[Mike] We can do this. I know it. One last fight and this whole nightmare will finally be over. 

Everything we wanna say about this show and the experience of the show and everything we wanna say about the story, we put into that final episode. 

[Finn] It's the highest stakes that the show has ever been because we have to get my sister back. But also at the same time, we have to stop Vecna from creating his own new world.

[Maya] We're losing important pieces of our heart. So I think that this is about fighting to the bone, even when you don't know you're gonna win. 

[Brett] It's Vecna or us, and we're not gonna stop until we have saved the world.

Steve!

Ah!

[crashing]

[explosions] 

It was important to us that a lot of our character arcs were starting to resolve as they head into the final battles, whether it's Jonathan and Nancy, whether it's Dustin and Steve to ultimately Will's coming out. So, really the big lingering one is Eleven. That's the big question mark that we wanted to leave in the air as we move into the big finale.

[tense music playing] All right, listen, anything you see in here is not real. It can't hurt you.

[inquisitive music playing] The mineshaft is the nucleus of Henry Creel's trauma. It is where Henry Creel became Vecna. 

[Jamie] Holly runs into this mineshaft.

[Young Henry] Don't shoot.

[Jamie] So he follows her down the shaft and sees his younger self.

Who sent you?

Nobody sent me.

[man] Bang!

[Jamie] This is a repressed memory of a traumatic experience for Henry, and ultimately the reason why his whole life has ended up being the way that it has been. He lost his youth, his childhood, his love. It's a wildly traumatic experience. No wonder he pushed it down.

[screaming] 

It shows, you know, Vecna and Will started in these same points. They were both sensitive kids, and they were both a vessel. 

It wasn't you. 

And they just took two different paths and Will fought it to save his friends and Vecna gave in to it and became evil. But Will had this new sympathy for him because he was like, "That was me." "We are not so different and maybe I could get through to you." 

Don't listen to it, Henry. It is controlling you right now.

[all grunting] 

I think the biggest surprise this year is how the Mind Flayer has evolved. 

Run!

[Maher] The threat is so much bigger. Just even looking at some of the early concepts, I think there was like a little bit of trepidation, like, are these kids going to be able to defeat this thing? 

In true Stranger Things fashion, it's really about like the group, the group as a whole kind of operating as this unit.

[screaming]

[Charlie] I think we all look cool. Looking around everyone in costumes, "Wow, we all look like action heroes." 

It's really fun to get to physically do things that feel huge.

This is for Eddie, you son of a bitch!

For Eddie!

[grunting] I'm really stoked that Dustin and Steve stick together throughout this process. You know, it's "If you die, I die."

[yelling]

One of the goals was to make sure that every character had something very specific to do. The only way to defeat Vecna, the only way to defeat the Mind Flayer would be if everyone contributed in some meaningful way. It's really the party working together as a team that they're able to defeat this evil once and for all. 

Eleven versus Vecna was a huge sequence. Jamie is a trooper. I mean, we flew him on so many different wires. 

Ready, and three, two, one. Go! 

And then to have Millie come in and she loves to fly on the wires. She was always wanting to do as much as she could do. 

Whoo! 

It was wild, because we were just filming all these, like, pieces of the stunt together. You know, it's like Millie's running up two spikes and, like, flying into the air. Or, like, I'm crashing onto the ground. But it was cool because, like, we had a really good time doing it. 

Throughout all of the seasons, Eleven has fought all these beings that have been formed by Vecna. And to finally kill the source, there is a certain kind of energy I'm trying to harness that I've never harnessed before. It's very new to me because I think I know there's finality in it.

Will has these powers. You see this kind of similarity to Eleven, and then how they're both fighting him together at the end. It's awesome. It's, like, a kick-ass scene. 

I'm not afraid anymore.

[grunting]

[yelling]

[screams]

[yelling] 

We talked a lot about, you know, who should deal the final blow to Vecna, and we really went through everyone. And at the end of the day, it felt like it had to be Joyce because Joyce was the one in the first season who was the first one to really take action. 

Will, are you here?

To believe that something strange was going on. 

I am not gonna stop looking for him until I find him and bring him home. 

And so we thought that would be a nice payoff after nine years to actually see her use this ax and kill this guy. 

When I was growing up, there was, like, this urban legend that a mother could lift a car up. Like, some superhuman strength happens if it has to do with saving your kid's life. 

You fucked with the wrong family.

[Winona] And so I wanted to make it as sort of primal as that.

[crew applauding] That's it for Jamie!

[indistinct talking] 

This is where we made Vecna come to life. 

When we started on season five, we stepped back into identically the same room, and it was, like, two and a half years later, and everything was in the same place. I remember Jamie saying, "It's just super exciting." That it's just like stepping back into an old friend. He's always embraced it, and he's always loved it. And we've always had so much fun with him that it's super sad that we're, you know, we're about to close the door on it.

[Jamie] I don't know if I'll be able to take a step away from this. I don't know. I'm not ready. I mean, I am ready, but, like, I'm not ready. I'm gonna come back and haunt the fuck out of this place.

[soldier] Everyone put your hands up!

Okay.

Okay. Okay. El? Do you see El? She must have escaped.

[relieved sigh]

[melancholy synth music playing]

[Millie] As a young girl, I couldn't find my inner voice, and I can relate to Eleven in that way. And I think this season, she is able to find her voice and make a decision that's far greater than any she's ever made before. 

You have to get out of there! You have to get out! 

None of this will ever end, not if I'm still here. 

No, no, we'll figure something out. 

Yeah, that's sort of like Mike's biggest fear coming true is, like, saying goodbye to Eleven. 

And action.

