Synopsis

Bono performs "In God's Country" alone against stark studio backgrounds, first in a dim black room with a guitar and later beneath intense spotlights in a black outfit and hat. His performance is intercut with archival images of the United States, including miners, soldiers, factories, oil fields, city streets, Mount Rushmore, the Statue of Liberty, and rural workers. The imagery creates a rapid visual portrait of America as both industrial powerhouse and mythic landscape, reflecting the song's mixture of admiration, spiritual searching, and unease.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was created as part of the MTV documentary "Outside It's America," which followed U2 during the early stages of the 1987 Joshua Tree Tour through the American Southwest.

• Filming took place in Arizona in April 1987, shortly after the band began its major U.S. touring breakthrough.

• Bono is the only U2 member seen in the finished video. The other three musicians do not appear, making it an unusual entry in the band's videography.

• The archival montage moves between black-and-white and color footage, combining images of labor, industry, religion, national symbols, and everyday American life.

• The video's imagery includes Bond's Clothes in Times Square, steel production, oil derricks, sheep, people tilling the soil, miners, and views of Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty.

• Unlike many contemporary promotional clips, the video functions less as a narrative than as a compact visual essay on the American landscape and its national mythology.

• "In God's Country" was released as a single in Canada and the United States in November 1987. Its video remained closely associated with "Outside It's America" rather than being circulated as a major standalone clip.