All language subtitles for James.Camerons.Story.of.Science.Fiction.S01E03.Monsters.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD.2.0.H.264-AJP69

A science-fiction monster can be
explained scientifically

and combated technologically.

We have to kill them.
It's that simple.

The monster boils down
all of our fears

into something
that we can see.

I literally
went under my seat,

and I said to my dad,

"Tap me on the shoulder
when it's over."

That's a big part of
what science fiction is...

It is.

Taking that fear of
that creature in the forest

and now letting us
feel it in a safe place.

It's fun to be in
a darkened theater

and imagine your world ending
because of a giant lobster.

I have dreams.
Creatures are coming at me.

Must go faster.

Suspense starts
in the stomach...

and it goes up to the throat,

and then it comes out
as a scream.

It's this primeval
instinct in us

to escape the bear
in the woods.

Will is alive.

Science-fiction monster movies

allow us to explore
those dark parts of ourselves

that we don't want
to admit actually exist.

This is a creature
who asks why he is here.

What is he for?

Who created him?

And we always beat them
at the end,

which was our way of
keeping the bogeyman at bay.

You're a horror guy,
as you tell me

every time
we talk about this.

So the question is,
where is that inter-zone,

that crosstalk between
horror and science fiction?

The great distinction
is the fuel

for the early
horror tales.

It has to be spiritual.

-It comes from the belief of good and evil.
-Right.

And then there comes a point
in Western literature

in which the element
includes, now, science.

Science. So, today,
it's radioactivity,

genetic engineering,
robotics.

And, before,
our monsters came from

folklore, mythology,
demons,

the supernatural world.

Yes. We created monsters
as composites

that warn us about
the possible adversity

of the natural world.
Yeah.

And one proof of that...

I read somewhere that
dragons are universal

because they are
the composite

of the three main predators
of the anthropods.

-Snakes.
-It's snake, feline,

and large, rapacious birds.
Right.

So it's a mash-up
of archetypes.

Yeah, of things that
you need to be afraid of.

So, fear of teeth and claws
and being chased

-and all those things is a healthy thing.
-Yes.

And it cycles in our brains
in our nightmares

and in our
monster movies.

I actually think dinosaurs
are the best monsters

because they actually existed.

Like, a lot of the crazy
monsters in films

and in science fiction,

you can console yourself
by saying,

"Yeah, but it's not real.
Really, it's not real,"

whereas with dinosaurs,
you can't do that.

They were real.

Like, it makes it more scary.

"Jurassic Park" really
deserves classic status.

I, myself, remember gasping...

And I think a lot of people
in the audience did...

At the first shot,
where they pull back

and give you a wide-angle view

of this giant, giant dinosaur.

We, as an audience,
are going through

exactly what the characters
are going through.

We're seeing, for the first time
ever in human history,

dinosaurs alive.

When I was a kid, I used
to take my popsicle sticks,

and I would basically
glue them together

in the form of a dinosaur,
and I would bury it,

and then I would
wait a week.

Until it fossilized?

And then I would go
looking for it again.

That was
my closest moment

of trying to be an
amateur paleontologist.

Cut to years later, and you're
working on "Jurassic Park."

"Jurassic Park," yeah.
You know, Michael Crichton

just came up with
a perfect concept.

"I'll tell you
one conceptual line.

I'm writing a book
about dinosaurs and DNA."

-Yeah.
-And that's all he would say.

Right. Well,
I got sent the book.

I got to the scene where
the Tyrannosaurus rex

-licks the windshield with the kids inside...
-Right.

And said,
"I got to make this movie."

I never even
finished the book.

I called up, and he said,
"Steven just bought it."

-Well, what happened was...
-And you know what?

You know what?

It was the very,
very best thing

that could've happened

because I would've
make it like "Aliens."

I would've made
an R-rated,

scare-the-crap-out-of-you movie,

and you made it
just scary enough,

but still a movie
for kids.

'Cause I was the 12-year-old me...
Yeah.

Telling that story.

Well, some of those dinosaurs,
as you know,

were Dennis Muren and CGI,
special effects.

Steven Spielberg would be
on a bullhorn off-camera

and be going, "Argh,"
making some dinosaur sounds...

Camera.

