Plot: A decade after rewiring pop culture, Stranger Things returns for its final chapter.One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things Season 5 is a sweeping behind-the-scenes chronicle that follows the cast, creators, and crew as they bring the final season to life—and say goodbye to the show that changed them forever.
Review: There is very little chance that, if you are reading this, you have not watched the epic final season of Stranger Things. Ten years and five seasons later, fans are overwhelmingly satisfied with the conclusion of Matt and Ross Duffer’s nostalgic blend of homage to Steven Spielberg and Stephen King. A love letter to Amblin films and the 1980s, Stranger Things was an immediate hit for Netflix and spawned countless imitators, but few were able to harness the right balance of horror, humor, and adventure that made Stranger Things a global phenomenon. Consider the fact that just last week, a TikTok trend took the internet by storm, leading people to believe a secret, ninth episode was about to premiere. That is the power of a series that strikes the right nerve. The behind-the-scenes documentary One Last Adventure serves as a chronicle of the production of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, marking the end of an era for the Netflix show.
One Last Adventure is a comprehensive look at Stranger Things 5, but also incorporates a retrospective on the evolution of The Duffer Brothers’ vision across the decade, from season one. While this is not a comprehensive chronicle of the entire Stranger Things series, the balance of footage from the four preceding volumes of the show, along with the significant expansion of production values as the young cast has grown older, is very apparent. Interviews with the main cast are often shown in a split screen with archival footage, which highlights just how much everyone has grown in a short amount of time. All of the young actors are interviewed, with notable absences from adult performers like David Harbour and Winona Ryder, who were unavailable at the time this film was made. Even without their firsthand retrospective comments, we see them and the entire ensemble through the table reads for the season and in-depth footage of major sequences from all episodes of Stranger Things 5.
What this documentary also reveals is the significance of the ending of Stranger Things 5 to The Duffer Brothers and their writing team. Whether you liked the ending or felt it was a disappointment, Matt and Ross Duffer are shown to have wrestled significantly with how to bring this story to a fitting conclusion. We don’t always get to see how writers develop specific elements of stories, but One Last Adventure is a fascinating glimpse into the creative process. At the beginning of the documentary, we hear that when production began on Stranger Things 5 that the Duffers did not have the ending locked in. Before you begin screaming that this is proof that the ending was a letdown, keep in mind that the Duffers knew where the story would be going but needed to figure out specific elements of the closing of their creation. The documentary also shows us how input from the cast on the characters they have come to know intimately helped shape the ending of Stranger Things 5 and how the cast came to terms with their narrative final destination.
While the interviews offer a lot of insight into the cast and how they felt saying goodbye, One Last Adventure delivers in showcasing the exceptional efforts from the crew as they choreographed action sequences, such as the fourth episode’s battle between the military and Vecna and the Demogorgons. The intricate production values, stunt work, and both practical and computer-generated effects are displayed with great transparency. Behind-the-scenes documentaries are always great to allow a peek behind the curtain, but One Last Adventure really opens up the challenge of making the equivalent of nine films’ worth of effort. There are also highlights in seeing the distinct creative processes that the directors incorporated, with The Duffer Brothers, Frank Darabont, and Shawn Levy all bringing their unique perspectives to major moments in Stranger Things 5, while still complementing one another. One filmmaker alone has a massive burden to bring a visual style to the screen, but when three must collaborate to make it appear seamless, the result is impressive. The inspiration behind these directors’ actions and their collaborative efforts is a highlight of One Last Adventure.
The documentary closes with the main cast, notably Finn Wolfhard and Noah Schnapp, giving a farewell as they finished their scenes on the final season, and the emotions felt by every member of the ensemble and the crew as this series came to a close. Directed by Martina Radwan, One Last Adventure clocks in at two hours, which is a long look at just the final season of a series. However, knowing back in 2023 that this would be the end of the road for the Netflix hit, Radwan gained unlimited access to the entire creative process and also recorded the cast as they read the script for the final episode, as well as filmed their final scenes together. Comprehensively, this documentary is as illuminating as anything we have seen about the making of Stranger Things, other than the brief Beyond Stranger Things series from 2017 and last year’s look at the making of Stranger Things: The First Shadow.
One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 is not going to change the minds of any disappointed fans hoping for the fictional Conformity Gate episode, but for those who loved this series from the very beginning, One Last Adventure is a sweet way to close the book on this tale. There is a lot of cool magic that is unveiled, and it is impressive how much practical effort went into creating the otherworldly domain of The Upside Down. This documentary will give fans one last opportunity to bid farewell to the residents of Hawkins and reflect on the rollercoaster journey we got to enjoy from our couches over the last ten years. Stranger Things may be over, but the talented cast and crew have more than delivered, giving us an amazing ride.
One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 is now streaming on Netflix.
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Source:
JoBlo.com
