What is the story of Stranger Things? The pitch, the characters and the plot explained simply
Guide · The story · For beginners
A small American town in 1983, a boy who vanishes, a girl with powers who comes out of a lab, and an upside-down world under everyone's feet. That is the story of the show, and it holds in one sentence. The rest is children growing up while living it. Here is the story explained simply, for those who have never seen an episode.
The essentials
- The place: Hawkins, a small town in Indiana
- The starting point: the disappearance of Will Byers, November 6, 1983
- The key: Eleven, a girl raised in a lab for her powers
- The world: the Upside Down, a dark copy of the town, populated by creatures
Contents
The pitch
In a small town in Indiana, in November 1983, a twelve-year-old boy vanishes on his way home from his friends'. His mother swears he talks to her through the lights. His three buddies, searching for him in the woods, come upon a girl with a shaved head who moves objects with her mind. She escaped from a lab where they were running experiments on her, and those experiments opened a gate to another world. The boy is on the other side.
It is the starting point. Everything that follows, for five seasons, comes from it.
The Will Byers T-shirt, the starting point.
In the shopMen's 3/4-sleeve baseball Will Byers T-shirt44,90 €See the product
The characters, in one line each
| Character | Who it is |
|---|---|
| Will Byers | The missing boy; he stays tied to the other world |
| Eleven | The girl from the lab, with powers, tattooed 011 |
| Mike, Dustin, Lucas | Will's three friends, Dungeons and Dragons players |
| Max | The newcomer, arrived in 1984, on a skateboard |
| Joyce Byers | Will's mother, who believes before anyone else |
| Jim Hopper | The police chief, who ends up believing |
| Nancy and Jonathan | Mike's older sister and Will's older brother |
| Steve and Robin | The pretty boy become a babysitter, and his best friend |
| Brenner | The scientist who raised Eleven, “Papa” |
| Henry Creel | The lab's first child, become the master of the other world |
The two worlds
There is the town, with its middle school, its lab, its woods, its mall, its 80s rebuilt down to the last detail. And there is the Upside Down: the same town, in black, covered in spores, frozen in the cold, populated by creatures the children name after their role-playing game: the Demogorgon, the demodogs, the Mind Flayer. Between the two, gates, which the lab opened and which the group spends five seasons closing.
Why the 80sThe show is written by two brothers born in 1984, raised on Spielberg, Stephen King and John Carpenter. The period is not a backdrop: it is the world where kids went out on bikes without a phone, and a secret lab could sit in a forest.
The through-line of the five seasons
Each season is a year and a monster. 1983: the Demogorgon, and Will's return. 1984: the Mind Flayer, which possesses Will, and the gate closed. 1985: the same Mind Flayer, in the body of a teenager, and a mall on fire. 1986: a wizard, Vecna, who kills at a distance, and who turns out to be the first child of the lab. 1987: the town under quarantine, a war, and the ending.
The hidden thread, revealed late, is that all these monsters have the same origin: Henry Creel, thrown into the Upside Down by Eleven when she was a child, and an entity older than him, freed by a lab that did not understand what it was doing.
What it really tells
Under the monsters, a story of friendship and growing up: twelve-year-olds who become adults in six years, a single mother who never gives up, a broken cop who becomes a father again, a girl with no name who learns the word "friend." The creatures change; what does not change is that nobody is left behind. That is why the show lasted nine years.
The Eleven figure, the key to the story.
In the shopLego Will Byers mini figure on a bike14,90 €See the product
The story, season by season, in five paragraphs
Season 1, November 1983: Will Byers vanishes on the road to his house; his mother Joyce looks for him through the lights, his friends Mike, Dustin and Lucas take in a little girl with a shaved head, Eleven, escaped from a lab, and police chief Hopper discovers that this lab has opened a gate to a parallel world, the Upside Down, from which a monster comes. Will is saved; Eleven vanishes by destroying the monster.
Season 2, fall 1984: Will is possessed by a giant shadow from the Upside Down, a pack of creatures grows under the town, Eleven hides at Hopper's and finds her mother then her sister Kali. The group frees Will with heat and Eleven closes the gate. Season 3, summer 1985: a mall, Russians who reopen the gate, a former bully, Billy, possessed, and a flesh monster defeated on July 4; Hopper vanishes, the Byers and Eleven leave town.
Season 4, March 1986: a killer from the Upside Down, Vecna, murders teenagers through their guilt. We discover he is Henry Creel, the first child of the lab, exiled by Eleven in 1979. Hopper is found in Russia, Max dies for a minute, four rifts open. Season 5, November 1987: Hawkins under quarantine, kidnapped children, Will who discovers his power, the destruction of the Upside Down and Eleven's choice, then a spring of 1989 where each of them turns the page.
What the story tells, under the monsters
Under the science fiction, the show tells three things. First friendship as the only weapon: each season, it is children who understand before the adults, and adults who end up believing them. Then grief and guilt: Hopper has lost his daughter, Max her brother, Will his childhood, and Vecna, in 1986, kills precisely through guilt. Finally difference: Eleven, Will, Robin, Eddie, all those the town looks at sideways are the ones who save it.
The Duffers said they wanted, for the last chapter, an ending that leaves a feeling of satisfaction rather than a bloodbath. Mike's theory about Eleven's fate, which the group chooses to believe, sums up the spirit of the story: what you decide to believe, together, is as good as proof.
Where to start, if you have seen nothing
Through the first episode, without reading anything else. It runs under an hour, does not show the monster, and already contains everything: the Dungeons & Dragons game, the lab, the disappearance, the girl in the rain. If the episode lands, season 1 watches in a weekend; if season 1 lands, the rest follows.
You only need to know that the show changes scale over time. The first three seasons are monster movies in eight chapters; the last two are sagas of ten to thirteen hours, darker, longer, with episodes the size of a film. It is the same story, told by people who grew up telling it.
The Season 1 poster.
In the shop44 mm pin, Will's drawing9,90 €See the product
TakeawayA missing boy, a girl with powers, a world upside down. Each season: one year, one monster. All the monsters have the same origin: Henry Creel. Under the monsters, a story of friendship.
Frequently asked questions
What is the story of Stranger Things?
A boy disappears in a small town in 1983, his friends meet a girl with powers escaped from a laboratory, and they discover an upside-down world under the town, from which creatures come. Five seasons to close what the laboratory opened.
What is the Upside Down?
A dark copy of the town, frozen and covered in spores, peopled with creatures, linked to our world by gates.
Who is the villain of the story?
Henry Creel, the first child of the lab, become the master of the Upside Down, and the older entity he carries.
Do you have to like horror to watch?
No: the show is scary at times, but it is first of all a story of friendship and of children growing up, in the 80s.
How much time does the whole story cover?
From November 1983 to spring 1989, with returns to 1959 and 1979 for Henry Creel's origin.
What is the show's main theme?
Friendship as the only weapon against fear, grief, and guilt, and the revenge of those the town looks at sideways.