All Too Well Film Every Taylor Swift Easter Egg & Reference

All Too Well Film: Every Taylor Swift Easter Egg & Reference

Taylor Swift has released All Too Well: The Short Film, based on her heartbreaking song from Red (Taylor’s Version). Here’s a closer look at the film.

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Here is every Easter egg and reference in Taylor Swift’s All Too Well: The Short Film. The eleven-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift is currently in the process of re-recording her first six albums, following a dispute over the ownership of her master recordings. On November 12, 2021, she released her second re-recorded album, Red (Taylor’s Version). To complete the album’s thirty-song lineup, Swift added nine songs “from the vault,” including the ten-minute version of the song “All Too Well”.

Since Red’s commercial release in 2012, “All Too Well” has been widely praised for its vivid storytelling and emotional lyrics. Most music critics hailed the song as Swift’s best work, a crescendoing break-up ballad that zeroes in on a seemingly trivial detail and acknowledges the naïveté that comes with her age. Swift claims that it was the most difficult song she wrote on the album. Her eagle-eyed fans have long speculated that “All Too Well” is about actor Jake Gyllenhaal, who dated Swift in 2010.

Years ago, Swift first teased that “All Too Well” was just a filtered-down version of the original ten-minute expanded song. Finally, the highly-anticipated track arrived, along with a short film that depicts the relationship the song described. Directed by Taylor Swift herself, All Too Well: The Short Film stars Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien, presumably playing Swift and Gyllenhaal, respectively. The musician herself also makes a brief cameo. Aside from a global premiere on YouTube, the film was also shown at AMC Theatres in New York City during a limited run. Here is every Taylor Swift Easter egg and reference in All Too Well: The Short Film.

Pablo Neruda Quote

All Too Well: The Short Film opens with the quote “Love is so short, forgetting is so long.” The line is directly lifted from the Pablo Neruda poem “Tonight I Can Write,” which juxtaposes the speaker’s intense passion with the unparalleled loneliness they feel. Similarly, “All Too Well” narrates a heartbreak—arguably from actor Jake Gyllenhaal—that Taylor can still clearly remember, no matter how much time has passed.

Taylor’s Lucky Number

Taylor Swift has always considered 13 to be her lucky number, and she has cleverly incorporated this in the short film for “All Too Well”. Just 13 seconds into the video, the dialogue begins with the 13-letter sentence “Are you for real?” The time jump within the film is explicitly stated as being 13 years, and the credits start to roll at exactly the 13th minute.

Taylor’s Infamous Scarf

Swifties have finally seen the red scarf, which sits at the heart of the song, in action. Sadie Sink’s character Her enters a house wearing a red scarf, which she leaves at the banister. The scene brings to life “All Too Well”’s opening lyrics, “I left my scarf there at your sister’s house,” when Taylor and Jake apparently celebrated Thanksgiving at the house of Maggie Gyllenhaal, one of the leads in White House Down. Meanwhile, older Him is still seen wearing Her scarf 13 years later. This seemingly hints at Gyllenhaal being spotted while still wearing Swift’s scarf even after they broke up.

The Age Difference

The former couple had a 9-year age gap when they dated: Swift was 20, while Gyllenhaal was 29. This detail allegedly factored into the casting decision for the “All Too Well” film, with stars Sink, 19, and O’Brien, 30, also having a wide age difference. In the song’s longer 10-minute version, an additional verse sheds light on the reason for the couple’s breakup, with him saying “if we had been closer in age maybe it would have been fine.”

An Upstate Escape

Probably the most publicized outing of Jake Gyllenhaal and “Shake It Off” singer Taylor Swift as a couple is their Thanksgiving celebration in upstate New York. They celebrated the holiday with Maggie and her family. This setting has been translated into the vividly written lyrics, “We’re singing in the car, getting lost upstate/ Autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place”. This is also the first chapter in All Too Well: The Short Film.

1989 Speculation

As Him and Her drive to the upstate, they are riding a 1989 Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Observant Swifties have noticed this detail and wondered if this means her pop album 1989 is the next re-recording. Although Swift neither confirmed nor denied that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is her next album, she said on TikTok that the car’s model was indeed intentional.

Rearview Mirror Imagery

In their drive upstate, there is a lingering rearview-mirror shot of Her looking at Him. This subtly foreshadows that she will someday become a piece of his past, and she will still look back on their relationship. Swift has also employed this symbolism in her songs “Style”, allegedly written about Eternals’ surprise cameo Harry Styles, “White Horse”, and “Long Story Short”.

Paparazzi Photo Reference

Him wrapping his arm around Her is too similar to Swift and Gyllenhaal’s overly used paparazzi photo to be a coincidence. Although that might just be a typical form of expressing one’s affection, fans are quick to point out this familiar detail. Perhaps, this is a subtle nod to that date in real life.

Contrasting Musical Preference

As the couple spends time by the lake, Her takes out a pair of earphones and they listen to music together. This act might be alluding to how Swift and Gyllenhaal’s music tastes were different. In “Begin Again”, another Red song, Swift sings, “He always said he didn’t get this song, but I do,” suggesting that despite the two listening to the same songs, they never really got along, as he preferred indie records.

