Pop sensation Phoebe Bridgers has released a new music video for her latest single, Lost Boys. It features a lovely song but more importantly it features Old School RuneScape – and it’s the first time Old School RuneScape has appeared in such a big-name music video. And because this is clearly as important as new GTA 6 details being revealed this week, we’re going to take a closer look.
The Lost Boys music video places Old School RuneScape at the 1:29 mark, where we see a middle-aged adult playing the game during their shift at work at a petrol station. This alone is a good sign because it shows the directors of the music understand exactly when RuneScape is best played: on the clock!
What’s funny is that this gameplay footage hasn’t been captured by the creators of this music video. Instead, it’s taken from Spoonkid’s enourmous video titled ‘I played Old School RuneScape for 1,000 hours‘. Eurogamer has contacted Spoonkid for comment, though he’s already thanked Bridgers for the cameo on social media.
But alas, lets go back to pretending the person in the music video was playing Old School RuneScape. he is interrupted from their Old School RuneScape session by Phoebe Bridgers and her friends who arrive at the petrol station and ask our brave player to scan Bridgers’ hand with the price scanner, which our player finds weird – because it is weird. Acquiescing to the pop star’s suggestion, he scans her hand and light flashes in his eyes as a result.
Inspired, he rushes to his basement at home to grab equipment and join Bridger and co’s fantastical cosplay. He grabs a pickaxe, a nod back to the earlier RuneScape gameplay, surely, then what looks to be a farming hoe. Then a bicycle helmet and a hammer. But with a construction level of only 59, he should probably leave the hammer at home.
The video ends as our player meets Bridger and her crew in the woods. He kneels on the ground and is given a proper knight helmet, then Bridgers shoots lasers into his eyes and face. Everyone dances in the woods under a disco ball and the video ends. We see the player one more time during the credits respawned in some video game world, but without the knight’s helmet, leading one to assume Bridgers killed him for larping.
Jokes aside, it’s a fun and unexpected place for RuneScape to show up. The game has made other multi-media appearances over the years, including a direct reference in television show White Collar, but never in something so – dare I say it – trendy. It’s a testament to RuneScape’s staying power over its 25 years of life how widespread it still seems to be. I wonder whose idea it was to include it – is Bridgers a secret Old School RunScaper? Eurogamer has contacted both the director of the music video and Jagex for comment.
Jagex would go on to include a reference to White Collar inside the game afterwards, so it’s entirely possible Phoebe Bridgers could pop up in RuneScape in the near future. We’ll have to wait and see!
