Telling harsh truths about the modern music business, Artifact gives intimate access to singer/actor Jared Leto and his band Thirty Seconds to Mars as they battle their label in a brutal lawsuit and record their album This Is War. The film is a true artifact of our times, as its subjects struggle with big questions over art, money and integrity.

The video, which runs for 13 minutes and 10 seconds and was directed by Jared Leto under the pseudonym Bartholomew Cubbins, premiered on MTV on November 29, 2010. The experimental short film is 12 minutes long and contains excerpts from the tracks "Escape" and "Night of the Hunter." It takes place in what is believed to be a dream, and explores a violent and sexual world where 30 Seconds to Mars are stalked and attacked by various figures known as "The Gimps", while a lesbian couple known as Shae and Sunisa engage in sexual bondage activities with Jared while he is confronted by hallucinations. Jared spends the entire video half-naked being chased by a sledgehammer-wielding killer obsessed with trying to kill him. Shannon battles with a woman who shares romantic feeling for him ending with a kiss. Tomo, who liberates a woman from her abuser, receives a key as a gift. He composes the orchestral score of the song with three identical copies of himself.