[Finn] I was excited to do that scene because I think rarely Mike gets to show any kind of that kind of emotion. And then this is the one time in the series that Mike has never had a plan, sort of, and that he, like, has absolutely no control over anything. 

It's just so beautiful and cathartic and something that I've been wanting for a very long time, personally. But also for Eleven, I just think it's incredibly important that it all ends for her and the suffering and pain ends.

We're gonna check that.

Checking the gate. Very good. We just cut to the look like that…

[laughs]

["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1" playing] It's the big graduation, 1989, seeing our boy grow up right before our eyes. Yes, you know, we met everybody in 2015. Finn was up to here on me. Everyone was half their size. And I say in the scene, "You're all grown up." And I just couldn't get the line out half the day. I'm so proud of you. Ladies and gentlemen, give a warm welcome for your valedictorian, Dustin Henderson.

[cheering] Yeah, buddy! It's very cool to see Dustin, of course, giving his valedictorian speech. And so I didn't have to do a lot of acting to be like, you know, "Oh man, I'm so proud of this guy and look at what he's accomplished." Screw it. Yeah.

Screw the school.

Henderson. Screw the system. Screw conformity. Screw everyone and everything trying to hold you back and tear us apart because this, this is our year!

[cheering]

Yeah! Yeah! They gave us real diplomas, and mine says "To William Byers, class of 1989." And so I'm getting that framed next to my actual high school diploma. I've spent so much time on set with these people. And to me, that felt like the real graduation for me.

[crowd cheering] I just finished shooting Stranger Things. It's really special because this has been a character that has been a part of my childhood. Bunch of nerds. Thank you for being such great, sweet fans. It really helps bring the show together so that we can make sure we end this in the best way for you all. When we were working on the season, that is the first thing we discussed, what are the last 20 minutes? Where do we want the characters to end up? The idea of a final scene in the basement was the plan for as long as we can remember.

[Mike] Something's coming. Something hungry for blood. A shadow grows on the wall behind you.

What is it?

What if it's the Demogorgon? Oh Jesus, we're so screwed if it's the Demogorgon.

It's not the Demogorgon!

An army of troglodytes! I have a very clear memory of season one, day one, scene one, take one, was the Dungeons & Dragons scene in the basement. That was the first thing we'd ever shot. And then when I saw that it ended that way, you know, I started crying. Reading that last scene, I was like, "Oh man, that's perfect." Here remains, Will the Wise, Barovia's last and only hope. It felt like we needed to go full circle. They needed to play a final game of D&D because they'd been through so much and we wanted a return to the innocence of that first season, once they've finally been able to put all of this evil behind them.

[both] And… fireball!

[Heymann] We wanted some of the shots to harken back to that original season. And it was so cool to just watch everything come full circle. And so shooting it was an incredibly moving experience. It brought all of us to tears on that last day. I mean, that's why we love the show is these characters and seeing them safe and happy and triumphant, it's the most rewarding feeling after, you know, a decade of doing this. Well, it is true. The comfort and happiness part. But happiness can be found in many places. I think what really was just so perfect was the coda and the epilogue was just beautiful. And I feel like everyone's been waiting so long to see like, what is the aftermath for all these characters?

[Eryn Mekash] I had Dustin have an Eddie tribute tattoo of bats. Gaten liked it. He just felt like it was really great for his character.

[Mike] There is a story that he can never tell. The story of the mage. Mike has this alternate theory about what happened to Eleven. It's kind of up to interpretation, but to Mike, he chooses to believe that it's real.

[Mike] Once the mage escaped, the sister cast one final spell. The mage you saw die was not real.

[Millie] I kind of love that ending. That there is just such a bigger purpose to Kali's powers. Everything has a purpose. Everything's there for a reason. I like to imagine that she's in a beautiful land, somewhere far away.

[Linnea] It's so beautiful. It's about hope. Jane lives on in like that version for Mike, and that's enough. Eleven sort of represents to us the magic of childhood, right? Something fantastical. The elements of it that feel almost supernatural, magical, and wondrous. That feeling is encapsulated by Eleven. So while they're leaving her behind, ultimately at the end, she's always going to be a part of them, and she's always going to be there. That's really what we wanted the ending to be about. That's a good shot. Rolling. Thank you, cameras are set. The last scene we shot with our main actors was the last scene that they're in the show. So, a lot of what they're saying in those scenes is exactly how those actors are feeling in real life. A lot of that was real. It was very raw. It was hard. It was hard for everyone to let go. And cut.

[bell rings]

[people cheering] I think the most profound gift from this show has been these kids. I was sort of taken aback by just how grounded they are and how just insanely talented they are. And… I'll get emotional, but how well they turned out, you know? That's why I really wanted them to really understand how much they brought and how lucky we all are. And how lucky audiences are to have gotten to watch them grow up. I'm so proud. I mean, it's like family. I mean, and everything that entails. I've grown up with these people. I love them. I care about them deeply. And that's what's really special about this show, is there was an encouragement to really bring all that life to the work.

[Sadie] I think back to like how it all started. I just remember it so clearly, just kind of feeling the energy in the room. And I think nothing really changed. Like that energy that I felt that day is just kind of what the show is. And just, I don't know, this feeling of like safety and joy. This is a forever sort of legacy. And there's before, and there's after. And all of us now live in the after. And not for one day do I want any of us to take that for granted or forget what a gift that is. Stranger Things is a classic that will never die. You know what I mean? That story always will resonate with different generations. So it's not the end. It's just a part of the journey.

For us, it really is about, we're moving on, but we're never gonna let go. And we can always go back if we're ever feeling down. If things are ever feeling hard, we can go back and we can find that feeling again in our hearts. And it's always gonna be there.

[emotional music playing]