‘Stranger Things’ Season 2 Trailer Breakdown: Is That Monster The Thessalhydra?
/Film readers know that we love to dig in, so let’s examine the new teaser trailer frame by frame to see what we can learn about the new season which will be released on Halloween 2017. Hit the jump to enter the Upside Down and explore ourStranger Thingsseason 2 trailer breakdown.
Stranger Things Season 2 Trailer Breakdown
The Eggos Commercial
The teaser trailer begins with a clip froman Eggo commercialthat originally aired in December 1980, four years before the events ofStranger Thingsseason 2’s fall 1984 storyline. A fun bit of trivia: the little boy in the commercial is played byJason Hervey, best known as the child actor who played Wayne Arnold inThe Wonder Yearsand Milton Baines inBack to the Future.
The Eggos are, of course, a reference to a food that Eleven liked in the first season. The season left off with Chief Hopper (David Harbour) leaving Eggos in the woods for the young girl, who had vanished during the climax of the finale.
The Arcade
The commercial begins to flicker and we see a very brief glimpse of an Arcade sign with a red-colored sky in the background with quick lightening-style flashes. We didn’t see an arcade in the first season but it seems likely that this will be a new location. And it makes sense that the kids would hang out in an arcade, as it was a popular hangout location for kids in the 1980s and reminiscent of'80s movieslikeWarGames, The Last Starfighter, Tron, andThe Karate Kid.
Eleven Is Back
We hear one of the boys call out for Eleven and see a flash of actressMillie Bobby Brownopening her eyes, reprising her role as Eleven. Of course, Eleven returning isn’t a big surprise as everyone pretty much assumed she would be back for the second season. We’ve even seen the actress intable read photos.
But the question is, where is she? Could the framing of this shot be a clue? Eleven is framed weirdly upside down, which may hint that she is back in the Upside Down. She looks frightened and we can see that she is still having her signature nosebleeds as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the first shot we see of the character in the season two episode one, which is titled “Madmax.”
In my discussion of theStranger Thingsseason 2 episode titles, I speculated that the title is not just an obvious reference toGeorge Miller’s 1979 filmMad Max, but could be a metaphor for the story at hand: the film is set in a self-destructing post-apocalyptic world, so perhaps it is a metaphor for the Upside Down.Mad Maxfollows a father out for revenge for the killing of his wife and son, possibly a reference to Chief Hopper who has lost not only his daughter but his surrogate daughter, Eleven. We also know thatfour new characters will be introducedin the new season and a girl named Maxwill be one of them.
Back on Bikes
The kids are back on their bicycles, racing through the streets of Hawkins, Indiana, probably headed to school. Nothing is more reminiscent of being a child in the ’80s than riding your bike with friends in a suburban neighborhood.
You might notice that the kids are wearing weird-looking backpacks. These aren’t backpacks, but proton packs. They are dressed as Ghostbusters, as we’ll see further in this teaser trailer. While the first season was set in November 1983, season 2 will take place in October 1984.Ghostbustersjust hit theaters in July of that year and clearly has had a big effect on these kids.
Cheif Hopper In an Explosive Situation
Chief Hopper saved the day last time around, turning on the government to help save Will and the other kids. The first glimpse we get of Hopper in the new teaser trailer looks like he’s gotten himself into another mess. We see a house exploding around him, but there is no indication of why it’s happening or what is causing it.
The Ghostbusters Arrive at Middle School
The boys have arrived at Hawkins Middle School, and as you can see from the decorations in the background, it is Halloween. (Although I don’t see any other classmates in Halloween costumes in the background.)Gaten Matarazzo, as Dustin Henderson, looks towards the camera with a nervous look. I wonder what he is looking at and thinking here.
Hopper Is Digging
In the next look we get of Hopper, he seems to be thrusting a shovel into the ground. What is he digging for? Could it be that he is in search of Eleven? He couldn’t be trying to dig to the Upside Down, right?
A Real Ghostbuster?
A person dons a yellow suit with what looks to be some kind of flame thrower. Is this a real life “Ghostbuster?” It’s very likely that the sinister government agency that was hiding under the guise of the US Department of Energy laboratory is still conducting their experiments, and we are seeing a bit of that here.
Will Is Now the Experiment
We get a glimpse of a closed-circuit monitor showingNoah Schnappas Will Byers in a doctor’s office. At the end of the first season, Will was secretly vomiting up weird slug creatures and having flashes of the upside down. It looks like his mother Joyce (Winona Ryder) has taken him to get medical attention, but the question is: does she know that the Department of Energy might secretly be behind this doctor visit and using Will for their intentions? Notice the date on the timecode is the day before Halloween 1984. The holiday took place on Wednesday that year so this is the day before we see the kids at school in their Ghostbusters costumes.
The Department of Energy
We cut to a shot further back revealing what we had assumed: this is not just a security camera in a doctor’s office but very likely a secret facility operated by the sinister Department of Energy. The other monitors show nothing of particular interest, just different hallways and corners of this facility.
Will’s Drawing
We see a shot of Will agonizing over his visions of the Upside Down, followed by this shot of one of his drawings. We know that the Demogorgon has been killed but there are bigger and more dangerous monsters lurking in the Upside Down. Notice the red sky in the background.
Will Answers the Door
Will goes towards a door, and we see the same red sky through the cracks. The shot is clearly an homage to one of my favorite shots in Steven Spielberg’s movies — the boy at the door inClose Encounters of the Third Kind, seen at right.
Red Lightning
We get a better look at the red-colored lightning that we saw in the arcade shot.
The Monster
The flash of lightning illuminates for a brief second a monster standing on six or seven legs over the trees of the Upside Down version of Hawkins Indiana. The monster looks like something out of H.P. Lovecraft orEldritch Horror. It also looks a bit likeLouise Bourgeois’s sculpture Mother, and reminds me a bit of the aliens from Spielberg’sWar of the Worldsas well as the monsters from Stephen King’sThe Mist. And yes, we know thatStranger Thingsseason one took a lot of inspiration from King’s books and movies.
Now let’s just hope that this creature doesn’t have the ability to cross over to the right-side-up real world, like the Demogorgon did. In the first season ofStranger Things, the kids were battling thethessalhydrain theirDungeons and Dragonsgame and some fans think this new monster might resemble that creature. InD&D, the hydra reproduces by infecting hosts with larvae and has many heads which regrow when they are cut off. Of course, the Demogorgon was not a direct adaptation of theD&Dcreature, and we shouldn’t expect the same for this monster. In fact,some articles have theorizedthe Thessalhydra would be the Upside Down baddie for this season long ago.
If you’re looking to delve further into the mysteries ofStranger Thingsseason two, check out our previous speculation over the announcedepisode titles.
