(498) In a 2017 Stranger Things video game, Max has telekinetic powers. This led to a few fan conspiracy theories but - thus far - Max has shown no evidence of having telekinetic abilities in the television show.
(499) In the first episode of Stranger Things, Hopper tells Joyce that Hawkins a place where nothing happens and that the biggest crisis in recent years came when a bird landed on Eleanor Gillespie's head. Eleanor is the name of a minor character in the Silent Hill franchise while Alessa Gillespie is a major character in Silent Hill.
(500) Linnea Berthelse had only appeared in short films when she was cast as Kali.
(501) Technology buffs think that Hopper's season one Motorola walkie-talkie is not period accurate.
(502) The scenes where Eleven is in the lab's sensory deprivation water chamber in season one are clearly very inspired by Anna Torv's character entering a sensory deprivation water tank for scientists in the Fox TV show Fringe.
(503) The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is sometimes cited as an influence on the Upside Down in that it featured murky textures and dust like snow. The murky areas of Metroid Prime 2 were also judged an influence on the Upside Down by some gamers.
(504) The dummy of Will Byers in season one was by Justin Raleigh. Raleigh is an expert in prosthetics and has supplied realistic dummies to hospitals for surgeon training.
(505) The titles for Stranger Things are heavily inspired by the title sequence for The Terminator.
(506) The Duffers played a prank on Noah Schnapp's mother with Justin Raleigh's Will Byers dummy. Luckily, she saw the funny side.
(507) The release date for the first season was a close run thing because the digital special effects were only completed with days to spare.
(508) The Duffers naturally spent a lot of time watching and thinking about their favourite movie sequels in preparation for writing Stranger Things 2.
(509) The first scene ever shot for Stranger Things was the first scene you see in the show - the Dungeons & Dragons game in Mike's basement.
(510) There is a biology goof in season two that you would have to be very smart to notice. Dustin thinks Dart might be a frog and, after some research, suggests Indirana semipalmata. However, this genus of frogs was only discovered in 1986.
(511) In the first episode of Stranger Things you see a bus that was only introduced in the 1990s. You'd have to be a keen bus spotter to spot that mistake.
(512) When Stranger Things 2 was gearing up for production, the Duffers were constantly asked if Barb Holland would be making a return to the show. Although it would probably have been possible to find some science fiction way to resurrect Barb in the writer's room, the Duffers and Shawn Levy were never seriously tempted to do this.
(513) The yet to be discovered elements in the school's periodic table you see in season two are Ununtrium (Uut), Darmstadtium (Ds), Roentgenium (Rg), Copernicium (Cn), Flerovium (Fl), Ununpentium (Uup), Livermorium (Lv), Ununseptium (Uus) and Ununoctium (Uuo).
(514) In Stranger Things 2, Dustin wears a t-shirt with periodic elements. In contrast to the periodic table in the school classroom, Dustin's t-shirt is period accurate and contains elements that were all known in 1984.
(515) The CPR Hopper performs on Will in the season one finale was, according to medical experts, not especially accurate.
(516) Steve Harrington seems to take at least one pounding in each season. In season one he was beaten up by Jonathan, in season two he was beaten up by Billy, and in season three he is beaten up by the Russians.
(517) There was a lot of speculation that Bob Newby was going to be a villain in Stranger Things 2. This obviously wasn't the case though.
(518) The swoosh of the titles at the end of the Stranger Things title sequence was inspired by the film Bullit.
(519) The Stranger Things theme may have been partly inspired by the second song on the Tron: Legacy soundtrack by Daft Punk.
(520) There was a slight battle between Netflix and the Duffers on Stranger Things 2 when it came to swearing. Netflix wanted to do alternative takes of the scenes where the kids swear so that bad language was very minimal. The kids in the cast hated this idea because they thought scenes were much funnier with a few stray cuss words by their characters. The Duffers also preferred the takes with the odd cuss word so in the end Netflix conceded.
(521) The Duffers say the young cast members in Stranger Things swear much more away from the camera than they do on the show.
(522) Joe Keery said that before Stranger Things he clocked up at least one hundred rejected auditions in his attempts to find work as an actor.
