Before TikTok dances and YouTube DIYs, there was Duran Duran, rocking designer suits, white Capezio shoes, and movie star good looks. They didn’t just embrace the MTV era; they stormed in like they owned the place, camera-ready, cocktail in hand, with the confidence of James Bond seducing a femme fatale.

Their videos were more than just visual companions to songs. They were cinematic experiences with exotic locations, surreal storylines, high fashion, and just enough danger to make you wonder if someone did actually almost die while filming… (looking at you, Wild Boys windmill).

So in true fan-fueled fashion, we’re diving headfirst into the 12 most cinematic videos in the Duran Duran universe (plus a couple of delicious side projects we couldn’t resist). Roll film:

1. Rio (1982)

’80s Fantasy Girl and Hot Sax

Duran Duran’s iconic vid, courtesy of Mulcahy, isn’t just an 80’s pop sugar rush. It’s a surprisingly potent case study in crafting a visual that is all VIBE. Think about that opening shot – the sheer saturation of color and energy. It’s like Miami Vice and The Great Gatsby had a baby bathed in neon. Simon lounging on that boat, Roger caught in a net, John on the beach, Nick sitting inside the cabin (of course)… all outwitted by one very elusive lady. The band might think they’re the stars of the show, but The Girl, played by Reema Ruspoli, keeps slinking around, making them look silly in the most adorable of ways.

Rio is how you take deliberate choices in color, framing and movement to create something totally original that stands the test of time. So, give this one another watch with a fresh perspective and see how Mulcahy weaponized color and movement to create one of the most iconic videos of all time.

Also, this needs to be said – John Taylor’s bassline in this song is one of the most bad ass awesome in pop music history.

 Favorite Cinematic Moments: Nick Rhodes on a sailboat reminds us of when you try to take a cat for a walk on a leash. Also, “Rio” is totally not Rio (It was filmed in Antigua).

2. Hungry Like the Wolf (1982)

Indiana Jones Has a Tiger Woman Fetish

Russell Mulcahy, bless his heart and questionable colonial sensibilities, crammed a full-blown action-adventure (with a heavy dose of face paint) into a few glorious minutes in Sri Lanka. It’s sweaty, sexy, and borderline problematic, but it was the 80s, things were different back then.

Simon, channeling a rogue explorer who clearly raided Indiana Jones’ wardrobe, barrels through bustling markets, tangled jungles, and suspicious muddy rivers, chasing a potent cocktail of danger and desire. The rest of Duran Duran? They seem to be mostly chasing cocktails, although John seems genuinely concerned for his frontman’s well-being. As usual, Mulcahy’s genius lies in his visual storytelling. Note the relentless, hurried tracking shots that follow Simon’s frantic pursuit. Not to mention the close-ups of his intensely expressive face… pure pin-up fuel, strategically deployed to launch a thousand teenage screams (and album sales). Don’t believe us? Just look at John’s outfit… the jacket says, “I’m serious”, but the no shirt says “I’m hot and I’m here to party.” (John was still into that back then).

One thing is for sure, “Hungry Like the Wolf” is a cultural icon, and a potent reminder that even a simple premise (boy chases girl) can become a legendary visual experience with the right cinematic tools and a healthy disregard for personal boundaries.

 Favorite Cinematic Moments: Simon rising from the river = Apocalypse Now style. Glacier glasses. Fedoras. Also, all the kissing – WITH TONGUES.

3. Save a Prayer (1982)

Moody British Men Have Feelings in Paradise

Ancient ruins, elephants, candlelit temples—it’s like a National Geographic special meets a forbidden romance. If Hungry Like the Wolf was Duran Duran’s Indiana Jones moment, Save a Prayer is their poetic, soul-searching travel film—like South Pacific meets An Affair To Remember.

Shot entirely on location in Sri Lanka, director Russell Mulcahy once again proves that pop videos could be art. From sweeping landscapes to candlelit temples, the band wandering barefoot through ancient ruins like stylish ghosts of colonizers past, longing for connection in a world that’s all afire.

