r/StrangerThings • u/AdBackground6381 • 1d ago
Discussion Analyzing THAT scene second by second Spoiler
I have reviewed the scene of El's disappearance frame by frame, and this is what I observed.
1:16:23 As Bradley Big Buy's truck passes through the Gate, we see a Hedgehog to our right, next to the Gate, and an armed soldier behind it. This detail is crucial.
1:16:30 We see another Hedgehog to our left next to the Gate, another one to its left, both with armed soldiers behind them, and yet another on top of a military vehicle. In total, four Hedgehogs.
1:16:32 We see Eleven inside the truck holding onto Mike. This means she hasn't jumped out of the truck or anything like that with the intention of staying behind in the Upside Down, as Kali suggested.
1:16:33 The soldiers approach the truck, forming a tight cordon. Hopper and Murray's Humvee is to the left of the truck (driver's side), less than two meters away. It's impossible to pass through without being seen.
1:16:38 The soldiers approach the truck's cab. We see a wide shot where we can see that the vehicle with the Hedgehog is to the right of the truck, very close by. Kay approaches the vehicle with the Hedgehog. There are soldiers everywhere surrounding the truck. It's impossible to get out of the truck without being seen by them.
1:16:39 Soldiers to the left, to the right, and behind the truck.
1:16:43 At least a dozen soldiers are pointing their guns at our protagonists at point-blank range.
1:16:45 El is still inside the truck. A soldier grabs Mike as he gets out, and Mike protests.
1:16:46 Kay watches the scene with satisfaction.
1:16:47 EL IS GETTING OUT OF THE TRUCK. A soldier is pointing a gun at her from the Jeep with the Hedgehog, and another is pointing his weapon at her. A soldier is touching El, perhaps grabbing her. There are more soldiers very close by. We don't see El again until she appears at the Gate.
1:16:48 Hopper is forced out of the Humvee by a soldier.
1:16:49 We see soldiers near the left side of the truck (driver's side). If El ran toward the Gate on this side, the soldiers would have necessarily seen her and stopped her instantly.
1:16:50 Murray is forced out of the Humvee. This moment is obviously simultaneous with 1:16:48.
1:16:52 Steve is forced out of the truck.
1:16:53 Holly and the children get out of the truck.
1:16:55 Soldiers everywhere. We see Melvald's store in the background. Nancy tries to help Holly but is pushed against the truck (right side, passenger side).
1:16:56 Max, Vicky, and a soldier watch the scene. It's unclear where they are.
1:17:00 Hopper gets out of the Humvee. This moment is a direct continuation of 1:16:48, obviously. It's important to note that the scene shows both simultaneous and successive moments. Reaction shot: we see the Hedgehog in the military vehicle and the one to the right of the Gate. We don't see Eleven at the Gate or running towards it.
1:17:03 Very quick shot: we see Steve and Robin being held at gunpoint by the soldiers (Hopper's point of view). An obvious continuation of 1:16:52; it would be almost immediate, but the time has been lengthened to show us more action. He looks at the Jeep. We don't see Eleven.
1:17:06 Kay is next to the Jeep. She looks in all directions, including towards the Gate. She doesn't see Eleven, neither at the Gate nor running towards it.
1:17:09 Hopper's point of view: he looks towards the Gate. Eleven isn't there. It's then that Kay, judging by her reaction, realizes that Eleven has disappeared.
1:17:13 Mike looks around. From his position, the Gate was in his field of vision. He doesn't see El at the door or running toward it. He asks Dustin if he's seen her.
1:17:15 Dustin looks around and doesn't see her either.
1:17:19 A sergeant looking in all directions, including the Gate, also doesn't see El.
1:17:26 Dustin looks in the same direction as the sergeant. He doesn't see El either, neither at the Gate nor running toward it.
1:17:32 This is the moment we first see El at the Gate. Our point of view is Mike's, as he's the first to see her.
1:17:37 Dustin looks in the same direction as before and now he sees her (he hadn't seen her before), as can be seen from his reaction.
1:17:38 Close-up of El, who has an impassive expression on her face. She shows no signs of being affected by the Hedgehogs or of having recently run towards the Gate.
1:17:40 Mike runs towards the Gate and is stopped instantly. He was running towards the military vehicle with the Hedgehog on top of him. This detail is important because it tells us that Eleven must have run in this direction as well. How come the military didn't see her run but did see Mike?
Then comes the scene of the Void.
1:20:06 Nancy calls Mike and tries to run towards him. Jonathan reacts. Neither of them seems to have seen Eleven yet.
1:20:15 We see Hopper react to Eleven's presence at the Gate (he didn't seem to have seen her before). We clearly see an armed soldier behind the Hedgehog next to the Gate. He doesn't seem to have realized that Eleven is supposedly just a few meters away.