(523) The character of Kali in Stranger Things 2 was initially going to be a thirtysomething man named Roman.
(524) Millie Bobby Brown said her dream role would be a young Princess Leia.
(525) The Palace Arcade was a renovated laundromat located on 6500 Church Street in Douglasville, Georgia.
(526) The police cars at the start of Stranger Things 2 have 1987 headlights.
(527) Hopper wears the headband of his late daughter Sarah on his wrist in seasons one and two. At the end of season two we see that Eleven now wears Sarah's headband on her wrist.
(528) The (tongue-in-cheek) Justice for Barb movement derived from the perception that while everyone in Hawkins seemed to be searching for Will Byers, no one seemed to be searching for Barb - except for Nancy. The Duffers explained this contrast by reminding fans that, in the time span of Stranger Things, Barb hadn't been missing for very long at all and she was also a teenager. A teenager spending a night or two away from home would probably not create as much panic as a small child who had been missing for longer.
(529) One of the many films which influenced Stranger Things was Altered States. This is a 1980 film starring William Hurt as a scientist who subjects himself to sensory deprivation experiments.
(530) It was Shawn Levy's idea to use Peter Gabriel's cover of David Bowie's Heroes in Holly Jolly.
(531) Millie Bobby Brown said she would seek sanctuary in Winona Ryder's trailer when the boys got too annoying during the production of season one.
(532) Asked to name the scene they love the most in season one, the Duffers chose the opening to the start of The Flea and the Acrobat.
(533) When they pitched their concept for the show, the Duffers edited a fake trailer composed of classic movies. "To test-drive the concept, we threw together a quick mock-trailer for the show, editing together clips from more than 25 classic films. We then scored this fake trailer with John Carpenter music, using some of our favourite songs from The Fog to Escape From New York. As soon as we heard John Carpenter's eerie synth drones play over shots from E.T., we got major goosebumps. It worked, big time."
(534) David Harbour didn't like the ending of The Body having Hopper about to cut into the fence to break into the lab. He thought this made for a lame cliff-hanger. The Duffers told him though that with music and sound effects it would be a very dramatic ending.
(535) The Duffers were full of praise for Millie Bobby Brown after her performance in season one. "Millie's something special, alright, with a downright spooky preternatural talent. She inhabits every moment so intensely, with some alchemy of intelligence, preparation, and instinct. By the end of production, we found ourselves listening to Millie as if she were one of our most seasoned adult actors."
(536) The 1987 Clive Barker movie Hellraiser was a big influence on the Duffers because it showed how atmospheric and effective practical effects could be. Barker's horror fiction was an influence too.
(537) The season one Demogorgon was constructed by Spectral Motion. Spectral Motion did monster designs on Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy films.
(538) In the season one finale, Eleven is exhausted after dispatching the agents in the corridor and has to be carried by Dustin. In the script it is Mike who carries Eleven but Finn Wolfhard found it too difficult to run and carry Millie Bobby Brown at the same time. Gaten Matarazzo had no such trouble.
(539) The bicycle chase scene in season one reveals that Hawkins has an Elm Street.
(540) Dustin has a certificate of Anti-Paranormal Proficiency in season two. He is plainly a member of the Ghostbusters fan club.
(541) When the soldiers venture into the Upside Down tunnel in season two, one of them says 'stay frosty'. This is a line Michael Biehn has as Corporal Hicks in Aliens.
(542) Millie Bobby Brown said she had to do several auditions before she got the part of Eleven.
(543) The Duffers said they enjoy making Stranger Things in Georgia because many areas remind them of North Carolina - where they grew up.
(544) There was a deleted scene in season one where Eleven, while exploring the Wheeler house, reads some of Nancy's diary.
(545) In response to the fairly critical reception to The Lost Sister in season two, Matt Duffer said - "It's important for Ross and I to try stuff and not feel like we're doing the same thing over and over again. It's almost like doing a whole little other pilot episode in the middle of your season, which is kind of a crazy thing to do. But it was really fun to write and cast and work on."
(546) In the season two episode The Lost Sister there are is an article pinned on a wall concerning Ray Carroll (the former lab employee targeted by Kali). The actual text of the article reads - 'Long...