And we'd be looking
at a tennis ball.

Arghhhh!

But some of them were
Stan Winston puppetry.

When we came to this clearing

and saw this life-sized,
full-sized Triceratops,

and the seven people who were
making it blink and breathe

and do things were kind of
hidden behind it...

that was something.

Steven Spielberg...
He wanted the dinosaurs

to have some monster abilities

and to be seen as monsters,

but I was brought in
to make sure that 6th graders

didn't send him nasty notes
about things being wrong.

There was a scene

where the Velociraptors
come into the kitchen

and are chasing
the children around,

and Steven wanted
the raptors to come in

and stick out a tongue,

like a lizard
or a snake would do,

and I said, "We know for sure
that dinosaurs did not do that,"

and so we decided the raptor
looks through the window,

and it snorts,
and it fogs up the window,

and only a warm-blooded
animal can do that.

Science fiction monster movies
are very much

about the monster of humanity.

In "Jurassic Park,"
our scientist, John Hammond,

very much wants
to re-create dinosaurs

to prove that he can do
something no one else has done,

and that creates a chain
of disasters that,

in turn, creates
a physical monster...

The literal manifestation of
the bad actions of those humans.

I wanted to show them something
that wasn't an illusion,

something that was real,

something that they could...

see and touch.

John Hammond represents a ringmaster.
Yeah. Right.

He's the Ringling Brothers...
Yeah.

Of bringing these
species back to life.

And his intentions are pure.
Yeah.

He wants everybody
to come see these dinosaurs.

He wants children to
get tears in their eyes

when they marvel
at these creatures

that they only could see
in storybooks.

And at the same time,

he is blind to what he's doing...
That's right.

Like all
mad scientists.

Yeah. And Jeff Goldblum
is such a great conscience.

Yeah. He's the voice
of the audience.

He says, "Nature will
find a way."

He says that,
"Life finds a way."

Yep.
Life finds a way.

And he's right
every single time.

Life breaks free.

It expands
to new territories,

and it crashes through
barriers, painfully,

maybe even
dangerously, but...

well, there it is.

You're implying that
a group composed

entirely of female animals
will... breed?

No. I'm simply saying
that life,

finds a way.

This idea that,
in "Jurassic Park,"

the female dinosaurs
are capable of changing

so that they can reproduce
is brilliantly foreshadowed

when Sam Neill gets
into the helicopter

before they get
to Isla Nublar,

and he's got two seat belts
that are both female,

but, of course,
they can't stick together.

So what he does is he ties them
in a knot around his waist,

and that is... that's
the whole film, isn't it?

It's the whole idea
that life will find a way.

Evolution is an innovator
that finds a way to survive,

even though, against all odds,
it shouldn't be possible.

I mean, it's quite clearly
the moral at the heart

of "Jurassic Park" is that
you can't control nature,

and you shouldn't play God,

but I kind of left
"Jurassic Park"

really wanting to see
dinosaurs come to life.

Theoretically,
we can retroengineer a bird,

genetically, to make an animal

that would have
dinosaur characteristics.

We could, right now,
produce an animal

that would have
a dinosaur-like head.

It would have arms and hands
instead of wings,

some semblance of teeth,
and we're not finished yet.

We're still trying to deal
with the tail,

but when it really comes to
the science of making dinosaurs,

or making anything genetically,

I think it's actually
a cool thing to do,

and I don't see anything
wrong with it at all.

Are we seeing
a pattern here?

The early
atomic scientist...

the contemporary
AI scientist...

Everybody only sees
the rosy future...

-That's right.
-The upside.

Exactly.
As they said on the "Westworld" poster,

"What could possibly
go wrong?"

And that gets
the audience excited

because the audience is going
to see what went wrong,

not what went right.
You know...

Who cares about
what went right?

-It's not fun if it goes right.
-It's no fun at all.

You're quoted as saying that
"Frankenstein" is your autobiography,

so are you
Frankenstein's monster,

or are you
Frankenstein himself?

-No, the creature.
-You're the creature?

What happened to me is,
when I was growing up,

and I felt different
to the world

I was growing up,
and I did feel out of place,

and when I saw the monster
play with forces

-that where outsized to his comprehension...
-Right. Right.

