A group of misfits getting into trouble, a mean authoritative figure out to get them, and an extraordinary event that triggered everything was the trifecta of many hit movies of the 80s. When the Duffer Brothers brought Strangers Things to Netflix, droves of people tuned in to see it because the series plunged many of them back into the era they grew up in.
Banking on nostalgia, the Duffer Brothers planted many references to hit TV series and movies from that era throughout the seasons of Stranger Things. They also weren’t shy to almost reproduce some iconic scenes from cult movies honoring the many writers and directors that influenced them to create this successful series.
The Kids On Bicycles On a Mission
Stranger Things introduces a tight-knit group of friends who are both lovable and dorky. When one of them disappears, the rest set out on their bikes to find him with the help of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) in “Holly, Jolly.”
The same theme is seen in The Goonies when the friends set out on their bikes to find a lost treasure to save their homes from foreclosure. It’s no coincidence that in both cases, all the kids travel on bicycles, wear coats, and are out on a quest, and their de facto leaders are both named Mike.
Fleeing The Bad Government Men on Bikes
When the government searches for Eleven, the boys flee with her on their bikes, with Eleven riding with Mike (Finn Wolfhard).
In E.T. The Extraterrestrial, Mike and his friends flee from government agents on their bikes, with ET in a basket riding with Mike. In an interesting parallel, when the boys seem cornered in both scenes, a supernatural event happens to get them out of the sticky situation. Eleven lifts a van coming their way up into the air, and E.T. makes the boys fly on their bikes to escape the agents.
The Human Incubator
The last episode of season one sees Hopper (David Harbour) and Joyce (Winona Ryder) searching for Will (Noah Schnapp) in the Upside Down. They find him strapped to a gooey structure with a long tentacle inserted into his mouth down his throat. After pulling it out of his mouth, Joyce and Hopper perform CPR on Will to revive him. Later, it is revealed that Will was being used as an incubator to create other Demogorgons.
If this scene sounds familiar, it resembles the scene in Aliens where Ripley rescues Newt from becoming a human incubator herself. The gooey structure, the creepy monster hatching from its egg, looking to attach itself to the face of its human host, the endangered child, the savior coming to rescue her. The Duffer Brothers took this scene and ran with it.
The Strange Light Outside The House
In “MADMAX,” Will is haunted by awful visions of the Upside Down. In one scene, where he wakes up at night to use the bathroom, he is attracted by a strange light outside his house, and the front door opens, revealing a nightmarish monster in the distance.
In Close Encounters of the Third Kind, young Barry wakes to the sounds of his electrical toys making noise. He is attracted to his front door by a glow entering through the keyhole, and he opens it to reveal a bright yellow light. He escapes his mother’s arms and disappears with the light. This scene where Barry is abducted by aliens is forever engrained in the minds of the viewers who watched this iconic movie. It is no wonder the Duffer Brothers replicated it in Stranger Things.
The Mysterious Illness
Will becomes the host of the Mind Flayer, who has infected him and is using him to spy on the humans. Unsure of what is happening with Will, Dr. Owens (Paul Reiser) conveys a meeting with other doctors to try and find a solution to his illness. Joyce loses patience with them as no one can truly tell her what is happening with her son.
In an almost similar scene in The Exorcist, Chris MacNeil is seated at a table with a horde of psychiatrists who have no precise diagnosis for her daughter’s condition. Chris also gets frustrated with them. Ultimately, they suggest she seek the help of an exorcist, thinking Regan believes she is possessed by a spirit. Like Regan, Will is possessed by an evil force and later goes through an exorcism to get the spirit out. This highlights where the inspiration for this storyline came from.
Going Underground to Defeat The Monster
To help Eleven close the gate, Mike, Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Max (Sadie Sink), and Steve (Joe Keery) descend into the tunnels dug by the Mind Flayer. They plan to set them on fire in the hope this will attract the Demodogs away from guarding the gate.
A group of friends also decide to confront a monster in It by descending into the sewers where it dwells. In both instances, the group comprises mainly boys and one girl. They both must navigate a labyrinth of creepy tunnels. The similarities with the Stephen King horror classic are not hard to miss in this chapter.
Going Into The Air Ducts
Convinced Russians have infiltrated the Starcourt mall, Robin (Maya Thurman-Hawke), Steve, and Dustin sway Erica (Priah Ferguson) to go through a tiny ventilation conduit to get to a secret storage room suspiciously guarded by armed men.
Although not the same premise, Die Hard has become known for its hero, John McClane, using the air ducts to escape German radicals. This iconic movie was so successful in the 80s that four more sequels were made. It’s no wonder that The Duffer Brothers wanted to include a reference to such a classic movie in this episode, not failing to incorporate humor as McClane surely would.
The Creep At The Door
Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) run for their lives in a desolate hospital wing as one of their ex-coworkers, Bruce (Jake Busey), tries to kill them. He’s one of the Flayed, possessed by the Mind Flayer and now part of the hive. As Nancy and Jonathan lock themselves in a room, Bruce breaks the window and grins menacingly at them through the doorway as he reaches down to unlock the door.
It’s not hard to tell where the inspiration for this scene came from. Jack Torrance broke down a closed door with an ax and peered through the hole he made at his terrified wife before reaching down to unlock the bathroom door she locked herself in. It is one of the most terrifying scenes in The Shining and one of the most memorable scenes in cinematic history, not to mention a must-see movie for horror enthusiasts.
The Visit to The Prison
Passing off as university students in psychology, Robin and Nancy visit Victor Creel (Robert Englund), who was locked up for slaughtering his family. But Nancy knows that the real culprit of the murders is Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) and that somehow Victor was able to escape his deadly curse.
The rules to visiting Victor Creel are almost word for word, the same ones for visiting Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of The Lambs. The walk down to the last cell, the young, unsure, rookie FBI agent with the good bag and the cheap shoes looks a lot like Robin and Nancy walking down the prison aisle to Victor’s cell. While not a movie from the 80s, this staple in the horror genre is now a cult classic. And this famous scene between Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins was too good not to recreate.
The Bad Guy Never Dies
They found his lair. They baited him and trapped him. They had a good plan, and Phase Four was almost a success. Robin and Steve threw Molotov cocktails at him, setting him on fire. Then Nancy shot him several times, sending him hurling threw a boarded window and falling three stories down. But when they came down to look for him, Vecna was gone.
One of the tropes of many horror movies from the 80s was that the bad guy never died, whether he was human or supernatural. The Duffer Brothers said John Carpenter had a significant influence on them, so they gave Vecna the same ending Michael Myers had in Halloween, leaving everyone wondering.