“You Were Hurting Yourself”—But Who Is ‘You' in Hurry Up Tomorrow?
It starts with a whisper. A disembodied voice. A warning: “You were hurting yourself, and you were hurting everyone around you.” This line—spoken in the second trailer for Hurry Up Tomorrow—isn't just ominous. It's a riddle.
Abel Tesfaye (formerly The Weeknd) stars as an unnamed musician trapped in a surrealist nightmare of insomnia, visions, and a stranger (Jenna Ortega) who seems to hold the key to his unraveling reality. Directed by Trey Edward Shults, a filmmaker known for his cerebral horror (It Comes at Night), this film promises an odyssey through space and time and music. But here's the real question:
Is Hurry Up Tomorrow a sci-fi epic—or a metaphor for fame's slow descent into madness?
Between David Lynch and Christopher Nolan: A Sci-Fi Mirage?
From the opening frames, the second trailer is a puzzle wrapped in neon-soaked visuals. Tesfaye's character drifts through empty cityscapes, his eyes vacant. Time loops. Shadows distort. Reality glitches like a VHS tape left in the sun too long.
It's giving Inception meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but with a side of Black Swan paranoia.
Jenna Ortega's Anima isn't just a love interest—she's a guide, a provocateur. The name “Anima” itself isn't subtle: Carl Jung used the term to describe the unconscious feminine side of a man's psyche. Which means Ortega's character might not even be real.
Add in Barry Keoghan (who can make anything feel uncomfortably unhinged), and you have a trailer that practically dares you to make sense of it.
Abel Tesfaye Isn't Playing a Musician—He's Playing Himself
Strip away the time travel, the sci-fi aesthetics, the dreamlike distortion, and what's left? A musician battling insomnia and existential dread.
Sound familiar?
Tesfaye has spoken openly about his struggles with fame, identity, and reinvention. He dropped The Weeknd moniker for this movie. And if Hurry Up Tomorrow is anything like his last album (Dawn FM), it's less about outer space and more about inner turmoil.
Is this Tesfaye's 8 Mile? His Purple Rain? Or something weirder—like a self-directed therapy session disguised as a blockbuster?
Cerebral Sci-Fi or Pretentious Art-House?
Hollywood loves a high-concept mind-bender, but audiences have limits. For every Interstellar, there's a Cloud Atlas—a film that collapses under its own ambition.
The trailer for Hurry Up Tomorrow walks that tightrope.
It's gorgeous. Hypnotic. Unapologetically weird. But will it connect with audiences, or will it be one of those movies that critics love and general audiences just don't get?
If it lands, it could be Donnie Darko for a new generation.
If it flops? Well, at least we'll have a killer soundtrack.
Final Thought: Will You Be Watching?
So here's the deal. Hurry Up Tomorrow drops May 16, 2025. It might be a masterpiece. It might be nonsense. Either way, you won't forget it.
What do you think? Is this the next great sci-fi thriller—or just an art-house experiment wrapped in neon? Drop your thoughts below.
