- 9 hours ago
Step into the Upside Down and uncover the deepest secrets behind the final chapter of Stranger Things! Join us as we explore the most fascinating revelations from "One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things." From the Duffer Brothers' initial writing process and their collaboration with legendary directors to the incredible set recreations and the on-set actor input, you won't believe what went into bringing this epic saga to life. Prepare for a behind-the-scenes look at the beloved series!
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00:00Everyone loves a challenge and we certainly gave it to them.
00:02Welcome to Ms. Mojo.
00:04And today, we're looking at 10 interesting tidbits we learned
00:07from the new Netflix documentary, One Last Adventure,
00:10The Making of Stranger Things 5.
00:12We recreated downtown Hawkins, where our Mac Z is going to be.
00:18Number 10, The Basement Scene Was the First One Written.
00:21Oh, we're going way back. Okay, let's go way back.
00:24While the documentary focuses primarily on season 5,
00:27it also offers a few fascinating details about the earlier seasons
00:31and the Duffer brothers' beginnings.
00:33We see photos and videos of the younger brothers as they explain their origin,
00:38including the fact that they originally had no interest in writing.
00:41They simply wanted to direct,
00:43but found that writing was the easiest path into the industry.
00:47Ross and I had no interest in writing at all.
00:50We wanted to direct.
00:52We realized that the best way in was probably writing.
00:56Consequently, they wrote Stranger Things,
00:58starting with the now iconic basement scene where the kids play Dungeons & Dragons.
01:03While some writers prefer to work backward from the big action set pieces,
01:07the Duffers were clearly interested in prioritizing character dynamics over spectacle from day one.
01:13I remember when we came up with Stranger Things for the first time.
01:17We just wrote the basement scene with the kids, and it came so easily.
01:21I was like, okay, now we're on to something.
01:23Number 9. They emailed Frank Darabont.
01:26The show is so large, and there's so many pages to shoot,
01:30that Ross and I can simply not direct the whole thing.
01:34It's impossible. This is something we realized in season one.
01:37The Duffers are arguably the biggest showrunners in the industry right now,
01:40so much so that they can simply email Frank Darabont and bring him out of retirement.
01:45The legendary director has helmed many classic films,
01:48and he famously helmed the first season of The Walking Dead.
01:51However, he has not worked since 2013, when he made the short-lived Mob City for TNT.
01:57The Duffers, being massive fans of his work,
02:00decided to reach out and ask if he wanted to direct new episodes for the fifth season.
02:04We took the risk of a little bit of embarrassment, emailed him,
02:08asking, you know, no pressure at all,
02:10just want to make sure you see if by chance,
02:13I know you probably won't want to,
02:14but is there any world in which you would want to direct?
02:17It seems like one of those, the worst he could do is say no, moments that you just sort of go for.
02:22Surprisingly, he agreed, helming both The Turnbow Trap and Shock Jock.
02:27Just imagine having that kind of sway.
02:29Why not? Why not? We love the show that much.
02:33It's very much a throwback to the kind of movies I grew up with and grew up loving.
02:38Number 8. Recreating Hawkins.
02:41That is so sick. That is really cool.
02:43In earlier seasons, the filmmakers used the small town of Jackson, Georgia to stand in for Hawkins,
02:49with locations like the Butts County Probate Court and the Jackson Drugstore doubling as the library and Melvalds.
02:55However, filming a gigantic military battle in an active downtown area just wasn't feasible,
03:01forcing the production team to get creative.
03:03The Max Z is our first Backlot set.
03:06It's so rad.
03:07They recreated Jackson, and by extension Hawkins, entirely from scratch on a Backlot.
03:20This set was then used for the Max Z and the site of the climactic battle with Vecna.
03:24Rebuilding an entire downtown square likely came with a massive price tag and more than a few headaches.
03:30But looking at the results, it was more than worth it.
03:33When we first started, we felt like kids when we were first building the Wheeler House.
03:39I remember we were, like, standing there, like, I can't believe they're letting us do this.
03:41But, you know, you always envision these giant backlots.
03:45That's kind of a benchmark of a really big show.
03:47Number 7. Noah Schnapp helped direct his younger self.
03:51I mean, this, we're just exactly trying to match what you did previous seasons.
03:56Once we get to the tree, it's what you would have done, you think, you know, back in 2015.
04:02The very first scene of Season 5 is a flashback showing a younger Will inside Castle Byers, hiding from the Demogorgon.
