Let’s be honest, Stranger Things is one of the best new franchises of the decade. Sure, it’s not revolutionary, but it does everything astonishingly well, especially when it comes to paying tribute to its sources like Goonies, E.T., Stephen King’s novels, and a whole bunch of other awesome pop-cultural gems.
Whether you enjoyed the series or not, you gotta admit the Duffer brothers have a great sense of style, and can hide those Easter eggs like it’s nobody’s business. So, here are 17 coolest details you’ve probably missed in Stranger Things 2!
1. In the Arcade you can see several actual games: Dig Dug, Centipede and Dragon’s Lair.
2. The guys first learn about Max from her high score in the leaderboards in Dig Dug (where she calls herself MADMAX). In case you didn’t know, that nickname refers to the film of the same name.
3. Will says that his favorite sweets are «Reese’s Pieces», which previously appeared in “E.T.” in 1982.
4. Bob was played by the actor Sean Astin, best known for his role as Sam in The Lord of the Rings (2002) and Micky Walsh in The Goonies (1985).
5. The scene, where Will sees the Upside Down in his doorway, looks almost identical to the scene from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977).
6. At the Halloween party you can see such costumes: Madonna from “Like a Virgin” (1984), Alex Owens from “Flashdance” (1983), Rocky from the 1976 film of the same name, Johnny from Karate Kid (1984), 1975 Wonder Woman and Bluto from the “National Lampoon’s Animal House” (1978).
7. Steve Harrington is dressed as Tom Cruise from the movie “Risky Business” (1983).
8. When Eleven asks Hopper to let her go trick-or-treating, she dresses up as a ghost and approaches Jim from behind in the same way as Winona Ryder’s character in the 1988 “Beatlejuice” movie. In addition, in “E.T.” children dressed the alien in the same ghost costume, to hide him from the people.
9. Dustin’s cat did not like the polliwog. This might be a reference to the 1979 “Alien” movie, where the cat reacted aggressively to the presence of the xenomorph.
10. Bob’s words about Will’s drawings being a treasure map is a direct reference to “Goonies”, one of Sean Astin’s best movies.
11. The scene where Steve is attacked by demodogs resembles a similar scene with velociraptors from the Jurassic Park (1993).
12. In the episode where Eleven finds a person who has experimented on her and other children, she uses her telekinesis in the same way as Darth Vader did in the famous force choke scene from Star Wars.
13. When a rude dude runs into Eleven, she calls him a “mouth-breather”. This is the phrase she learned from Mike in the first season.
14. In the warehouse where Kali and her gang are hanging out, you can see the word “BARBELITH”. This is a reference to Grant Morrison’s comic book The Invisibles. There is also graffiti with mention of several characters of this comic: King Mob and O’Bedlam.
15. The scene where the scientists look at the screens and see the red dots move in at the soldiers, refers to the “Alien” movie.
16. Nancy expels the monster from Will in the same way as Indiana Jones did from his friend in the movie “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”.
17. And finally, when Eleven used her maximum overdrive at the end, surrounded by fire, she looked a lot like Jean Gray from the Dark Phoenix comics.
