50 Fun Facts About Stranger Things Season 1

In Stranger Things season 1, what does Joyce string over a painted alphabet so Will can send messages?

Christmas lights let Will show he is still inside the house with his mother, and he uses them to warn her to run just before the Demogorgon pushes through the wall.

In the Stranger Things season 1 epilogue, which food does Hopper leave in a box in the woods?

Eggo waffles are Eleven's favorite, so the stash hints that she is still alive. Real-world demand for them rose afterwards, and Kellogg lent Netflix a vintage advert for its Super Bowl spot.

Which game do Will and his friends play for ten hours on the night he vanishes in Stranger Things season 1?

Dungeons & Dragons also names the monster: the boys call it the Demogorgon after the game's demon, and Eleven flips the board to show where Will is hiding.

Which band's Should I Stay or Should I Go plays as Will reaches out to Joyce in Stranger Things season 1?

The Clash were reluctant to lend the song to a show about monsters, so the music supervisor won the band round by stressing its family bonds. She has called the track an unseen extra character.

In Stranger Things season 1, what does Eleven call Dr. Martin Brenner, the scientist who holds her captive?

Papa is her name for the man who exploits her abilities and punishes her when she refuses a test, while the agents he sends after her are simply the bad men.

In Stranger Things season 1, what happens to Eleven's body each time she uses her psychic powers?

Her nose bleeds whenever she strains, and the bigger the object or the farther away the person she reaches for, the more the effort drains her.

What does Will cough up and hide from his family in the final scene of Stranger Things season 1?

A slug like the one Eleven saw crawl out of Barb's body shows Will has not escaped cleanly, and he also glimpses the Upside Down for a moment.

Which actress agreed to play Joyce in Stranger Things only if she could leave for a Beetlejuice sequel?

Winona Ryder had never taken a regular TV role and did not know what streaming was when the pilot script arrived. The sequel was finally shot without interrupting the series.

As Brenner's agents chase the children in Stranger Things season 1, what does Eleven flip with her mind?

A van blocking the road is tossed clear so the children can escape, a feat that wins back the friend who had doubted her and sends them all into hiding in a junkyard.

What do the group pour into a kiddie pool so Eleven can float in Stranger Things season 1?

Salt by the ton turns a kiddie pool into a homemade sensory deprivation chamber, and floating in it lets Eleven find Will alive in the Upside Down.

The fictional town of Hawkins in Stranger Things season 1 sits in which Midwestern US state?

Indiana replaced a real Long Island seaside setting in the original script, and inventing a town freed the Duffers to do things to it, such as placing it under quarantine.

In Stranger Things season 1, where do searchers recover the fake body passed off as Will's?

A quarry near town yields the body, but Hopper turns suspicious when the usual coroner is sent home and beats the truth out of the state trooper who found it.

In Stranger Things season 1, where is Barb left alone when the Demogorgon takes her?

By a swimming pool at Steve's house is where Barb vanishes during a party, and guilt at ditching her there drives Nancy to hunt the creature for the rest of the season.

In Stranger Things season 1, how does Hopper revive Will after pulling a tendril from his throat?

He gives him CPR until the boy breathes again, a rescue Hopper bought by handing Eleven's whereabouts to Brenner in return for passage into the Upside Down.

In which Upside Down building do Hopper and Joyce finally find Will in Stranger Things season 1?

The public library in its Upside Down form is where the Demogorgon keeps its victims, and the pair pass Barb's body there before they reach Will.

Which hunting device do Nancy and Jonathan use to pin the Demogorgon in Stranger Things season 1?

A bear trap holds the Demogorgon at the Byers house long enough for the teenagers to set it alight, which stalls its pursuit of Joyce and Hopper in the other dimension.

Which actor, long cast in small villain roles, finally got a lead as Chief Hopper in Stranger Things?

David Harbour struck the Duffers as an actor who had waited too long for a lead, and he relished the chance to play a broken, flawed anti-hero.

In the Stranger Things season 1 epilogue, what gift does Nancy give Jonathan to replace one Steve broke?

A camera is the gift because Steve smashed Jonathan's old one over photos taken at his party, one of which later reveals the monster lurking behind Barb.

In Stranger Things season 1, what kind of business does Benny run, where the escaped Eleven first turns up?

A diner called Benny's Burgers is where its owner feeds the girl and rings social services, a kindness that gets him shot when lab agents answer the call instead.

Which actor plays Dr. Martin Brenner, the head of Hawkins Lab, in Stranger Things season 1?

Matthew Modine gave the writers significant input on Brenner, a part the Duffers had barely fleshed out and considered the hardest character in the story to write.

In Stranger Things season 1, what birth name do Joyce and Hopper learn belonged to Eleven?

Jane is the daughter Terry Ives insisted was stolen from her at birth, although her family had been told that she lost the baby late in the pregnancy.

Which boy does Eleven hurl away from Mike with her mind during a fight in Stranger Things season 1?

Lucas mistrusts the newcomer after she secretly sabotages their search for the gate, yet it is he who later warns Mike that agents are closing in on the house.

Stranger Things season 1 was filmed mainly in and around which US city, with nearby Jackson as Hawkins?

Atlanta won out because a late autumn shoot made Long Island too cold, and the Duffers, raised in North Carolina, found the area reminded them of their own childhoods.

In Stranger Things season 1, where on the Byers property is Will hiding when the monster takes him?

In the family shed Will arms himself with a rifle as the bulb overhead flares, then he is gone. The bike he ditched on the road tells police he did not run away.

In Stranger Things season 1, which animal does Eleven refuse to harm with her mind, angering Brenner?