I thought, "This
creature represents me."

-And there was a purity and an innocence to him.
-Yeah. Yeah.

And I empathized
completely with him,

and I felt,
immediately, a kinship,

and I thought the impact,
emotionally, for me...

-Yeah. Yeah.
-Was that big,

was life-transforming.

Prometheus ascending!

When you look back, the
foundation of science fiction

can technically be put on
the shoulders of Mary Shelley.

Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"

was very much the birth
of science fiction.

Shelley is one of the first
authors to think about science

and explore
its impact on society.

Mary Shelley...
She was living at a time

when science was beginning
to gain a foothold,

so there was a belief

that the world was
understandable in a way

that didn't involve religious
or mythological mysteries.

Mary Shelley was visiting
science lectures...

People like Galvani... to see
how newly discovered electricity

was involved
in living processes.

The story of "Frankenstein,"

it's really about a scientist
who has the arrogance to think

that he alone can
create a living being.

This idea of being able
to create a human being

from bits and pieces
of other human beings...

It's so potent,

and it is echoed
all over the movies,

but that's when it really
is crystallized.

In the first film version,

Thomas Edison's
1910 "Frankenstein,"

the creature is made
not through electricity,

but through a chemical process.

Thomas Edison was considered
the father of electricity,

so he didn't want electricity to
have any negative connotations.

In the '50s and '60s,

Victor Frankenstein creates his
creature through atomic energy.

In Kenneth Branagh's
1990s version,

we have lots of images
of the creature itself

shooting from one tube
to another tube

until it's finally taken
out of the final tube

by Frankenstein in a very wet
and messy birthing scene.

And so, literally, he's created
the first test-tube baby.

In the famous 1931 film,

Dr. Frankenstein
has a dead body on a gurney,

and then the body twitches.

At that point, Dr. Frankenstein

falls in somewhere
between hysterical...

He's alive!

And triumphant.

In a way, this sums up
all the fears

and all the hopes you would have
about making synthetic life,

how awestruck we should be
that we could do it,

and how scared we should be
that we could do it.

Now I know what it feels
like to be God!

The problem of "Frankenstein,"
of course, is that,

when Victor Frankenstein
creates something that's ugly,

he throws it out
of his laboratory,

and this transforms
the creature into a monster

who will eventually kill
those people he loves most.

The subtitle of the book is
"The Modern Prometheus",

which had to deal
with the myth of Prometheus

stealing fire from the gods
and bringing it down to Earth,

which was a violation
of the natural order.

The creature realizes
that he is

that violation
of the natural order.

Did you ever consider the
consequences of your actions?

This is a creature
who asks why he is here.

What is he for?

Who created him?

Who made this happen?

Those are fascinating questions,

and those questions begin
with the Frankenstein monster.

So as long as people
are thinking about that,

people will be making
"Frankenstein" movies or movies

that are very obviously
based on "Frankenstein."

I'm working on something
that'll change the world

and human life
as we know it.

Somehow, I get the feeling
you don't get out much.

"The Fly" is really an updating
of the "Frankenstein" myth,

of trying to play God
with new technologies

and the idea that
scientific hubris

can ultimately lead
to destruction.

So I invent this
teleportation device,

and I experiment on myself,

but, unbeknownst to me,

there's a fly in the pod.

The audience sees it,

but I don't see it...

and then I, sure enough,
I come out of the other thing.

I seem to come out okay
at first,

but, by and by...
What's this?

You realize that my DNA

has been fused

with the the fly's DNA.

You don't see an instant
transformation as you do in,

say, "The Hulk."

What you see in "The Fly" is
a far more realistic portrayal

of what is likely to happen
in that situation,

which is a slow and disgusting
breakdown of cells

to the point where,
basically, he's falling apart

as he is slowly mutating into
a revolting hybrid

of these two
distantly related species.

I'm becoming
Brundlefly.

So I remember five different
stages of makeup.

I'd have to get there
at 3:00 in the morning

or 2:00 in the morning

because I had some
prosthetics, you know?

And I had funny teeth, too.

I had a few different stages
of teeth.

I got a kick out of it.

What these movies grapple with
is that question of,

"What happens when we do
something we shouldn't?"

and, "What are the ramifications
of that?"

and, "What is the fallout?"
and these movies are about that.

