This was the project that started me on making these edits. I originally saw a clip in an ad for eternal.tv that caught my imagination immediately.
The connection to Tool felt obvious. I then started scanning the discography and it hit me: that Chronopolis and “The Patient” already seemed to exist in the same conceptual space.
Chronopolis is a surreal animated film depicting a city outside ordinary time, inhabited by impassive beings whose primary occupation is the composition and manipulation of time itself. The film is deeply meditative, sterile, and oppressive. Its world feels suspended in anticipation, as though all activity is building toward some inevitable convergence.
That atmosphere immediately reminded me of The Patient. If there is a single recurring emotional state in this song, it is endurance.
That lyrical framework maps surprisingly well onto Chronopolis’ premise. The inhabitants of the city appear trapped within ritualized monotony, endlessly maintaining systems larger than themselves while waiting for an event they cannot fully control.
“If there were no rewards to reap No loving embrace to see me through This tedious path I've chosen here I certainly would've walked away by now”
What initially surprised me was how naturally much of the film aligned to the song with minimal intervention. Large sections required little more than trimming or minor shifts in timing. That was both exciting and deceptive, because while the macro structure felt intuitive, the details quickly became much more demanding.
The primary challenge was pacing. Chronopolis is already slow, sometimes arduously so, sometimes almost antagonistically. This creates friction when paired with a song as rhythmically deliberate as The Patient. TOOL songs punish lazy editing.
Because of this, I spent a significant amount of time making subtle adjustments:
I hope some of that intentionality comes through in the final product. Every edit is made with an effort to preserve the identity of both the source film and the music, allowing each to reinforce rather than overpower the other. I hope the effort of matching timing to the song and how I tried to match the intensity of certain shots with the music comes through as well. There is one particular moment I am proud of, providing this bit of solace from the punishing chorus:
Then following up with the inevitable decline of the immortal beings in the final part of the song. Even after, showing that they are still around, and still conducting experiments, forever.
To me, this is a cycle, and endless and ultimately fruitless recurrence of these beings attempting to hold on to their immortality, and yet continuing to fail. That’s not exactly what Chronopolis is about, but it’s what I’ve shaped this story to be. Because like Maynard’s lyrics evoke, though there is sickness and burden and ultimately loss, that doesn’t mean he’s the only one suffering through it, and this cycle will happen again, just in another form.
And, perhaps more thoughtfully, realizing this and continuing on in spite of the knowledge that this effort too shall fail.