The Complete List Of Movies Referenced On ‘Stranger Things’ Includes Some Post-1980s Surprises

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It’s no secret that Stranger Things loves a good homage. Think: Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will dressing up as Ghostbusters for Halloween, or Nancy Wheeler being named after Nancy Thompson from A Nightmare on Elm Street, or Dustin and Suzie singing “The NeverEnding Story” in the season three finale. It can be hard keeping track of all the references, but the show’s creators are here to help. Matt and Ross Duffer, better known as the Duffer Brothers, revealed to Wired every movie that has been referenced through the first three seasons of Stranger Things. It will not surprise you to learn that Gremlins made the cut:

Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)
Altered States (1980)
Carrie (1976)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Cujo (1983)
E.T. (1982)
Escape from New York (1981)
Firestarter (1984)
Frankenstein (1931)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Gremlins (1984)
Indiana Jones (all of them)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
It (1990)
Jaws (1975)
John Hughes’ filmography
Jurassic Park (1993)
Mad Max (1979)
Risky Business (1983)
Scanners (1981)
Stand By Me (1986)
Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Super 8 (2011)
The Evil Dead (1981)
The Exorcist (1973)
The Thing (1982)

Most of the referenced films were released in the 1970s and 1980s, which makes sense considering Stranger Things takes place in the 1980s, not that you’d be able to tell by the music, or the fashion, or the hairstyles, or the mall, or… But there are some post-Ronald Reagan selections, too, like Jurassic Park (season two, when Bob has to re-set the power, like Laura Dern in the dinosaur film) and J.J. Abrams’ early 2010s homage to Steven Spielberg, Super 8.

I’m beginning to think the Duffers like this Steven Spielberg fellow.

(Via Wired)

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