The fallout is...

monsters.

To me, when I see a
science-fiction monster movie,

it's about taking our angst
and our fantasies

and our terrors and making an escape...
Yeah.

A nightmare
that's safe.

-Yes.
-You know?

'Cause when you're
left alone

with your nightmare
at 3:00 in the morning,

you're not safe,

but when you go into a movie theater...
Yeah.

You're safe.
There's people around you.

And you know
it's going to last

a certain number
of minutes.

That's right.
It's a defined thing.

And things are going
to get resolved.

Except for "Alien."

I saw it on
opening night, in '79

when it came out,
in a big theater,

and, man, people
were screaming so hard

they were throwing
their popcorn.

Me, too. I mean, there's
that figure of speech...

"hide under your seat."
Yeah.

It was not
a figure of speech.

I literally
went under my seat,

and I said to my dad,

"Tap me on the shoulder
when it's over."

The Xenomorph from
"Alien" and "Aliens"

is the best movie monster ever

because it is the scariest
alien monster ever.

I think what is terrifying
about the Xenomorph

is it was barely on-screen.

It was very underlit,
lots of flashing lights,

and I think that's
very much the power

of the first "Alien" movie,
as a scary movie,

is it left a lot
to the imagination.

It's, like,
the classic monster movie,

and on top of it, you know,
it was the first woman heroine

which we have seen
in a major motion picture.

-You there, Ripley?
-I'm right here.

I was sent
the script of "Alien,"

and I think, frankly,

commercially speaking,
they thought,

"Let's make the hero a woman.

No one will ever guess
that this young woman

turns out to be
the lone survivor."

And I like
the purity of that.

We weren't making
any kind of statement,

and I think the other reason,
of course, it appealed to me

was that it was a rockin'
good part for a woman.

I'm for killing that
damn thing right now.

Well, let's talk
about killing it.

We know it's using
the air shafts.

Will you listen
to me, Parker?!

-Stop talking...
-Shut up!

So what possessed you
to take Ripley,

who wasn't given
a first name...

None of them had first names...
Yeah.

And say,
"Let's make her a woman"?

You know,
I hadn't realized

the importance
of women's lib

and how women aren't
really included

-because I was brought up with a very strong mother.
-Yeah.

So I had already accepted
that women will rule

eventually anyway,
whatever we do.

Yeah. Yeah.

And...
So you weren't making a statement.

You were just observing
the world

that you knew...
Yeah. I said, "Why not?"

To give Ripley the punch and power...
Yeah.

Was the right thing
to do.

Yeah, and science fiction
has always been a genre

that pushed boundaries...
Yeah.

Of gender,
conformity, racism.

It's a stage
where anything goes.

Yeah. Her character
is about facing her fears,

and, over the course
of a number of films,

she became a, you know,

kind of a global icon for feminism.
Yeah.

It really was the first movie
where you had

a woman that wasn't the victim,

and that was major.

For years, it was a man's job

to slay the monsters
in science fiction.

The women, at best, where either
sent home so they'd be safe...

Stay here, Kay.

Or they had to get rescued
from the monsters,

or, even worse yet, they
themselves were the monster.

She'll tear up the whole town
until she finds Harry.

Yeah, and then
she'll tear up Harry.

Ash, when Dallas and Kane
are off the ship,

I'm senior officer.

Ridley Scott did such
an amazing job in portraying

Ripley as
a straightforward human,

and then Jim Cameron took it to
a whole new level with "Aliens,"

setting up the relationship
of Ripley and Newt...

Hard to believe there's
a little girl under all this.

And then paralleling it

with the queen
and her offspring.

The Queen Alien
has sort of organic,

flowing lines to her
because she's feminine.

She's hideous, but she's
also very beautiful,

which is fitting of an elegant,

you know, matriarch
of an alien society.

So by the time
I kill her children...

and try to escape
with mine...

Grab onto me!

It's not like
bad versus good.

It's two mothers fighting
for the life of their offspring,

and I think it's done with, you
know, respect for both species.

Happily,
he gives Ripley the edge.

Get away from her,
you bitch!

