"Only" marks the first collaboration between Nine Inch Nails and David Fincher. Previously, Fincher used the "precursor" remix of the Nine Inch Nails song "Closer" in the opening credits sequence of his film Se7en (1995). After working together on "Only," Fincher selected Nine Inch Nails singer/songwriter Trent Reznor along with Nine Inch Nails producer Atticus Ross to compose the musical score to Fincher's Oscar-winning film The Social Network (2010) for which Reznor & Ross won the Academy Award for Best Original Score. Reznor & Ross subsequently composed the scores to Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) and Gone Girl (2014).
The only non-CGI components of the video are the cars in the background and a person's hand that starts the song playing on the PowerBook. The PowerBook (and the hand, according to some sources) used in the video was owned by David Fincher.
The music video was released in two versions. The edited version released on television omits the profanity. The second unedited version known as the "dirty" version maintains the profanity. The unedited version was released on Nine Inch Nails' Youtube account and as a playable special feature on their live DVD/Blu-Ray release Nine Inch Nails Live: Beside You in Time (2007).