The official music video was released on 3 July 2011.

The video portrays the story of an airline passenger awaiting his flight, who reads a magazine article about a 1940s Hollywood mogul who died in a plane crash as a result of a "pilot error."

The man finishes reading, runs down a flight of stairs, and boards his plane only to find the same '40s-era cast of characters aboard, with a stewardess leading him to the cockpit to pilot the plane.

Trevor Horn makes a cameo appearance as the movie mogul.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Anderson stated that on hearing "We Can Fly" he felt it sounded "a bit dated" and that Trevor Horn's production "wasn't as good as I expected".