Photo: COURTESY OF NETFLIX
From the start, Stranger Things has freely referenced elements of ’80s pop culture. Sometimes they’re simply used to establish where the series is in time. (If Mike’s singing Corey Hart’s “Never Surrender,” it must be 1985.) But sometimes they play a central role in the action, as with Max’s deep connection to Kate Bush, or they reflect and comment upon the events of the series. When the Hawkins boys dress up like little Ghostbusters, for instance, they may not realize they’re essentially playing similar roles in their own lives, but we do. And of course, Dungeons & Dragons has long served as a guiding force both for the characters and the show itself.
As the fifth and final season of Stranger Things kicks off, dark times have returned to Hawkins, Indiana. Darker than usual, even: After the explosive conclusion of Stranger Things 4, the town has (kind of understandably) been placed under quarantine. That doesn’t mean it has been totally cut off from the outside world, however. From its fashion to its snacks to its movie references, Hawkins remains very much a part of the 1980s, though older pop-culture items have played a more prominent role so far this season. Set in the fall of 1987, Stranger Things 5 leaps forward over a year in time from the end of Stranger Things 4, and while that’s not a huge jump, the new episodes contain plenty of references specific to that year alongside some golden oldies. To help parse which are simply of-the-moment Easter eggs and which may be this season’s “Running Up That Hill,” here’s an episode-by-episode guide (featuring lots of spoilers) to the pop culture that’s keeping our Hawkins crew connected to their right side up world.
Linda Hamilton As Dr. Kay
Starting with Winona Ryder, Stranger Things has made a habit of casting ’8os stars, often to play parts that contrast with the roles that made them famous. The quintessential late-’80s teen, Ryder here plays a fretful mom. A heartless scumbag in Aliens, Paul Reiser showed up as a sympathetic scientist. And so on. The casting of Linda Hamilton continues that trend. In the Terminator films, Hamilton played heroine Sarah Connor, a damsel in distress who becomes a hard-ass warrior. We haven’t yet seen enough of Dr. Kay to make any definitive judgment about the character, but she doesn’t seem eager to help the Stranger Things heroes. In fact, she appears to be the driving force behind all the reckless tampering being done to the Upside Down. Sarah Connor would almost certainly not approve.
A Wrinkle in Time / Mr. Whatsit
Madeleine L’Engle’s classic 1962 science-fiction-fantasy novel was rarely cited alongside Steven Spielberg, Stephen King, and others as a source of inspiration for Stranger Things until the Duffer Brothers dropped a pretty unmissable hint by titling this season’s forthcoming sixth episode “Escape From Camazotz,” a reference to a planet that plays a key role in the book. (Holly makes the connection even more clear in the fourth episode.) But the hints have been there all along: mysterious disappearances, travels through the fabric of space-time, dark forces that must be defeated by a family of heroes. The L’Engle influence is hard to miss once you start looking for it. Later, we learn Holly has named her imaginary friend — or more accurately, “imaginary” “friend” — Mr. Whatsit after Mrs. Whatsit, one of three mysterious figures who play key roles in the novel. (If you know only the 2018 Ava DuVernay film, she’s played by Reese Witherspoon.) Holly’s paperback edition was first published in 1976, and its striking cover will be instantly recognizable to readers of her generation. Yet the artist behind it remained a mystery until a few years ago when the Boston public-radio station WBUR’s Endless Thread, with the help of Adam Rowe, author of the Retro Sci-Fi Art newsletter, identified it as the work of prolific commercial artist Richard Bober.
The Fall
John Coltrane, A Love Supreme
Jonathan Byers’s love of punk and alternative music has factored into the series from the first episode. That he’s wearing a Fall T-shirt suggests he hasn’t lost his taste for the cutting edge. Formed in 1976 and hailing from Manchester, England, the Fall was essentially singer Mark E. Smith and whoever was playing with him at any given moment, though some lineups lasted longer than others over the group’s 42-year existence. While often lumped in with punk, the Fall experimented with multiple styles over the years, with Smith’s biting wit and inimitable delivery serving as constants. If Jonathan likes the Fall’s willingness to experiment and push beyond long-established musical boundaries, Murray is correct in suspecting he’ll love John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, the 1965 release that was the saxophonist’s crowning accomplishment (though most editions do not include the bonus material revealed in the show’s third episode).
