PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Fans of Stranger Things know that there’s no shortage of ’80s nostalgia, most of it in movie form. While it’s nearly impossible to have caught every single movie homage in this show, we did manage to pick up on a few you might have missed. Some are pretty obvious, like Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) being named after Nancy from Nightmare on Elm Street or the boys’ obsession with Ghostbusters, while others are a bit more obscure. Read on for more tributes and nostalgic love from the Duffer Brothers.
Alien franchise
Let’s start with the Alien franchise. It doesn’t take a lab-coated scientist to see the resemblance between the Xenomorph and Demogorgon anatomy, especially with the way they hatch and incubate inside a human host, then emerge to molt their exoskeletons in a rapid, most slimy pace, with the end result being an anorexic, gangly creature with whip-like appendages, tiny eyes and drooling, ophidian maws, while the four-legged Demodogs were eerily similar to the Xenomorph runner in Aliens 3.
Speaking of the third Alien film, Paul Reiser had been cast in that one as Burke, the seemingly friendly company man who was willing to help in any way he could. In Stranger Things 2, Reiser plays Dr. Owen, the Hawkins Lab guy who talks Joyce (Winona Ryder) into letting him do tests on Will (Noah Schnapp) by convincing her he was there to help. In both cases, Reiser was a big, fat liar. The scene where the good doctor sends soldiers down into the subterranean Demodog trap is so very close to the one where Burke watches as the soldiers’ heat signal dots are attacked by aliens, right down to the use of the onscreen radar and the “Stay frosty” line.
The Goonies
Besides the fact that both projects have a group of kids going on a dangerous, adrenaline-fueled adventures, both groups are led by grumbling, older teens – Brand (Josh Brolin) and Steve (Joe Keery) – who would much rather be making out with their girlfriends than babysitting a bunch of middle schoolers who have no idea what they’re really getting themselves into. Of course, these older guys have girls in mind, although in Stranger Things, Nancy is Mike’s (Finn Wolfhard) older sister and in The Goonies, Brand is Mikey’s (Sean Astin) older brother. Yup, they’re both named Mike. Wait, did I just mention Sean Astin? Perhaps the most obvious homage to The Goonies is the casting of Astin as Joyce’s (Winona Ryder) love interest, Bob Newby. He even gets to ask about buried treasure!
You can’t help but remember Chunk (Jeff Cohen) calming down an excited Sloth (Jake Matuszak) with a Baby Ruth after you’ve watched Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) lulling a much larger Dart with a 3 Musketeers bar. Lastly, the scene where Billy (Dacre Montgomery) runs the boys off the road with his insane driving as Max (Sophia Sink) tries to grab the wheel resembles the part in The Goonies where Troy (Steve Antin) runs poor Brand and his tricycle into a ditch.
Of course, that could also be an homage to a very similar scene in Mad Max (1979), especially considering Max is called both Mad Max and The Road Warrior at different points in the show.
Stephen King
There are tons of references to the Master of Horror in Stranger Things. I’m just going to name a few, or we’d be here all day. Like The Goonies, Stranger Things tells a coming-of-age adventure, much like King’s IT, “The Body” (which was made into the movie Stand By Me) and Dreamcatcher. Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) is so very similar to King characters Charlie McGee (Drew Barrymore) in Firestarter and Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) in Carrie, both in her naïveté and her extraordinary psychic abilities. Her nose bleeds when she uses her powers like Charlie McGee’s dad, Andy’s (David Keith), did. She’s even on the run from Hawkins Lab the same way that little Charlie was from The Shop. Both seasons of Stranger Things have scenes with the kids walking down railroad tracks (in S1, the boys and Eleven hunt for the gateway to the Upside Down by following rails, and in S2, Dustin and Steve throw chunks of meat along the wooden tracks to lure the Demodog out of hiding). No King novel would be complete without bullies of some sort, and Stranger Things has them popping out all over the place, both in child and adult forms.
