Olivia Rodrigo's 'Good 4 U' music video is full of hidden references — here's every detail you may have missed (2024)

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There may be a nod to Lana Del Rey in the video's opening scene.

When the music video opens, Rodrigo is shown in a buttoned-up, white collared shirt and red lipstick. It's similar to the look Del Rey wears in the iconic cover art for her debut album, "Born to Die."

During this scene, Rodrigo is being filmed on several Samsung phones, and this shot greatly resembles the coloring and framing of the "Born to Die" cover.

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The video makes heavy usage of the number six.

There are six cellphones filming Rodrigo in the opening scene, and six backup cheerleaders.

"Good 4 U" is the sixth track on Rodrigo's forthcoming debut album, "Sour."

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Rodrigo is shown wearing the exact cheerleader uniform from "The Princess Diaries."

In the beloved 2001 film "The Princess Diaries," Mandy Moore portrays the snide head cheerleader, Lana.

Rodrigo's blue-and-white cheerleading uniform in "Good 4 U" is a near-exact replica of the uniforms worn by Lana's squad.

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This could be a subtle way to reference her previous music video, "Deja Vu."

In Rodrigo's music video for "Drivers License," her debut single, she's often shown driving through the suburbs.

Her second music video, "Deja Vu," takes up the narrative by opening with a shot of Rodrigo driving. She holds the wheel with one hand and a cup of strawberry ice cream with the other.

In "Good 4 U," she wears the cheerleading uniform from "The Princess Diaries," which may be a clever way for Rodrigo to continue threading her visuals together. In the film, Lana's signature outfit gets ruined when Mia (Anne Hathaway) squashes an ice cream cone onto her chest.

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There are several parallels with the 2009 campy horror film "Jennifer's Body."

In the anti-misogyny cult classic, Megan Fox plays Jennifer, a beautiful cheerleader who's transformed into a demon after a satanic ritual gone wrong.

Both characters are versions of the self-obsessed mean-girl trope.

There are thematic and visual parallels between Rodrigo's spiteful character in "Good 4 U" and Fox's literal maneater.

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Both put on long gloves before they commit acts of violence.

Rodrigo's character puts on long, black, latex gloves before going to the grocery store to buy gasoline.

In the film's climactic scene, Jennifer wears long white gloves to prey on her best friend's boyfriend, her ultimate act of malice.

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Some also fans noticed visual parallels with the 1999 Japanese horror film "Audition."

Takashi Miike's "Audition" follows a widower named Shigeharu (Ryo Ishibashi), whose friend stages a "casting call" for women to audition for the "part" of his new wife.

The two men sit together facing a single woman on a chair, reminding some fans of the opening scene in "Good 4 U."

In"Audition's" most famous scene, the femme fatale character Asami (Eihi Shiina) wears long, black, latex gloves to torture her lover with needles, repeating the word "deeper."

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There's a long history of breaking into an ex's house in music videos.

In "Good 4 U," Rodrigo laments how her ex-boyfriend "found a new girl and it only took a couple weeks."

"Well, good for you, I guess you're gettin' everything you want / You bought a new car and your career's really takin' off," she sings in the second verse. "It's like we never even happened / Baby, what the f--- is up with that?"

In the video, she floods and trashes a bedroom that clearly belongs to a teenage boy.

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Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" and Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River" are two such examples.

Both songs deal with Rodrigo's familiar theme: an ex who moved on way too fast and left the singer in the dust.

In their music videos, both Clarkson and Timberlake break into their exes' homes in order to exact some kind of revenge. Clarkson throws stuff around and leaves it in a wreck, while Timberlake has sex with a different girl in his ex's bed.

Rodrigo, for her part, sets her ex's room on fire.

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The fire is reminiscent of Taylor Swift's "Picture to Burn."

The music video for "Picture to Burn" also shows Swift catching her man with a different girl, breaking into his home (flanked by several henchmen), and tearing it to pieces.

Both videos make use of fire to symbolize revenge and starting over.

Rodrigo previously told Elle that "Picture to Burn," the second track on Swift's debut album, was her "first-ever favorite song."

The video also recalls Swift's parody of a crazy ex-girlfriend in "Blank Space."

Rodrigo's "Good 4 U" and Swift's "Blank Space" both play up the trope of a "crazy ex-girlfriend" who, in Swift's words, gets drunk on jealousy and looks great while doing it.

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The combination of water and fire resembles Disclosure's "Magnets," featuring Lorde.

In the music video for "Magnets," Lorde portrays an assassin who seduces an abusive husband before binding him to a chair, pushing him into his own pool, and lighting the surface on fire.

Rodrigo has cited Lorde as one of her favorite artists and biggest influences.

In the music video's final scene, Rodrigo is shown swimming in a lake.

This echoes one of the most famous visuals in "Jennifer's Body," when Jennifer swims across a lake after committing her first on-screen murder.

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The eerie, woodsy settings for these two scenes are visually similar.

Both scenes include establishing shots of a quiet, blue lake surrounded by trees.

There are also similar shots of both women walking into the woods.

Some fans think this moment in "Good 4 U" also resembles the cinematic style of "Twilight."

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Rodrigo's eyes turn red, like how Jennifer's eyes transform as she prepares to kill a man.

The end of "Good 4 U" suggests that Rodrigo's character is demonic like Jennifer.