The cinematography is pure eye candy. Mulcahy uses crane shots and long lenses to capture the breathtaking scale of Sri Lanka’s beaches, temples, and jungle canopies. Every frame looks like it could be printed on a postcard (if your postcards featured five hunky British men brooding in linen). The soft focus and golden-hour lighting is straight out of Condé Nast Traveler.

Behind the scenes it wasn’t so romantic. The band got burned while filming barefoot on sun-scorched ruins. Then there’s the fact that Simon said the song’s chorus is based on Gordon Lightfoot’s folk classic ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ and now you’ll never be able to unhear that.

 Favorite Cinematic Moment: We love when Simon runs and plays with that kid on the beach. Where is that kid now? Wonder if his friends are sick of hearing about how he was in a Duran Duran video? Also, there’s John’s wearing a jacket with no shirt again.

4. The Chauffeur (1982)

Art-house Erotica Meets Avant-Garde Noir

Directed by Ian Emes, The Chauffeur video is a stark departure from the typical Duran Duran fare, giving us a moody, avant-garde interpretation of temptation and seduction. Shot in London without the band’s direct involvement, the video presents a mysterious, stylish narrative drenched in shadow and tension. The aesthetic of the video is heavily influenced by the 1974 film The Night Porter, a controversial, psychological drama about a disturbed, erotic bond between a former Nazi officer and a concentration camp survivor. The Chauffeur channels the same unsettling energy, with a dark and mysterious setting, a troubled power dynamic, and the feeling of something forbidden lurking just below the surface.

The video’s visual style, with its heavy use of chiaroscuro lighting and shadow, is straight out of a Helmut Newton fashion shoot — gothic and undeniably seductive. We watch model and dancer Perri Lister, dressed in minimalistic black (or should we say barely dressed), performing a strange, hypnotic dance that feels both haunting and captivating.

Fun fact: Perri Lister also appeared in the extended Wild Boys video, her father worked as a chauffeur, and she dated Billy Idol. She contributed the French chorus, “Les yeux sans visage,” to Idol’s 1984 hit “Eyes Without a Face” and appeared in several of his iconic music videos, including as the bride in “White Wedding”.

 Favorite Cinematic Moment: The final interaction between the women — graceful, strange, and haunting, plus there’s boobs.

5. Union of the Snake (1983)

Post-Apocalyptic Lizard Man

Conceived by Russell Mulcahy, because – of course it was, Union of the Snake takes the band on a surreal journey through an Australian desert, pursued by a half-man, half-snake creature. Directed by Simon Milne due to Mulcahy’s schedule, this video was one of the first to be shot on 35mm film stock, marking a shift toward high-quality production in music videos. Its storyline is a mix of The Road Warrior and Dune, with reality bending and timelines colliding, setting a precedent for Duran Duran’s future over-the-top concepts. While rumors swirled about Jennifer Connelly’s involvement, she only appeared in their 1984 concert film Arena, but the extravagant sets, costumes, and makeup were a clear sign of things to come with even grander productions like The Wild Boys.

It’s one of the most cryptic, although Simon did finally admit that it was about Tantric sex.

 Favorite Cinematic Moment: Nick gets angry about something at some point. We don’t know why but he really wants someone to capture Simon and stop him from poking around.

6. Night Boat (1981)

Zombies are Trying to Take our Durans

Before Thriller turned zombies into MTV icons, Duran Duran was already doing battle with the undead in a fog-covered fishing village in their music video for Nightboat. If you like creepy atmospheric fog, ghost ships, and freaky creatures lurking in the shadows, this mini movie is for you.

Directed by Russell Mulcahy (seriously, Russell, give us a break — how many iconic videos can one guy make?), Nightboat was filmed on the island of Antigua, at the Antigua Slipway. The video kicks off with Simon on the edge of a quay babbling about nonsense (It’s actually Mercutio’s speech from Romeo and Juliet, “She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes in shape no bigger than an agate stone on the forefinger of an alderman…”). The rest of the boys are a tad confused and try to get him to snap out of it. Someone, quick, help the Durans!

