The nosebleed in Stranger Things: where Eleven's telltale sign comes from, and what it signals in other characters
Universe · Eleven · Powers
This article starts from the name of the trope, then follows the trickle of blood from one character to the next. It also shows how it is made on set, and how the show's marketing puts it to use.
The nosebleed is Eleven's telltale sign: a trickle of blood that runs when she strains her powers. Movies had shown it before her, and the show later passes it on to others, from Kali to the victims of 1986.
The essentials
- The name of the trope: The “psychic nosebleed”
- Precedents: “Scanners” (1981) and the movie “Firestarter” (1984)
- Eleven: From the can in the lab, in a flashback, to the Nevada tank, in March 1986
- Kali: Pittsburgh, October 28, 1984, in a van
- In 1986: A symptom of the curse, along with headaches and nightmares
- On set: A small tube slipped into the nostril, according to Millie Bobby Brown (2017)
Contents
Before Eleven: a trope with a name, and two precedents
In 2016, on JSTOR Daily, Liz Tracey uses the TV Tropes website's name for the trope: the “psychic nosebleed”. She gives two examples from the movies. David Cronenberg's “Scanners” (1981) follows telepaths sought by ConSec, a weapons and security company. Mark L. Lester's “Firestarter” (1984), she writes, is what brought this nosebleed to a wide audience.
The film is based on Stephen King's 1980 novel of the same name, published in France as “Charlie”. In the book, according to Wikipedia, Andy McGee, Charlie's father, pays for overusing his “push” with terrible migraines and tiny hemorrhages in his brain. The encyclopedia mentions no nosebleed there, and counts Charlie McGee among the inspirations for Eleven, along with E.T. and the MKUltra program. In 2019, in a WIRED video, the Duffer Brothers list “Firestarter” among the key references for Eleven, and say they settled very early on the nosebleed to show the audience each time she uses her powers. The other inspirations are covered in the article on the 80s references.
Black duvet cover and two pillowcases: inside a pink and purple disc, a little girl in a denim jacket, a thin red trickle under her nose.
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Eleven, from 1983 to 1986: when the blood flows, and when it stops
In the third chapter of season 1, a commercial on the Wheelers' TV takes Eleven back to the lab, in a flashback. At Brenner's request, she crushes a can with her mind, her nose bleeds, and he looks pleased. In the fourth chapter, in the Wheelers' basement, she makes Will's voice come through Mike's walkie-talkie, singing “Should I Stay or Should I Go”. Eleven's nose bleeds again.
The blood quickly becomes a way to identify her. In the seventh chapter, at the police station, Troy describes the girl who broke his arm: “She had no hair and she was bleeding from her nose.” In the same chapter, she flips one of the lab's vans over the group on their bikes, and her nose starts bleeding again. In the last chapter, the blood changes sides: at the middle school, she kills the agents with her mind, then collapses. At the hospital, Mike tells Will about it: “It was pouring out of their eyes.” That blood draws the creature, as the analysis of the season 1 ending shows.
In 1984, according to Wikipedia, she has better control over her powers, and they weaken her less. The blood, however, stays. In the seventh chapter of season 2, at Kali's request, she taps into a bad memory to pull a train car: the car moves, and her nose bleeds. In the last chapter, facing the gate at the lab, she bleeds from both nostrils and rises off the ground before closing it. According to Liz Tracey, the bigger the object, the heavier the bleeding. What this blood measures is explored in the article on the powers.
In the summer of 1985, at the Starcourt mall, she uses her mind to rip out the piece of monster still lodged in her leg. According to Wikipedia, she loses her powers after doing so. No powers, no more nosebleeds: that is how she lives in California in March 1986. In the Nevada tank, her memories gradually restore her powers. In the seventh chapter of season 4, when she relives the day of the 1979 massacre, the lights in the silo go haywire and blood runs from both her nostrils.
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At the lab The can
A crushed can, a pleased Brenner.
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November 1983 Mike's walkie-talkie
Will's singing voice, in the basement.
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November 1983 The van
A van flipped over the bikes.
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November 1983 The hallway
The agents bleed from their eyes, Eleven collapses.
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November 1984 The train car
A bad memory, a train car that moves.
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November 1984 The gate
Both nostrils, and her feet leaving the ground.
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July 1985 The leg
The piece of monster torn out, her powers lost.
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March 1986 The tank
The day of the massacre relived, both nostrils bleeding.
Kali, in the Pittsburgh van
The first chapter of season 2 opens far from Hawkins, in Pittsburgh, on October 28, 1984: a masked gang shakes off the police in a van, thanks to an illusion.
In the van, a young woman wipes the blood running from her nose on her sleeve. The gesture reveals the number 008 tattooed on her forearm. Two signs link her to Eleven from this very scene: the number, and the blood. According to the wiki, her power is not moving objects but deceiving other people's senses, and using it makes her nose bleed too. Eleven finds Kali in Chicago, in the seventh chapter, the one with the train car.
