Synopsis

The band moves through a nighttime Berlin scrapyard, carrying white panels that become surfaces for projected images. Their faces and bodies appear amid flickering light, car wrecks, smoke, and bursts of fire. The performance is fragmented rather than narrative, with the industrial setting and mechanical imagery matching the track's intimate but abrasive mood. The clip builds toward the destruction of a wrecked car, leaving a stark image of release and physical impact.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed outside Hansa Studios in Berlin while Depeche Mode were working on the album "Black Celebration."

• The apparent television screens carried by the band are actually sheets or thin pieces of hardboard painted white for projection.

• The projections were created from film shot for the video, edited, and then displayed on the moving performers and objects. The production used Berlin at night rather than an elaborate constructed set.

• "Stripped" was released in the United Kingdom on February 10, 1986, as the first single from "Black Celebration."

• The song's opening engine sound came from Dave Gahan's Porsche 911. Fireworks and other recorded noises were also incorporated into the track, strengthening the video's mechanical and explosive atmosphere.

• An alternate cut of the video, also made in 1986, remained unreleased until its inclusion in the 2016 "Video Singles Collection."

• The original video later appeared on the compilations "The Videos 86>98," "The Best of Depeche Mode Volume 1," and "Video Singles Collection."