A cat is the one creature she will not hurt, and Brenner punishes her for the refusal in a flashback during the chapter titled Holly, Jolly.

Which actress earned an Emmy nomination for playing Barb in Stranger Things season 1, her first screen role?

Shannon Purser left a job at a movie theater to act, and fans who felt Barb had been forgotten built a campaign that shaped the opening of the following season.

In which Stranger Things season 1 chapter does Eleven find Barb dead and Will alive in the Upside Down?

The Bathtub is the seventh chapter, named for the homemade tank the group builds to boost Eleven's powers, and the one listed with Millie Bobby Brown's first Emmy nomination.

Which real Cold War government program did Eleven's mother join while pregnant in Stranger Things season 1?

Project MKUltra let the Duffers ground their monster in science rather than the spiritual, drawing on bizarre Cold War experiments they had read about.

In Stranger Things season 1, Hawkins National Laboratory is a secret facility of which arm of the US government?

Department of Energy staff at the lab use Eleven to track Russian spies and hope to turn the creatures of the Upside Down into weapons.

Which everyday instruments do the boys follow to hunt for the gate in Stranger Things season 1?

Compasses should be thrown off by a gate strong enough to disturb Earth's electromagnetic field, the boys reason, until a frightened Eleven turns the needles to lead them astray.

In Stranger Things season 1, which piece of school equipment does Eleven use to channel Will's voice?

A ham radio at the middle school carries Will speaking to his mother, at the very moment Joyce tears the wallpaper from her living room wall and sees him behind it.

Which Stranger Things season 1 teacher explains other dimensions using a flea and an acrobat on a tightrope?

Mr. Clarke says the acrobat can only walk forward or back along the rope while the flea can crawl round to its underside, planting the idea of a hidden world beside ours.

Which school bully's arm does Eleven break when he ambushes Mike and Dustin in Stranger Things season 1?

Troy and a sidekick had tried to kill Mike before Eleven stepped in, and it is the same boy who later tells Hopper that she is with the children.

Under which working title, the name of a Long Island town, was Stranger Things first developed?

Montauk gave way when the setting moved to an invented town; tales of secret government experiments at an Air Force station there had helped inspire the series.

Child actors auditioning for Stranger Things season 1 read lines from which 1980s coming-of-age film?

Stand by Me scenes served as the audition script for roughly a thousand child actors, and one of the boys was chosen after a single viewing of his tape.

A photo of which actress with a shaved head reassured Millie Bobby Brown before she played Eleven in Stranger Things?

Charlize Theron as Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road was the picture that won her over, after she and her parents feared the cut might cost her future roles.

Which Tolkien forest gives the boys their nickname for a wooded road in Stranger Things season 1?

Mirkwood is the dark forest of The Hobbit, and the boys' nickname marks the stretch of road where Will crashes his bike after a figure appears ahead of him.

In Stranger Things season 1, what took the life of Hopper's young daughter Sara years before the story?

Cancer killed Sara, and the memory of losing her haunts Hopper as he bargains with Brenner for the chance to bring another parent's child home.

Which haunted-house film did the Duffers cite as the inspiration for how Will contacts Joyce in Stranger Things?

Poltergeist showed the Duffers how an ordinary household object could carry something uncanny, and they staged such homages from memory rather than by rewatching the films.

Which honor did the Stranger Things season 1 cast win together for best ensemble in a drama series?

Screen Actors Guild Award night in 2017 brought the cast its ensemble win, while two of its actresses competed against each other for the individual drama prize.

In Stranger Things season 1, how do Nancy and Jonathan lure the Demogorgon to the Byers house?

They cut their hands because the Demogorgon hunts by scenting blood, a theory the pair had formed earlier while stockpiling weapons to kill it.

Which young Stranger Things actor's cleidocranial dysplasia was written into the character of Dustin?

Gaten Matarazzo first auditioned to play Mike, and he has since used his fame to raise money for oral surgeries for other people born with the condition.

In Stranger Things season 1, what does Hopper find hidden in his home that proves Joyce was right?

A microphone planted there shows Hopper he is being watched, since he wakes at home after the lab's guards knocked him out during his break-in.

The Stranger Things season 1 score was written by two members of which Texas synthesizer band?

Survive caught the Duffers' ear in the thriller The Guest, and one of the band's tracks backed the mock trailer that sold the series to Netflix.

Which filmmaker mentored the Duffer Brothers on Wayward Pines shortly before they created Stranger Things?

M. Night Shyamalan guided the brothers through episodes of the series after a producer admired their script for Hidden, and they came away feeling ready to run a show.

A copy of which Stephen King novel helped the Duffers settle the look of the Stranger Things title?

Firestarter, about a girl whose powers a ruthless government agency wants to harness, served as the model for the lettering, while the show's name echoes another King book.

Which family-film director helmed chapters three and four of Stranger Things season 1?

Shawn Levy bought the rights through his company 21 Laps after cable networks had rejected the script, then directed the chapters Holly, Jolly and The Body himself.

Which 2013 kidnapping thriller did the Duffers want to stretch over eight hours, sparking Stranger Things?

Prisoners follows a father's moral struggle after his daughter is taken, and the brothers added a child's point of view and a monster that could consume people.

Which 1970s typeface, familiar from Choose Your Own Adventure covers, spells out the Stranger Things title?

ITC Benguiat was a late request from the producers, which forced the title studio to rework close-up shots it had already built around other fonts.

Which weapon, built by Jonathan to fight the Demogorgon in Stranger Things season 1, became Steve's trademark?

A nail-studded bat passes to Steve, who turns up at the Byers house mid-fight meaning only to apologize, and his friends later know the weapon simply as The Bat.