Everything Will Be Alright in the End - Teasers

Prior to the release of Everything Will Be Alright in the End, these videos were uploaded to Weezer's official YouTube channel weekly, with the first video being released March 19, 2014, and the final video on October 8, one day after the album's release.

Story synopsis

In 1965, a man named Joe Laffoley, uses an oscilloscope-like device he has created (the Futurescope) to witness images from the future. He observes a young man named Sebastian at various points in his life in the future. He keeps notes in hopes of finding answers to three questions. The questions are not explicitly stated in the teaser videos, but correspond to each of the album's three themes (Belladonna, The Panopticon Artist, and Patriarchia) and are stated explicitly in the script (1. How can he find a girl? 2. How can he find fame? 3. How can he find his father?) Sebastian is shown from childhood, growing up to move to Los Angeles, falling in and out of love, and finding fame (and infamy) with his band The Astronauts. Laffoley continues to use the machine, while his superiors or colleagues try to prevent him from doing so. In the end, Laffoley sees Sebastian and the Astronauts winning an award for Album of the Year, which Sebastian dedicates to his (implied to be recently-deceased) father: Joe Laffoley. Finally realizing the answer to his last question, Laffoley is carried away by men in white coats.

Cast

Colin Martin as Joe Laffoley
Zach Kanner as Sebastian
Lucas Martin as Boy Sebastian
Amanda Tovah Rose as Bella
Allison Volk as Cleo
Mhari Steenbock as Mom
Jeff Greenberg as George Blotkin
Richard Downie and James Toth as Research Fellows

YouTube teasers

1. =w=

Short clips of the band playing the songs "Flight Plans" and "Ain't Got Nobody". The video ends with text that reads "in the studio now".

2. =w= 2

Various shots of studio equipment. Rivers is shown composing a tweet on his laptop: "The Rock Gods have given us a stern test from the start." Rivers adds: "Hashtag Groupon". Cut to Scott addressing the camera: "It's day eight or nine. *coughs* There's all these vicious, awesome guitars happening." Cut to Rivers asking "You guys gonna eat today?". The video ends with Rivers playing a segment on guitar from the bridge to "Back to the Shack", followed by a split-second display of text on the screen that reads "I had another nightmare".

3. =w= 3

Rivers in the studio talking: "I don't remember any of us conceiving of bottled water [...] Hand sanitizer did not exist. Not to mention this (pointing to laptop), and this (holding up phone), and this (holding up plastic container)...oh, wait a minute (laughing). Oh, actually that was very much in play in '93 (pointing at lava lamp)." Rivers then greets Ric Ocasek as he enters. The rest of the video consists of Ocasek observing the band playing a segment of the song "Da Vinci", filmed through a fisheye lens. The video ends with a split-second display of text onscreen that reads: "There was a monster rampaging but he's sad. He's never satisfied".

4. =w= 4

Recording of a photo shoot with photographer Brantley Gutierrez. The band can be heard playing the songs Aneurysm and About a Girl by Nirvana.

5. =w= 5

Additional footage of the band from the aforementioned photo shoot. Brantley Gutierrez introduces himself.

6. =w= 6

Opens with old, black and white footage of a man in a white shirt operating large machinery, followed by footage of Rivers and Scott sitting on a couch, listening to the songs "Walk on the Wild Side" by Lou Reed and "Revolution 9" by The Beatles. Next, black and white footage of a door opening and revealing a black square, while a segment of "Back to the Shack" plays.

7. =w= 7 "The Waste Land"

Old, black and white footage describing the creation of a video monitor. Eventually, the display reveals modern footage of Weezer recording the song "The Waste Land". The video cuts to black, followed by the audio clip of a child saying "I had another nightmare", which would eventually open the final album.

8. =w= 8 "Ain't Got Nobody"

Closeup shots of a key turning in a car's ignition. A few seconds of the 1963 song The Ice Cream Man by The Tornados . "Ain't Got Nobody" plays over the black and white footage of a car driving down a desert road, which cuts to interior footage of a car crashing as the camera zooms out on a video monitor, next to a man sitting with his back turned. Rivers Cuomo appears on the monitor as the camera zooms back in. Video cuts to black followed by an audio clip of a woman saying "You guys are amazing."

9. =w= 9

Distorted footage of the band conversing with Ric Ocasek. A man adjusts the signal on the video monitor, and continues writing something on graph paper, revealed to be the album's title. A child can be heard saying "I had another nightmare", followed by a woman's voice: "Go back to sleep, honey. Everything will be alright in the end." "Back to the Shack" begins playing over shot of the album's title, joined by the words "Weezer" and "Produced by Ric Ocasek".