She’ll be here soon. If she comes. Nobody knows what she looks like. Who is she anyway?

Um, what? Who? Why? Simon and Nick’s conversation gives no clues.

After that, things go off the rails. The Durans are scattered, stalked by zombies, and one by one, they’re turned into the very undead they’re trying to outrun. Not exactly the vacation they had in mind. Only Roger seems to survive the ordeal and gets left behind. So much for Ohana. For the uninitiated, the concept was influenced by Zombi 2 (1979), an Italian zombie film that serves as an unofficial sequel to Dawn of the Dead (1978). The movie follows a scientist’s daughter who travels to a Caribbean island cursed by voodoo, where the dead rise to feast on the living.

Moral of the story, if you ever find yourself on the edge of a quay with cute English boys, don’t get on their boat. Wait for the day boat from Rio.

 Favorite Cinematic Moment: When Simon gets possessed by Shakespeare, and when John says “Hi ya” to Andy.

7. Wild Boys (1984)

Leather, Bondage, and Patrick Stewart

Wild Boys really is a movie. Or at least, was supposed to be. Russell Mulcahy originally intended it as part of a full-length film based on William S. Burroughs’ “The Wild Boys.” What we got instead is a deranged cyberpunk battle-scape with bondage gear, water torture, spinning windmills, and that weird fish monster. AND WE LOVE IT. This is Duran at their most theatrical—and unhinged.

Shot at Pinewood Studios with a budget that would make even the most lavish Hollywood productions blush — over one million pounds — Mulcahy’s style here draws heavily from post-apocalyptic cinema, with clear nods to Mad Max and a dose of A Clockwork Orange. There’s prosthetics, cutting-edge computer graphics, robotic heads, weird muppet creatures that live in the water, elaborate costumes, and even choreography. Wild Boys has it all. The set design includes a towering metal pyramid that looms over a dark, murky pool, while a massive windmill slices through the air. There’s also a giant animatronic head that, according to Morgan Richter, was modeled from a cast of Patrick Stewart’s head.

Visually, this video is dark. There’s no lipstick cherry here — it’s full of grays, blacks, and dim lighting. The band is imprisoned in various nightmarish setups. John is strapped to a car roof, subjected to a kind of psycho-torture that involves distorted images from his past. Nick finds himself in a cage surrounded by piles of computer equipment. Andy is bound to a ship’s figurehead, with his guitar still strapped to his chest. Then there’s Simon Le Bon, strapped to a giant windmill blade, his head dunked in water as the blade churns menacingly above a deep pool. And Roger… he’s floating above it all as if he’s on the sky lift at Busch Gardens. It’s chaotic, it’s surreal, and it’s totally captivating.

In essence, Wild Boys is a world on the brink, a visual symphony of madness, where the Wild Boys always shine.

 Favorite Cinematic Moment: John Taylor chained to a car hood. Obviously.

8. New Moon on Monday (1984)

French Resistance Soap Opera

The “New Moon on Monday” music video was directed by Brian Grant and filmed on the morning of December 7, 1983, in the French village of Noyers. There are two versions of this video: the five-minute version and the mythical seventeen-minute epic, which includes acting, dialogue, and a full-blown underground revolution. It’s Duran Misérables.

 Favorite Cinematic Moment: The nighttime torch-lit dance that the band hates. Très dramatique.

9. Falling Down (2007)

Celebrity Rehab with Super-Hot Doctors

Directed by Anthony Mandler, “Falling Down” is equal parts social commentary and art-house glam. With models playing rehab patients under the band’s watchful (and judgmental) gaze, the video flips between beauty and breakdown, luxury and despair. Co-written with Justin Timberlake, the track is silky and downcast—a slow-burn that blends melancholic strings with a trip-hop groove.

 Favorite Cinematic Moment: Allie Crandell’s character stumbles into rehab. Fast forward: she leaves rehab and pops champagne in a limo with her dad. Rehab, schmrehab.

