Stranger Things - The Best Easter Eggs From Hawkins

Table of Contents

• Stranger Things - The Best Easter Eggs From Hawkins
• Thingception
• Hasta La Vista
• One to rule them all

Thingception

Clyde E. Bryan was the assistant camera operator, and helped with the filming of the scenes in all episodes of Stranger Things' first season. He worked, for example, on a scene, where the teacher of the boys watches the classic horror film of 1982 – The Thing. Bryan also worked as an assistant cameraman in this exact film 37 years ago. Which means that he basically shot a scene of another scene he shot himself almost four decades before.

Stranger Things reminds us that before the 1982 classic has become a classic, it met with rather mixed reception.

References to The Thing also appear in many other moments of the series, whether in the form of movie posters, or Lucas' great monologue from season three, where he explains why the 1982 version is not inferior to the one released in 1951.

THE CULTURAL BARRIER

In Stranger Things 3 a lot of joints of American pop culture, but do not face the truth, most of them remain unreadable for the Polish audience. How many of us have any associations with the chain of stores " Radio Shack (one of them is seen in Hawkins), actress Phoebe cates (Dustin compares it to Susie), manufacturer of skateboards Madrid (rides on such a Max) or with the movie The Endless Summer (poster hanging in the room Max).

The king of horror

The Duffers may be shy about the Montauk project inspiration, but they sure don't hide their love for the output of the writer Stephen King. The final title of the series is a direct reference to one of the novels from the master of horror, Needful Things. Also peculiar is the font of the logo, inspired by the font used on the cover of Firestarter (and many other books from the venerated writer) – the novel King published 1980, where the main character was a girl with paranormal abilities, hunted for by government agents. Sound familiar?

A girl endowed with superhuman abilities, on the run from the government? King wrote the book over 40 years ago.

In the series, we also find many references to his other works. Already in the first episode, Joyce (Winona Ryder) asks his son if he's still afraid of clowns, which is an obvious wink to the fans of Pennywise, a demonic clown from books and movies called It. Besides, the very idea of making kids the protagonists of the series is a move often used by King – we saw that in It, but also in The Body or Dreamcatcher. Each of these films also includes the theme of older boys bullying the main characters – in It we even have a scene very similar to the one, in which Dustin is assaulted with a knife. And since we're talking about The Body – in 1986 a cult picture inspired by it, called Stand by Me, was filmed, and in it, we could see the famous motif of traveling along a rail track. The kids from Stranger Things take a similar trip when they're looking for the way to the Other Side.

The resemblance is striking.

Another King's novel, Lisey's Story from 2006, tells the story of a woman who, following instructions inherited from her late husband, finds herself in an alternative reality. There, she meets scary creatures, but eventually manages to return to normal reality. However, visions of the other dimension still pursue her, and she's worried that the monster is still lurking in the shadows. Sounds exactly like the story of Will Byers, who, after spending a few days in Upside Down, eventually manages to break out of it, but the ending of the first season, as well as the events from the second and third, prove that the connection wasn't completely severed.

References to Stephen King himself appear in the series as well. The book Cujo is read aloud in the first season by a guard in the morgue. In turn when Joyce and Hopper meet the sister of Eleven's biological mother, the woman states that the girl has extraordinary abilities. The question of what abilities are involved is answered with: "Have you read any books by Stephen King?".

What about Stephen King himself? He really like this series. In 2016, the writer mentioned on Twitter that "watching Stranger Things is watching Steve King's greatest hits. I mean that in a good way.” In another post he stated that "Stranger Things is pure fun. A+. Don't miss it. Winona Ryder shines!”

Eleven returns home

Another representative of the classics, to which Stranger Things refers regularly (especially in the first season) is E.T. In a 1982 film directed by Steven Spielberg, a young boy named Elliott and his siblings make friends with an alien chased by government agents – Stranger Things uses a similar patent, but instead of an alien we have a paranormal Eleven.

Both in the classic film and in the Duffer brothers series, at some point we witness very similar scene, where main heroes escape from agents on their bicycles. In both cases, they manage to get out of the oppression thanks to the extraordinary powers of the "target" sought by the government. Also, E.T.'s protagonists try to camouflage the alien by dressing him up in a wig and a dress – the kids from Stranger Things come up with exactly the same idea.

Striking similarity.

There are also some minor references in the series. Search for Eleven in a forest with dozen of flashlights brings to mind some obvious associations with similar scenes from E.T. Among Dustin's toys we can find an ET figurine. And the idea how Mike gradually befriends a girl who doesn't know the world is taken directly from Spielberg's work.

THE A-TEAM

In grocery stores in the U.S. in the '80s (just like today) many licensed products could be found. In the series we can see, for example, Mr. T.'s breakfast cereal. Yes, the one who played B.A. Baracus in The A Team and Clubber Lang in Rocky III. It is worth adding that these cereals existed in reality and have been sold in the US since 1984. The cereals themselves were T-shaped.

Tetsuo

Stranger Things is inspired not only by films from the 1980s, but also by cult anime. Especially one – Akira from 1988. In Japanese animation, which action took place in the future, there were children with extraordinary abilities, on whom the government conducted experiments. What is important, they were called by numbers tattooed on the wrists – thanks to this idea we have Eleven in Stranger Things. The scene of her escape from the laboratory is quite similar to the one seen in Akira.

Akira has left a great mark on pop culture, so it's no wonder the Duffer brothers were also inspired by it.

Alien

The appearance of The Other Side, a dark dimension that plays an important role in Stranger Things story, has been largely inspired by locations from the science fiction horror movie – Alien. Thanks to the Alien movie, Stranger Things creators have decided that the spooky monster in the first season should be produced not as a computer animation, but as an animatronic model.

The similarities are so striking that it's hard to tell whether it's a shot from the Alien or Stranger Things series.

When it comes to direct references to Alien, the egg that Hopper spotted when he entered the Other Side is certainly one of them – it's very similar to the same object in "xenomorphic" movies. Attack of demodogs on the research facility in the second season contains numerous visual references to scenes from Alien 2.