15 Small Details You Only Notice Rewatching Stranger Things

You might scoff reading the title of this entry because the second and third seasons make obvious references to the The Terminator, but we're not talking about the fact that Eleven watches the film's trailer on TV or that Grigori is a painfully obvious nod to Arnold Schwarzenegger's classic villain.

If you look back, it's pretty clear that Stranger Things took a number of cues in terms of how the Terminator franchise progressed its story. The first season is a relatively grounded story that deals with a single threat without delving into the specifics of the wider mythology and, much like The Terminator, that threat doesn't seem quite as unstoppable in hindsight given what came next.

Season 2 then follows in the footsteps of Terminator 2: Judgment Day with a more larger-than-life adventure by bringing in a greater threat, delving into the mythology much deeper and attempting to stop the problem at the source (closing the gate was the equivalent to blowing up Cyberdyne).

Season 3 then mirrors every other Terminator sequel since in that it attempts to recreate the magic of the second installment by serving up a similar larger-than-life antagonist and rehashing the attempts to stop the Upside Down's wrath by, once again, closing the gate. It also takes its own cues from T2 by having the villain of the piece (the Mind Flayer) send its own operative (Billy) to take out the person who poses a threat to its future: Eleven.