10. Girl Panic! (2011)

High Fashion, High Concept, and a Gender Role Flip

Directed by Jonas Åkerlund, “Girl Panic!” is part fashion editorial, part band biopic, part fever dream. Supermodels play the band (Naomi as Simon, Helena as Roger, Eva Herzigova as Nick, and Cindy as John – oh and Yasmin Le Bon who “is not a member of Duran Duran”), while Duran themselves cameo as…well, legendary chaos agents. Shot like a perfume ad with a dose of Spinal Tap.

 Favorite Cinematic Moment: Naomi Campbell casually giving an interview as Simon Le Bon, and an appearance from Yasmin as the guitar player. This one pulls from legendary stories about the band’s wild boy days and ways.

11. Black Moonlight (2023)

Silent Movie Séance

Yup, this is another Jonas Åkerlund video, but it couldn’t be more different from Girl Panic!. Black Moonlight channels the eerie mysticism of séance rituals, shot in striking black-and-white with a silent film-style sensibility that leans heavily into German expressionism and vintage horror cinema. Think Häxan meets The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari—but with cheekbones.

Filmed at Cheque Marmot, a historic and moody property tucked away in the Hollywood Hills long favored by filmmakers for its Gothic charm and shadow-drenched interiors. It was the perfect location for a video that draws direct inspiration from early 20th-century spiritualist cinematography —specifically, the ghostly séance images sourced by Nick Rhodes himself.

This is Duran Duran’s love letter to the dark arts of old Hollywood, filtered through Åkerlund’s gritty lens and Rhodes’ art-school archive.

 12. Girls on Film (1981)

Flesh and Film Collide

You didn’t think we’d finish this list without mentioning Duran’s most TITillating video, did you? “Girls on Film” blurred the lines between cinema and soft porn. Directed by the legendary Godley & Creme, the video’s mix of raunchy sensuality pushed boundaries in ways few music videos dared to.

 Favorite Cinematic Moment:
Where do you even begin? From mud wrestling to sliding on whipped cream, Girls on Film is the original OnlyFans video, long before that was even a thing.

 Honorable Mentions

 The Flame (1985, Arcadia)

Campy Film Noir Whodunit

This one’s a deep cut—but a jewel. “The Flame,” by Arcadia, is pure screwball comedy set inside a classic mystery. Think Murder on the Orient Express meets Clue and Abbott and Costello. This was back in the days when the Durans were rocking side projects, including the Power Station, and Simon was sailing around the world. In fact, while competing in the South American leg of the 1986 Whitbread Round the World Race, Simon had to take a quick detour, hopping a flight to Spain in April to film this video. As soon as cameras stopped rolling, he was back in the air, rejoining his yacht crew in Uruguay.

The video was directed by, yup, you guessed it… Russell Mulcahy.

 Favorite Cinematic Moment: Nick as dinner host, orchestrating chaos. Simon as “Nerdy Man”? John in a closet with a contract. What’s not to love?

 Election Day (1985, Arcadia)

Art Film Meets Apocalypse Now

This is peak Arcadia: moody, gray, mean and restless. “Election Day” is set in a strange palace where nothing is quite real and everything is beautifully extra. Directed by Roger Christian, the visuals are theatrical and divine and layered with symbolism. And Grace Jones? She’s not just in it — she SLAYS it.

 Favorite Cinematic Moment:
In a direct nod to Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film La Belle et la Bête, Nick Rhodes is seen carrying a candelabrum.

The Undisputed Kings of Music Videos

From the lush jungles of Sri Lanka to the glamorous chaos of Girl Panic!, Duran Duran has consistently brought a style and energy to the screen that still feels as fresh and thrilling today. With every video, they’ve redefined what it means to be a music video pioneer, combining artistry, innovation, and pure Duranie swagger. Let’s face it, there’s no competition… Duran Duran doesn’t just make music videos, they make magic.

Long live the kings of video!