Stranger Things is the 220th episode of Screen Junkies comedy series Honest Trailers. It was written by Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr and Dan Murrell. It was narrated by Jon Bailey as Epic Voice Guy. It parodies the first season of the 2016 American science-fiction/horror streaming TV series Stranger Things. It was published on November 7, 2017, close to the release of Stranger Things Season 2 on Netflix. It is 7 minutes 15 seconds long. It has been viewed over 5.6 million times.
Watch Honest Trailers - Stranger Things on YouTube
"Must... revisit... childhood...! Escape... horrible... present day...!" ~ Honest Trailers - Stranger Things
Script[]
The following trailer only spoils Season 1 of Stranger Things; the bad men will get us if we show you Season 2 before it's on Blu-ray.
From the streaming service that's a Game of Thrones away from ruling all of television (Netflix), and a directing duo (Matt and Ross Duffer) who's like Tarantino... if he referenced films you've already seen (shows similar shots of three men aiming their pistols at each other in City on Fire and Reservoir Dogs), comes the show that made the entire world ask, "Hey, have you finished Stranger Things yet?"
Stranger Things. No, I don't want to skip intro (zooms in on the "Skip Intro" button); this song is awesome! (singing) Do-do-do-do-DO-do-do-do, Do-do-do-do-DO-do-do-do...
You love the 80's. You love Steven Spielberg. (shows Elliot Taylor and E.T. flying a bicycle past the Moon in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) You love... most of Stephen King. (plays clips from The Shawshank Redemption, The Shining, and IT (1990), followed by showing Little League players being pelted with cans from a vending machine in Maximum Overdrive) Now, you're all grown up, and the real world is terrible, so escape to a slick, bingeable series you'd watch at double speed if it meant you could get it into your brain sooner. (plays a clip at 2x speed of Eleven flipping over a van as she and the other kids ride bikes) Must... revisit... childhood...! Escape... horrible... present day...!
Visit the idyllic suburb of Hawkins, Indiana, a small town where nobody seems to pay any mind... to the giant, high-security, top-secret lab with hundreds of employees. When a middle-schooler goes missing (shows Will vanishing), a Losers Club full of Goonies will band together to recreate the cutest version of The Hangover you've ever seen, where one character disappears (shows Doug Billings in The Hangover and Will Byers in this series)...
Phil Wenneck (The Hangover): Where is Doug?!
Joyce: (to Jonathan) Where's Will?
...one character is missing teeth (shows Stu Price in The Hangover and Dustin Henderson in this series), one character is cool and skeptical (shows Phil Wenneck in The Hangover and Lucas Sinclair in this series), and one character is a dangerous liability to the rest of the group. (shows Alan Garner in The Hangover and Eleven in this series)
Phil Wenneck (The Hangover): Is he all there? Like, mentally?
Lucas: There's something seriously wrong with her. Like, wrong in the head.
Will may be missing, but there's plenty of other strange things to go around, like... Mike's sister (Nancy Wheeler), trapped in a love triangle between two haircuts (Steve Harrington and Jonathan Byers); Will's mom (Joyce Byers), who copes with her son's loss by getting really into arts and crafts; Hopper, the cop on a one-man quest to cold-cock every guard in town (montage of Hopper knocking out guards)...
Hawkins Head of Security: (into a walkie-talkie) Yeah, I've got Jim Hopper here-- (gets knocked out by Hopper)
...and fan favorite Barb, the most talked-about character with the least amount of screen time since Boba Fett. Look, I get it; she's awkward and she didn't deserve to die, but how about the dude at the beginning who got shot just for helping a lost child? (shows Benny Hammond being murdered by Agent Connie Frazier) Where's the #JusticeForBenny, huh?
Suit up with 2016's breakout character/Halloween costume, Eleven; she's one part Carrie (shows Eleven telekinetically locking the door as Lucas tries to leave), one part the kid from Boyhood (shows Eleven alongside Mason Evans Jr. with his head shaved in Boyhood), and one part reminder that Eggo Waffles is part of a balanced breakfast. (shows Eleven grabbing some boxes of Eggo waffles in a grocery store) Watch as she expands her vocabulary outside the secret lab she was raised in...
Eleven: What... is "friend"? / Spit? / Promise? / "Snow Ball"? / Mouth breather?
