With the rerelease of Taylor Swift’s “Red” album comes the long awaited 10 minute version of “All Too Well,”  which was originally cut down to five minutes. Fans eagerly waited nine years to hear Taylor’s other verses throughout the song which is rumored to be about her relationship with movie star Jake Gyllenhal. “The All Too Well (Taylors Version) (From the Vault) (10 Minute Version)” spent one week as number one on the Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, outperforming every other song in music sales and making music history for the longest song at number one.

But along with the song itself, Swift released a short film. Now with 51 million views, the short film stars Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien playing “her” and “him,” representing Taylor Swift and Jake Gyllenhaal from 2010. 

 The casting in the film was carefully selected as the age gap between Sadie Sink (19) and Dylan O’Brien (30) is meant to represent the nine year age gap between Swift and Gyllenhaal when they dated in 2010. Along with that there are many parallels between their relationship and the short film, referencing paparazzi photos such as Gyllenhaal yelling on the phone in his car and the scarf that is pictured multiple times throughout the video. 

The climax of the film features Sink and O’Brien at the dinner table with all of his friends, but when Sink goes to reach for his hand he ignores her and drops her hand. This leads to a big fight after dinner. Although this may seem like a minuscule mistake, it had greater meaning for Sink’s character as O’Brien was ignoring her for his friends and making her feel even more isolated than she already did due to the age difference. In the scene, Sink yells at O’Brien saying “I don’t know any of these people, they’re all strangers, they’re all older than me” only for him to react by calling her crazy and selfish. Her feelings are isolated only to be followed up by being invalidated in her feelings, and it expresses intense issues throughout their relationship that the age gap only intensifies. 

The music video gives a peek into Swift’s perspective throughout the relationship, sharing how relationships with large age differences can cause issues and how it can leave a deep scar on those who are young. 

The music video also looks towards the future, ending with Swift as a writer releasing a book called “All Too Well.” The cover of the book is a tree with a scarf blowing in the wind. The cover has a striking resemblance to the “Alice in Wonderland” book cover. Many fans believe that this could be a hint to how the next recordings from Swift could be “1989” since it features a song about “Alice in Wonderland.” 

Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well” short film tells a treacherous story of toxic relationships while still demonstrating how you can grow past them. After seeing this new medium from Swift, fans are excited to see what she will do next!