The Great Escape: Taylor's "Getaway Car" Meaning, Explained

Is Getaway Car really about Taylor running off with Tom Hiddleston at the Met Gala? Sure, you could look at it that way.

But as in any Taylor song, there are deeper themes and meanings running throughout. Taylor uses deeply layered literary devices to explore the feelings of imprisonment, escape, and freedom.

Here’s my complete English teacher analysis of Taylor’s Getaway Car meaning, line by line and metaphor by metaphor.

What is the getaway car? Let’s find out.

Getaway Car by Taylor Swift

Title: “Getaway Car”
Written by: Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff
Track: 9, Reputation (2017)
Pen: Fountain
Lyrics from Genius

Getaway Car Narrative Summary

Setting: Physically: at a black tie event, then “on the road” with a new lover. Emotionally: cheating, or hopping from relationship to relationship.
Characters: Narrator (Taylor), sidekick/partner in crime (“you”, lover she runs away with), and “him” (boyfriend she leaves in the dust).
Theme: Rebound relationships.
Mood: Secretive, sly, soaring.
Conflict: Her escape plan wasn’t well thought out.
Inciting Incident: “I wanted to leave him, I needed a reason.”
Quest: Leave and find freedom, either with another man, or within herself.
Lesson: Don’t jump from relationship to relationship – it doesn’t work.

What is Getaway Car About?

This track narrates the protagonist’s escape from a relationship by jumping into a rebound relationship. It’s an allegorical tale about what happens when you act recklessly in life and in love.

Who is Getaway Car About?

Taylor has never explicitly revealed who Getaway Car was inspired by, but most fans think it’s about her romance with Tom Hiddleston right after dating Calvin Harris, and then her romance with Joe Alwyn after dating Tom Hiddleston.

But moreover, this song is about how rebound relationships never work, because you don’t enter into them for the right reasons.

Getaway Car Meaning: Line by Line

Annotated portions of Taylor Swift's "Getaway Car" lyrics on a newsprint background. Red English teacher's pen translates each line, points out double meanings, explains metaphors, and helps the reader understand the tone and message of the layered lyrics.
The intro and first verse lyrics read: "No, nothin' good starts in a getaway car
It was the best of times, the worst of crimes
I struck a match and blew your mind
But I didn’t mean it and you didn't see it
The ties were black, the lies were white
In shades of gray in candlelight
I wanted to leave him, I needed a reason"

“No, nothin’ good starts in a getaway car,” she says in the first line.

Right from the beginning, she’s telling us that this will not be a happy tale. It might be an adventure, and it might be thrilling, but in the end, it’s an allegory: this is what happens when you act recklessly in love (very much like State of Grace: “love is a ruthless game, unless you play it good and right”).

“It was the best of times, the worst of crimes,” she says, referencing the Charles Dickens’ classic A Tale of Two Cities. In that iconic novel, the first line is: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Dickens’ narrative is about the turmoil of London and Paris during the French Revolution.

But what’s most interesting about Taylor’s nod to Dickens is that the three main characters in the novel (yes, three, just as in this song!) are all resurrected into a new life during this great war. We’ll come to find that the same happens for Taylor’s three main characters.

Taylor’s “best of times” comes with a darker tone: “the worst of crimes.” What’s the worst crime you can commit in love? Adultery. Cheating. High Infidelity, and Illicit Affairs.

“I struck a match and blew your mind,” she says, sparking a new love connection, blowing her lover away with their chemistry. But what else do matches do? Burn everything to the ground.

“But I didn’t mean it,” she says of the sparks that fly between them, or the match that can burn them to the ground. “And you didn’t see it” means that he didn’t notice, either that she was readying herself to burn down their relationship, or that she was sparking a connection with someone new.

“The ties were black, the lies were white,” she says of this glitzy, glamorous setting. Most fans believe that this points to the 2016 Met Gala, a black tie event. But what are the little white lies? Telling him – or telling herself – that she’s single, and available to another man.

The white lies were “In shades of gray in candlelight,” meaning everything is not black and white. It’s unclear, or in a moral gray area, and dimly lit. This whole situation is confusing and secretive.

