Welcome to every junior high school nerd's dream:
The AV Club reunion.
And who better to talk about science-related Stranger Things 2 topics
than Mr. Clarke himself and his star students,
right now on Beyond Stranger Things. And remember, spoilers ahead.
This is my worst angle. You shouldn't shoot that. I'm kidding.
- Sorry. - I don't have bad angles.
WELCOME TO HAWKINS
THE AV CLUB
All right, joining us at the table now to discuss everything Stranger Things 2:
We have Gaten Matarazzo, who plays Dustin;
Caleb McLaughlin, who plays Lucas;
and Noah Schnapp, who plays Will.
Along with their wonderful and very supportive teacher,
Randy Havens, who plays Mr. Clarke. Thank you all for being here all again.
Yes, yes.
It feels like we always applaud ourselves, because we made it to the table.
- We should. - [Randy] Of course.
I like this, you know, as we continue this discussion,
because we have some representation of the AV Club,
and obviously a teacher
who has impacted their lives with science.
I bet you can talk to New York on this thing.
- Think bigger. - California?
- Bigger. - Australia?
How did you approach this character for you?
The biggest thing for me was to find the reasons why he would do what he did.
We were wondering if you have time to talk.
- We have some questions. - A lot of questions.
[Randy] In some situations, without even questioning...
Why am I giving this information to a child?
Right. He's very supportive.
- He doesn't ask too many questions. - He's a little too supportive,
but I think the reason is that he sees in the kids
how he was in school, and he wants to give them, like,
a safe place to learn and, like, be nerdy, and not be made fun of because of it.
You guys, in the first season, you interrupt a date,
'cause you wanted to... What was it?
[Gaten] I wanted to learn how to make the sensory deprivation tanks,
- So Eleven can contact Will. - That's right.
In the Void, I should say, 'cause it's kind of like the in-between world
from the Upside Down and our dimension.
- Hello? - Mr. Clarke, it's Dustin.
Dustin? Is everything okay?
Yeah. I just... I... I have a science question.
He just knows, like, "Okay, if Dustin calls me at ten o'clock on a Saturday,
I have to tell him how to build an isolation tank. I have to."
Why don't we talk about it Monday after school, okay?
You always say we should never stop being curious.
- To open any curiosity door we find. - [Mr. Clarke] Dustin...
Why are you keeping this curiosity door locked?
[Jim] You have all these sort of '80s iconic characters present themselves,
and obviously a teacher is a huge thing,
whether it's a John Hughes teacher, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Mr. Hand,
but this is a different version.
It's not an adversary, he's not...
He's not on them to learn.
- They want answers. - [Randy] Yeah, he's not strict.
- They like him. - Yes.
But, I mean, they are the only kids that like him.
[Jim] Okay. Fair enough.
[Randy] The rest of the class are clearly bored
by everything that he's talking about, but he's just like,
"Now, I got a captive audience here. These guys love it.
I'm just gonna play to these guys."
Yeah, I had a Mr. Clarke type of teacher. He was my English teacher, Mr. Sailor.
And he had this attitude like he was performing, almost.
- [Dustin tapping out drum roll] - Please welcome, from sunny California,
the latest passenger to join us on our curiosity voyage,
- Maxine. - He was so happy to be up there teaching,
and he had a way of speaking and thinking
that just gave me such a Mr. Clarke vibe.
You guys sort of save the day in season one.
You won't believe what happened when you were gone.
- It was mental. - [Jim]You have to stay mum about it.
Does it get weird not being able to have people recognize your bravery?
I feel like Mike may be a little bit more like, "Come on! I just saved the world."
You're on the bench, son. And if it had been my coach,
you'd be lucky to still be on the team.
But I feel like these three are kind of okay with it,
'cause they understand... each other,
and they know that they're satisfied with what they've done,
because they know about it.
And they know they have someone to talk to about it,
but that's the thing about Mike in this season,
is that he's divided, he's upset, he's angsty,
he's "emo Mike," as many will say.
