HOW THE DUFFER BROTHERS CHANGED THE WORLD

IN 2016, A PAIR OF SCI-FI-OBSESSED TWINS CREATED A TV SHOW: STRANGER THINGS. IT REIGNITED CAREERS, MINTED NEW STARS, AND SET THE MOLD FOR THE STREAMING HIT. BUT THEY KNOW NONE OF THAT MATTERS IF THEY CAN'T STICK THE LANDING.

- BY ANTHONY BREZNICAN PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHANTAL ANDERSON

Matt (left) and Ross (right) Duffer take a rare break in the place where they forged much-but certainly not all-of the ending of Stranger Things: the writers room.

CHAPTER ONE: THE VANISHING OF THE DUFFER BROTHERS

The end of the world was near. Everyone realized it was coming, so the only question was: How? Preparations had to be made. People needed to know. And time was running short.

Stranger Things, the Netflix series about supernatural terrors that overtake a quiet midwestern community in the 1980s, was drawing to a close. It had become a pop-culture juggernaut of unspeakable scale, adding all the more weight to its looming fifth and final season.

Hawkins, Indiana, the setting of the story, does not actually exist, but the people who have spent the past decade bringing it to life onscreen formed something akin to their own tight-knit small town. Their world, in a sense, was ending too—and they were the ones responsible for making sure it went out with appropriate bangs, whimpers, and all-around spectacle. Apart from scores of actors and camera operators, there are countless behind-the-scenes workers like builders, painters, electricians, and greenskeepers in a holding pattern. Beyond that, designers make clothes and techies keep the lights on. There are a security team and medics, cooks who keep everyone fed. Teachers handle school for the kids, drivers get people where they need to be, and hairstylists, makeup artists, and animal wranglers ply their trades.

The whole world was waiting to see how Stranger Things was going to end, but this caravan of workers, centered in and around Atlanta, needed to find out first. For that, they all looked to the identical twin brothers whose imaginations had given birth to Stranger Things: Matt and Ross Duffer. But the twins had difficulty providing all the answers.