10. EWBAITE 10 "Eulogy For A Rock Band"

The intro to "Eulogy for a Rock Band" plays. A man resembling Rivers Cuomo named Sebastian, with glasses and a backwards hat, is in a headlock before being hoisted into a dumpster by a group of three other boys. The camera zooms out to reveal Joe Laffoley sitting at his desk. He turns to his left and pulls out from a printer a newspaper page with the header "Crust Magazine". He examines it. A billboard can be seen that reads "The plane went down at roughly 2am after the band's triumphant show at Wembley." Laffoley sits back down and begins writing as a new video appears on the monitor: Sebastian is putting on a backpack. His mother asks "Where are you going?" He replies: "I'm moving to L.A.". She walks towards him and hugs him. He reassures her: "Don't worry, Mom, everything will be alright in the end." He leaves and is shown walking down the street with a guitar case in hand. The chorus to "Eulogy for a Rock Band" plays.

11. EWBAITE 11 "My Mystery"

A young boy is shown sleeping in bed. The name "Sebastian" can be seen on the wall. The camera slowly zooms in as the intro to "Anonymous" (at this time still under the title "My Mystery") begins playing. The camera zooms in all the way onto his eye. His eye opens. Cut to a pan over a rough illustration of a forest, with video shots of Weezer playing interspersed throughout. At the end of the pan, a giant monster can be seen traversing the mountain range. This is revealed to be the cover of the album, Everything Will Be Alright in the End.

12. ewbaite 12 "Return To Ithaka"

Shot of the album cover as segments of "Back to the Shack" play. Cut to Joe Laffoley pulling pages out of a machine and inspecting them as "Return to Ithaka" plays. The pages have dates on them that all appear to correspond with the chronology of events depicted in each teaser video (NOTE: each number appears to correspond to a week, not the respective numbered video, eg. no video was released on week 10, so #11 corresponds to video #10, etc):

1. 2014-03
2. 2014-03
3. 2014-03
4. 2014-04-09
5. 2014-04-09
6. 1965, 2014-04, 2014-05
7. 1965, 2014-05
8. 1965, 1990, 2014-05
9. 1965, 2014-06
10. n/a
11. 1986, 1965, 1985-11-02
12. 1976, 1965
13. 1965, 2014?
14. 1986, 1965
15. 2014?
16. 1991?, 2014?
17. 1995-04-03, 1994?
18. 1994?, 2014, 1965
19. 1965, 1994?
20. 1965, 1999?
21. 1997?, 1965

Joe Laffoley begins writing on a sheet of graph paper: "September 30, 2014" (the album's original intended release date).

13. ewbaite 13 "Da Vinci"

A girl is seen sitting on her bed, writing in a notebook. The phone rings and she sets the notebook down. She answers with "Hello?" and the song "Da Vinci" can be heard as the camera zooms out to reveal Joe Laffoley watching her on a video monitor. The monitor cuts to footage of Scott and (possibly) Rivers tossing a baseball back and forth inside the studio. Laffoley attempts to adjust the machine when the phone rings. He answers with "Hello", but no one is there. He attempts to adjust the dials on his phone to no avail, growing increasingly agitated. The camera zooms back on the TV monitor's static, which fades back to the girl's bedroom. The girl is listening intently and growing visibly emotional as "Da Vinci" resumes playing. Cut to the album's (then-intended) release date.

14. ewbaite 14 "I've Had It Up To Here" Pt. 1

Exterior shot of a building marquee that reads "ELECTRIC RECORDS". We see an older record executive, George Blotkin in a tracksuit, sitting on a couch. He says: "I'm a fan of even some of the deeper cuts, like 'El Scorpio'. You see, that's where we come in. We've got some of the most powerful and modern tools to guarantee your exposure to the greatest number of people." He hands Sebastian a stack of books. Sebastian opens the books and then glances up at the woman sitting to to the Blotkin's right. She smiles back. We cut to a crowd of fans at an outdoor concert as the solo from "I've Had It Up to Here" plays, then cut to Joe Laffoley watching it on his screen. The album cover and date is shown again.

15. ewbaite 15 “I’ve Had It Up To Here” Pt. 2

Joe Laffoley sits down in a chair and directly addresses the camera. "April 3, ****. The transmissions are clearly answers to my three questions. Initially arriving non-sequentially they now arrive in chronological order. I've sorted them by theme, however, rather than their respective dates." He turns around as something begins to print behind him. He takes the printout and reads it. It is a chart titled "A quick-look at music LOWLIGHTS of the year". Most of it is blurred out, but the first row is readable:

	LEAST FAVORITE ARTIST	LEAST FAVORITE MUSIC "DISCOVERY"	BIGGEST LAME-O'S	MOST ANNOYING SONG	MOST DISAPPOINTING ALBUM	DIE IN A PLANE CRASH	MOST AWAITED RELEASE OF 1997
Nicole Giordano Ashjiam & Nik Ashjiam	The Astronauts	[blurred out]	The Astronauts	"My Body Pain" The Astronauts	"Help Me" The Astronauts	The Astronauts	SkaFace

(Note: The chart appears to be modified from a music article from the entertainment news/blog website Fresno Beehive [1].) Laffoley returns to writing at his desk. In the background, the band Weezer is shown posing for a photo shoot as more of the song "I've Had It Up to Here" begins to play. We also see footage of Scott Shriner receiving a haircut, before cutting to the album cover and date.

