Swifties across the globe have been well and truly fed by their mother, Taylor Swift, who released the highly anticipated The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD) as a surprise double album. If the 31 tracks on the anthology album weren’t enough to keep her fans happy, Swift also dropped a music video for her new song “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone and it is jam-packed with Easter eggs.
It’s no secret that Taylor Swift likes to include some spicy references to her past flames in her song lyrics, or even throw shade at celebs she has beef with like that one track that’s 100% about Kim Kardashian. It is because of this that whenever Swift drops an album her fans go full Sherlock Holmes and find every clue that the singer may have left for them to find.
And that’s just the LYRICS, let alone the visual medium. Swift was wise to drop her “Fortnight” music video 20 hours after the TTPD album first arrived, as it gave her fans some time to regather some energy, before watching her music video millions of times.
Because oh boy, does this music video have a LOT to unpack. Taylor really delivered for the English Major girlies in this one — as you would hope from an album that showcased her head-first dive into dark academia/psych ward girly core.
So let’s all go back to Year 9 English class and discuss all the Easter eggs in Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight” music video.
What are the Easter Eggs in Taylor Swift’s ‘Fortnight’ music video?
Dead Poets Society
As well as musician Post Malone featuring in the music video, there are two other noteworthy faces who cameo in “Fortnight”: actors Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles.
Now while Hawke is well known for his roles in Before Sunrise and Marvel’s Moon Knight series, his connection to the lesser-known Charles might be unclear at first.
Until you remember that the two both starred in the iconic film Dead Poets Society, which many fans jokingly referred to TTPD as when Swift announced the title at the Grammys this year.
the dead poets society taylor swift multiverse is SO REAL
— s. (@tedsbecca) April 20, 2024
#FortnightMusicVideo pic.twitter.com/2TeLiWsBjk
Hawke and Charles feature in the video as scientists who are conducting various experiments on Swift. Nice to see the Dead Poets working in STEM, because there really is no money in the arts.
this is very special for the girls who never moved on from the dead poets society edits with taylor songs pic.twitter.com/weHYvPoRze
— malu (@taymaisies) April 20, 2024
What makes this reference to the iconic poetry-focused film even more special is that Dead Poets Society was released in 1989, the same year Swift was born.
Unfortunately for the literary nerds, The Tortured Poets Department is not actually named after Dead Poets Society, but after a male-only group chat that Alwyn allegedly had with his friends (Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott) called the “Tortured Man Club” that was started by Scott.
Clara Bow
We’ve already got a full analysis of the meaning behind Taylor Swift’s song “Clara Bow” here, but in the “Fortnight” music video fans observed a reference to the other song in the album.
In particular shots in the music video, eagle-eyed viewers noted that Taylor’s makeup was reminiscent of the actress she named TTPD‘s 16th track after.
This makeup look was part of the promotional material for the music video, which had some fans suspecting that Swift was going to pull a switcheroo and actually release the music video for “Clara Bow” instead of “Fortnight”.
The 1975 and Matty Healy
While it’s surprising that more of the new album is about Swift’s brief situationship with The 1975’s frontman Matty Healy than her six year long relationship with actor Joe Alwyn, it has been fun to find all the Healy references (and roasts) in Taylor’s new body of work. The music video for “Fortnight” delivered a bunch of them.
Fans online observed how many of the shots in the cinematic video paralleled shots from some of The 1975’s music videos.
you can’t tell me that fortnight wasn’t supposed to be the 1975 collab pic.twitter.com/qbvtMcKOMj
— shelly ⎕ (@balladofmaroon) April 20, 2024
The opening lyrics to the song also seem to imply that the entire bop is about Healy and Swift’s cheeky rebound fling, such as “I only touched you for a fortnight”.
If not even Taylor Swift is immune to the power of a situationship, we truly are doomed as a species.
The music video also features plenty of shots of Swift and Malone using typewriters, which fans have also associated with Healy, who is weirdly obsessed with them.
Special shoutout to GQ for chaotically dropping this clip of Healy frothing over typewriters on their TikTok feed as soon as the album dropped.
@gq ♬ original sound – GQ
RIP Matty Healy, hope you and your publicist had damage control plans set in place for this.
Typewriter’s blank space
As well as the typewriters being a vague reference to Healy’s preferred writing format, in some shots of keys on Swift’s typewriter there are additional references that if you blink you’ll miss.
For example, there is no key for the number 1 on the keyboard, which fans believe could be Swift symbolising how she feels she is missing “the one” in her life.
If true, this would be a massive slight on Swift’s current boo Travis Kelce, which led to people online theorising that it is actually a reference to her track “the 1”, which was a love song for Alwyn from the Folklore album.
Swift originally included “the 1” in her set list for The Eras Tour, but removed it days before the tour began when news broke that the couple had split.
Wardrobe and makeup
Naturally, Easter eggs galore can be found within the different outfits, set design, and makeup of the cast members in the “Fortnight” music video.
First off there’s the obvious meaning of that shot where Swift is covered in facial tattoos that are the exact same as her co-starring artist, Post Malone.
Not only did the makeup department slay at giving Taylor exact replicas of Malone’s iconic facial tattoos, but they also managed to remove them pretty realistically from him in certain shots too.
Another wardrobe department Easter egg that fans are talking about online is the fact that the white strapless dress Swift wears in the music video is a nod to a similar piece she wore when attending the 2024 Grammys, where she first announced the album in an acceptance speech.
📲 Taylor liking a tweet that showed her Grammys dress was a huge esster egg for the Fortnight music video… the day she announced the #TSTTPD album 💀 pic.twitter.com/CAybV2Ymao
— Taylor Swift Updates (@SwiftNYC) April 19, 2024
Taylor’s miracle pill
At the start of the video, Swift is offered a miracle pill from a scientist from a bottle that reads “Forget Him” in an upside-down shot.
The inclusion of the pill is a clear reference to the line in the song: “I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary.”
Though the numbers on the bottom of the pill bottle appear to be random at first, upon closer inspection they have a hidden meaning.
The numbers read: 121389 — 041924.
When converted to dates, these are December 13, 1989, and April 19, 2024.
Hey, whaddya know? That’s Taylor Swift’s birthday and the release date for The Tortured Poets Department, respectively.
Cute one, Taylor.
Cats in the corner
It wouldn’t be a Taylor Swift music video without any references to cats, which Taylor loves and owns three of.
For that reason, when the music video plays its end credit cards, in each corner of the screen a cat can be seen.
As well as cats, a black dog can be seen walking around in the set of the music video, which fans have theorised could be a symbol of depression, which is sometimes referred to as “the black dog” — which is also a name of a song on the TTPD tracklist.
Where can I watch Taylor Swift’s ‘Fortnight’ music video?
Taylor Swift’s music video for “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone can be found on Swift’s YouTube page.
In its first 2 hours the video gained more than 3 million views and climbed to the top of the website’s recommended video list.
There are probably like 500 more references in the four-minute music video, so if you see some let us know and we’ll include them here!
Otherwise, keep on the lookout for Taylor’s next music video. Though hopefully she gives us time to process this one first, rather than the heart attack she gave us by dropping a double album on us by surprise.
