This song addresses the topic of patriotism. Frontman and chief songwriter Billie Joe Armstrong told Q magazine May 2009: "It brings up 21st Century Breakdown in a lot of ways, and the 21 gun-salute for someone that's fallen, but done in an arena rock 'n' roll sort of way."
At the pre-release preview of 21st Century Breakdown, the MTV News reviewer called this song, "a cell-phones-in-the-air anthem."
Marc Webb (Maroon 5, My Chemical Romance) directed the music video, which features a fugitive bank-robbing couple holed up in a room with Green Day lyrics scrawled on the walls. To stage the shoot-out, a thousand tiny explosives called squibs were embedded in the walls and furniture to mimic gunfire, and the crew shot marbles from guns to shatter the fishtank. No fish were harmed - they were swapped out for rubber ones - but the actors (Josh Boswell and Lisa Stelly) were left battered and bruised. He was hit by shrapnel from the exploding room while she received a squib blast that drew blood.
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