If this was a movie

From 'Death By A Thousand Cuts' to 'exile,' we're breaking down some of our favorite appearances of the Taylor Swift film motif!

In that department, we have 2010’s ‘Never Grow Up,’ where Taylor reflects on that phase of your early teens where you just wanna seem like a cool kid: “you’re in the car on the way to the movies, and you’re mortified your mom’s dropping you off… Taylor’s said the song draws from all kinds of experiences, but the lyric “you knew the hero died, so what’s the movie for?” really sends us back to the reputation era and the “death” of the Old Taylor. [‘Begin Again,’](https://thehoneypop.com/2022/10/22/flashbacks-and-echoes-the-oral-history-of-taylor-swifts-red-album/) which describes Taylor’s first date with someone new after going through the heartbreak that inspired the rest of the Red album. Later on the record, on the track ‘Karma,’ Taylor insists, “karma is the guy on the screen coming straight home to me,” talking about her relationship with Joe Alwyn. First off, ‘Snow On The Beach,’ featuring [Lana Del Rey](https://thehoneypop.com/2022/09/01/10-collabs-between-current-stars-and-music-icons/), touches on Taylor’s excitement when she finds a surreal relationship that “feels like what [she] once saw on a screen” – and the contrast from those ‘exile’ lyrics has us in awe of T’s mind as usual. Another key example from the folklore album is ‘exile,’ a collab with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver that casts Taylor and Justin as former lovers who are still quarreling over just what happened in their relationship. You’re a flashback in a film reel on the one screen in my town.” We could totally see that being movie dialogue for a scene where two former lovers are fighting before rekindling their romance. This song from 1989 shows Taylor pining for someone she knows things won’t end well with, and the music video really captures that passionate, adrenaline-filled feeling by placing her as an actress falling in love with her movie co-star on set. The film motif that runs through some of our favorite Taylor tracks is one of our favorite themes in her work, and it adds so much depth to songs and storylines we already loved. First off, on 2008’s ‘Breathe,’ she described the downfall of a friendship: “music starts playing like the end of a sad movie, it’s the kind of ending you don’t really wanna see.” The impact of films on Taylor’s work became even more prevalent when her iconic sister albums came out in 2020 – folklore and evermore do largely touch on her personal experiences like her earlier albums, but with a fictionalized twist as she introduces us to different characters, dynamics, and settings. [Taylor](https://thehoneypop.com/2022/10/25/drop-everything-now-we-need-to-talk-about-the-easter-eggs-in-taylor-swifts-bejeweled-video/) views movies as an inspiration – and lucky for us, she’s spoken a lot about this in recent years!