When Bob tries to comfort Will by telling him about the nightmares he himself had as a kid, he talks about a creepy clown at the fair that had once offered him a balloon, in much the same way that Pennywise presents little Georgie with one at the beginning of IT. Bob says that clown gave him nightmares until he finally confronted it in the middle of one of these bad dreams, just like the kids in IT finally do. He also mentions that he grew up in Maine, which is where IT took place. With Stranger Things 2 taking place in 1984 and Bob being about 40, he would have been in middle school in the 1950s, which was when the pre-teen Loser’s Club first meet the Dancing Clown. Could Bob be the lost member of the Loser’s Club? I can’t help but mention that the similarities between the monsters of the Upside Down and creatures of “The Mist” make me wonder if they’re from the same exact place. Strangely enough, ‘The Mist” was first published in the horror anthology, Dark Forces, back in 1980, only 3 years before the events of the first season take place. Did King open the first gateway?
Jurassic Park (1993)
I know, I know. Jurassic Park came out in 1993, and is obviously not an ’80s movie. But there are a two nods to the film that I felt I had to include on here. First of all, the Demodogs team up and herd their human prey just like the raptors did in Jurassic Park. Using cold, calculated, and extremely intelligent thinking, one creature distracts their dinner while another sneaks up behind to pounce. Then there’s the fact that Dr. Hammond (Richard Attenborough) used a walkie talkie to lead Dr. Sattler (Laura Dern) to the main fuse box to turn the power back on in the exact same way that Dr. Owen talks Bob through the same process. Unfortunately, both of them end up paying for their bravery.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
You can’t deny that, with his wide-brimmed hat, unshaven face, hooded eyes and gruff demeanor, Chief Hopper (David Harbour) is a dead ringer for ol’ Indie (Harrison Ford). Of course, there’s also the scene where Nancy uses a hot poker on Will to try to bring her brother’s mind back from the Upside Down in the same way that Short Round (Jonathan Ke Quan) used a burning torch to try to break Indie from from how own hypnotized trance. Perhaps the most obvious homage to the film is the near shot-for-shot scene with Nancy and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) in the house of the conspiracy theorist/private investigator as they get ready for bed. Just like Indie did with Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw), the two teens deny their feelings for each other and go to their own rooms, but then flop around on their beds while trying to ignore their attraction towards each other. It’s up to you to figure out what happened next.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
One of the most iconic scenes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind is replicated at the beginning of Stranger Things 2 when Will opens his front to the terrifying glory of the Upside Down. It’s damn near identical to the scene in the beginning of the former film when 3 year-old Barry Guiler (Cary Guffey) yanks open his front door to the lights and sounds of his own alien contact.
There are quite a few other, more random nods to ’80s films throughout the two seasons of Stranger Things. Will’s favorite candy is Reese’s Pieces, the same peanut butter sweets that Elliot (Henry Thomas) used to lure E.T. to his bedroom. When Eleven tries to convince Hopper to take her Trick or Treating, she wears a sheet with two eye holes, insisting that no one will be able to recognize her. This is the same tactic that the kids use in E.T. to bring the short legged alien out on Halloween. The sheet costume could also be a reference to Michael Myers’ adult Halloween costume. While we’re on the subject, Max scares the boys while they’re our Trick or Treating by jumping out at them while wearing a Michael Myers mask.
Dustin loves his cute but slimy friend, Dart, sneaking him into school and feeding him junk food, the same way Billy (Zach Galligan) does to Gizmo’s offspring in Gremlins. Neither one of them knew how dangerous these excursions would end up being. The boys not only play Dungeons & Dragons, but they also name the Upside Down creatures – Demogorgon and the Mindflayer – after D&D monsters. When they realize that Will can see and interact with things outside of his own body (his own psychic powers), they call it True Sight, another D&D term. On a lighter note, the scene where Billy and Steve play basketball in the high school gym is reminiscent of the volleyball scene in Top Gun, kicking off a rivalry like the one between Maverick (Tom Cruise) and Iceman (Val Kilmer). Last but certainly not least, Dustin’s bouffant at the end of Stranger Things 2 is styled after Ducky’s (Jon Cryer) own pompadour from Pretty in Pink.
That about wraps up our list of ’80s movie homages we’ve noticed in Stranger Things (at least, so far). Did we miss anything major? Let us know in the comments!