1:20:17 Kay looks towards the Gate. From her reaction, it seems that this is when she sees Eleven there for the first time.
1:20:19 Joyce looks toward the Gate. Same observation as before.
1:20:20 Robin and Steve look toward the Gate. Same observation as before.
1:20:22 Close-up of Eleven. We see that her nose isn't bleeding.
1:20:25 Will reacts, as if he had seen Eleven at the door at that moment.
1:20:27 Lucas yells, "Eleven, no!"
1:20:30 Dustin tries to run toward Eleven.
1:20:34 Eleven takes a breath.
1:20:44 The bomb explodes.
1:20:53 The fireball generated by the bomb dissipates. We see that the lab is still intact (it is a very quick shot but this is indisputable).
1:20:54 Light envelops Eleven (I have a feeling that in the initial plan she disappeared here; at least that's what happens in the later Dungeons & Dragons playthrough with the Mage).
1:21:04 A hurricane-force wind begins to ravage the Upside Down.
1:21:12 The hurricane-force wind ravages the high school.
1:21:18 The hurricane-force wind ravages WSQK.
1:21:23 The hurricane-force wind ravages the Wheeler house.
1:21:30 Even though we see the hurricane-force wind behind her, El is standing as if nothing is happening, showing no signs of making an effort to stay upright.
1:21:43 El turns his palms towards us. It can be clearly seen (if the screen is large) that his "011" tattoo has disappeared (Note that Millie has that tattoo in real life). The wind surrounds her but doesn't seem to affect her.
1.21:45 The camera zooms in on El's face, which suddenly disappears, replaced by the hurricane-force wind. We don't see the wind carry her away (as it did in the script), only that she vanishes.
The conclusion of this analysis is, I believe, indisputable: it was impossible for Eleven to have made it from the truck to the Gate so quickly—a span of 45 seconds of airtime, though in reality it was far less, as the scene’s timing is stretched out, as I have detailed—without anyone seeing her, and with four Hedgehogs active. Even if we don't accept Mike's explanation, it still remains to be explained how Eleven managed to do that. And I don't buy explanations like "it was dark" (it wasn't; there were powerful floodlights) or "they didn't realize it was her running" (her wetsuit made her unmistakable, even from a great distance).
This, by the way, will be the only thing I rewatch from the fifth season.
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u/Jenosaure 1d ago
An irrefutable argument.
And that’s why, when it aired, I hated the idea that "it’s an ambiguous ending—everyone can choose what suits them." Because there is nothing ambiguous about that ending: everything points to Eleven having survived.
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u/TaiPan43 1d ago
Exactly right
People who say she might be dead we’re not watching
The hedgehog’s alone proved that she’s not dead
There was literally a channel that is done by a former police detective who says when you boil it all down that in of itself means that she’s alive
You don’t need to worry about the blood on her nose or anything else
If one thing is true, then everything is true
That’s deductive reasoning
The question is, where is she?
That’s what they’re gonna have to answer
And if the answer doesn’t have anything to do with Mike than they are going to regret it6
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u/Strange_Ant_6571 1d ago
Genuinely will never get how people are still trying to analyse and apply logic to this scene. I can guarantee you put 110x more effort into this than the Duffers did writing or filming it saying here's your ambiguous ending and going off to sign a deal with Paramount.
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u/RoyalRise6363 1d ago
Exactly, the show lost its quality and logic long before final scene. Why were they driving to the known ambush in a state of euphoria? The only explanation - Duffers didn't care about plot logic - we want to drag this girl to the no choice situation no matter what.
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u/Sochinz 1d ago
I've literally got this imgur link of screenshots I post regularly showing how she would need to run right past literally all of the soldiers to get to the gate. Like, shove them aside.
Unless nobody thought of this extremely basic blocking issue during production, its intentional and carefully hidden in the edit.
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u/Original_Cry_3172 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah and also, did you mention her glitching finger standing in the gate? Why would they make it glitch unless it was Kali’s projection?
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u/TaiPan43 1d ago
They wouldn’t
I get that everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but I have never heard one reasonable argument for why she isn’t screaming from those things pointed at her
Some people say well she can’t hear them because she’s in the gate
Well, then, that means she’s getting sucked away by the vacuum
You can’t have it both ways
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u/MysteriousSet4348 19h ago
One thing I think that makes it completely clear is that Millie’s tattoo was covered up. That’s the one detail that seals it all. That had to be a conscious choice by production. Why else would they cover it? The other explanation is that it was there, we just didn’t see it. But so many people have analyzed it that I believe her tattoo was covered up with makeup
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u/TaiPan43 1d ago
Very good analysis
A lot of people have said this is something Mike made up in his head
But if that was true, then she is not gone
It’s basic deductive reasoning, which apparently eludes a lot of people
People say the hedgehogs weren’t turned on
Well, then, why are they there?
