The vines in Stranger Things: what links the whole Upside Down, from Will's throat to Vecna's back
Universe · Creature · The Upside Down
According to the wiki, it is a life form between plant and animal, with no species name. It grows, it grips, and fire makes it pull back.
The vines are the living matter of the Upside Down: they grab, they link every creature to the hive, and they suffer when they are burned. From the tendril in Will's throat, in 1983, to the ones that hold Vecna in his attic, in 1986.
The essentials
- Nature: Between plant and animal, wired into the hive mind, according to the wiki
- Name: No species name. In season 1, no one names them: the subtitles say “tendril”. The characters say “vines” from season 2 on.
- What they do: Grab, link, pass on pain, pull back from fire
- A single strand: In this article, “tendril” means one strand: Will's throat, or the strand burned at the lab
- What they fear: Brute force and fire
Contents
- Neither plant nor animal: living matter with no species name
- Grabbing: a throat, then legs
- Linking: step on a vine, and you alert the whole hive
- Burning: the fire that makes them pull back, and Will's pain
- Behind the scenes: rubber, melted bubble wrap and a cappuccino machine
- Vecna's back, and the vines of his mind
Neither plant nor animal: living matter with no species name
The wiki describes it as a life form between plant and animal, part of the hive mind. It grows like a plant and moves like a snake. It can bind and tangle, humans included. It fears brute force and fire.
No species name, according to the wiki. In season 1, no one names the thing on screen: the English subtitles call it a “tendril”, and the wiki keeps that word. The first name spoken is “vines”, in season 2, in front of Will's drawings. It comes back in 1986, in the Upside Down. Here we write “vines”, and “tendril” for a single strand. Word for word, “vines” is sometimes translated into French as “vignes”.
They are found around the gates, from which they come out and spread. According to the wiki, they already form part of the gate through which Eleven expels Henry in 1979. In November 1983, they come out of the lab gate and spread into the basement.
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1979 Henry's gate
According to the wiki, vines are already part of it.
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November 1983 Nancy's step
A crack under the foot, a creature that turns.
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November 1983 The throat
A tendril down to Will's lungs.
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November 1984 The tunnels
Legs caught, a flame that makes the matter pull back.
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November 1984 The lab
A burned tendril, a boy who hurts everywhere.
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November 1984 The fire under the town
The gasoline, then a leg seized.
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March 1986 The lake
A leg seized, a dive to the other side.
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March 1986 The attic
A body hanging, a back on fire.
Black backpack, mesh side pockets. A large bare tree, red roots spreading, three figures on bikes. Behind, a pale moon, black firs, a pink sky, and at the very top a large gray face with narrowed eyes.
In the shopUpside Down tree backpack39,90 €See the product
Grabbing: a throat, then legs
Will is found unconscious, with a tendril that went in through his mouth, down his windpipe and into his lungs. It is torn out, then shot. The scene is in the last episode of season 1.
According to the wiki, an Upside Down tendril would deposit a Demogorgon larva in the host. That would be the link with the slug coughed up later. Nothing is stated on screen.
Hopper, trapped underground, sees vines close the opening above him. At the end of his strength, he feels the vines close on his legs. Joyce frees him by cutting them.
At the end of season 2, the group leaves the tunnels on fire and a vine wraps around Mike's leg. According to the wiki, Steve frees him by hitting it with his bat.
At Lover's Lake, a vine sprung from the rift snatches Steve by the leg and drags him to the other side. In these scenes, the grip is at the throat or at the legs.
Linking: step on a vine, and you alert the whole hive
In November 1983, Nancy crosses to the other side through the tree. According to the wiki, the creature devouring the doe notices her only when she steps on a vine, and the noise alerts it. The wiki adds that the reaction could come from the hive: it is a hypothesis, not a shown fact. On screen, only a twig is heard to crack. It is the fifth episode of season 1.
The wiki describes the tunnels as giant vines that contain smaller ones. They start from the gate and run under the town. Will's drawings map them out. The wiki makes these galleries a separate organism, which came from the Upside Down and is linked to the Mind Flayer's hive.
In March 1986, in the Upside Down, someone warns Eddie: here, everything is one hive. “Step on a vine, you're stepping on a bat”, then “you're stepping on Vecna”. The warning comes back later, on the way to the Creel house. According to the wiki pages, it is Nancy who gives it to Robin.
In the Creel house, on the Upside Down side, the vines pin Robin to the wall. Steve and Nancy try to cut them, then are pinned in turn, and the vines start to choke them.
The proof comes at the end of season 4. At the same moment, in the Kamchatka prison, Murray burns Demodogs with a flamethrower. The pain travels through the hive. Vecna is seized with convulsions. The vines let the trio go and withdraw into the walls. Right after, Robin concludes: “But that was a miracle.”