04:09Since Noah Schnapp has obviously outgrown the role, production utilized a child actor for the physical performance and superimposed a younger Will over his face.
04:18The Duffers really listen and really collaborate with us from when I was, like, 10 years old.
04:23But the most interesting detail is that the Duffers had Schnapp direct his younger self.
04:28It's a fascinating look at the production, showing that the directors trust their cast to bring out the best work out of one another.
04:35It also facilitated a more natural performance, as the child actor received pointers from the very person he was portraying.
04:42Still, it must have been quite a trip for Schnapp, who was essentially directing himself.
04:47Talk about a time capsule.
04:48It's been really cool to kind of step into these, like, director shoes.
04:53Like, what does Noah think? We're gonna defer to you.
04:56And I'm like, oh, okay, I guess you guys trust me, which is a really nice feeling.
05:01Number 6. The flare gun was a possible inside joke.
05:05We're just getting really close, okay?
05:07And we don't know what's in there, so I really think you should be sharing some of that firepower.
05:11One of the funniest moments of Season 5 occurs during the finale, when Mike approaches Nancy and asks for a gun.
05:17Nancy relents, much to Mike's excitement, only for Lucas to break the bad news seconds later.
05:23It's just a flare gun.
05:25Thanks.
05:28Those are flares.
05:30What?
05:31Flares.
05:33Gave you a flare gun, dude.
05:34As revealed in the documentary, this was likely an inside joke from the creators.
05:38The Duffers were approached by Finn Wolfhard, who apparently wanted to wield a weapon in the finale.
05:44Totally understandable.
05:45Unfortunately, the Duffers said no, essentially acting exactly like Nancy,
05:49placating him with a flare gun when he wanted something bigger and meaner.
05:53Still, considering it helped take down the mind flare, we can't say it was useless.
05:58The kids, they've all expressed to me, Mike and Luke,
06:00and I think they do have a point that they would like to take part in that fight.
06:05Especially if Finn's like, you know, don't give me a candle.
06:08Just a stick, please.
06:10Which is fair.
06:11He really wants a gun, and I'm just like, I don't think so.
06:15Number five, the set design seemed rushed.
06:18I can't tell from my branch of government if I need to raise an alarm bell
06:21in terms of the amount of shoot days that I foresee just from that meeting in abstention.
06:27You know what I mean?
06:27Yeah, I think so.
06:28And I don't know if you have enough intel from that to raise an alarm bell.
06:31I can't get these sets ready in time.
06:33If there's one aspect of production that didn't seem fully synchronized,
06:37it was the set design for the final battle.
06:39When the brothers relayed their ambitious concepts to the construction team inside the school,
06:44the crew looked visibly shell-shocked.
06:46They were understandably worried about the limited time to build the set
06:49and the practicalities of engineering a, quote, living environment that physically moved.
06:54And they just threw a whole concept of, like, what the floor is like
06:57and the nature of the roots and the membranous nature of it all.
07:00And it's like, do we need to factor that into the physical build of this set?
07:03To make matters worse, they didn't even have a finished script to work with,
07:07forcing them to build the set entirely based on concept art and conversations with the Duffers.
07:13Considering those limitations, the fact that they pulled it off is a miracle.
07:16We're not going to get a final script in time for you to do this,
07:20so we're going to have to base it on conversations with them.
07:22That's it, yeah. We're just going to have to figure it out.
07:25Number four, the melting walls were reverse-engineered.
07:28That idea came about because of the Jonathan and Nancy talk.
07:32We need to put them in a situation where they feel that they're going to die
07:37and it forces them to have this emotional talk.
07:41One of the most discussed scenes of season five was the breakup between Nancy and Jonathan,
07:45which famously took place inside a melting room.
07:48As it turns out, this environment was reverse-engineered specifically to put the couple in a life-or-death scenario.
07:54The physical stakes are so high, it forces the emotional stakes to rise.
07:59So we're working backwards from that.
08:01The brothers knew they needed Nancy and Jonathan on the verge of dying to force them to reveal their true feelings,
08:06so they worked backward to find a threat that fit.
08:09They envisioned the melting walls, realizing it paired perfectly with the unstable exotic matter above them.
08:15They faced significant hurdles filming the sequence,
08:18specifically the goop being way too watery,
08:21but they managed to make the practical effects work in the end.