I watched "Aliens" for the
first time when I was 12,

and I had never realized
that women could do

the kind of things
that Sigourney Weaver

was doing on-screen,

or look that way
or talk that way.

The whole thing
just blew my mind.

There was this primal power
that she had...

Come on!

Based on just this
desperate need to survive

and save this child.

And I think that becomes
that archetype

of that female hero.

I think an audience likes to see
women succeed and slay monsters.

There wouldn't be as many
franchises of the "Alien" movie

if it didn't work.

When the original
Sigourney Weaver Ripley arch

of the "Aliens" franchise ends,

we get a brand-new
awesome female monster-killer...

Alice, in "Resident Evil."

When "Resident Evil" came up,
I was just really excited.

I was a huge fan
of the video game.

Video games, you know,

I think it answers something
very elemental in human beings,

which is we're fascinated
with dangerous situations,

and the closest
we could get to them

without actually being in
danger, you know, we love.

The "Resident Evil" universe
is all about "Frankenstein."

I mean, the Umbrella Corporation
is using their technology

to create these things

that could very well
go out of control.

T-virus manifesting itself
in genetic mutation.

And surprise, surprise...
They do!

One of the things that makes
Alice a strong character

is she fights
what people might believe

is, like, unbeatable odds...

but she doesn't give up,

and, ultimately,
over six movies, she triumphs.

I think monsters tell us
everything about ourselves.

I think the things that
we're the most scared of

makes us who we are, in a way.

Monsters, in a lot of ways,
are representing our fears.

Are we gonna go too far?

What do we still need
to learn about this world?

What are we not prepared for?

Which is why, I think,
it's so powerful

and cathartic to see a woman
slay her monster...

And men, too...

But to see that figure
of a woman

literally staring down her fear
and conquering it...

We often think about
science fiction

as a genre that celebrates
boys and their toys,

and yet there is a space for
people of all different races

and genders
and creeds and colors...

And perhaps even species,

since we're being
science fictional...

To explore their hopes and fears
and convey them to others

about life in
a high-tech society.

Science fiction,
at its best, questions,

challenges our belief in,
what are we...

-Yeah.
-And what makes us human?

Where do we fit
in society?

-And what shakes us, or tries to shake us up.
-Yeah.

So monsters
are about nature...

Superhuman or suprahuman.
Yeah.

They allow us
to question things

that are
eminently human.

Right. Now, don't you think
that the film "The Thing"

follows that
same principle

of making us fear
the other in human form?

Absolutely, and that's
the point of the story

-that I always am fascinated in the Carpenter film...
-Yeah.

Because, ultimately,

it's a matter of place
in the universe,

and that's what makes
that story so important.

Somebody in this camp
ain't what he appears to be.

Right now, that may be
one or two of us.

By spring,
it could be all of us.

So how do we know
who's human?

"The Thing" is an incredibly
influential movie

in science fiction

because it gets at one of
our most basic fears...

That we might not be able
to tell the difference

between good and evil,
or between ourselves

and an evil alien impostor.

The film follows the story
of a group of scientists

in the Antarctic

who find a frozen alien.

What is it?

When the alien thaws,
it turns out to be

an incredibly hostile,
shape-shifting organism

that wants nothing more
than to absorb us

and conquer the world.

As it absorbs people,
it becomes unclear who is real

and who has become
the monster.

We're gonna draw a little
bit of everybody's blood,

and we're gonna find out
who's The Thing.

You've got a monster story,

and we're going to solve
the monster story

by doing experiments.

That is classic science fiction.

The blood from one of you Things
won't obey when its attacked.

It'll try and survive...

crawl away from
a hot needle, say.

The blood-testing scene
in the "The Thing"

is one of the great scenes in,
I think, in all movies.

All the protagonists
are tied up.

At least one of them is
actually the monster itself,

and watching Kurt Russell
testing the blood...

where the tension
is just unbelievable.

This is pure nonsense.

It doesn't prove a thing.

We'll do you last.

When that thing screeches up...

you know...

that was worth
the price of admission.

The Thing in "The Thing,"...

In some ways, it's one of,
I think, the, like, apexes of

that kind of old-school,
analog monster.

Like, it was actually there
on the set

with the tentacles
and the teeth.