“I wanted to leave him,” she says of her then-boyfriend, “I needed a reason.” She wants out of this confining relationship, but needs justification. What better justification than finding someone new?

This sets our narrator on the journey she’s about to take, about to learn some hard lessons.

Pre-Chorus 1: “X Marks the Spot Where We Fell Apart”

“‘X’ marks the spot where we fell apart,” she says, using a treasure map metaphor. But instead of leading to prosperity, the treasure map only points to where everything crumbled between them.

It’s here that the narrative gets confusing: does “‘X’ mark the spot” where her new relationship fell apart, or where her old relationship fell apart?

“He poisoned the well,” she says of her tumultuous current relationship, “I was lyin’ to myself.” To “poison the well” means that you try to muddy the waters about someone’s reputation, spreading lies and gossip. In this context, her current boyfriend tainted her heart, or tried to hurt her reputation.

“I knew it from the first Old Fashioned, we were cursed,” she says, sipping cocktails with her new love interest. She knew from the beginning it wouldn’t work. So why did she pursue it? Because she needed a “getaway car.”

“We never had a shotgun shot in the dark,” she concludes the pre-chorus, meaning that they never stood a chance. A “shot in the dark” means you try something without knowing if it will work, but here, it’s a violent blast – a “shotgun shot” that blows everything to bits.

It did work, just not the way she intended.

🐍🐍🐍 Are you ready for the reputation Lyrics Quiz? 🐍🐍🐍

Chorus: “Sirens in the Beat of Your Heart”

“You were drivin’ the getaway car,” she says of her new lover, “We were flyin’, but we’d never get far.” They run to escape her old boyfriend, metaphorically making their getaway after the “heist.” But this heist – “stealin’ hearts and runnin’ off and never sayin’ sorry” – is doomed.

“Don’t pretend it’s such a mystery,” she says to her new lover, “Think about the place where you first met me.” This likely hints at the Met Gala with “met me”, as seems to be portrayed in this clip of Taylor and Jack Antonoff writing this track.

But there’s the physical place, and there’s the emotional place. The double meaning is that she was in no emotional place to create a lasting relationship. As she has told us previously, “heartbreakers gonna break,” and cheaters will keep on cheating.

“Ridin’ in a getaway car,” she says of their escapades, “There were sirens in the beat of your heart.” His heart is ringing out for her, but it’s also a warning sign. The red flags are flying all over the place, but they both ignore them.

“Shoulda known I’d be the first to leave,” she says of the end of their relationship, “Think about the place where you first met me.” She was “the first to leave” her last relationship, and she’ll be the first one to leave her new lover.

It’s the narrator’s pattern of serial monogamy, hopping from relationship to relationship, hailing one getaway car after another (at least as portrayed in these lyrics – I’m not saying Taylor does this in real life).

“In a getaway car,” she says, “No, they never get far.” Getaway cars – rebound relationships – never work out, because they’re not built to work out.

“No, nothin’ good starts in a getaway car,” she says, repeating the intro. ‘This is an allegory,’ Taylor says, ‘and I’m here to tell you that this never works. Learn from my mistakes.’

Verse 2: “A Circus Ain’t A Love Story”

“It was the great escape, the prison break,” she says in the second verse, “The light of freedom on my face.” Like the 1960s war epic film starring Steve McQueen, they’re on the run, escaping from the metaphorical prison of her previous relationship.

They emerge from the dark “prison,” and she steps into the light. Her world was dark, but now she can see the sun once again.

“But you weren’t thinkin’,” she says of her partner in crime, “and I was just drinkin’.” He didn’t think it through, and she’s either along for the ride, or self-medicating, just to get through this tumultuous period.

“While he was runnin’ after us, I was screamin’, ‘Go, go, go’,” she says, painting a cinematic escape scene. The lovers speed away in a convertible, leaving her ex in the dust.

“But with three of us, honey, it’s a sideshow,” she says of this love triangle. It’s turned into a ridiculous spectacle, akin to a circus act.

“And a circus ain’t a love story and now we’re both sorry (We’re both sorry),” she says, alluding both to the craziness of the situation, and likely the media circus that followed.

“We’re both sorry” has a double meaning. Either they’ve both been hurt by their actions, or they’re sarcastically apologizing to her ex. I think it’s a bit of both.