I don't even think we realized that we're saving world,
and we're... if we didn't do this,
the world, or Hawkins would...
[Gaten] Hawkins, at least. Indiana.
- There's nothing we can do. - That's not entirely true.
I mean, these Demo dogs, they have a hive mind.
When they ran away from the bus, they were called away.
So if we get their attention...
Maybe we can draw them away from the lab.
Clear a path to the gate.
I feel like they're glad their brains have done some good,
rather than just gotten them made fun of.
And then I remembered what Mr. Clarke said.
The gate would have so much power.
- Disrupt the electromagnetic field. - Exactly.
You really are the reason why everything succeeded.
- Knowledge is power. - Because of the curiosity doors.
- [Caleb] Yeah. - [Gaten] We never kept them locked.
- No. You have never kept them locked. - Never kept them locked.
Obviously, your friendship gets a little rift because of Dart.
Are you suggesting that I'm lying?
I'm saying you have a creepy little bond with him.
That was before he turned into a Demogorgon.
What would happen, Caleb, do you think, in your head,
that if Lucas had been the one to sort of have that discovery
- in the in the trash can? - With Dart?
He would have brought it to the crew,
and was like, "I have to show this to Mr. Clarke. What is this?"
Holy shit!
[Caleb] And I wouldn't keep it a secret.
I feel like Lucas probably would have killed it right away.
It stands to reason why it was Dustin, because that complicates their story.
- Yes. - [Jim] Makes sense.
There would have never been a second episode of Dart.
One of the big things that you play into is a moment
where Dart might be revealed to you.
I'm really sorry, Mr. Clarke. It was just a stupid prank.
- What the hell are you doing? - I tried to stop... We need to go.
- [Dustin] Mike... - Right now!
I like to speculate,
how do we feel like the story would have been a little bit different
if you had been folded into that knowledge?
I mean, we saw what happened to Bob Newby.
- Yeah. - That's true.
- I didn't think about that. - [Jim] "Wait, no, Mr. Clarke.
He might not make it."
"Yeah, I'll help you guys out."
Speaking of Dart, you know,
I have a few, I believe... tell me about this with the string to it.
That is when we were in the bathroom,
and I was, like, "This is the sushi!"
- We found the sushi with a tail. - Share the sushi. Everyone's got sushi.
- [Noah] It looks so much like sushi. - [Gaten] Sushi with a tail.
- Doesn't it? - [Jim] It does.
- [Gaten] Sushi with a tail. - [Noah] You have the better sushi.
- Yeah. - Pass it around.
[Jim] Sowhat... this one is what?
So I remember filming with this one.
We were looking for him when he escaped, and I put him under my hat.
- [Jim] This one here? - Yeah. He's in the corner,
and I'm like, "Come here, buddy." They used a string to pull the mold,
so they could animate him walking into my hand. They just pulled...
They just, like, pulled him like that up into my hand.
It was so awkward.
It's okay. It's just me.
It came out really well. I was surprised.
When you're passing it around, it was this, when you guys were...
Passing it around. Actually, when I'm just petting it, it's this.
but when I catch it and I pass it around me,
I had a silver marble, so it was easy to just glide...
[Jim] To roll it to one person to person.
[Gaten] And it gave that, like, slimy feel.
Like that feel like it was quite slippery, and just, like...
[Jim] Falling off of your hands. Yes.
[Dart gurgles]
What is he?
It's really funny to hold. It's like a stress ball.
This stands to reason, actually, cause I was just thinking,
going back to what you spit out.
So are we assuming it was one of these, yes?
I assume it was, but I don't know for sure.
Because right when I'm petting him,
you do flash to that moment when you're barfing up the slug into the thing
- when I'm petting him. - [Noah] Well, yeah, but...
But that could just be him thinking, like, "Oh, is it that?"
- Or is it not? I don't know. - Yeah,
but I feel like that hint would be very misleading
- if it wasn't that. - No, I know,
but it could make people speculate about it, but you don't know for sure.
You know the slug... The... I forgot what it was.
You know, that wrapped around Hopper?
