"Nuclear" / Standing on the Edge

About

Nuclear is a 2014 pop-rock song by British musician Mike Oldfield that became closely associated with the Metal Gear fandom, with the opening lyrics “standing on the edge” in particular, after it was featured as background music for an extended trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain shown during Konami’s press conference at 2014 E3.

Origin

"Nuclear" is the eleventh track featured in Mike Oldfield's^[1] studio album Man on the Rocks,^[2] released on March 3rd, 2014. According to Oldfield, his main inspiration for the song was his grandfather experiences during World War I, and how war changed him.^[3] On June 9th, 2015, during the E3 2014 Konami's conference, a trailer for Metal Gear V: ThePhantom Pain was released, including the song in the background. The English version of the trailer uploaded to Konami's official YouTube channel gained over 798,000 views as September 20th, 2015.

Standing on the edge of the crater
Like the prophets once said
and the ashes are all cold now
No more bullets and the embers are dead
Whispers in the air tell the tales
Of the brothers gone
Desolation, devastation
What a mess we made, when it all went wrong

Watching from the edge of the circus
For the games to begin
Gladiators draw their swords
form their ranks for Armageddon

I'm nuclear
I'm wild
I'm breaking up inside
A heart of broken glass
Defiled
Deep inside
The abandoned child

Standing on the edge of the underworld
Looking at the abyss
and I'm hoping for some miracle
To breakout, to escape from all this
Whispers in the air tell the tales
of a life that's gone
Desolation, devastation
What a mess we made, when it all went wrong

I'm nuclear
I'm wild
I'm breaking up inside
A heart of broken glass
Defiled
Deep inside
The abandoned child

I'm nuclear
I'm wild
I'm breaking up inside
A heart of broken glass
Defiled
Deep inside
The abandoned child

Spread

The same day as Konami released the trailer, a leaked version was posted on 4chan's video games board /v/, where some users remarked the song.^[4] One of the responses included a modified version of the John is kill copypasta featuring the first line of the song (shown bellow). During the following days, the song lyrics started being used as forum game,^[5] in similar vein to Lankyposting or Brendanposting. The first of those lyrics, Standing on the edge, also started being used as catchphrase.^[6]

On January 10th, 2015, Youtuber DAMN SON uploaded a video titled "NUCL-HE-AR", featuring a remix of Lanky Kong singing Nuclear, and gaining over 142,000 views in the following 9 months. On July 11th, 2015, mashup artist Triple-Q uploaded to his main channel a mashup of Psy's Gentleman and Nuclear, gaining over 50,00 views in less than three months.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References