The band's lead vocalist Bono has said the song was inspired by a fictional conversation with his friend Michael Hutchence about suicide.

"Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" originated from a gospel-influenced chord progression that guitarist the Edge composed on a piano in a Japanese hotel room.

Eno then set it into a different keyboard with extensive treatments, resulting in what the Edge called an "otherworldly effect" on top of his "traditional gospel piano sequence".

[2] Co-producer Daniel Lanois said the recorded version of the song was essentially a live take performed by the band with him and Eno.

[4] Mick Jagger and his daughter Elizabeth recorded backing vocals for the song, although these did not make the final mix.

I feel the biggest respect I could pay to him was not to write some stupid soppy song, so I wrote a really tough, nasty little number, slapping him around the head.

The first video (known as the US version) is directed by Joseph Kahn, features an American football game between the "Flys" [sic] and the "Lemons" filmed at the Houston Astrodome (named The Unforgettable Fire Dome in the video), and contains various inside jokes and references to the band's past—such as the team names themselves, which were the titles of two U2 singles released in the 1990s.

The main part of the video shows Brendan Fehr as a placekicker named Paul Hewson—Bono's real name—forced to relive a field goal he missed that cost his team the game.

[20] The second video, directed by Kevin Godley and aimed at an international audience, shows Bono being thrown out of a van several times, as if "stuck in a moment".

[22] Actress Scarlett Johansson covered the song for the soundtrack to the 2021 animated film, Sing 2, in which Bono appeared in a voice role as the character Clay Calloway.