Stranger Things Season 4 Vol. 1 is everything anyone could ever ask for when it comes to emotions and with four different stories happening altogether, there’s one crazy action shootout scene in Episode 4 that captured the attention of many and Shawn Levy reveals all of it was done in one take.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Stranger Things Season 4 Vol. 1. Read at your own risk!
Stranger Things Season 4 Vol. 1 Episode 4, Dear Billy, is one of the most exciting runs of the fourth installment of the show as it raises the level of urgency through all the stories happening all at once. There’s Hopper’s escape in Russia, Eleven being taken into the Nina Project, Hawkins gang trying to save Max from Vecna, and Mike and the others under siege in California.
Mike, Will, and Jonathan were put under protection by the government organization supporting Eleven’s path to getting her powers back against those who believe that Eleven is the cause and not the solution. As they tried to escape, they called Argyle for their transportation, and for their guards, it was pizza time.
However, it did not go as planned. They were tracked and gunmen came bursting through every possible exit until they found a way out and into Argyle’s car. The only security they have left got shot and they tried to save him but the injury was fatal which led to his death.
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The whole scene looked like it was plucked directly out of an action movie and as amazing as it turned out to be, what makes it even more interesting is that director Shawn Levy revealed that the scene was done in just one take which means it was executed so perfectly that they did not have to repeat it all.
During the fourth day of Netflix Geeked Week, Shawn Levy apologized for not being able to attend the event personally but he shared how amazing it is that they worked on the shootout scene in just one take which he calls “both the most challenging piece of directing and ultimately, the most gratifying pieces of directing” in his entire career.
Shawn Levy also shared his perspective on how Matt and Ross Duffer wrote the scene, “The writing that Matt and Ross do, it tells me what they want on screen.” Levy, on the shootout scene, added, “This should feel real-time and viscerally connected to the characters who are suddenly caught in the middle of this battle.”
Levy said that such a scene was their first time on the series, “We’ve never done kind of an action oner with gunplay and so, it was gonna be hard, it was gonna be near impossible, but I was so inspired by this feeling that I had to try.”
Levy shared how they got the scene into perfection, “The whole challenge with the oner is it requires perfect synchronicity between actor action, stunt action, and camera action. Every pan, every tilt, every move of the actor, it needs to be in unison so that you’re seeing the event you want at the exact moment you want it to.”
Levy and the rest of the team delivered and it was one of the most notable scenes in the entire series, “It only takes one mistake to make the oner unusable. Everybody needed to do their jobs at a high, high level of near perfection and ultimately, that is a daunting challenge, but an incredibly satisfying piece of filmmaking as a result.”
See the amazing shootout scene in Episode 4 of Stranger Things Season 4 Vol. 1, now streaming on Netflix.
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