Robin’s “Beam Me Up, This Place Sucks!” Sweatshirt
Robin’s shirt is, of course, a reference to Star Trek, a ’60s show that was still very much in the conversation throughout the 1980s thanks to syndicated reruns; a film series (whose then-most-recent outing, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, premiered in the summer of 1986); and Star Trek: The Next Generation, which debuted just a few weeks before the events of this episode. Robin’s being a fan makes perfect sense, as does this sarcastic shirt. Its design seems original to Stranger Things (you can even buy your own in the Netflix store), but variations like “Beam me up, Scotty. There’s no intelligent life down here!” have commonly been found on unlicensed merchandise for decades.
The Psychedelic Furs, “Pretty in Pink”
Michael Jackson, “Rockin’ Robin”
The Clash, “Should I Stay or Should I Go”
Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill”
Diana Ross, “Upside Down”
Is WSQK an oldies station? Despite being staffed by high-school students and recent grads, Hawkins’s local doesn’t seem too interested in playing the hits of the day. The Psychedelic Furs’ “Pretty in Pink” is the most recent song on its playlist (at least that we hear). Recorded in 1981, it got a second life when John Hughes borrowed both the title and a newly rerecorded version of the song for his 1986 film of the same name. This helps explain why Robin sends it out to her sweetheart, Vickie (Amybeth McNulty), and why Vickie is styled to resemble Molly Ringwald.
Robin also plays Michael Jackson’s 1972 cover of “Rockin’ Robin,” a hit for singer Bobby Day in 1958. The track provides both Robin’s DJ name and her theme song, though she’s not the first Stranger Things character to get a song of their own. The opening scene serves as a reminder of the role played by the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go” in the lives of the Byers boys, and Lucas’s bedside vigil for Max finds him playing Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” on repeat. (It’s a great song, but isn’t it possible that even those in a coma could get sick of hearing it after a while?)
Finally, Stranger Things probably deserves some credit for waiting this long to feature Diana Ross’s “Upside Down,” a last-days-of-disco hit written by Chic’s Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards that topped the charts in September 1980 and soundtracks the closing credits of this episode. It came out after Ross starred 1978’s The Wiz, Sidney Lumet’s film version of the Broadway musical that transplanted The Wizard of Oz to an urban setting. Robin is correct in calling the movie a “flop-a-rooni”; Hollywood used its dismal box-office performance to dramatically dial back the production of films with Black talent for years. But The Wiz wasn’t Ross’s first big-screen venture. She’d previously starred in the Billie Holiday biopic Lady Sings the Blues and the 1975 drama Mahogany.
Lucas’s Hi-Top Fade
In case you’d forgotten the Stranger Things timeline has moved into the late 1980s, check out Lucas’s hair. He was a little ahead of the curve last season when he started sporting the short-on-the-sides, tall-on-top hairstyle synonymous with late-’80s hip-hop and is still something of an early adopter in 1987 — the style’s high-water mark was 1988, when it figured prominently in music videos by, among others, Big Daddy Kane and Kid ’N Play (though as a budding basketball star, Lucas might also have been looking to the late-’80s NBA for inspiration). It’s a bold choice but one that makes sense: The events of Stranger Things have emboldened our heroes to stop caring what everyone else thinks and to be themselves, some by antagonizing bullies, others by trying on mold-breaking new looks.
Coca-Cola Classic
In 1985, the Coca-Cola Company introduced a new formula that proved famously unpopular. “New Coke” figured into Stranger Things’s third season (which inspired a brief revival), but it took only three months in real life for the old Coke to return as the rebranded Coca-Cola Classic, the name seen on the can in this episode.
Jake the Snake
The season premiere introduces an ill-fated snake named Jake. While it’s possible that he’s just called Jake because the name rhymes with snake, it seems highly likely that Jake is named for Jake “the Snake” Roberts, a wrestler then enjoying his first wave of popularity after making a splashy WWF debut in 1986. As his nickname suggests, Roberts made a trademark of bringing snakes to his matches. Though retired as a performer, Roberts remains active in the wrestling world despite a series of health problems.
Rainbow Brite
Holly’s room is filled with items designed to appeal to ’80s girls, including images of the Care Bears and a poster for Don Bluth’s 1986 animated feature An American Tail. That Holly also likes Rainbow Brite, a Hallmark-created franchise that debuted in 1984, doesn’t seem especially surprising or even all that relevant. But hold on a second: What’s the premise of Rainbow Brite, again? As depicted in the animated 1984 prime-time special Peril in the Pits, it concerns a cheerful, colorfully attired girl named Rainbow Brite whose adventures take her to a dark underground land called “the Pits” (a place where things are kind of upside down, if you will). Is this foreshadowing? Is there any chance Holly will befriend a flying horse this season?
