The promotional video for "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", filmed in early 1985, was directed by Nigel Dick. It was filmed in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, a desert in Southern California, the Salton Sea and Cabazon as well as a London studio. Curt Smith admitted to "Pitchfork" that the video shoot was a "disaster"; Dick was "in tears" on the second night of shooting. Smith also mentioned that there was an accident while filming the "dirt bikes and four-wheel off-road vehicles" scene, with one child flying out of a vehicle and smashing his head, leaving him unconscious.