Behind the scenes on The Prodigy 's Firestarter video directed by Walter Stern.
Filmed deep in the shadows of an abandoned London Underground tunnel at Aldwych—once a refuge for Londoners during the Blitz—the second video for The Prodigy's iconic track "Firestarter" was born. But it wasn’t the first attempt.
The original video, directed by the same guy behind a Mustang jeans Ad the band liked, fell flat. "It didn’t represent us properly," Liam Howlett explained. "We turned up, and he put Keith in a straightjacket or some shit." Howlett shook his head at the memory. "The finished video was just rubbish. So, I told the label, 'Nah, I’m not using that.' We binned it."
Frustrated and back to square one, Howlett reached out to Walter Stern, the director behind some of the band's most defining visuals—“No Good,” “Poison,” “Voodoo People.” They had worked together on five videos before, so Howlett made the call. "I ended up ringing him back up and saying, 'Man, you gotta help us out. We need a video for this track in two weeks.'"
The video’s now-iconic look was pure accident. "The stars and stripes jumper," Keith Flint recalled with a smirk. "I was on my way to the shoot, stopped by Camden Market, and spotted this jumper with stars and stripes in a second-hand store. I liked the contradiction of a British band with American iconography."
"It was only five quid," Flint laughed. "I threw it on without much thought, totally DIY. But that’s what worked—nothing forced, nothing over planned. Sometimes that raw, honest approach just pays off. It had its own impact, completely unintentional but unforgettable."
With Walter behind the camera, Flint’s snarling, chaotic energy, and the eerie, gritty tunnel backdrop, the "Firestarter" video captured a raw, rebellious spirit—exactly what The Prodigy was all about. It became a visual anthem, a perfect match for the track's defiant sound.