ABBA, “Fernando”
ABBA’s 1976 hit, which plays as the Demogorgon invades the Wheeler house, recounts a conversation between two aging revolutionaries as they recall a decisive battle. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to connect its lyrics to the events of Stranger Things 5, which has already started to feel like Hawkins’s Last Stand. But that’s in the song’s English- and Spanish-language versions: The original Swedish lyrics are about a lovelorn guy named Fernando. Since ABBA is sort of active again, maybe the group can rework the words once more for the show. Can you hear the Eggos, El-ando? That doesn’t quite work, does it?
Peanut Butter Boppers
Gone but not forgotten, these lunchbox-friendly snacks were essentially globs of peanut butter rolled into tubes and surrounded by candy. (Its crunchy-on-the-outside, gooey-on-the-inside structure will later provide a crucial bit of inspiration for Steve.) Yet because they were marketed as wholesome snacks by Nature Valley, they didn’t seem like junk food despite varieties with names like Fudge Chip and Cookie Crunch. Though an immediate hit, Peanut Butter Boppers didn’t survive past the ’80s, though Nature Valley’s site includes a recipe that empowers nostalgic snackers to make their own. Their inclusion here doubles as an homage to Joel Schumacher’s 1987 film The Lost Boys, in which they also make an appearance.
Flux Capacitor
To work a scheme of their own, Robin and Will exploit Joyce having been too busy for the past few years repeatedly saving her family/the world from the dark forces of the Upside Down to take the time to watch the 1985 blockbuster Back to the Future. Come on, Joyce. Priorities! Thankfully, she still has two years to catch up before the release of Back to the Future Part II in 1989, and though we’ve yet to see it this season, Hawkins’s Family Video is presumably still in operation. In fact, the chain hung in there longer than most video stores. It was ultimately undone by the COVID-19 lockdown and shuttered its last outpost in 2021.
Lowrey’s Beef Jerky
These days, beef jerky mostly comes in plastic bags, but it wasn’t always so, as Hopper’s can of Upside Down survival snacks reminds us. Though less ubiquitous now than in 1987, Lowrey’s still sells jerky in cylindrical packages that resemble those used for tennis balls, though the packaging has changed.
Play-Doh Creepies
Despite the name, there’s nothing particularly creepy about Play-Doh Creepies. The sets provided molds kids could use to create little reptilelike animals (or, as the packaging dubbed them, “colorful critters”). Still, the inclusion of Creepies may not be accidental — we don’t yet know what Dr. Kay is up to, and we’ve certainly seen the Upside Down spit out its fair share of weird beasts over the years.
Tiffany, “I Think We’re Alone Now”
Holly wasn’t alone in loving Tiffany in 1987. Born Tiffany Darwish in Norwalk, California, Tiffany attempted to break into country music and appeared on Star Search before recording her eponymous first album at the age of 14. Released in June 1987, Tiffany’s first single, “Danny,” stiffed, but the unusual gambit of touring shopping malls from coast to coast helped turn the album’s second single into an inescapable hit. A cover of Tommy James and the Shondells’s 1967 hit “I Think We’re Alone Now” made Tiffany a star thanks in part to a squeaky-clean, parent-friendly image that offset the song’s slightly naughty lyrics. (Though in this context, lines like “There doesn’t seem to be anyone around” take on a more sinister cast.) Changing tastes, legal squabbles, and the poorly received 1989 follow-up, Hold an Old Friend’s Hand, made Tiffany’s moment at the top short-lived, but she’s still hanging in there, continuing to record and tour while taking the occasional acting role and reality-show appearance.
David Bowie’s READ Poster
In 1985, the American Library Association kicked off its popular ongoing Celebrity READ Campaign, a series of posters featuring famous faces encouraging kids (and everyone else) to read books. The first READ poster featured Bill Cosby, but Stranger Things has opted to spotlight a less problematic star: David Bowie. Issued in 1987, the poster finds a barefoot Bowie dressed in a letterman jacket and reading Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. Bowie was an avid reader and his list of 100 favorite books features an eclectic mix of fiction and nonfiction including everyone from Dante to Fran Lebowitz. Dostoevsky, however, didn’t make the cut.