Oh, like the tentacles and the vines?
Yeah, the vines. I think it was one of those.
[Gaten] It could have been a vine.
[Caleb] It could have been a vine, or a slug from there.
Oh, I see. Yes.
Okay. So maybe it's not a Demo dog.
Maybe a different species, yeah.
Anyway, one of the things I wanted to ask about, you know,
and to get your opinions on, is obviously mind flayer.
[Gaten] I love the mind flayer,
because it changes everything you know about season one,
and the antagonist in season one,
because what we see in season one is a monster that is out to get Eleven.
And season two opens up, that oh my gosh,
- it's not... it's not Demogorgon. - [Noah] It's something bigger than that.
- [Gaten] It's the Upside Down itself. - The Shadow Monster's inside everything,
and if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will.
- And so does Dart. - Yeah.
It's like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind.
- Hive mind? - A collective consciousness.
It's a super organism.
This is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain.
Like the mind flayer.
So it's a really cool, kind of more psychological fear
rather than just a fear of a physical monster.
The mind flayer.
- What the hell is that? - A monster from an unknown dimension.
It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home.
Makes you think about the universe,
and it makes you think about alternate dimensions,
and what could happen if a more powerful one
or more darker one were ever to collide with ours.
- What does it want? - To conquer us, basically.
- It believes it's the master race. - Oh, like the Germans.
The Nazis?
You know, it's a weird process. It gets people thinking,
and it gets people into the...
the science realm of the show itself.
Do you guys ever get questioned, maybe you have,
from season one or whatever...
the science of things?
I get a lot of science questions,
and then I go,
by the way, guys, I don't know anything about science.
What? How dare you get this role!
Yeah. I know, right?
Like, "This role should have gone to a scientist!"
- [Jim] You should know the answers. - I'm like, "I'm sorry. I'm an actor."
I don't know.
Okay, well that seems fitting, 'cause it's a great segue
that you don't know anything,
because to help us make sense
of some of the show's... Randy, I just burned you.
Some of the show's scientific aspects,
we brought a big fan and super scientist Bill Nye to assist.
Now we can actually applaud.
- Gentlemen, greetings. - Thank you for being here.
- Thank you for joining us. - No, it is I who must thank you.
Oh, please. We're gonna take this apart, and then you can help us.
We were talking about mind flayer just a second ago as far as...
The way you do.
Yeah, the way he does. He explained it very well,
and he uses the concept of "hive mind."
It burns.
- It burns! - [Dr. Owens] Where?
Everywhere!
That's enough!
Turn it off! Turn it off! That's enough!
So, the hive mind,
by studying...
BILL NYE SAVES THE WORLD
termites and ants,
apparently, if you assign certain rules to these animals,
they just build a giant termite mound,
or huge ant colony or a beehive or whatever it is,
and it's fascinating that just a few rules can create
what looks like this mass organization.
[Jim] Will supposedly has the hive mind.
No.
What?
He likes it cold.
So did you have an understanding of that as you were shooting
from the Duffers' point of view?
I kind of just did a little research on, like, possession.
And I kind of tried to understand, like, does he become a part of him
when the monster takes over him and uses him as a disguise?
Hey.
It knows. It knows where we are.
One of the other things that comes up is...
the story of Phineas Gage.
- [Bill Nye] Phineas Gage, mythic guy. - How possible, and tell us what it is.
[Bill Nye] In 1848,
this guy was working on the railroad,
and a spike went through his cheek and out through the top of the skull,
and it changed his personality.
This gave everybody insights
as to what part of your brain is doing what.
When you can't recognize other people,
when your facial expressions are different
from what everybody else's are.
Do you know who I am?
You're...
You're... You're Mom.
It's not only confusing for those around you, it's a little troubling.
So I just wanna understand multiverses.
You have to create a massive amount of energy,
more than humans are currently capable of creating, mind you,
to open up some kind of tear in time and space,
and then...
- You create a doorway. - Like a gate?
Sure. Like a gate.
