Stranger Things Finale Evokes Classic Linkin Park Music Video Vibe, Says Original Director
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
The director of Linkin Park's 'In the End' music video shares his reaction to realizing the Stranger Things finale's alternate dimension looks remarkably familiar, as reported by Polygon.
When the final season of Stranger Things brought the Hawkins crew face to face with Vecna in the desolate alternate dimension known as the Abyss, viewers immediately took to social media to point out a striking aesthetic parallel. The hazy, yellow tinted desert landscape and its centerpiece dead tree looked less like standard supernatural horror and more like a time capsule from the year 2000. Fans across platforms quickly connected the new sequences to the iconic, computer generated wasteland featured in Linkin Park's legendary music video for In the End.
It turns out those fans were not alone in noticing the strong visual callback. Nathan Cox, the director behind the original In the End music video, recently shared his own surreal experience of watching the Stranger Things finale on the big screen during a New Year's Eve theatrical screening. Sitting among a room full of emotional fans, Cox and his partner could not help but chuckle as the familiar desiccated desert landscapes and color grading appeared on screen, bridging two massive eras of pop culture nostalgia.
Reflecting on the visual overlap, Cox noted the massive leaps in production technology since his team shot the Linkin Park video over two decades ago using groundbreaking green screen techniques and early digital environments. While modern virtual production tools allowed Netflix to render the Abyss with incredible fidelity, the core artistic DNA remained strikingly similar. You can read the full interview over at Polygon to hear more about Cox's cinematic evening and his thoughts on the crossover. As entertainment properties continue to pull heavily from millennium era aesthetics, this accidental crossover stands as a fun cultural moment for fans of both classic music television and modern streaming hits.
Tags: Stranger Things, Linkin Park, Streaming, Television, Pop Culture
Original article: Polygon