Releasing different versions of the “drop dead” video like they’re album variants, apart from a version called “drop dead (stalked you on the internet)” (which is really just outtakes of her Versailles video with a Snapchat-type filter set against a computer screen background), the other iteration Olivia Rodrigo unleashed is “drop dead (taken the eurostar to france).” That parenthetical being a reference to one of the song’s lyrics—specifically, when Rodrigo asks of her newfound (and presumably British) love, “Have you ever been to Japan?/Or taken that Eurostar to France?”
A question that amounts, of course, to some nice free publicity for Eurostar. Which many Americans probably still aren’t aware of (that is, until Rodrigo brought it up), considering half of the population doesn’t have a passport. A fact that further cements the global image of the culture as being primarily isolationist and ignorant. But, perhaps “thanks” to Rodrigo, more people will become cognizant of the magic of train travel. Especially Americans, who, for the most part, wouldn’t “deign” to get on a train (no rhyme intended) when there’s a car option available. After all, apart from certain pockets of the East Coast, most of the United States’ infrastructure isn’t designed to accommodate any mode of travel except cars.
Thus, perhaps the only way, as an American, to understand that public transportation methods (e.g., trains) are so much more efficient is to, ironically, become rich and famous. For that’s the status that will afford one a trip to Europe at this rate. Even though, of course, most rich and famous people prefer to fly private. Allegedly though, not Olivia, who, as an early twenty-something, still sees the “romance” in what most other famous people would view as “slumming it.”
Besides, she apparently really wants to get the message across (like Taylor Swift with Joe Alwyn) that the bloke who inspired this song is British (namely, Louis Partridge). So it is that this version of the video commences on the “London side” of the Eurostar route, opening on the Tube before a cut to a duo of Britain’s signature red telephone booths. The camera focuses on the top of the booth before then cutting to another cliché of British culture: the pub. Once inside, a shot of some pints of Guinness are shown (even though it’s meant to be a decidedly Irish drink), followed by Rodrigo taking an overhead picture of the glasses with her phone while wearing a baseball hat that reads, “Winona” (surely, an intentional nod to Miss Ryder).
In the next cut, Rodrigo is “hat off” and “feet up on the stool” as she holds her now significantly more emptied glass and sings (in a way that suggests the same conviction of a drunkard crooning “Danny Boy”), “I know the bar closes at eleven/But I hope you never finish that beer/You know all the words to ‘Just Like Heaven’/I know why he wrote them now that you’re standin’ right here.” Rodrigo wraps this verse up while sitting in front of a wall of framed NME covers, the most prominent being a cover that features New Order’s Bernard Sumner and football (a.k.a. soccer) player John Barnes.
The viewer is then taken out of the pub and to the London Eye (because Rodrigo must keep the scenes of London as trite as possible), followed by some shots of her outside of Regent’s Park Station, another shot of a red telephone booth, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, some double decker buses and minicabs and still another shot of a red telephone booth. She eventually takes one of those minicabs to St. Pancras Station, where she boards the Eurostar (guitar in hand and all—though that guitar never appears again) to fulfill the “prophecy” of her lyrics. Which she chooses to really highlight by holding up a paper coffee cup with the train’s logo as she sings, “Or taken that Eurostar to France?” Followed by voraciously biting into what is likely a stale croissant (just in case no one was sure yet about her next destination).
Before she deboards, she gets in one more shot of herself “Eurostar-promoting” by standing in front of the logo. And then “just like that” (a.k.a. two hours and thirty minutes later), she’s at Gare du Nord, all set to engage in some cliché shots of Paris now. Including her very first stop, which is, what else, the Eiffel Tower. Quickly followed by the Louvre, Notre-Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde and Luxembourg Garden (with plenty of images of Paris-themed keychains in between). All amounting to “snapshot postcards” meant to make this journey look not only incredibly “enticing,” but also incredibly easy. Which, even in the best of economic and political circumstances, it isn’t. And while, sure, it might be “fine” for people already living on the continent to enjoy what Rodrigo is promoting with this version of her video (even though they would never do those things because it’s probably too cringe for them), for her American brethren, seeing it ultimately amounts to a kind of torture in the sense that getting to Europe at this moment in time is rather herculean. Like, more so than usual.
This, of course, due to the rising cost of fuel thanks to the Strait of Hormiz blockage by Iran (a maneuver that should have been expected considering a certain Orange Creature, in cahoots with Israel, decided to arbitrarily airstrike the shit out of the country and kill off a number of its key officials). While the effects of this blockage have already caused a surge in U.S. gas prices, the other immediate fallout from it has not only been more expensive ticket prices in general, but the cancellation of tens of thousands of short-haul flights by airlines like Lufthansa in anticipation of fuel shortages (ergo, higher fuel costs) at the peak of travel during the summer. The cancellation of such short-haul flights will still affect long-haul traveling, with many passengers booking trips to destinations that require a layover between two closer destinations.
So while Rodrigo is yukking it up on the Eurostar and making it all look so “poor person” glamorous, the reality is that many will find it a struggle to get to Europe in the months ahead. Thereby limiting their chances to emulate Olivia Rodrigo’s “taken the Eurostar to France” stylings. But this isn’t entirely the fault of her celebrity cluelessness. She probably filmed it before all of this went down (or so one would like to believe).
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