The Beastie Boys music video directed as a parody of 1970s police dramas was Sabotage.
The 1994 video presents the group as exaggerated television detectives and criminals in a fictional crime series. It uses fast editing, car chases, disguises, dramatic close-ups, and deliberately over-the-top action to imitate the visual language of older police programs.
Spike Jonze directed the video. Rather than relying on elaborate digital effects, the production gained much of its energy from practical stunts, handheld camerawork, costumes, and the performers’ comic commitment to their roles. The result became one of the most recognizable examples of a music video built around a sustained narrative parody.
Sabotage is sometimes remembered simply as a performance clip because the Beastie Boys appear throughout it, but its central structure is a fictional television episode. The video helped establish the group’s playful visual identity and became closely associated with the song’s aggressive sound.