30 easters eggs you might have missed in Stranger Things 4 Volume 1
By Daniel Roman
19. Jonathan’s posters
Jonathan Byers has been on Stranger Things since the beginning, and while his family has moved to California, he’s kept a lot of the same décor hanging in his new bedroom, including the Evil Dead poster that he’s had up on his wall since season 1. Jonathan has never been afraid to get his hands dirty slaughtering monsters from the Upside Down, so it feels appropriate that he’s a fan of that cult classic.
Jonathan also has a poster for the band R.E.M. Aside from continuing to illustrate his counter-cultural music tastes, there’s another layer here. R.E.M. stands for “Rapid Eye Movement,” which is when people’s eyes flicker beneath their eyelids as they are in deep sleep. We’ve seen characters go through this before in Stranger Things, such as when Eleven was psychically searching for people or Will was captured by the Mind Flayer. This season we see it plenty of times, most prominently when the eyes of Vecna’s victims roll back in their heads and their eyelids start flickering.
20. Police Academy 3
In the aftermath of Eleven’s roller skate assault, Jonathan suggests that they all go see a movie rather than mope around the house. He says that Police Academy 3 is playing — and just like all those other movies referenced in previous seasons, the comedy actually was playing in theaters during the time when Stranger Things 4 is set. Will retorts that he heard it’s supposed to suck; at the time, the movie was panned hard by critics.
21. Freddy Krueger and Robert Englund
It’s common knowledge at this point that Freddy Krueger actor Robert England plays Victor Creel. But the movie A Nightmare on Elm Street also exists in the Stranger Things universe…which means that Robert Englund the actor does too. Now that’s meta.
There are numerous nods to A Nightmare on Elm Street in Stranger Things 4, but the two most overt are when Dustin outright references Freddy Kreuger and Nightmare on Elm Street in Episode 5. Before that, there’s that cardboard cutout of Freddy Krueger in the video store we mentioned.
22. Murray’s Karate Quote
There are a few references to the fact that Murray has been studying karate in Stranger Things 4, which culminates in his fight scene with Yuri aboard the smuggler’s airplane. Just before accidentally knocking Yuri out, Murray bellows, “My fingers are like arrows! My arms, like iron! My feet, like spears!”
This is a reference to an actual quote from karate master Chōshin Chibana, who said that, “Your fingers and the tips of your toes must be like arrows; your arms must be like iron. The fingers and toes should become like spears so that a single kick or a single punch can kill.”
23. Dustin’s Compass Speech
Shortly after reuniting with Eddie by Lover’s Lake in Episode 6, Dustin realizes that his compass is somehow no longer pointing north. After being a bit of a jerk about it to Steve, Dustin has the epiphany that his compass is being drawn to a stronger magnetic field, namely a gate to the Upside Down.
The way Dustin explains how the compass is being affected is an exact throwback to a conversation he, Lucas, and Mike had in season 1, where he similarly detailed how a stronger magnetic field was pulling the compass toward a gate to the Upside Down.
24. Into Mordor
During that same scene, Dustin outlines a plan to track down a gate and use it to catch Vecna by surprise. Since Eddie is a wanted man, he has to decide if he’ll join them, which is a risk because he’ll be wandering around in the open.
In response, Eddie gives a great monologue festooned with references to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, saying that Dustin is asking him to “follow him into Mordor,” which sounds like an awful idea…except that “the Shire is burning,” so Mordor it is.
25. Eddie’s Watch
After Eddie jumps into Lover’s Lake to escape when Vecna is killing Patrick, his watch stops working at 9:27 on the dot; this is how the rest of the Hawkins crew figures out that Vecna was doing his thing while they were in the Creel House attic.
The number itself is pretty cool, because it’s a very subtle nod to Stephen King’s IT. The murderous clown Pennywise returns for his killing sprees every 27 years; the time between Henry Creel killing his family and his latest murder spree in Hawkins is also 27 years.
On top of that, IT Chapter One and Two were both released in September, the 9th month of the year. This also happens to be the month that Henry Creel / One was blasted into the Upside Down by Eleven, which we’ll talk about in a second.