L: Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never), photo by Andrew Strasser & Shawn Lovejoy/Joe Perri. M: Mr. Beast, thumbnail from “Face Your Biggest Fear To Win $800,000” via YouTube. R: Iggy Pop (animated), still from “The Pure and the Damned (Official Video from Good Time Soundtrack)” via YouTube.
MrBeast — the 25-year-old YouTuber legally named James Donaldson who, with 239 million subscribers, is the most-followed individual on the platform (and has the second-most subscribed-to channel, trailing only the Indian record label T-Series) — dropped a new video over the weekend titled “Face Your Biggest Fear To Win $800,000.”
Following one of Donaldson’s most tried-and-true formats, a cash-for-content bargain with an eager contestant, the video finds his friend Mack fighting his demons Fear Factor style for a chance at all the marbles. After successfully completing several daunting trials, Mack is forced to face his greatest fear, the “fear of failure,” by going up against a challenge that had burned him in the past: a spin on the cookie challenge from Squid Game.
Mack ultimately fails again at his final task, and his downfall is soundtracked by — you guessed it — the intro to “The Pure and the Damned,” the Oneohtrix Point Never-produced, Iggy Pop-featuring end credits theme from the Safdie brothers’ 2017 film Good Time.
While the track’s solemn opening piano keys fit well with the tragic ending of “Face Your Biggest Fear To Win $800,000,” the fact that it appears in any MrBeast video is, to put it mildly, surprising. Donaldson has previously collaborated with film composers — Hans Zimmer scored a 2022 video documenting Donaldson’s journey through Antarctica (where the two creator/influencers apparently met) — but OPN is a decidedly deeper cut, even considering his recent success as the executive producer of The Weeknd‘s Dawn FM.
According to the YouTube caption for “Face Your Biggest Fear To Win $800,000,” the music for the video was sourced from the licensing platform Lickd, and Oneohtrix Point Never is explicitly credited next to a streaming smartlink for “The Pure and the Damned,” so it seems as though Donaldson’s team went through the proper channels to obtain the track. Still, The FADER has reached out to MrBeast, as well as representatives of Oneohtrix Point Never, Iggy Pop, and Warp Records (the label that put out the Good Time soundtrack) for insight into what is perhaps one of the greatest mysteries of our time. At time of publication, none of the involved parties have responded to our requests for comment.
Watch MrBeast’s new video “Face Your Biggest Fear To Win $800,000” (the song starts just past the 21-minute mark) above and the 2017 music video for Oneohtrix Point Never and Iggy Pop’s “The Pure and the Damned” below. Sound off in the comments to let us know which video you like better.
