Netflix

Billy (Dacre Montgomery) inside the sauna

In this scene, the kids trap lifeguard Billy in a sauna at the community pool to determine if the Mind Flayer monster is using him as a “host.” The beast can’t tolerate heat, so they crank up the steam to see how he responds – and boy does he. What did you think when you first read it?

Shawn Levy: I wanted to do justice to this big idea. When you have huge stakes plus a contained location, you get maximum intensity. The first step was about three months of storyboarding and stunt choreography to figure out the action. Unlike most scenes in a TV series, this one was going to require multiple (shooting) days as if it was a movie.