08:24You gotta work with what you have.
08:26The thing about directing, the thing about leadership is you can prepare rigorously, as I do,
08:32but when you're in a moment and it's just not working out, you can't have a tantrum.
08:39You can't give up.
08:41You can't shut down.
08:42We have to shoot today.
08:44Number three, it was Maya Hawke's idea to whisper.
08:47I have a question about the scenes.
08:48It hasn't been talked about very much in any of the scenes that we've all been in together.
08:51No one knows that we're dating, including Caleb.
08:55The documentary offers plenty of fly-on-the-wall moments,
08:58including a great interaction during the filming of episode six, Escape from Camazotz.
09:03Maya Hawke is seen sitting with Amy Beth McNulty when she flags down director Sean Levy to offer a suggestion.
09:09She reasons that because Lucas doesn't know that Robin and Vicky are dating,
09:13she should play the scene in a whisper.
09:15I would like to play this scene in a whisper.
09:18Yeah.
09:19I would like to do this.
09:21Yeah.
09:21This serves a dual purpose.
09:23protecting them from the demo dogs, but also hiding their relationship from Lucas.
09:28It's a fascinating glimpse into the collaborative process,
09:31showing how actors can elevate a scene simply by focusing on the small and realistic motivations of their characters.
09:37This kind of stuff comes naturally to her.
09:39Not surprising, given her background.
09:41Is that okay?
09:42Yeah, yeah.
09:42It says you take one another's hand, right?
09:45We can't.
09:45Yeah.
09:46That's what I would like.
09:46It would be here.
09:48Right.
09:49Okay, good.
09:51Let's do that.
09:52Cool.
09:52Number two, they fought over Eleven's fate.
09:55We think she's made the choice to live.
09:58I don't know.
09:59Just kidding.
10:00She has it.
10:01Just kidding.
10:01She did.
10:02Like, that's where I start to go.
10:03I don't know if we have to play it like that.
10:04That is how we...
10:05I don't know if we have to play it like that.
10:06How would we play it?
10:07We keep it ambiguous.
10:08The question of whether Eleven survived the explosion remains the show's biggest unanswered mystery.
10:14While this open-ended conclusion is deliberate, the documentary exposes a surprisingly heated divide between the creators regarding the finale.
10:22It wasn't just a minor disagreement.
10:24It was a fundamental clash over the show's emotional payoff.
10:28How do we know it's true?
10:30We don't.
10:34Not for sure.
10:36But I choose to believe that it is.
10:41Matt argued for a definitive ending where Elle reunites with Hopper, but Ross pushed for the cerebral, ambiguous ending to keep the mythology alive.
10:49They spent days debating not just the final shot, but exactly which visual clues to plant to support both interpretations.
10:56It's a rare instance of the brothers being out of sync.
10:59And while Ross clearly won that creative battle, the debate among fans is clearly just getting started.
11:04If she comes back and has this moment with Hopper and gets in the van, I feel she has clearly made a choice to live.
11:10No.
11:12Not necessarily.
11:13If you show me those images, she's made a choice to live.
11:16I'm so...
11:18Don't do the 100% thing.
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11:35Number 1. Monsters in the Abyss were suggested.
11:39There have to be some monsters in the Abyss.
11:42I agree.
11:42There has to be Demogorgon, Bat, Dog, like something.
11:48One of the most controversial aspects of the finale was the significant lack of monsters in the Abyss.
11:53Critics and fans alike found it silly that the heroes could simply climb into the dimension and stroll right up to Vecna's lair without encountering any form of resistance.
12:02However, the documentary vindicates those fans.
12:05This was discussed in the writers' room.
12:07They just chose to ignore it.
12:09It's crazy if there's nothing there, I think.
12:12Hmm.
12:13We see writer Paul Dichter arguing that they had to show Demogorgons and bats in the Abyss,
12:18explicitly stating it would be, quote, crazy to leave the area empty.
12:22Unfortunately, his suggestion was met with awkward silence and the counter-argument that viewers would have demo fatigue by that point.
12:29What?
12:30Clearly the audience disagreed.
12:32I guess, like, I'd maybe feel wonder about demo fatigue at the...
12:38Yeah, I mean, that's fair.
12:40What else did you find interesting?
12:42Let us know in the comments below.
12:44Demogorgon.
12:45Demogorgon.
12:51presidents had modeled well.
12:55Demogorgon.
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