The Opening of STRANGER THINGS Season 2 Was Inspired By Christopher Nolan's THE DARK KNIGHT
Stranger Things Season 2 opened up with a sequence of events that I wasn't expecting. It kicked off with an action-packed car chase with a group of brand new characters that we haven't seen before. It definitely grabbed my attention and pulled me in!
When we think of Stranger Things we think of this radcore form of entertainment that's filled with homages to the 80s. I mean, that's one of the things this series prides itself on! This opening scene, however, was inspired by a different era of film, something that's a bit more contemporary.
According to The Duffer Bros. the opening scene was heavily inspired by Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. During an interview with Vulture, Matt Duffer explained:
"We were definitely going for [a Dark Knight vibe]. Some of this stuff happens subconsciously, so I’m sure, yeah, we were ripping off Chris Nolan. Some of it was deliberately. We put on movie music when we write — I know I wrote that [scene] to The Dark Knight score or The Matrix, one or the other. But we love that kind of film, and we don’t usually get to explore that kind of vibe or tone on the show, so I think that’s really why we did it."
The scene is set on the highways of the industrial area of the city of Pittsburgh, the visuals of which are very reminiscent of the scene in The Dark Knight when Batman is chasing down The Joker when he's driving that big truck. I never put the two together until I read this interview with the Duffer Bros. but now I can totally see it.
Matt went on to share some additional insight into shooting the scene saying:
"We did [shoot the scene in Atlanta], and then the [Pittsburgh] skyline we added. Instead of [Kali] manipulating this tunnel, it used to be that she was manipulating a bridge. We were going to have this really spectacular bridge sequence, and there’s a lot of really great bridges in Pittsburgh. That’s I think ultimately why we chose it, but you just cannot find a bridge anywhere even near Atlanta. You actually can’t even find a tunnel. That tunnel was actually about 20 feet long. It was ridiculous. It was the tiniest, puniest tunnel, and we just ended up extending it with computer graphics."
Ross Duffer then explained their decision to kick off season 2 of Stranger Things in a different location, with different characters, and a different tone, saying:
"It was a pretty time-consuming endeavor, but we wanted to throw people off a little bit and make them feel a little bit uncomfortable. It’s always the balancing act, right? You’re trying to do new and different things. You don’t want to repeat yourself. You want to be familiar, but not too familiar. That’s obviously the struggle moving forward."
It's funny because that opening scene did kinda make me feel uncomfortable at first! I love what the Duffer's are doing with this series so I hope that they continue to take risks and try new things as they continue the story.