The Real-Life Subway Incident That Inspired the Rolling Stones' 'Anybody Seen My Baby?' Video

The music video for “Anybody Seen My Baby?” (1997) was directed by Samuel Bayer and features the band playing inside a mobile bar that drives through New York City while a woman (played by a young Angelina Jolie) frantically searches for her baby. The concept was directly inspired by a real 1996 news story about a woman who accidentally left her infant on a New York City subway train.

The incident occurred when a mother got off the train at 14th Street, forgetting her baby in the stroller as the doors closed. The train continued on, sparking a citywide search that ended with the baby found safe later that day. The raw panic and confusion of the mother stuck with Bayer, who adapted it into the video’s narrative. The mobile bar itself was a custom-built set that could transform between indoor and outdoor shots, but the emotional core came straight from that subway