Garbage Pail Kids
G.I. Joe
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure
Masters of the Universe
Transformers
Derek Turnbow’s room doubles as a dumping ground of ’80s pop-culture items — it’s almost as if the show’s production designers used it to squeeze in all the references that wouldn’t fit into the rest of the show. Or maybe it’s not; maybe every item could reflect another aspect of the series. What are the wildly popular, controversially tasteless Garbage Pail Kids if not Cabbage Patch Kids from the Upside Down? Who are our heroes if not scrappy G.I. Joes standing up to Vecna’s Cobra Commander? (The key role played by Derek’s G.I. Joe lunchbox in the fourth episode only underlines this.) Along with G.I. Joe, both Transformers and Masters of the Universe were media properties that began as toy lines; like Holly’s beloved Care Bears and Rainbow Brite, they benefited from Reagan-era deregulation of the FTC that allowed the once-solid boundaries between programming and advertising to get extremely blurry. The Pee-wee’s Big Adventure poster suggests Derek has good taste but also brings to mind Pee-wee’s rival, Francis (Mark Holton), another rich boy with all the toys money can buy.
Ghosts ’n Goblins
Hang-On
Derek’s room also includes an abundance of video games. He can be seen enjoying Ghosts ’n Goblins, the first entry in an ongoing franchise in which characters in a fantasy kingdom have to defeat a variety of, well, ghosts ’n goblins (and other foes). One lucky (or spoiled, depending on your outlook) first-generation gamer, Derek even has a full-size arcade game in his room: Hang-On, a 1985 racing game from Sega. Notable for its 16-bit graphics, it was part of the first wave of titles that would help the industry recover from its 1983 downturn.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
The gang’s booby-trapping of the Turnbow house may at first seem like an anachronistic homage to Home Alone, which wouldn’t hit theaters for another three years. It’s not: Stranger Things has been laying the groundwork for this moment from the start by dubbing one of its heroines Nancy, a name she shares with the protagonist of Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street. Stranger Things owes quite a bit to Craven’s film, a debt the show tacitly acknowledged by bringing in Robert Englund, who originated the role of the dream-invading serial killer Freddy Krueger, for a part in the fourth season. In the film, Nancy outwits Krueger by drawing him into the real world, where he encounters a series of obstacles she learned to make after checking out a book titled Booby Traps & Improvised Anti-Personnel Devices from the local library. (Bowie would undoubtedly have approved.)
Tom Waits
As an experienced Midwesterner, Robin knows to dress in layers when the seasons change, so beneath her Star Trek–inspired sweatshirt she sports a Tom Waits tee. Waits had been around since the early ’70s and quickly won fans with his Beat-inspired songs of life on the scuzzy side delivered in a raspy voice. In the ’80s, Waits started to take his music in a more experimental direction with a string of classic albums that included Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, and, in the Stranger Things 5 year of 1987, Frank’s Wild Years. Robin seems like she’d be a big Tom Waits fan. In real life, Maya Hawke’s co-star Winona Ryder is a big Waits fan, even wearing her own T-shirt featuring him for her recent Hot Ones appearance.
The Sword in the Stone
Not expecting the military police to show up and take their daughter away, the Miller family is enjoying a quiet night watching The Sword in the Stone, a 1963 Disney film that had just hit home video in 1986. One of its most famous scenes is a duel between two wizards, which seems relevant to this episode’s climactic moments.
Walden Two, by B.F. Skinner
Max’s cave refuge contains a variety of knickknacks assembled seemingly at random and a copy of Walden Two, a science-fiction novel in which the psychologist B.F. Skinner depicted his idea of a utopian community. This seems to be there mostly to confirm, as she insists to Holly, that Max is living in a prison. Nobody reads Walden Two by choice.
The Chords, “Sh-Boom (Life Could Be a Dream)”
Max begins her tour of 1959 Hawkins accompanied by the Chords’ 1954 doo-wop hit “Sh-Boom.” Like most doo-wop classics, it serves as easy shorthand to say, “Hey, it’s the 1950s!” But the whole “Life could be a dream” element takes on added meaning given Max’s current situation.
The Great Escape
Not only does Robin have great taste in music, her knowledge of classic film allows her to help dream up a plan to rescue Hawkins’s imprisoned children. (All that time in the video store apparently paid off.) Released in 1963, the John Sturges–directed The Great Escape features a star-studded cast led by Steve McQueen that includes James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Coburn, and Donald Pleasence. They play inmates of a World War II P.O.W. camp who hatch an elaborate breakout plan involving, as Robin describes it, a system of tunnels. To drive the point home, this episode’s soundtrack features a snippet from Elmer Bernstein’s catchy theme song.