1986: one symptom among others
In March 1986, the sign shows up in characters who have no powers at all. Chrissy Cunningham confides in the Hawkins High guidance counselor about her headaches, her nosebleeds, and her nightmares. According to the wiki, in the back of Jason's car, during the hunt for Eddie, a brief migraine hits Patrick McKinney, then his nose starts to bleed. A teammate points it out to him.
Max, for her part, assures the same counselor that her headaches and nightmares have stopped. Yet in Ms. Kelley's files, she recognizes in Chrissy and in Fred what she herself has been going through for several days. The blood no longer measures an effort: it marks a target. The rest of her March is told in the article on Max in season 4.
Long red mouse pad. On the left, a ravaged face with white eyes, and in front of it a young girl with long hair, a white bow at her collar.
In the shopDrawn Vecna XXL mouse pad22,90 €See the product
What the final season shows
Warning: this section reveals scenes from season 5. In the fourth episode, in November 1987, Will draws on the hive. The Demogorgons threatening Mike, Lucas, and Robin freeze, rise into the air, and their limbs twist. Then Will's eyes return to normal, and he wipes the blood from his nose.
According to Variety, the first volume ends on that gesture: Will raises his head, his sleeve under his nose, as Eleven has done so many times. His powers are only an echo of Vecna's, which he reaches through the hive, Nerdist explains. Ross Duffer, speaking to Variety: “The powers aren't within him.”
Shortly after, in the fifth episode, the group revives one of the slain creatures. Through it, Will enters Vecna's mind, and his nose bleeds again. Kali too, who returns that year, wipes her nose after showing Eleven a vision. On the season's original score album, one track is even titled “Nosebleed”.
Filming a trickle of blood, and using it to promote the show
In November 2017, Millie Bobby Brown explained to ABC News that the secret was a small tube: “They stick it up in my nose and I have to hold it back.” She could feel the liquid coming, and she was the one who gave the directors the signal. Around the same time, for a Variety cover story, she said she had kept a small vial of that fake blood in a memory box.
According to BuzzFeed, in 2019, the blood is usually not added digitally, except when time is short, and the fake blood formula took a long time to perfect. The actress and her role are covered in the article on Millie Bobby Brown.
The show's marketing uses that blood too. In mid-October 2017, two weeks before the release of season 2, a video titled “Nosebleed” goes back to the lab, “right down to the nosebleed”, as The A.V. Club puts it. In it, a voice reels off “sunflower”, “three to the right”, “four to the left”, “rainbow”, and “450”: the words that Terry Ives, Eleven's mother, has been repeating on a loop ever since her electroshock treatment.
What the motif passes on
The motif follows a lineage of power. According to the wiki, Henry Creel, the future Vecna, already has a nosebleed in 1959, as a child, on the night he kills his mother and his sister: a story shown in season 4. In 1987, Kali tells Eleven what her own blood was used for: Dr. Kay was injecting it into pregnant women, to repeat what Brenner had done to Terry Ives. Brenner, the wiki adds, had mixed Henry's blood with that of Eleven's mother during her pregnancy.
Will, for his part, was not born of this program; yet that trickle of blood ties him to this lineage. What becomes of this power is told in the article explaining the Stranger Things ending.
Kids' black hoodie: a boy with white eyes spreads his arms, surrounded by red silhouettes. Below: “Will Power”.
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Frequently asked questions
Where does the psychic nosebleed come from?
JSTOR Daily, which calls it the “psychic nosebleed”, cites two precedents in film: “Scanners” (1981) and the movie “Firestarter” (1984). The Duffer Brothers count the latter among the big references for Eleven. According to Wikipedia, the Stephen King novel it is based on describes migraines and bleeding in the brain instead.
Who gets nosebleeds in Stranger Things, besides Eleven?
Henry Creel as a child, in 1959, in a story told in season 4; Kali, from the opening of season 2, in 1984. Then, in 1986, two targets of the curse: Chrissy and Patrick. The final season adds Will.
Does Eleven get nosebleeds when she no longer has powers?
No: no powers, no nosebleed. She loses them in the summer of 1985. The blood returns in March 1986, in the Nevada tank, when her memories give them back to her.
Does Will get a nosebleed in season 5?
Yes. In the fourth episode, after stopping the Demogorgons through the hive, he wipes the blood from his nose. In the fifth episode, his nose bleeds again when he enters Vecna's mind.
How is the nosebleed filmed?
With a small tube slipped into the nostril, according to Millie Bobby Brown in 2017. Digital effects, according to BuzzFeed, are usually used only when time is short.
Why does Eleven get a nosebleed when she uses her powers?
The Duffer Brothers say they settled very early on the nosebleed to show the audience each time she uses her powers. According to Liz Tracey, on JSTOR Daily, the bigger the object, the heavier the bleeding.
