During the Summer of 2016
Netflix Released Stranger things Season One
A web television series produced by the Duffer Brothers,
Essentially it's almost every genre - It's technically a
Drama��Fantasy��Horror��Mystery��Sci-Fi��Thriller
and It's riddled with film references from the 80s.
It's critically acclaimed with a score of 9 on imdb, 95% on Rotten Tomatoes
and a user score of 9 on Metacritic.
So I thought it would be fun to make a video listing all the nostalgic shout
outs and references in this series.
Just to give a heads up, this video will contain spoilers for both the show
and it's movie references.
Steven Spielberg's movies appears to have a big influence on this show
For example in E.T.
the Extra-Terrestrial.
Several episodes outline the children's relationship with Eleven in a way
that's intentionally similar to Elliot's relationship with E.T.
The first episode
even introduces Mike and his friends playing Dungeons and Dragons in a
similar way to Elliot and his brothers friends.
Mike hides 11 in his house from the government agents, where the kids
disguise her with a dress and a blonde wig when they take her out in public,
just like with E.T.
The episode where the group are escaping on bikes looks like it's about to recreate
the classic flying bikes scene, but instead the show inverts this and has Eleven flip
a van over the kids.
In THE GOONIES
You have a group of geeky middle school kids, joined by some teenagers,
who discover a secret beneath the surface of their quiet hometown.
While
at the same time most of the adults remain blissfully ignorant of what's
going on.
The Show also has a familiar theme to Poltergeist
Where A child is abducted by paranormal forces into another dimension,
and can only contact their family through household appliances.
Stephen King has also had a clear influence
The show's intro title typography is very reminiscent of the way Stephen
King's name used to be presented on his book covers.
The fourth episode is also titled "The Body", which was the name of the
Stephen King story that was adapted into the movie Stand by Me.
Which
bears a similar theme to an episode where the kids walk off into the
woods along a set of railroad tracks before being ambushed by a pair of
bullies.
The Shows plot also bears a resemblance to Stephen king's movie the Mist.
Where there's a government experiment that opens a rift to another
dimension that lets nasty monsters into our world.
Eleven's origin story is very similar to Firestarter.
Where you have a young
girl with telekinetic powers, and men in hazmat suits who are led by a grey haired scientist.
For StarWars
In the final few episodes, the kids use the term "Lando" to describe the
possibility of someone being betrayed, which is in relation to the betrayal
of Lando Calrissian to Han Solo.
In the Classic 80's Anime AKIRA
You have a child who is experimented on by a shady governmental agency
who ends up with incredibly powerful telekinetic abilities, with the intent to
try to unlock the mysterious power, they lose control of their subject and
try to retrieve them.
X-MEN
When Will wins one of Dustin's comics in Episode 1, he asks for X-Men 134.
This issue features Jean Grey using her telekinetic powers to unleash Dark
Phoenix for the first time.
In J.R.R Tolkiens The Hobbit,
there's a forest called Mirkwood.
This is also the name of the road, where
Will encounters the Monster for the 1st time, and runs through the forest
to his house.
Film POSTERS
Jonathan has a poster for The Evil Dead on his wall until his father tells him
to take it down.
There's a poster for John Carpenter's The Thing, and
there's a film poster for The Dark Crystal.
Even the poster for stranger
things bears a resemblance to that of Return of the Jedi.
There's a fun reference to Tom Cruise before he was famous
Where Steve invites Nancy to go see the movie, All The Right Moves, with
"that guy" from Risky Business.
He then starts singing "Old Time Rock &
Roll," while re-enacting the famous underwear dance scene.
There is a mini homage to the Karate Kid
When Jonathan gets into a fight with Steve defending Nancy's honor.
Tommy tries to pull Jonathon off Steve yelling "hey, he's had enough, man!"
This is very similar to the lines that Bobby yells in The Karate Kid, when
he's trying to break up the Halloween fight.
The X - FILES franchise has an influence too
When Hopper and Joyce save Will from The Upside-Down, it bears a
resemblance to a similar scene in the 1998 X Files movie.
When Will coughs up a miniature of whatever had been pulled from his
throat in the Upside-Down, this scene is a near copy of a scene from
season two's "The Host."
The monster's mouth is reminiscent of both the eggs from the Alien
franchise and the mouths of the sandworms from the Dune movie.
The scene where Hopper's being Paranoid after waking up from being
drugged is lifted straight out of Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation.
A girl named Nancy sets booby traps for a supernatural killer she intends
to lure into our world and then set on fire!
Is near identical to the end
sequence of A Nightmare on Elm street, the girls even share the same
name!
The simple explanation for the Upside-Down takes the "move across
dimensions using a pencil punching through a folded piece of paper" is near
identical to Event Horizon's explanation for the gravity drive.
What are your thoughts on Stranger Things and it's Nostalgia?
Do most of
these scenes answer the questions towards why you feel so much
familiarity with this TV show?
Leave a comment down below on which part
of this series is your favourite, and if you have any suggestions for any
other topics for me to cover, please by all means, let me know.
And If
you're new to my channel hit the subscribe button and Drop a like if you
enjoyed this video.