I mean, this is pre-CGI.

Guys were doing
this kind of stuff.

But the ultimate threat
here in "The Thing"

isn't even the monster itself.

It is what The Thing evokes...

The paranoia and terror
that engulfs that station.

It isn't Bennings.

"The Thing" was based
on a story, "Who Goes There?"

by the most influential
magazine editor,

really, in the history
of science fiction...

A writer named
John W. Campbell Jr.

Did you have any plan in mind

as to what you wanted
"Astounding" to be?

I wanted it to be a good
science fiction magazine,

and, yes...

I wanted to learn
how to be an editor.

So he began to establish a group
of writers for his magazine

that became the pantheon
of modern science fiction...

Robert Heinlein,
for example, Isaac Asimov.

John W. Campbell Jr.
What he wanted were people

who would write stories in which
the science was realistic...

Realistic in the sense
that the scientific culture

be represented accurately.

He certainly
shifted science fiction

from boys' adventure stories
in space

to serious considerations of
what the future might be like,

and that set up what
some writers think of

as the golden age.

Campbell said he got the idea

the story "Who Goes There?"

from a very personal incident
that happened to him as a child.

One day, he came home,
saw his mother in the kitchen,

and started talking with her
and became increasingly confused

by her odd responses
to his questions.

It wasn't until his mother
actually walked in

that he realized he had been
talking to her twin sister.

This sort of uncanny moment...

The moment when he thought
he saw someone he knew,

and it turned out to be
a different person...

Stayed with him
for all his life.

You ain't tying me up.

Then I'll have to
kill you, Childs.

Then kill me.

"The Thing" is definitely
about the monster within

and how those monsters within us

that would allow the fear to
overtake you to the point where,

your friend, you don't trust.

You go down that road,
and it can be monstrous.

I would say that,
you know, "Pacific Rim"

-is foursquare science fiction...
-Yeah.

Robots and
giant monsters,

you don't get any more
science fiction than that.

Yeah. "Pacific Rim"...

What I love is all
the myriad of solutions

that we can come up with
to kill 25-story monsters.

The one solution that probably
would come out last is,

-"Let's create 25-story robots."
-Robots, right.

The great majority
of monster movies,

-you killed the monster at the end.
-Yeah. Yeah.

So it's
you stand that fear up,

and then you kill it...

and you kill it
by ingenuity, by willpower,

by courage,
whatever it is,

and so I think
there's an element

-that we create the monster so we can destroy it...
-Of course.

Like in the '50s,

in all these
"B" monster movies.

I certainly saw
"The Blob" when I was kid,

and the fact that some
oozing mass of sticky goo

is going to kill me
is a really good idea.

It's a very B-movie,
horrible, stupid idea,

but it actually
works pretty well.

"B" movies in the 1950s emerged

because the horror genre
went into decline,

and something had
to fill the void,

and science fiction
was just the right fit

for independent producers

with just enough
rubber monster suits

to create something
on the cheap.

Well,
"Creature From the Black Lagoon"

was probably the first one that
I remember getting sucked into,

and it kept me from swimming
in lakes for years.

"The Killer Shrews"...

I remember
being quite frightened by it.

At the end,

people are claustrophobically
in this sort of shed.

I thought that was terrible,

and I still have dreams
of fangy kind of creatures.

There's a 1953 film
called "Robot Monster."

The monster was a guy
in a gorilla costume

with a diver's helmet.

Made for $20,000...
Completely ridiculous,

and yet audiences bought it,
and it made over $1 million.

The monster movies
of the 1950s...

You can see very clearly the way
they sprung out of World War II

and the atomic bomb
and this incredible fear

about what had been unleashed.

Never in the history
of the United States,

a monster of such
size and power...

People had discovered
that radiation

can change genetic structures
and create,

well, odd kinds of monsters.

The granddaddy of all
atomic monster movies

has got to be "Godzilla."

"Godzilla" embodies

the anxiety and
the terror of a...

-Of the nuclear age.
-Nuclear attack.

-Absolutely.
-Right?

Sure. It's not a surprise
that it emerged

as a science-fiction
neo-myth from Japan,

which had actually been
bombed by nuclear weapons.

And in that way,

monsters respond
to the zeitgeist

at the time
that they are created.

