“Hit Me Hard and Soft” tour in the cinema: Billie Eilish gets scratched

“Are they theirs?” asks James Cameron. He means the fans to whom the pop star shakes hands every evening. Some are so out of their minds that they hurt their idol in the process.

The intense relationship between Billie Eilish and her fans is the focus of the concert film that the “Avatar” director shot together with the pop star. In July 2025, Cameron attended the concerts of Billie Eilish’s “Hit Me Hard and Soft” tour in Manchester.

Laser, Flame, Confetti Rain

The result can now be seen in cinemas, of course in 3D – the technology that Cameron perfected for mainstream cinema. Eilish seems shocked that the multiple Oscar-winning director is even interested in her tour. “That’s James Cameron,” she initially says into a camera, slightly incredulous. But he is there to turn their concert into a film, and he appears again and again, in backstage scenes and in conversations with the pop star.

Billie Eilish’s show is minimalist: a stage in the middle of the arena where she is completely alone most of the time. The band and background singers are embedded in a kind of orchestra pit. There are also lasers, flames and confetti rain, but the main attraction is Billie Eilish herself, who sometimes sprints across the stage, sometimes sings ballads while lying on her back, and sometimes encourages the crowd to jump.

Performing like this comes from her love of hip-hop, Eilish says in the documentary. About rappers who often stand alone on stage and simply interact with the audience, without a big stage set or numerous dancers. “I’ve never seen a woman do that,” says Eilish. And that’s why she stands alone, commanding the huge arena with her star power.

The sound design is impressive

James Cameron and his camera team capture it all, sometimes with dramatic flights around the stage, sometimes very close to Billie Eilish or her fans, sometimes Eilish takes the camera into her own hands. The confetti rain looks great in 3D, as does the sea of ​​smartphone cameras aimed at the stage – the camera always takes the fans’ perspective. Otherwise the effect wouldn’t really have been needed.

What’s particularly impressive is the sound design, which lets Billie Eilish sing a duet with her fans, sometimes focusing on one and sometimes the other, thus capturing the immersive experience of a pop star’s concert – hardly anyone is louder than Billie Eilish fans, who scream along to every word of her songs as if their lives depended on it. This documentary is, above all, a tribute to her. Almost every song ends with close-ups of their faces contorted with overwhelm.

It’s an intensity of relationship that probably only exists when stars have become famous very young – Billie Eilish was 13 when her single “Ocean Eyes” went viral on SoundCloud. Five years later she won with her debut album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” the Grammy for Album of the Year, the youngest artist ever. Eilish is now 24: she and her fans grew up together and survived the teenage years together.

In the documentary, many fans say that they had “hard times” and were bullied. Some say Billie Eilish’s songs are the reason they’re still here. Quite a lot of pressure, but the pop star doesn’t seem to have any problems with it. In one scene, she waves from inside to fans who have camped outside the arena for days. The reaction is hysterical, people suddenly come running from everywhere.

She was a fan herself and understands the feelings, she says as she shows her scratches. An example of this was recently seen when Justin Bieber brought Eilish on stage to sing for her during his Coachella set. Eilish is a big Belieber and had her room covered in posters of the singer. Now she, now at least as famous, can be seen bursting into tears on stage and barely able to walk because of her euphoria.

“I want to be the artist that I would like to be a fan of,” she says in the documentary. That’s why she walks through the crowds every evening, allows herself to be touched and accepts the wounds.

There has to be a bit of canonization

The structure of the documentary is classic, the concert footage is interrupted by behind-the-scenes insights and interviews with Eilish. They are sometimes more, sometimes less interesting. Eilish talks about body images, that you can be desirable even in baggy clothes and that she wants to be a role model for her young, mostly female, fans. Or she is crying and reading a letter from her brother Finneas, who is not on tour with her for the first time, but will later make a guest appearance.

Then again you see her with puppies from the animal shelter. She says that many of her crew have already adopted dogs. The scene is somewhat reminiscent of Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” documentary, in which the singer is shown handing out six-figure bonuses to her crew members. There always has to be a little canonization in this type of film.

Charli xcx has just released “The Moment”, a satire about concert films, in which Alexander Skarsgård plays an egomaniacal director who gradually completely dilutes the pop star’s vision in the service of his project.

James Cameron, on the other hand, is emphatically modest in his own film. The tour is Billie’s vision, he assures her. Actually, she is the director, his name should actually only be slightly below hers. In the credits, however, both names appear the same size.