text: In the music video, both Hetfield and Hammett play ESP guitars; Newsted is on a 5-string Wal bass. Newsted plays bass with his fingers at the start of the song, and later switches to a pick.
  Two of the three versions of the "One" music video appear on 2 of One, a VHS released on July 1, 1990, and both would again be featured on the band's 2006 music video compilation DVD.
  The music video was ranked at number 38 on Rock on the Net: MTV: 100 Greatest Music Videos and number one on Fuse's No. 1 Countdown: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Special Edition. As of October 6, 2023, the video has over 300 million views on YouTube.
  Live performance
  "One" is a fixture of the band's live performances. When played live, the song is usually played with guitars tuned down by one semitone (a permanent fixture of their studio and live work since 1995, save for Death Magnetic and Hardwired... to Self-Destruct in the case of the former) and is preceded by pyrotechnics and the same sounds of war such as machine guns, and bombs exploding as heard on the recorded version. The song also features heavy strobe lighting during the heavier half of the song, namely before the Hammett solo.