Stranger Things plot holes: the mistakes, anachronisms, and story gaps spotted by fans
Guide · Inconsistencies · Anachronisms
Nine years of filming, six years of story, actors who grow faster than their characters: the show has holes, and the fans have found them all. Some are mistakes, others are choices, and a few were repaired by the ending. Here are the most discussed plot holes, sorted.
The essentials
- The most visible: the ages: twelve in 1983, sixteen in 1987, played by actors of twenty-two
- The most debated: the Upside Down frozen on November 6, 1983
- The most corrected: Season 5 explains the 1983 gate
- The most fun: anachronisms of music and objects
Contents
The ages that do not add up
The biggest plot hole is a choice: the show filmed from 2015 to 2024, and the story runs from 1983 to 1987. The actors aged nine years, the characters four, and the last season jumps eighteen months to close part of the gap. Result: sixteen-year-old high schoolers played by twenty-two-year-old adults, and a Will supposed to be fifteen in 1986 who looks twenty. The show owns it, and the fans ended up accepting it.
The Hawkins T-shirt, the town of the details.
In the shopKids' black Hawkins bikes T-shirt24,90 €See the product
The Upside Down frozen on November 6, 1983
Season 4 reveals that the Upside Down is a copy of the town frozen on the day of Will's disappearance. Yet Season 1 showed Joyce and Hopper finding the upside-down version of Will's fort there, and Season 2 tunnels under fields planted after 1983. Fans spotted the contradiction; Season 5 answers it in part: Henry has been shaping the Upside Down since 1979, and what the group sees there depends on what he does with it. Not a mistake, a rule learned late.
| Inconsistency noted | Error or choice? | What the show says about it |
|---|---|---|
| The actors' ages | Choice | An eighteen-month jump in season 5 |
| The Upside Down frozen in 1983 | Late choice | Henry models it; the rule is revealed in season 4 |
| The 1983 gate | Gap, filled | Season 5 shows the creature carrying Will to Henry that night |
| Eleven's powers that come and go | Choice | Lost to a bite, found again through a memory |
| Hopper surviving the explosion | Admitted gap | A hatch, explained in season 4 |
| The songs that are too recent | Mistakes | A few titles released after the date of the scene |
The 1983 gate, finally explained
Why did the Demogorgon take Will and not someone else? Why did it keep him alive a week, when it was killing the others? For nine years, the question stayed unanswered. The first episode of season 5 settles it: that November night in 1983, it was not the creature that found Will, it was Henry, and he chose him. The oldest hole in the show was filled by its last season.
What stays unansweredHow does Hopper survive the explosion under the mall? A hatch, Season 4 says, without showing it. How does Eleven get out of the Upside Down in 1983? Through a gate in the woods, Season 2 says, and no more. The show has always preferred to move on.
The anachronisms
Detail fans have drawn up the list: songs heard a few months before their real release, cereal brands with packaging that is too recent, a console in a window before its date, expressions nobody said in 1985. Nothing that changes the story, everything that amuses: the show rebuilds the 80s with so much care that the slightest slip shows.
What to make of it
A show that lasts nine years with children cannot be coherent to the minute. What matters is that its rules hold at the end: the hive, the gates, Henry, the entity. They hold. The rest, the ages and the songs, is part of the pleasure of rewatching.
The Will figure, the first gap filled.
In the shopSet of 16 figures, the Hawkins party74,90 €See the product
Will's birthday, and the “George Lucas-ing”
The most famous case is an oversight. Season 2 sets Will's birth date as March 22. Yet a Season 4 episode takes place on March 22, 1986, and none of his friends, nor his mother, wish him a happy birthday. Viewers spotted it from the release. The Duffers answered with humor that they could change the date in Season 2, talking of “George Lucas-ing the situation,” a reference to the retouches George Lucas made to the first Star Wars trilogy.
The joke had a side effect: some people thought scenes from the first seasons had been recut, including the one where Jonathan photographs the party at Steve's. The writers' room had to specify that no scene from the previous seasons had ever been cut or recut.
What the last season repaired
-
Why Will survived a week in 1983
The Season 5 prologue shows it: the creature carried him to Henry, who infected him rather than killed him. Will was meant to serve.
-
Where the 1984 tunnels come from
Henry tells Will in the lair: he used him to dig them, during his possession.
-
Why the Upside Down is frozen on November 6, 1983
Dustin's theory, episode 7: the Upside Down is a bridge created by Eleven the day Brenner forced her to contact Henry, in 1979, and it “took” the imprint of Hawkins at the first opening.
-
Why the monsters change every season
Because they are the successive forms of a single entity, that of the briefcase, of which Henry ends up saying they are one.
-
What Max was doing during her coma
She was wandering in Henry's memories, as episode 4 of season 5 explains, and almost came back on hearing Lucas play her song.
The inconsistencies that remain
Some will never be repaired, and the show does not hide it. The actors of the group aged faster than their characters, and the pandemic pause between 2020 and 2021 widened the gap in season 4: fifteen-year-old high schoolers played by twenty-year-old actors. The Duffers have said that aging weighed on the decision to finish in five seasons.
Others come down to the edit: a walkie-talkie that carries too far, a clock that does not show the same time from one shot to the next, cars and posters a little too recent for the year in which the action takes place. Fans list them with affection. None of them touches the story, and that is probably what distinguishes a show written over ten years from a show that got lost along the way: the big questions have all received an answer, down to the briefcase.
The complete-series poster.
In the shopFull Hawkins High cheerleader set49,90 €See the product
TakeawayThe ages: the gap owned. The Upside Down frozen in 1983: a late rule, not a mistake. The 1983 gate: filled in by Season 5. Anachronisms: songs and objects, for pleasure.
Frequently asked questions
What is the biggest Stranger Things plot hole?
The ages: sixteen-year-old characters played by twenty-two-year-old actors, because of nine years of filming for four years of story.
Is the Upside Down frozen in 1983 a plot hole?
A rule revealed late, rather: season 4 lays it down, and season 5 specifies that Henry shapes the Upside Down, which explains what the party sees there before.
Why did the Demogorgon keep Will alive in 1983?
Season 5 answers: it is Henry who found him and chose him that night, not the creature.
Are there musical anachronisms?
A few of them: songs heard a few months before their real release. Nothing that changes the story.
What is "George Lucas-ing"?
The Duffers' phrase for saying they could retouch Will's birth date in Season 2, the way George Lucas retouched his films. No old scene was finally changed.
Did Season 5 correct Will's survival in 1983?
Yes: its prologue shows the creature carrying Will to Henry, who infects him instead of killing him. The week of captivity in season 1 finally has an explanation.