Like a rainbow with all of the colors

Taylor Swift loves her colors — so much so that each of her first 10 albums has an assigned shade. Now, it’s not like hues of green, yellow, purple, red, blue, and black are particularly uncommon. Yet it’s hard to ignore how many times the color combos appear together in Argylle, especially within the first 20 minutes of the movie. 

Between multiple scenes like Elly’s office with green, blue, and red notecards paired with yellow books and a later scene that showcases shimmering Eras-colored lights on water; it’s noticeable to any discerning Swiftie. These color patterns repeat in different ways throughout the entire movie.

Plaid shirt days

Okay, so red plaid might not be a unique wardrobe staple, but it’s definitely in Elly’s closet. Coincidence? Probably. But there’s also a bench in a hotel room later in the movie that has autumn leaves. 

For anyone who didn’t memorize the 10-minute “All Too Well” vault track within an hour of its release, the “Red (Taylor’s Version)” song consists of lyrics like “plaid shirt days” and “autumn leaves falling.” On top of plaid, Tay also loves her argyle sweaters. That connection is self-explanatory.

Cabin in candlelight

“Folklore” quickly became a fan-favorite album when Swift released it in 2020. Fans fell in love with the single “Cardigan” and the cottagecore vibes of the accompanying music video. Taylor begins singing the song in a dimly lit cabin, where she enters an enchanted chest before finding herself in a forest and the ocean. She then makes her way back to the cabin where she dons a cardigan. In Argylle, Elly wears a cardigan when she hides out in a dimly lit cabin by the water. Hmm.

Rooting for the anti-hero

Some people name their cars and others name their … guns. Bryan Cranston’s character is the latter, with a beloved gun named Clementine. How exactly is that relevant to Tay? Glad you asked. She’s close friends with Halsey, who has a song titled, “Clementine.” 

Speaking of ridiculous artist association connections, Elly’s cat is named Alfie. Taylor collaborated with the band Bleachers for “Anti-Hero” — and they just so happen to have a song called “Alfie’s Song.” Additionally, the movie features a cover of Snow Patrol’s “Run.” Of course, the band’s frontman Gary Lightbody co-wrote Swift’s “Red” song, “The Last Time.”

Karma is a cat

Elly denies being a cat lady, but she carts around her feline friend in a backpack and says things like, “You lied about liking cats. How am I supposed to trust you now?”

Her cat-loving relevance to Taylor Swift isn’t even a coincidence. According to Rolling Stone, the one confirmed Taylor tidbit regarding the film is that director Matthew Vaughn’s daughters convinced their mom Claudia Schiffer to secretly buy them a Scottish Fold cat after watching Taylor’s Netflix documentary, Miss Americana. As it turns out, that very same cat plays Alfie in the movie. Argylle also pays homage to Claudia with a series of on-screen books bearing her name.

Champagne problems

Taylor can’t exactly catch a public redeye to make it to all of her Eras Tour stops. To meet the demands of her hectic schedule, the “Long Live” singer owns her own private jet. A rep for Taylor noted that she purchases twice the carbon credits required to compensate for the emissions. 

After saving Elly on a train, Aidan flies her on a private jet and soothes the writer with glasses of champagne. Tay’s song “Champagne Problems” includes lyrics like, “You booked the night train for a reason” and “Crestfallen on the landing, champagne problems.”

House of stone, your ivy grows

Anyone who frequently finds themselves buying Taylor Swift merch at 3 am might recall a Swiftmas ornament shaped like a stone house with ivy. This is a reference to her song “Ivy” and the lyric, “My house of stone, your ivy grows.”

In Argylle, Samuel L. Jackson’s character Alfie (not to be confused with the cat) lives in a stone house with ivy on it, where he grows Pinot noir grapes. Tay is also known to have a glass or two of wine when the mood strikes.

They don’t know about the night in the hotel

When Elly meets her parents in London, they go to the Savoy Hotel. As it turns out, Swift did a glamorous photoshoot at the Beaufort Bar with Mario Testino in this very hotel. 