Taylor-Inspired Wardrobe

During the All Too Well: The Short Film dinner scene, Fear Street star Sadie Sink is seen wearing a Taylor Swift-inspired wardrobe: a black turtleneck, straight hair, and bright red lipstick. This look is quite reminiscent of 2012 Swift when she was rebranding herself as she stepped away from the country genre. However, the outfit is also similar to the one Swift wore in her very first TikTok video she posted, when she dressed up as her recent albums.

Her Dinner Drink

In that same scene, The Maze Runner lead Dylan O’Brien is happily catching up with his friend, while Sink sits quietly. Her wine glass is noticeably full, too. This can mean one of two things: since Swift was just 20 years old when she dated Gyllenhaal, she still cannot legally drink. Or, as fans noted, Swift’s favorite drink is white wine yet the drink she was served in the film is red, highlighting how her wants were not fully considered in the relationship.

O’Brien’s Wardrobe

Dylan O’Brien’s wardrobe in the short film has direct references to Gyllenhaal’s real-life outfits when he was still dating Swift. In 2010, the latter was always seen wearing beanies and plaid shirts. Later, when Sink is left alone reeling from their breakup, she is seen wearing O’Brien’s plaid shirt from their upstate escape.

The Kitchen Argument Details

The scene that gives a better look at Him and Her’s relationship is their heated argument in the kitchen, which contains several details that reference Swift’s previous works. As they argue, she keeps on cleaning the dishes, while he just adds to the pile. Apart from the implication that he is unwilling to work with her in cleaning up their relationship’s messes, this is also a nod at the lyrics of Evermore’s fifth track, “Tolerate It”—“I sit and listen; I polish plates until they gleam and glisten.” This can also be a hint at how Swift has now found someone — her current boyfriend, The Favourite’s Joe Alwyn — to do simple tasks like cleaning up after a party, as she sings in Reputation’s “New Year’s Day”. Moreover, one of Her notable lines in the scene involves her pointing out that he dropped her hand in front of his friends. This action of hand-dropping is also heard in Evermore’s “Champagne Problems”.

Famed Dancing ‘Round The Kitchen Scene

Probably one of the most popular lyrics of “All Too Well” is “There we are again in the middle of the night, we’re dancing ‘round the kitchen in the refrigerator light.” The short film beautifully executes this memory, with the contrast between the blue light emitted by the refrigerator and the golden color of the emerging sunlight. This frame might have been a note on how their emotions are already in contrast at this point — he was starting to fall out of love, while she was still completely enamored.

Red Reference

Additionally, as a twist on Taylor Swift’s music videos with celebrity cameos, the All Too Well: The Short Film simply focuses on the couple and brings to life lyrics from another Red song. Him and Her are seen solving a crossword puzzle in bed at some point, referencing “Fighting with him was like trying to solve a puzzle and realizing there’s no right answer”. The lyrics are from the album’s titular track.

Timely Props

When the couple’s relationship inevitably ends, Sink’s character Her breaks down in bed, ignoring her former lover’s calls. How she ends the call is attention-grabbing, as she presses the top of her iPhone, where the lock button is still located at that time. This minuscule detail reinforces the film and the relationship’s timeline.

Her Dad’s Actor

After they broke up, she reminisces on how he won her dad over, over a cup of coffee and a plate of chocolate chip cookies. As it turns out, her dad is played by Shawn Levy. He is an executive producer and a director for Stranger Things, where Sink stars.

Her 21st Birthday

The heartbreaking rumor that Gyllenhaal missed Swift’s 21st birthday has been finally acted on-screen. In the film, she celebrates her birthday, but she is obviously waiting for him to come. Aside from the “All Too Well” lyrics that paint the scene, Swift’s 21st birthday is also the subject of another Red song, “The Moment I Knew”.

All Too Well Novel Cover

Thirteen years after that relationship, Sink’s character is all grown up and is now portrayed by Taylor Swift herself. Now a published author, she wrote the novel “All Too Well”. At first glance, the novel’s cover resembles Shel Silverstein’s classic story “The Giving Tree”. It might hint at a similarity between the toxic relationships between Him and Her, and the tree and the people who abuse it. However, other fans also note how the book’s cover looks like that of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, which has been adapted into a live-action Disney remake. Swift has a song called “Wonderland” in her 1989 album, which further solidifies their theory of what the next release will be.

Him, Later On

While Swift’s character is having a book reading, Him’s character is peeking at the bookstore window from the outside as snow falls around him, watching Her and wearing her scarf. His face is never revealed, but in the credits, he is called “Jake Lyon,” an intentional call-out to Gyllenhaal.

Lover Parallels

Indeed, Taylor Swift is not afraid to express her innermost feelings through music, and her songs are concrete chronicles of her love life. But after she surpassed the hell presented in “All Too Well”, it seems as she has now found the love of her life, as evident in the lyrics she penned for the song “Lover”. A contrast from the “All Too Well” lyrics “They say all’s well that ends well but I’m in a new hell,” she now sings “All’s well that ends well to end up with you.” In the music video for “Lover”, Swift is also seen blowing out a birthday cake with only her paramour by her side. This is a direct contrast to All Too Well: The Short Film, where a younger version of her is among her friends, but he is nowhere in sight.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/all-too-well-movie-taylor-swift-easter-eggs/

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