Story highlights CNN gained unique access inside the White House to document President Obama's final days

Speechwriters discuss strategy for Obama's final address

Washington (CNN) When President Barack Obama emerged to greet a massive, cheering audience at the cavernous McCormick Place convention center in Chicago on January 10, 2017, he was looking to the path ahead and reflecting about the legacy he was leaving behind.

"It falls to each of us to be those anxious, jealous guardians of our democracy," the President said. "To embrace the joyous task we've been given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours."

But before he uttered the words that will go down in history as his final address to the nation, his speechwriting team had to answer one, massive crucial question: What on Earth should the president even say?

CNN Films was allowed unique access into that conversation and other moments rarely seen by the public as part of a new documentary, " The End: Inside the Last Days of the Obama White House ." The film picks up right after the November 8 election, which ushered in Donald J. Trump as America's president elect.

In the weeks that followed that unprecedented win, cameras trailed Obama staffers as they went about the task of preparing to transition. CNN captured the candor that occurred in private, as the West Wing dealt with election results that no one in the White House expected.

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