Burning: the fire that makes them pull back, and Will's pain
The lab regularly burns the vines coming out of the gate, to keep them from spreading. Underground, the flame of Hopper's lighter makes them pull back, and he makes a torch from a bone and a piece of his uniform. At the end of the same episode, soldiers in protective suits set fire to the tunnel vines. On the surface, Will collapses screaming.
On arriving at the lab, Will hurts “All over”, then he shouts “Everywhere!” Another character says he is burning. Later, a severed tendril in the tunnels is shown. Owens has it burned while questioning Will. The tendril screams. Will hurts in the chest, then everywhere. It is episode 6 of season 2.
Owens draws from this the idea of a virus, a hive intelligence that would link the hosts. At the end of the season, the group pours gasoline on the hub and sets it on fire, to draw the pack away from the gate. When Eleven closes it, the network dies with the pack. Sixteen months later, in March 1986, it is fire again that pulls Vecna off his vines.
Long black mouse pad, on a white desk, near a keyboard. A creature with its head open in petals, claws out, bursts from a red gallery striped with filaments. On the right, a hand in a dark sleeve reaches toward it.
In the shopXXL mouse pad, Demogorgon in the vines16,90 €See the product
Behind the scenes: rubber, melted bubble wrap and a cappuccino machine
Chris Trujillo, production designer, talks about rubbers, foams, plastics and paints, and vines stuck all over the sets. Justin Mitchell, at Scanline, describes the “nether stretch”: bubble wrap melted on the set. The vines on the house set do not move. The ones that seize the trio are animated.
For the season 2 vines, the sound team of Craig Henighan, sound-editing supervisor, recorded the hiss of a cappuccino machine. In season 3, he mixed them with ironing-board creaks and his own voice for the tentacles of the flesh monster.
On Vecna, Michael Maher Jr.'s team preferred a “UV texture crawl”, a texture that slides over the vines, to a Davy Jones style of animation. Rodeo FX is on those shots. The vines that tighten around Max's neck come from there. According to the wiki, the ones on the back, in the attic, are entirely computer-generated. According to the wiki again, Steve's actor broke a camera with the handle of his axe while striking the vines.
Vecna's back, and the vines of his mind
In the attic, on the Upside Down side, spiked vines are plugged into several points of his back and lift him. He then goes into a trance. According to the wiki, citing an interview, that is what opens his access to his mind. Freed from the vines, Nancy, Steve and Robin find that hanging body.
In his mind, in the fourth episode of season 4, he nails Max to a pillar with vines. She pulls on a vine at Vecna's neck, which lets her go. Later, he binds Max and Eleven in the broken house. In reality, Jonathan says Eleven is choking: “She can't breathe.” Then she hears Mike and undoes the vines. At the first Molotov cocktail thrown in the attic, the vines detach from the back, and the mind dissolves around Eleven.
Warning: what follows touches on season 5. The prologue of the last season goes back to November 12, 1983: in the Upside Down library, tendrils pin Will to the wall and Vecna pushes one into the boy's mouth, which changes the meaning of the 1983 tendril. In November 1987, Will wakes bound by tendrils in that same library, but in his mind, and Vecna tells him he dug the 1984 tunnels himself, every night, in his sleep. Eleven finds him and undoes the vines.
A drawing. In the center, a bare-chested silhouette crossed by filaments, with glowing blue eyes. Elsewhere, a head open in petals. Farther off, a winged creature. In a red cloud, a long-legged shadow. Behind the silhouette, a large dark shape.
In the shopPoster, Vecna and the Upside Down monsters26,90 €See the product
Frequently asked questions
What are the vines in Stranger Things?
Living matter from the Upside Down, between plant and animal according to the wiki, wired into the hive mind. It binds, it links, and it pulls back from fire.
What are the vines called in the original version?
No one names them in season 1: the subtitles say “tendril”. The characters say “vines” from season 2 on. No species name.
Why does fire make Will scream?
Burning a tendril makes him suffer, because the hive links the hosts. At the lab, the strand screams and he hurts everywhere. Owens sees a virus in it.
What happens if you step on a vine?
According to the wiki, the noise can alert the creature, and maybe the whole hive. On screen, the first step only cracks a twig. Later, a line says it: stepping on a vine is stepping on a bat of the hive.
Where are the vines plugged into Vecna?
In the attic, at several points on his back. They lift him. When fire is set there, they detach and the mind dissolves.
How was the sound of the vines made?
For season 2, the hiss of a cappuccino machine. In season 3, those sounds are mixed with an ironing board and a voice, for another creature.