We never painted by the numbers

Hold onto your catpacks because things are about to hit new heights of conspiracy theory energy. Naturally, for a spy movie, there are quite a few numbers that appear in the film. Swifties know Taylor loves using numbers to hide important dates, releases, and countdowns. Unsurprisingly, many numbers in Argylle have connections to the singer.

Early in the movie, Aidan and Elly head to an apartment numbered 305, which is a common nickname for Miami, where Taylor has performed. Additionally, Human Alfie has a slew of jerseys hanging up in his house. 

One of them is number 20, a digit that commonly appears in Swift’s lyrics like “Twenty seconds in 20 years,” “Twenty questions, we tell the truth,” and “Twenty stitches in a hospital room.” The 21 jersey number has relevance to the song, “The Moment I Knew,” where Taylor laments about a boyfriend missing her 21st birthday. As for 26, the singer trolled fans with this number before releasing the “Me!” music video on April 26, 2019.

Another name goes up in lights

Hold on tight because we’re experiencing some turbulence in the height of our conspiracy era. Taylor Swift loves hiding name-related Easter eggs in her songs. She even teased the name of Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively’s daughter in the song, “Betty.” 

Let’s break down some of the most Swift-relevant names in Argylle. Elly is short for Elizabeth, which is the name of a character Taylor played in the movie Amsterdam. As for Rachel, Tay performed “Fight Song” with Rachel Platten during her 1989 tour and Rachel Zegler frequently posts Taylor Swift covers. When it comes to the character Margaret, fans creepily waited outside of Jack Antonoff’s wedding to Margaret Qualley to get a glimpse of Taylor (please don’t do this). 

In my best dress, fearless 

Elly’s dress is giving “Fearless” during her most iconic dance number. The character wears a blonde wig for this sequence with a shimmering gold dress. The scene is an integral moment in Elly’s quest to figure out exactly who she is, which is a theme in Taylor’s second album that chronicles the last of her teen years.

Dancing is a dangerous game 

Some of Elly and Aidan’s awkward dance moves throughout the film give “Delicate” music video vibes. They’re weird, but you can’t look away.

The crowds in stands went wild

Taylor’s connection to sports extends far beyond her whirlwind relationship with Travis Kelce. Back in 2015, Lakers legend Kobe Bryant presented the artist with a commemorative banner for “Most sold out performances” at the former Staples Center arena — 16 shows to be precise. 

The arena has since removed the banner to make room for more team-related banners, as it’s home to the Lakers, Clippers, and the LA Kings. In fact, Kings fans blamed the banner for a slew of losses following its addition to the arena (displacing the blame rather than accepting the reality of the team’s clunky rebuild mode after winning two Stanley Cups). Before it was permanently removed, the banner was hidden during Kings games to counteract the curse. Spoiler alert: It didn’t help.

So, what does this have to do with Argylle? Human Alfie watches a Lakers game during one of the most pivotal moments of the movie. Taylor’s friendship with the Bryants has persisted throughout the years, with her wearing a “Bet on yourself” necklace and honoring his daughter Bianka with a hat during her “22” performance at an Eras Tour stop.

The room is on fire, invisible smoke

Swift’s “Lover” album has a distinctive dream-like aesthetic, and Argylle replicates it big time. In one of the two most absurd scenes in the movie, Elly and Aidan drop colored smoke canisters to distort their location. 

The sequence begins with pink and yellow smoke that give off “The Archer” lyric video vibes. It then hits notes of blue as the smoke splashes different Eras colors — much like the paint scene in the “Me!” music video. The symbolism gets even more on the nose with a series of smokey hearts and romantic mid-fight interludes.

Argylle: A Novel by Elly Conway

For the source material, you can’t miss Elly Conway’s Argylle: A Novel. Enter Argylle, a troubled agent with a tarnished past who may just have the skills to take on one of the most powerful men in the world. If only he can save himself first.