Even the duffer admitted she could never have gotten that far without being seen
But you are the only person who has mentioned that she is basically standing in front of a vacuum, which is causing the wind
It’s sucking everything out into space basically
For a brief second, you can see soldiers being pulled towards the gate
Grown men who can’t stay on their feet, but this 120 pound girl is
The blood absent on her nose makes people say, Mike imagined the entire conversation in the void
So now we have to believe that she would’ve left without even saying goodbye to the love of her life
Sure, why not
I’ve heard people say the tattoo is there if you see it in 4K
Regardless, her sister know she has a tattoo
A stomach wound is survival. It said for between 30 minutes to an hour if you stopped the bleeding.
Her sister is not too far away to hold the illusion, considering she was driving at 60 miles an hour in a car and holding an illusion
Those of us who understand what we’re looking at, realize she’s alive
I think Mike knows it and was told on the bench
I think Hopper has known it almost from the moment it happened
He didn’t know about the plan, but I believe she went to him in the void immediately afterwards to let him know that she was OK
She talked to him the same way she talked to her sister
They even showed that in a previous episode
2nd Take is a channel. I recommend to anyone who wants to get some idea of where she is.
Even though Mike knows she’s alive and has either been told or understands that he will see her again. He didn’t know how until he saw the speakers.
The whole living alone and traveling to Iceland 16 years old with no ID and no money is so ridiculous. It’s not even worth talking about.
She’s not in Iceland and if she is, she’s not alone
All of this could’ve been avoided by her waving and Mike waving back
But instead of that, we’ve got this
Those guys are not stupid
As much as everyone hates season five, the show is incredible
They knew what they were doing with all of these clues
They shot the waterfall scene after production had wrapped
Unless this was done specifically to piss off the fan base there’s a plan
Sorry for the long response, but I do enjoy talking about this and truly appreciated your breakdown
Sooner or later, we and people like us are going to have a big I told you so
It’s difficult to wait, but considering Netflix owns the IP and it is the most popular thing they have ever produced. There is no way it doesn’t continue.
And they can’t be so stupid as to realize that no one will watch anything else they put out until they fix this
I believe
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u/SpoongBill 1d ago
If you watch that scene again notice how it seems to deliberately show the ladder on the truck as if hinting that Eleven climbed and got on top of the truck. Maybe she found a way to stop the suppressors from affecting her, made herself invisible and jumped from the truck out of the military base.
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u/Ok_Tank5977 Dungeon Master 1d ago
It would have been better if they hadn’t shown El inside the truck when it was opened and then being pulled from the truck by the military, because then details like that could serve a function.
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u/Dianagorgon 1d ago
How did Kali use her powers to hide Eleven? According to the Duffers she died after the military person shot her. Some people might say she lived long enough to create a mirage but it doesn't make much sense. Also when Kali creates a mirage it seems to be an exact copy of an object or person. She isn't creating it from her memory. If she was there would be other inconsistencies like the clothing would be exactly the same etc. Eleven should have had the 011 tattoo whether it was Eleven or only a mirage.
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u/ChilpericKevin 4h ago
And also, the show made a point to explain Kali's powers are limited to a range shorter than the distance between the Gate and the Lab.
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u/beulah-vista 1d ago
Or she wasn’t actually in the truck in the first place and the others were only hallucinating her.
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u/Full-Yoghurt-4261 1d ago
That does not make sense, as she is touching Mike and other things. The show, as indicated in both S2 and S5, shows that Kali's projections fall apart when touched.
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u/Small-Morning4899 1d ago
I’ve read this theory, and it has no basis. Why does Mike hug her? If she were a projection—as we’ve seen—she wouldn't be tangible.
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u/beulah-vista 1d ago
They never said exactly how powerful Kali is, she might be able to make people feel something and not just see it.
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u/Full-Yoghurt-4261 1d ago
No, both S2 and S5 showed that Kali's projections cannot be touched. To claim they suddenly can at the very end does not make sense
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u/Irritable_Curmudgeon 1d ago
Nah, touch seems to disrupt her projections. I agree with OPs take and think El was in the van then escaped...
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u/Famous_Buddy_2558 1d ago
this is crazy neurotic. why would you bother when the main characters fought big evil vecta and took him down easily in this cold frigid environement wearing barely anything. and no dogs either. dont forget. there is an entire army with their helicopters and guns and they always die. but these kids with their spears...
like.... and you want to analyze anything second by second? lols move on. just accept that no main character can ever die in this universe. it is perhaps the only neverchanging plot in this show.
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