-Right. The zeitgeist.
-So monsters are incredibly apt

at embodying
the abstract in flesh.

"Godzilla" was made
less than a decade

after the atomic bombings,

and there were a lot
of issues that were taboo.

Japanese people could not speak
amongst themselves

or in the media about
Hiroshima and Nagasaki,

about the defeat, and about
the fact that Japan,

even after the war,

remained subservient
to the United States.

In Japan, you know, you can't
make a movie about that stuff,

but what if you make a movie
about a giant monster who...

Americans invent this bomb...

it wakes up the monster,

and one of our cities
gets destroyed

and leaves radiation everywhere,
and they were like,

"Yeah. That's fine.
You can make that movie."

It was like, "Okay. Cool.
It's called 'Godzilla.'"

In Japan, the name is "Gojira."

It is a combination
of two words...

"gorira,"
which means "gorilla,"

and "kujira,"
which means "whale."

So it literally means
"gorilla whale."

The legend is
this was a nickname

of an overweight
Toho Studios employee.

The producer heard that nickname

and loved it so much,
he gave it to the monster.

The first film is hard-core,
very meaningful science fiction,

and then, you know,
they obviously think,

"What can we do next?" and,

"Well, let's have Godzilla
fight another creature."

It became a bit silly.

And so Godzilla
was transformed

from being this vengeful force

to being more of a protector
and defender for Japan.

In our film, we wanted to
bring back a little bit of

the kitschy-ness
in a modern concept.

Because Godzilla is such
a beloved character from Japan,

the creators of
"Godzilla" had a bible.

It was this thick, and in it was
all the "do"s and "don't"s...

What it can do,
what it can't do.

And we, like, threw it away.

I hired one of the production
designers of "Independence Day,"

Patrick Tatopoulos, to kind
of give me a new Godzilla,

and I said,
"If I cannot make that Godzilla,

I'm not making
the movie at all."

The first shot that we had
about "Godzilla"

was a shot from the street,
looking up.

And the first
question we asked is,

"What's happening
with the genitals?

Should we see them?"

And it's funny
because, a joke as it is,

Emmerich says, "You know,

I think she should be
a female.

She should have kids."

In many regards, we were trying
to reinvent Godzilla.

I think that the people
in Japan felt,

"Don't reinvent our Godzilla.

We like our Godzilla
just the way he is."

I think, when
you're trying to make

a science-fiction
monster movie,

you're always looking for
what's it really about?

When we made our "Godzilla,"

we definitely wanted it
to be serious again.

You know, at the end of the day,
it's a giant monster movie,

two massive creatures smacking
the crap out of each other.

But all that stuff is pointless
if it hasn't got something

at the heart of it
that it represents,

and so I feel like there's
a sort of Western guilt

that we don't really
acknowledge or talk about.

We nuclear-bombed a country,

and I think Godzilla,
in our film,

was representing that coming
back to haunt us, in a way.

Science-fiction movies
could be very cathartic.

The reality is,
in all these movies,

humankind ends up
defeating the monster,

the world is saved,

and we come together
when we most need to.

It's hard to come up
with an original story.

I mean, there's a lot
of writers out there

nodding their heads.

I think we're all
influenced by the stories

that came before us
going back thousands of years,

by myths, legends,
fairy tales.

-I think the worst films just refer to other movies.
-Yeah.

The best films somehow
connect you to something

-that you've actually experienced.
-Yes.

-Well, "Stranger Things" has done that very well.
-Yeah.

It touches on a lot
of the movies that you and I

-and others have made, but it does it brilliantly.
-Right. Yeah.

-It's a amalgam of genres...
-Yeah.

But all having to do
with one thing,

-and that is you love those kids...
-Yeah.

And you do not want anything
bad to happen to them.

-Right. Right.
-And "Stranger Things,"

-for all of its brilliant imaginings...
-Yeah.

Are about those characters.

All I know is Will is alive.

Will is alive.

He's out there somewhere.

All we have to do
is find him.

We had a pretty steady,
healthy diet

of science fiction

and horror movies growing up.

They very much influenced
"Stranger Things."

A lot of our favorite

stories and movies
and books growing up

all revolved
around children

dealing with a terror
of some kind.

