 As Kiedis begins to sing he appears on camera bathed in purple light with blue fluorescent stars as a backdrop , surrounded by clouds . As the camera pans closer , an image of the skyline of Van Sant 's home city , Portland , is superimposed from his chin downwards . Flea and drummer Chad Smith are then placed into the image while playing their instruments . Van Sant wanted superimposing to be a notable component in the overall theme of the video ; the idea came from a project he worked on with novelist William S. Burroughs . The scenes in the studio are coupled with scenes of Kiedis walking the streets of LA , wearing a white T @-@ shirt with " To Hell And Back " printed on the front ; as he walks , the camera focuses on various people . He can , at various points in the video , be seen standing in front of Belmont Tunnel before its closure . This , according to Kiedis , was vital ; he felt the studio portion alone would not convey enough emotion : " the first time we shot [ the video ] it was all in a studio and that didn 't seem to capture everything we needed to capture . It needed more ; it needed to be combined with an outdoor , streets @-@ of @-@ Los @-@ Angeles thing " . Towards the end , Kiedis is seen running down the Los Angeles River in slow motion ; the background is a shot of an atomic bomb exploding . The video ends with various superimposed images of the band , followed by Frusciante playing alone on a pedestal — this time with an inverted shot of the ocean as the sky . 