16. ewbaite 16 “I’ve Had It Up To Here” Pt. 3

Close up of Sebastian. "Enjoy your headphones." he says angrily before grabbing a stack of books off of the table and storming out. The track-suited music executive and the woman look on, dumbfounded. We see footage of a Weezer concert as more of "I've Had It Up to Here" plays. Joe Laffoley is watching his monitor with headphones when there is a sudden hammering on the door. He quickly shuts off all of his equipment.

17. ewbaite 17 Listing

Shot of Joe Laffoley's unoccupied office. Muffled voices can be heard as if from an adjacent room. Distant banging noises can be heard. The camera zooms in on a hanging piece of paper containing a non-sequential track list:
5. I've Had It Up to Here
2. Back to the Shack
7. Da Vinci
1. Ain't Got Nobody
8. Go Away
9. Cleopatra
4. Lonely Girl
3. Eulogy for a Rock Band
6. The British Are Coming
10. Foolish Father
The Futurescope Trilogy
I. The Waste Land
II. Anonymous
III. Return to Ithaka

18. ewbaite 18 "Go Away"

Laffoley sits down in his chair and addresses the camera again: "I haven't been able to make any developments here for three days. They cut off the power when they found out what I was doing. I'll have to go forward without anyone's help. Anyway, I patched in the one-ten(?) generator so we should be back online." The monitor in the background turns on and we zoom in to it as "Go Away" plays. We see Sebastian pounding on a door dejectedly. We cut to the girl from video #13 sitting on her bed with a guitar. The shots of her and of Sebastian are overlaid, before fading into footage of Rivers Cuomo and Bethany Cosentino performing onstage with Weezer. We see the album cover and date again (with the new, final release date of October 7, 2014).

19. ewbaite 19 "Cleopatra"

Laffoley addresses the camera: "Alright, I had to make a deal with these swine but I'm back in business for another six weeks. The good news is that I've found some more information about this other woman. She's a bit older, and a lot more experienced. I gotta admire this kid. Seriously, though, I feel like I've almost got this first question answered." he hits a switch and the video monitor turns on. The song "Cleopatra" beings playing, and we see footage of Sebastian sitting on a car while strumming an acoustic guitar, a shot of a car on fire, concert footage of Weezer, and a shot of the stack of books from episode #14 sitting on a car seat with a burning photo of the woman, Cleo.

20. ewbaite 20 "Lonely Girl"

A shot of the band Weezer standing against a wall. The song "Lonely Girl" is playing, and Rivers is lip-singing. We fade into a shot of Sebastian and the girl from episode #13 lying in the sand. She strokes his hair and they embrace. We cut to Laffoley, who is observing them. He looks down at his notebook page, which lists the album's songs sorted by three categories, and crosses out the category Bella Donna. After showing the album's cover and release date again, we see a shot of the stack of books seen in the previous episode. The books are in pristine condition, while the surrounding car is burned and melted.

21. ewbaite 21 "Anonymous" Pt. 2

Sebastian is walking toward the camera near a pile of large boulders in the desert (a photo taken of Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California, near where Rivers Cuomo took his first Vipassana meditation course). He opens a door and walks down a hallway to a door numbered 103. He pauses to collect himself before entering. The song "Anonymous" begins playing. He closes the door behind him. Cut to footage of Weezer in concert, followed by a shot of Laffoley's laboratory. A brilliant, white light is emanating from the video monitor.

22. ewbaite 22 "The British Are Coming"

Sebastian is sitting in a wrecked car. "The British Are Coming" begins to play. As he steps out of the car he grabs his guitar. Footage of the members of Weezer playing along, wearing American Revolutionary War uniforms. Sebastian removes the photo of Cleo from between the books seen in previous videos.

23. ewbaite 23 "Back To The Shack"

Behind the scenes video for the music video for "Back to the Shack". Director Warren Fu explains the video's premise, with the band playing on the moon. We see the band play along to the song in real time (with the music playing back fast) in order to slow it down to create the suggestion of weightlessness. Drummer Pat Wilson remarks: "The concept is to show how easily the original moon landing was faked." At the end, we cut to Laffoley observing the making-of video. He exclaims "Ha-ha! Question number two!" and crosses out the category "The Panopticon Artist" in his notebook.

24. ewbaite 24 "Foolish Father"

We see footage of an awards show. "Album of the year goes to... The Astronauts!" Accepting the award, Sebastian says "I wanted to dedicate this award to my father, Joe Laffoley. He was a great man." The choir segment of "Foolish Father" begins playing. We see Laffoley watching in his laboratory, realizing that Sebastian is, in fact, his son. He touches the screen as the power is cut. He smiles to himself, mouthing the word "Three", as men in white suits arrive to carry him away. Roll credits.