2nd Pre-Chorus: “Shot in the Dark” vs. “Shot to the Heart”

The pre-chorus repeats, with a few lines subtly changed.

“He poisoned the well,” she repeats, but then follows with “every man for himself” instead of “I was lying to myself.”

‘Every man for himself’ is an idiom that commonly means someone who looks after their own interests instead of others, and that’s exactly what the narrator did in the love triangle of Getaway Car.

The second change is “It hit you like a shotgun shot through the heart” instead of “we didn’t have a shotgun shot in the dark.” This is a masterful re-work of this lyric, and it means something totally different.

The first iteration means that they didn’t have a chance, and the second means that the shotgun actually – miraculously, and accidentally – aimed true and hit him in the heart. She broke his heart; the weapon backfired, and hurt the wrong person.

Bridge & Breakdown: “We Were Jet-Set Bonnie and Clyde”

“We were jet-set, Bonnie and Clyde,” she says in the bridge. Bonnie and Clyde were a famous criminal couple, who went down swinging together after a series of car chases.

Taylor and her lover were the jet-set version of this couple (possibly alluding to the round-the-world romance with Tom Hiddleston), until Taylor decided to get out.

The heist was going well, “Until I switched to the other side, to the other side.” She turned on him, and now – instead of being partners – she leaves him to ‘take the fall.’

“It’s no surprise I turned you in,” she says, “’Cause us traitors never win.” “Turned you in” could mean that she found another man, and ‘traded’ him in for a different lover. This makes her a “traitor,” and – as we all know – “traitors doth never prosper”: (a Shakespearean reference from The Tempest).

The crime spree metaphor climaxes in the last breakdown.

“I’m in a getaway car,” she says, “I left you in a motel bar.” She steals the “getaway car”, but what is the car in this context? It could be another relationship, used to get her out of this one.

She leaves him in a desolate, depressing place (“motel bar” metaphor), and “Put the money in a bag and I stole the keys.” In the context of the heist metaphor, she steals his heart, and runs away.

“That was the last time you ever saw me,” she says, jetting off into the sunset and leaving him, heartbroken, in the dust. But now there’s no one else in the car with her. Has she learned that she doesn’t’ need another man to help her leave the one she’s with?

Outro: “Said Goodbye in a Getaway Car”

The chorus and post-chorus repeat, then the outro summarizes the entire saga.

“I was ridin’ in a getaway car,” she says of when he was driving. She was in the passenger seat, along for the ride.

“I was cryin’ in a getaway car,” she says, upset over her own broken heart.

“I was dyin’ in a getaway car,” she says, confined by this new “Bonnie & Clyde” relationship, and getting ready to run away.

“Said goodbye in a getaway car,” she says, leaving the heist behind, and leaving him ‘holding the bag.’ They may have stolen hearts, but now she steals his, and leaves him in the dust.

But she also said goodbye to her previous relationship (“I wanted to leave him”) in a getaway car. It’s two different goodbyes, both in a grand, heart-stealing heist.

Here the getaway car changes – it’s no longer their escape, it’s her road to redemption. She sees the pattern; the map she’s followed, and she knows it leads nowhere good (“nothing good starts in a getaway car”).

She’s learned that the “getaway car” won’t drive her down the right path, so she steals the keys, and drives herself, following a new map and new rules.

🐍🐍🐍 Are you ready for the reputation Lyrics Quiz? 🐍🐍🐍

Getaway Car Meaning: Final Thoughts

Getaway Car is in my top 10 Taylor metaphors of all time. She weaves a masterful and intricate array of symbolism, analogies, references, and themes. This song really is a masterpiece.

And in the end, it’s not about a particular lover at all: it’s about Taylor herself. The narrator’s patterns, bad habits, and hasty decisions all come to a head, and are all symbolized by the getaway car.

In the context of the reputation album – where we see her digging herself out from the grave and rising again – it feels like she’s telling us she’ll quit this serial monogamy and focus on herself.

But one major lesson she’s learned along the way? “Nothin’ good starts in a getaway car”: a new relationship is not the way out of an old one.

References: Charles Dickens “A Tale of Two Cities,” The Tempest, Bonnie & Clyde, “The Great Escape” film