...discovering the joy of friendship, family, and fun new ways to murder people. (shows Eleven snapping an agent's neck and causing several guards to bleed from their eyes and collapse) Oh, wow; she just straight-up exploded their brains, didn't she? Can we... just cut back to her doing something cute again? (shows Eleven leaning backwards on a reclining chair as Mike watches) Aww! We love you, Eleven! Please don't get caught up with a group of Chicago street toughs in a standalone Season 2 episode that, while providing a much-needed arc for your character, also completely derails the show's narrative momentum (shows Mike doing a spit-take while drinking milk); I mean, just spitballing here.
Journey to the Upside Down, an alternate dimension that's just like our own... if it were covered in snot ropes and dandruff; it's a dangerous world that can only be crossed into by this spoooooky vagina, or this portal in the woods, or these Christmas lights (?), or this wall (?), or floating in salt water...? I don't know.
Steve: This is crazy! This is crazy! This is crazy!
There lives the Demogorgon (shows the Demogorgon roaring), a monster who's either an invisible, unkillable, lightning-fast predator, or, if the story demands it, a slow-moving golem who gets wrecked by a 16-year-old with a baseball bat. (shows Steve bludgeoning the Demogorgon with a bat) I hope they don't do what Aliens did and replace the big monster with a bunch of smaller, easier-to-kill versions; again, juuust spitballing.
So hop on the back pegs and ride along with one of Netflix's biggest hits, that could've coasted by on pure nostalgia, but goes the extra mile by adding a tight story with a great young cast, who'd better crank out the next seasons fast, 'cause if you think the Demogorgon is relentless, wait until puberty is on your tail. Clock's ticking, Dustin.
Dustin: Son of a bitch! (pants)
Starring: Neeeeerds! (shows Mike, Dustin, and Lucas playing Dungeons & Dragons); Bikes (shows multiple clips of characters riding bicycles); Hugs (shows multiple clips of characters hugging); Slenderman (The Demogorgon); More Nosebleeds Than a Horned-Up Anime Character (shows multiple clips of Eleven getting nosebleeds alongside Ayumi Otosaka from Charlotte, Kenji Koiso from Summer Wars, and Misao Kusakabe from Lucky Star); Winona Face (montage of Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers making shocked facial expressions)...
David Harbour: (as the video zooms in on Winona Ryder's shocked expression during his speech at the SAG Awards) But this award from you, who take your craft seriously and earnestly believe, like me, that great acting can change the world...
...Will!! (montage of characters calling out for Will Byers); Mike's Idiot Dad Low-Key Stealing the Show...
Karen: I hope you're enjoying your chicken, Ted. (gets up from the table)
Ted: What did I do? (as Karen leaves with Holly) What'd I dooo?
...Waffles!...
Mike: (handing Eleven a waffle) Got you breakfast.
(shows Mike devouring a waffle)
Grocery Store Owner: (as Eleven leaves with multiple unpaid boxes of waffles) Stop right there! Thief!
(shows Eleven eating from a box of waffles in the woods)
...Being Able to Talk to Mike's Mom...
Karen: (to Mike) I want you to feel like you can talk to me.
Karen: Nancy?
Nancy: What?
Karen: You can talk to me.
Karen: Joyce. [...] If you need anything, [...] Ted and I are here for you.
...Conflicted Nancy Face (montage of Nancy with a sad facial expression); Blinking Lights (montage of flashing lights); Eleven Looks (montage of Eleven with a determined facial expression); I Understood That Reference!...
Dustin: Like Professor X.
Lucas: It's from Lord of the Rings.
Mike: More like a Yoda.
Dustin: Like Michael Myers.
Mike: That's like R2-D2 going to fight Darth Vader!
...These Shots from... E.T. (shows Eleven lifting a van in this series and Elliott Taylor and E.T. flying over a police blockade in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), Jaws (shows side shots of police vehicles in this series and Jaws), Halloween (shows a character using a phone booth in this series and Halloween (1978)), E.T. Again (shows a character in a misty field in this film and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), A Nightmare on Elm Street (shows Nancy letting Steve through her bedroom window in this series and Nancy Thompson letting Glen Lantz through her bedroom window in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)), Stand by Me (shows the main characters walking down some railroad tracks in this series and Stand by Me), An American Werewolf in London (shows characters running down a long hallway in this series and An American Werewolf in London), and E.T....