Yeah. I mean, like,
Spielberg has a history

of putting children
in traumatizing situations.

So does Stephen King.

They would take very
relatable characters,

like families and kids,

who, it felt like
our family,

it felt like our friends,
it felt like us,

and then put them into these
extraordinary situations.

"Stranger Things"... it's about
a kid who goes missing.

He vanishes into,
like, thin air.

And I'm one of his best friends,
and we go look for him.

We go on crazy adventures,
and they confront this girl.

She has powers.

Then we confront other things
like monsters...

Not just monsters,
but one monster...

the Demogorgon.

The Demogorgon
has sort of this, like,

ultimate movie... or TV-monster
feel to it,

almost like the prototypical
nightmare monster.

We wanted to
create a monster

that we could
build practically,

and we wanted to
go back to that

old-school style
of filmmaking,

and the thing is that
once you commit to that...

To building a suit...
It limits you.

It was also
very important

that it was
very weird because,

to us, you know,
the weirder a design is,

the scarier it is.

And sometimes
it's simple things,

like removing...
Taking the eyes off.

By the creature
not having a face,

it really evokes the same idea
of something in the shadows...

A figure that you
can't quite make out,

but you have a familiar shape.

But without any eyes, you don't
know where it's looking,

what it's thinking,
which is terrifying.

Demogorgon... he's really tall.

I would say he's probably,
like, 7-foot-1...

Shaq's height.

His face looks like a tulip,
a flower,

and it opens up with
all this teeth and slime.

We can't wrap our brains
around what this thing is,

and we can't pinpoint
what to do and what it is.

That's why we're afraid of it,
and it looks pretty creepy,

and it's trying to kill you.

The Demogorgon head was
the most remarkable part

of the entire Demogorgon suit.

Because I don't see
the way I normally see,

I don't hear
the way I normally hear,

it makes it easier
to feel like the monster.

The direction I was given by
the Duffers was very concise...

That I was the shark
from "Jaws,"

that I was this creature
that came from

this other dimension to feed.

I think monsters
who threaten children

are particularly terrifying

because it triggers
this response in humans

to protect the young.

Children are the ultimate
vulnerability.

These kids are right on the
brink of becoming young adults,

so some of the unleashing
of this other world,

I think, is metaphorical,
and it allows us to think about,

"What does it mean to pass
from a state of childhood

into being a teen?"

Sometimes you tangle
with monsters,

and sometimes
you're sucked into a pool.

Maybe these things
don't happen literally,

but it's a really horrific,
terrifying process to grow up.

Who are you?
I'm Maria.

"Stranger Things" is,
in and of itself,

a kind of "Frankenstein"
monster TV show.

It is all these different parts

of all these different
elements of pop culture...

All right, here I go.
Okay?

Okay.
Here we go.

All kind of sutured together

to create this new kind of
beautiful, horrifying thing.

Out of the way!
Out of the way!

The whole bike chase
and the van flip

is, obviously, a
not-so-subtle nod to "E.T."

Well,
dressing up Eleven...

We just couldn't
help ourselves.

A lot of
Winona's character

was based on
Richard Dreyfuss.

Her Christmas lights

are his mashed potatoes,
basically.

-Will?
-When you're a kid,

and you're experiencing
these films,

there's a sense of wonder
and awe and fear

that just...
It stays with you

for the rest of
your life.

What we wanted to do
was try to recapture

the way those movies
made us feel.

Sci-fi is an escape
for so many people...

and I feel those monsters...
Not just the Demogorgon...

Helps everyone in the world
move on

and feel good about
the world

when the world
isn't doing well.

Well, I think what
inflamed my imagination

when I was a kid
was simply fear.

Fear, I think, you know...

I needed to do something
to protect myself

against everything
that I was afraid of.

Most everything when it got dark...
Yeah.

I was afraid of.

A lot of my process starts
with dreams and nightmares.

It's all getting out
those childhood terrors

and just making
everybody else feel it.

Yeah. Yeah.

You kind of exorcise them
from your own life,

and then you foist them
upon strangers.

On everybody else.
Right. Exactly.

And we love it,

and we can't get
enough of it,

and so we can't stop.

Right.