A music video for the song was shot the weekend of January 7, 2011 and directed by Sanaa Hamri.”Fly” is the second music video to be shot in a string of music videos Minaj announced to be shot for promotion, along with “Save Me” and “Girls Fall Like Dominoes”. Minaj and Rihanna both shared behind the scenes photos of the music video on Twitter, where Rihanna sported straight red hair and Minaj wore a curly black wig and a barbed pink dress. In an interview with E! Online, Minaj spoke briefly about the concept stating,
“We’re going to save the world in more ways than one with the video and that’s all I can say about that.”
In an interview with BBC Radio’s Tim Westwood, Minaj spoke very highly about the upcoming video, stating
“The video is done. The ‘Fly’ video is a freakin’ movie! Movie! Movie! Cinematic popcorn.”
In a recent blog from Minaj’s website, She stated that the video for “Fly” has been pushed back, but it will be released soon. The Video was filmed at Universal Studios Hollywood.
The video begins with a Jaguar XKR driving through the wreckage of a post-apocalyptic landscape. Part way through it cuts to a shot of the sky, with the sun blocked out by clouds. The video then returns to the car where it has stopped and the roof retreats to the back of the car. The song begins as Minaj steps out wearing a strange, pink barbed dress, thigh-high cowboy boots and big curly hair. Minaj begin her verse whilst walking through the wreckage, and as her verse finishes she is joined by Rihanna who sings the second chorus, wearing a black dress, with straight red hair. As the second verse begins the video switches to a scene where we see Minaj standing on the wing of a crashed plane, this time sporting a pink bob-style wig and lilac dress.
For the third chorus we see Rihanna and Minaj together again standing amongst the wreckage in a night time scene, with Rihanna wearing a white long-sleeved straight jacket, and Minaj with leopard print style hair and a baby dress. As Minaj begins her third verse the scenes alternate between the current scene and one where we see Minaj, wearing a white cat suit and And White Tiger print hair style, standing on at the top of some steps. As she walks down, ninjas start appearing from over either side of the stair railings and attacking her. Minaj surprisingly defeats all her opponents, in what is a slightly extended version of the third verse compared to the album version of the song. This scene also alternates with the scene where Minaj is on the plane wing. On the last chorus the video alternates between the plane wing scene and the scene with Rihanna and Minaj whimpering amongst the wreckage. As the video comes to an end, plant life begins to grow around and over the wreckage. The video finishes by returning to the shot of the sky, where now the sun can be seen exploding between the clouds.