Elliott Taylor (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial): (showing E.T. his miniatures) This is Greedo... And then, this is Hammerhead...
Mike: (to Eleven) His name's Yoda. He can use the Force to move things with his mind.
...and The Only Way Pop Culture Knows How to Explain Alternate Dimensions.
Scott Clarke: (stabs a pen through a folded-up paper plate) You create a doorway.
Dr. William G. "Billy" Weir (Event Horizon): When the spacecraft... (jams a marker through a folded pinup poster) passes through the gateway...
Professor Romilly (Interstellar): --so you can take a shortcut through... (jams a pencil through a folded piece of paper) a higher dimension.
Nostalgic Things
Honest title for Stranger Things - Nostalgic Things. Titles designed by Robert Holtby.
You know what's going to suck? When TV shows get nostalgic for 2017 and show kids dabbing on a hoverboard like it wasn't the worst time ever.
Trivia[]
Honest Trailer Commentaries - Stranger Things
- Screen Junkies originally intended to release this Honest Trailer prior to the October 27, 2017 release of Stranger Things season 2. However, on October 8, 2017, Andy Signore was terminated amidst allegations of sexual misconduct during the #MeToo movement. The channel didn't put out any new content for three weeks while Screen Junkies employees struggled to decide whether they would come back to work at all.
- Due to the delayed production, all writers had seen Stranger Things season 2 when this video was published. The trailer contains a few references to problems with Season 2, but largely sticks to commenting on Season 1.
- Screen Junkies have also produced Honest Trailers for several other TV series including Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Sherlock, The Flash, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, the classic era of Doctor Who, the modern era of Doctor Who and more (see list of Honest Trailers).
Watch the full Honest Trailers Commentary on YouTube
Reception[]
Honest Trailers - Stranger Things has a 97.4% approval rating from YouTube viewers. Many media sites praised the Honest Trailer for calling out Stranger Things reliance on nostalgia, in addition to noting that The Hangover comparison was amusing. ScreenRant wrote the Honest Trailer "pokes fun at the first season's many, many 1980s pop culture references" while also acknowledging "that the TV series offers a compelling narrative and likable protagonists to go along with all the waxing nostalgic." Mashable said the Honest Trailer "rightfully ridicules some of the shows obvious influences." SlashFilm wrote that the Honest Trailer's Hangover comparison was "quite the astute observation." Syfy Wire said the Honest Trailer's Hangover comparison was "hilariously sort of spot-on." In the same article, Syfy Wire noted that "Screen Junkies does what it does best by poking fun at the TV juggernaut that is Stranger Things, but like the Wonder Woman Honest Trailer released a few weeks ago, it doesn’t find anything really negative to say about the show."
Hello Giggles wrote that "The honest trailer does an incredible job fleshing out the oddities of the first season" and "speaks some serious truth about Nancy being trapped between two haircuts." The Mary Sue appreciated the Honest Trailer's starring section noting "One of the highlights of Honest Trailers is always their amusing spin on end-credits, and this is the most extended and detailed that I’ve seen so far. It’s also quite a perfect (and yet relatively spoiler-free) summation of the entire season." The Mary Sue also declared the Honest Trailer was "truly the most incisive take on Stranger Things that I’ve seen yet."
Production credits[]
Video thumbnail for Honest Trailers - Stranger Things
Voiceover Narration by Jon Bailey
Title design by Robert Holtby
Producers - Dan Murrell, Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr, Max Dionne
Written by Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr and Dan Murrell
Edited by Kevin Williamsen and TJ Nordaker
External links []
- Stranger Things Is The Hangover With Kids In Honest Trailer - ScreenRant article
- New 'Honest Trailer' doesn't pull any punches when it comes to pop culture hit 'Stranger Things' - Mashable article
- Stranger Things' Honest Trailer thinks the Netflix show is just The Hangover for kids - DigitalSpy article
- STRANGER THINGS HONEST TRAILER IS BASICALLY THE HANGOVER WITH KIDS Syfy Wire article
- The "Stranger Things" Honest Trailer confirms our suspicion — Season 1 is just like "The Hangover" - Hello Giggles article
- Stranger Things Honest Trailer Is a Hilarious Bike Ride Through Nostalgia - The Mary Sue article
- The Morning Watch: ‘Stranger Things’ Edition – Honest Trailer, Perfect Stranger Things & More - Slash Film article