The accompanying music video for the song was directed by Floria Sigismondi and premiered in November 2011, featuring actor Diego Luna.

[1] An official acoustic rendition was released to digital retailers on January 16, 2012, this version was included in Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection edition.

[2] The song has been covered by several artists, including Kelly Clarkson,[3] Olivia Rodrigo and Conan Gray, Richard Marx, Jordan Pruitt, Selena Gomez & the Scene, and Tate McRae.

On September 13, 2011, at the New York City's Irving Plaza, Capitol Records confirmed to Billboard that "The One That Got Away" would be the sixth single from Teenage Dream.

[12] Capitol Records said that they are not specifically releasing the song in hopes of it reaching number one and rewriting Hot 100 history (since Perry was the first woman to obtain five number ones on the chart from one album), rather the decision came out of "Perry's fondness for the song, its ear-catching hook and her obvious track record of success at pop radio".

[17] Leah Greenblatt from Entertainment Weekly, said that the song is "a midtempo ode to a summer-after-high-school love with whom she recalls sharing Mustang makeout sessions to Radiohead'".

[18] Michael Wood from Spin magazine said that the song is one of the album's quieter cuts and that it recalls "Perry's singer-songwriter days at L.A.'s Hotel Café".

[24] Mikael Wood from Spin magazine said that although "Perry delivers the gurl-gone-wild stuff with requisite sass", she actually "sounds more engaged on 'Not Like the Movies,' and 'The One That Got Away'.

[18] Robert Copsey of the website Digital Spy awarded the song with four out of five stars and said: "'Summer after high school, when we first met/ We make out in your Mustang, to Radiohead,' Katy Perry reminisces on the opening of her latest, potentially record-breaking single.

We've always known that she had a penchant for the alt-rock, but we wonder if KP's 18-year-old self ever thought she'd be substituting the sounds of Thom Yorke and co. for the sugar-coated melodies that have made her one of the best-known artists on the planet today?

'Used to steal our parents' liquor, and climb through the roof/ Talk about our future, like we had a clue,' she continues over a toe-tapping drum beat and delicate piano riff as she agonises over the loss of her one true love.

[38] The video was shot at the Lima Residence,[39] a contemporary home located in Calabasas, an affluent city in Los Angeles County, California.

[40] Photos from the set surfaced online, showing Perry wearing a conservative long-sleeved dress as well as sporting gray hair and prosthetic face wrinkles.

[46] A seven-minute extended version of the video was shown on November 11, 2011, exclusively at select advance screenings of the motion picture My Week with Marilyn.

[48] Released on November 11, 2011, the video begins with an elderly woman (Perry) in a white long-sleeved dress entering her modernistic home, returning from a meeting.

As the song plays, the happy girl and the boyfriend paint portraits of each other, dress up wildly, dance at a stranger's wedding, and give each other a makeshift tattoo.

The younger version is also shown in her older self's closet, crying and singing while the boyfriend is seen driving in a Ford Mustang to blow off steam from the fight.

The boyfriend opens the sun visor above him while driving and finds the veil of the dress the younger version of Perry had worn at the wedding.

He swerves to avoid the rocks and accidentally drives off a cliff, dying in the subsequent crash without getting a chance to make up, while the woman's younger self collapses at the same time (possibly representing the death of her colorful personality).

While Johnny Cash's cover of "You Are My Sunshine" plays quietly in the background, the woman's older self now sports a dark conservative long-sleeved dress and is revealed to have driven to that same spot where the boyfriend had died.

Saddened, the elderly woman turns back and silently walks away from the cliff to return home as the screen fades to black.

[51] Jocelyn Vena of MTV News said: "Katy Perry's moody, contemplative clip for 'The One That Got Away' perfectly encapsulates both the joy of falling in love and the heartbreak of letting go.

[53] A seven-minute director's cut version was shown exclusively at select advance screenings of the motion picture My Week with Marilyn on November 11, 2011.

Suddenly, she is transported "to another life", Katy Perry's Candyfornia featured in her "California Gurls" music video, where her love interest is still alive and well; they eventually reunite and kiss.

Her AMA 2011 performance was followed by a lengthy standing ovation, and presentation of a special award acknowledging Perry as the only female to have five number-one singles from the same album in the United States.

[59] An acoustic version of the song, produced by Jon Brion, was released to the iTunes Store on January 16, 2012,[60][12] garnering more favorable reviews, with critics noting that "The One That Got Away" sounds very naturally as a ballad.

[62] American Idol contestant Alyssa Raghu sang the song in front of Katy Perry on the Top 10 Reveal episode of Season 17.