Jackson appears in the video as a hooded wizard who enters an Egyptian palace and attempts to entertain the Pharaoh's bored Queen. Two other entertainers have failed, and she has sent them to be executed. The Queen sees that this wizard is different — instead of juggling or eating fire, he walks up the steps to her throne and sings to her, asking her if she "remembers the time" they were together. The Pharaoh (played by Murphy) hardly appreciates this move and summons his guards. The wizard hides from the searching guards, secretly met the Queen and they kissed passionately. Then Jackson and begins an elaborate, Egyptian-style choreography with the Pharaoh's servants. When the guards find him, Jackson turns into golden sand. In the video, Jackson was dressed in a costume made of gold satin. He wore golden chain mail, a white skirt with a phallic dangling sash, black pants and black boots.[6] This video features a physically complicated dance routine that became the centerpiece of other videos from the Dangerous album.

The music video was generally well received by music critics. Ira Robbins of Entertainment Weekly described the "Remember the Time" video as being a "gorgeous ancient Egyptian extravaganza".[5] The music video appeared on the video albums: Dangerous – The Short Films,[4] Video Greatest Hits – HIStory[5] and Michael Jackson's Vision. The music video, along with other videos from Dangerous, was frequently shown on MTV.[4]