Starcourt Mall: the mall of Stranger Things season 3, from Scoops Ahoy to the Russian base
Universe · Season 3 · Starcourt
Starcourt Mall is the main set of season 3: a brand-new mall, opened in the summer of 1985, that empties downtown Hawkins, hides a Soviet base in its basements and ends up destroyed on the night of July 4. Here is everything you need to know about the place, in fiction and in reality.
The essentials
- Opening: summer 1985, funded by a secret deal with the Soviets
- Shops seen on screen: Scoops Ahoy, The Gap, JCPenney, Sam Goody, a movie theater
- Basement: a Russian base and a machine to reopen the gate
- Filming: Gwinnett Place Mall, Duluth, Georgia
Contents
A mall that kills downtown
Season 3 opens on an ad: Starcourt, its fountains, its neons, its fifty shops. For Hawkins teenagers, it is the air-conditioned paradise of summer. For the downtown shopkeepers, including Joyce Byers at Melvald's, it is ruin: the stores close one by one and anger rises against Mayor Kline, who had the mall built.
The show uses Starcourt as an image of 1985 America: consumption, pastel colors, pop songs, and a worm in the fruit. It is also a comedy setting, the first in the show, before the blood arrives.
The mall has a role in almost every plot of the season: Eleven and Max learn there how to be teenagers, Steve learns there how to scoop ice cream, Dustin picks up a Russian message there, Billy drags there the townspeople he has delivered to the Mind Flayer. All of Hawkins goes through Starcourt, which is exactly the problem.
The Starcourt T-shirt, neons included.
In the shopMen's Scoops Ahoy T-shirt39,90 €See the product
What is under Starcourt
Mayor Kline sold the town: the mall was financed with Soviet capital, in exchange for the right to dig underneath. In a huge base, guarded by soldiers, scientists like Alexei run a machine able to reopen the gate the lab had closed in 1984. The magnetic disturbances it causes are the first clue Joyce notices: magnets fall off the fridges.
Steve, Robin, Dustin and Erica find the base from below, through a delivery elevator; Hopper and Joyce find it from above, following a kidnapped scientist. The two plots meet under the mall for the finale.
The Mind Flayer aboveWhile the machine runs underground, the Mind Flayer rebuilds a body on the surface, absorbing the townspeople it has possessed. The final battle plays out in the central hall: the flesh monster upstairs, the machine below.
The battle of Starcourt, July 4, 1985
On the night of the national holiday, everything converges: the flesh monster enters the mall, the group bombs it with fireworks from the balconies, Eleven loses her powers, Billy sacrifices himself, and underground, Joyce and Hopper turn the two keys that shut off the machine. The gate closes, the monster collapses, Hopper disappears in the explosion.
For the public, Starcourt burned because of an accidental fire, with about thirty victims. The truth, that of a secret base under the ground, is buried with the rubble.
Starcourt in real life
The mall was shot in a real declining mall, Gwinnett Place Mall, in Duluth, in the Atlanta suburbs. Production rebuilt a whole wing with period signs, real stores (The Gap, JCPenney, Sam Goody, Waldenbooks) and a movie theater, for a few weeks of filming. The sets were taken down afterward; the mall itself has largely closed.
The destruction of Starcourt closes a cycle: after three seasons in Hawkins, the show splits its characters between California, Russia, and Indiana for Season 4.
| Shop | What happens there |
|---|---|
| Scoops Ahoy | Steve and Robin's ice-cream shop, a door to the base |
| The Gap | Eleven and Max go shopping there, on the lab's dime |
| The movies | Steve and Robin come to their senses there after the truth serum |
| The central hall | The final battle of July 4 |
The Starcourt shops, and what they are for
| Shop | What happens there |
|---|---|
| Scoops Ahoy | Steve and Robin's ice-cream shop, and its service door to the Russians' corridor |
| The Gap | Eleven and Max hit the shops there on Madonna, before the photo studio |
| The movies | Steve and Robin see Back to the Future there under truth serum, the night of July 4 |
| The food court | The Russians' delivery point, under the west-wing clock |
| The shoe store and the Chinese restaurant | The two landmarks of the code decoded by Robin |
| The basement | The Soviet base, its elevators, its machine for opening the gate |
The figure of summer 1985.
In the shopLego Steve Harrington Scoops Ahoy mini figure14,90 €See the product
How the set was made
Production was looking in Georgia for a dead mall or an almost empty one. It found Gwinnett Place, near Duluth, built in 1984, with a wing unused for a long time. The designers recreated the shop fronts and the food court with signs plausible in 1985 Indiana, checking which ones existed there at the time, and stocked the shelves in case the Duffers had a last-minute idea.
A single anachronism had to be worked around: the photo studio where Eleven and Max have their portrait taken, inspired by a real chain that arrived in malls after 1985, received an invented name. A canvas stretched above the atrium blocked the sun to shoot night scenes in full day. The first image of the season was a fake ad for Starcourt, aired July 16, 2018.
What Starcourt becomes after 1985
On the night of July 4, the mall burns: the version served to the press talks of a fire, and a journalist accuses the town of having covered something up. Three months later, the carcass is closed, Steve and Robin work in a video store, and downtown Hawkins, which Starcourt had emptied, has not come back to life for all that. In 1986, the place no longer appears; in 1987, the town under quarantine has other ruins.
In reality, the Gwinnett Place mall continued to decline after the shoot, and conversion projects have been discussed. For fans, it remains the most recognizable filming location of the show, with the Byers house and the lab.
What Starcourt said about the summer of 1985
The mall is the ideal setting of the brightest season of the show. In 1985, American malls are at their peak: teenage hangouts, temples of consumption, with their neons, their fountains, and their food courts. Starcourt lets the Duffers film Hawkins in daylight, in color, with Madonna hits, while hiding under the floor the darkest threat.
It is also a discreet critique: the mall emptied downtown, ruined the shopkeepers, and it was built by a bought mayor. When it burns, the town loses a place it had already paid too much for. Fans saw in it a comment on the end of real malls, of which Gwinnett Place, the real Starcourt, is an example.
The mall poster, before the fire.
In the shopMen's Scoops Ahoy outfit48,90 €See the product
Frequently asked questions
What is Starcourt in Stranger Things?
The Hawkins mall, opened in 1985, main setting of Season 3, built over a secret Soviet base.
Why is Starcourt destroyed?
During the battle of July 4, 1985: the Russian machine is cut, the flesh monster dies, and the explosion ravages the mall. The version given to the public speaks of a fire.
Where was Starcourt filmed?
At Gwinnett Place Mall, a mall in Duluth, near Atlanta, a wing of which was entirely redecorated for the show.
Does Starcourt come back after season 3?
In ruins only: season 4 shows the wreckage, and the case remains, for the town, “the mall fire.”
What film is playing at the Starcourt theater?
Back to the Future, released July 3, 1985: Steve and Robin see it the night of July 4, under the effect of the Russian truth serum.
Is Starcourt rebuilt after season 3?
No. It burns on the night of July 4, 1985, the wreck is closed, and the place does not appear again in the later seasons.