rotating blue gimbal with a fixed camera, creating the illusion that they are on different gravity planes. The video edit of the song also briefly pauses the music when Timberlake lands in the warehouse, when Chasez and Bass land into the car to insert a
CD, and the U-turn near the video's end. The final chorus is also extended twice; the first showcases the band inside the box, while the second highlights Chasez and Bass fleeing from the puppet master.
Reception The music video peaked at number one on the
Total Request Live countdown for 25 consecutive days. The video was ranked at number 60 on
MuchMusic's 100 Best Videos. In 2018,
iHeartRadio's Nicole Mastrogiannis ranked Timberlake's appearance in the video as first on the Iconic Music Moments From the 00s list. The same year
Billboard critics ranked it 21st among the "greatest music videos of the 21st century." ==In other media==