Source plot synopsis — includes the ending
Koyaanisqatsi runs for 86 minutes and comprises a montage of visuals accompanied by minimal music, without narration, dialogue, or intertitles. The film is structured into 13 passages, which are demarcated by dramatic musical shifts in the score. It opens with pictographs from the Great Gallery of Horseshoe Canyon, followed by a close-up of a rocket launch, while a deep bass voice chants the film's title. The images dissolve into a sequence featuring landscapes of geological formations and dunes in the deserts of the American Southwest. Time-lapse imagery shows shadows quickly moving across landscapes, and bats flying out of a cave. Clouds move in time-lapse footage, which is followed by a waterfall, then ocean waves in slow-motion. This segues into footage of resources: reservoirs, cultivated flowers, surface mining, electrical power infrastructure, evaporation ponds, oil drilling, blast furnaces, and concludes with a nuclear weapons test forming a mushroom cloud over the desert.
The following sequence begins with people sun bathing on a beach next to a power plant, followed by people touring a power plant. The next images show clouds reflected on the façade of a glass skyscraper, Boeing 747 aircraft taxiing at an airport, cars driving on urban freeways, military vehicles and aircraft, and air-to-ground weaponry being deployed.
The film continues with modern skyscrapers in New York City, followed by areas of urban decay. Dilapidated buildings and other abandoned infrastructure undergo demolition and form large dust clouds. The sequence concludes with a coda featuring time-lapse footage of clouds and sunlight reflected in façades of glass skyscrapers in time-lapse, followed by people walking through busy city streets in slow-motion.
The next sequence begins with an introduction that shows time-lapse footage of sunsets reflected in the façades of skyscrapers, wide shots of cities at night with vehicle lights moving fast along streets and freeways, and the moon disappearing behind a building. The rhythm of the music increases while time-lapse footage in cities show vehicles driving, crowds of people walking, shopping centers, factories, food processing plants, and channel surfing. As the sequence comes to a close, the music and visuals are at their fastest, until the sequence ends and the music goes silent.
Close-up shots of microchips are interspersed with satellite photography of city grids. The final sequence features various individuals of all social classes, some of whom look directly into the camera, accompanied by Hopi prophecies sung in the soundtrack. As the film's title is chanted in a deep voice, a rocket is launched and explodes shortly after take-off; the camera follows its debris as it falls back towards Earth. The film concludes with another image of the pictograph seen in the opening shot.
The end title card lists translations of the Hopi word koyaanisqatsi:
The following screen shows a translation of the three Hopi prophecies sung near the end of the film:
The following sequence begins with people sun bathing on a beach next to a power plant, followed by people touring a power plant. The next images show clouds reflected on the façade of a glass skyscraper, Boeing 747 aircraft taxiing at an airport, cars driving on urban freeways, military vehicles and aircraft, and air-to-ground weaponry being deployed.
The film continues with modern skyscrapers in New York City, followed by areas of urban decay. Dilapidated buildings and other abandoned infrastructure undergo demolition and form large dust clouds. The sequence concludes with a coda featuring time-lapse footage of clouds and sunlight reflected in façades of glass skyscrapers in time-lapse, followed by people walking through busy city streets in slow-motion.
The next sequence begins with an introduction that shows time-lapse footage of sunsets reflected in the façades of skyscrapers, wide shots of cities at night with vehicle lights moving fast along streets and freeways, and the moon disappearing behind a building. The rhythm of the music increases while time-lapse footage in cities show vehicles driving, crowds of people walking, shopping centers, factories, food processing plants, and channel surfing. As the sequence comes to a close, the music and visuals are at their fastest, until the sequence ends and the music goes silent.
Close-up shots of microchips are interspersed with satellite photography of city grids. The final sequence features various individuals of all social classes, some of whom look directly into the camera, accompanied by Hopi prophecies sung in the soundtrack. As the film's title is chanted in a deep voice, a rocket is launched and explodes shortly after take-off; the camera follows its debris as it falls back towards Earth. The film concludes with another image of the pictograph seen in the opening shot.
The end title card lists translations of the Hopi word koyaanisqatsi:
The following screen shows a translation of the three Hopi prophecies sung near the end of the film:
Sources and content license
Source and revision history ↗ · Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Koyaanisqatsi. Section headings and formatting adjusted. · Content license