- But again, this is all... - Theoretical.
We all love the idea of the multiverse.
Did you bring your marker board?
- No. - I brought one. It's good.
So, you know we all love the idea of the Big Bang
with everything expanding, it's just big fun.
And there's two questions that we all ask.
First one is, are we alone in the universe?
And if it turns out that in 200 billion stars...
Two times ten to the 11th stars,
and that's in our galaxy, and there are then that times as many galaxies...
People, that's a lot of galaxies.
If it turns out we're the only living thing
that's sitting and thinking about this,
- that is very troubling and creepy. - [Randy] Yeah.
But fortunately...
- And lonely. - [Jim] Yes.
But fortunately, the Upside Down is out there.
Turns out that perhaps there are these bubbles of universe,
which we now are calling multiverses, also expanding somehow
at the same time, and is it possible...
that there's areas like this
where the multiverses intersect?
[Gaten] The Void.
- [Bill Nye] The Void, yes. - [Gaten] Yes, the Void.
So this is the Upside Down,
and we are in the right-side-up.
Is that right?
I was just saying how the Void is that space
in between the two universes. Eleven goes into the Void,
and she sees you there, but she cannot make contact.
You disappear.
Will.
- [Bill Nye] Thank you guys. - [Jim] Thanks, Bill.
Let's give him a nice round of applause. Thanks for making us a little smarter.
Thank you for joining us, and explaining all these things.
- All right, you guys. See you all soon! - Bye! Thank you.
All right, well, how do we feel? About science?
- That lesson? - [Gaten] It was wonderful.
It's confusing. Gaten is clearly smarter than I am.
No, no.
Bill Nye definitely is smarter than I am.
You brought up good old Bob earlier,
who meets his demise unfortunately,
but he starts the AV Club.
You guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?
Really?
He petitioned the school to start it and everything.
And then he had a fundraiser for equipment.
How did you feel about Bob's death?
Was it sort of a shocking thing,
like, "Oh my God, he's not making it"?
Yeah, I mean, it was very sad,
and it kind of sucked that he died, 'cause everyone loved him.
Mr. Mom. Woo! Perfect!
[Noah] Will was very close to him also,
because he was kind of a person he could talk to
that he liked and didn't... it wasn't always...
But like his mom was always on his back worrying about him,
- always wanting to follow him everywhere. - [Joyce] Will?
What are you doing?
Peeing?
He kind of built a really close relationship with him.
Yes, like a father figure. You know, a new figure in his life.
You know. Well...
Actually,
Sean Astin, who obviously plays Bob, couldn't be here,
but he did want to throw out a message
- to our AV Club here... - Awesome.
and AV Clubs everywhere,
so why don't we take a look at our iconic TV?
It's gonna play something?
Okay, so I went to a school called Crossroads.
It was a performing arts school,
and I kind of felt like a man without a country.
The place I would spend the most time was the room,
more affectionately known as the Audio Visual room.
it had an editing deck that was, you know, the size of a spaceship,
and it was a place of refuge and a launching pad
for creativity and acceptance from everybody else.
So, you hit "T" to zoom in.
And "W" zooms back out.
OCT 31, 1984
See? Easy peasy.
As Bob Newby, I would just like to say
to all the future inhabitants in Hawkins
of the Audio Visual room, you're...
you're part of a great tradition,
and you have a lot of responsibility to whom much is given, much is expected.
I may just be lurking over the room watching to make sure you're...
you know, doing the right thing.
Great. Well, now he's going to haunt us.
In a positive way.
Bob's going to be positive.
I'd rather be haunted by Bob Newby than the Demogorgon.
- Or the mind flayer. - That's true.
- What's Bob really gonna do? - He's, like, a sweet guy.
- If he would give you advice... - He couldn't be a villain.
All right. Thank you very much. I'm officially part of the AV Club.
- I feel like it. - Yes, you are.
Yeah? Okay. Someone should have said it.
And hey, I'll be honest, because friends don't lie,
and the next episode of Beyond Stranger Things
is coming on right... now.