With the most recent trailer forStranger Things' fifth and final season recently hitting the internet, it’s hard to overlook how much the landmark Netflix series lifted fromJ.J. Abrams' best movie,Super 8. At their core, both stories revolve around a group of inquisitive youngsters who uncover a supernatural threat, a narrative backdrop that leans into the nostalgia of teen-centric,1980s Amblin Entertainment.
Despite being critically and commercially successful at the time,Super 8has largely been forgotten. Meanwhile,Stranger Thingshas ascended to become one of the most popular multimedia franchises of the 21st century.Stranger Things' creators, the Duffer brothers, have admitted thatSuper 8was one of many influences when conceiving the show, which makes the movie’s forgotten status even more frustrating.
‘Super 8’ Did the Nostalgic, Amblin-Era Premise First
Built around one of the most mysterious viral marketing campaigns in memory,Super 8is a science fiction thriller set in the small town of Lillian, Ohio, in 1979. The story follows a group of young teenagers who plan to make a homemade zombie movie with a Super 8 video camera for a local competition.
The teens are led by the protagonist, Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney), who is reeling over the death of his mother, Elizabeth, who died in a workplace mishap. Joe lives with his father, Jack Lamb (Kyle Chandler), who is also the town’s Deputy Sheriff. To get his mind off the tragic trauma, Joe agrees to help his friend, Martin (Gabriel Basso),make a zombie movieusing a Super 8 film camera. Additional friends who serve as cast and crew members for the homemade zombie movie include Cary (Ryan Lee), Preston (Zach Mills), and Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning). Although Joe blames Alice’s father, Louis, for Elizabeth’s death, the two agree to work together and become close.
The first shot planned for the zombie movie is to film a train arriving in town. As filming begins, the train is struck by a truck and derailed. The locomotive crashes into the depot, with the Super 8 camera capturing an extraordinary crash and explosion that any A-list Hollywood action movie would be proud of.
Yet, after the truck driver (also their biology teacher) warns the teens to forget everything they’ve seen, their curiosity gets the best of them, and a full-on conspiracy relating to a military cover-up ensues. Without giving away too much, an extraterrestrial presence is aboard the crashed train, causing a slew of supernatural activity and government intervention in the small Ohio town, eerily reminiscent of what transpires inStranger Things.
How ‘Stranger Things’ Lifted Elements From ‘Super 8’
Stranger Thingsaped several aspects fromSuper 8, beginning with its teenage cast (three boys, one girl). Joe, Martin, Cary, and Alice inSuper 8behave almost identically to Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Will (Noah Schnapp), and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) inStranger Things. Although the Netflix hit also follows older teenage siblings and the adults in Hawkins, Indiana, both sci-fi shows tap into the childlike wonderment of growing up in a small town in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
A more significant parallel yet is howbothStranger ThingsandSuper 8pay loving homage to the ’80s movies produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment. Whether watching the young characters ride their bikes around their small town at night, fending off paranormal monsters, or rescuing each other on death-defying adventures, both projects echo the tone and reflect the visual splendor of such Amblin movies asE.T., The Goonies, The Monster Squad, Poltergeist, Gremlins, Back to the Future,and more.
Another glaring wayStranger ThingsmimicsSuper 8relates tothe main characters' relationship with law enforcement. It’s easy to spot the analogy between Sheriff Jim Hopper and his relationship withEleven inStranger ThingsandDeputy Sheriff Lamb and his son, Joe, inSuper 8. Both relationships are built on past trauma, with Hopper becoming a surrogate father figure to Eleven over time. Granted,Stranger Thingshas far more room and runtime to develop its characters with a richer complexity thanSuper 8, but the similarities are impossible to overlook.
Much like law enforcement, the role of government is similar inStranger ThingsandSuper 8. As the teens begin to solve the underlying mystery and fend off the existential menace threatening their small town, federal government forces arrive and interfere with nefarious motives. This magnifies the “us-vs-them” thematic motif that the teens in both projects often express as underdogs, outcasts, perceived weirdos, and the like.
Although the Duffer brothers have made no secret aboutStranger Things' countless ’80s movie inspirations,they also specifically citedSuper 8as a major blueprint. In 2022, the Duffers spoke totheHappy Sad Confusedpodcast, saying the idea was to go back to the fun, escapist entertainment of their childhood, whichSuper 8nailed perfectly. In the Duffers' words:
“We moved into the 2000s, and I love Chris Nolan, but everything became dark and real and grounded. We wanted to bring back that more not ironic, sincere, adventure, family storytelling that just seemed to have gone [away] – with the exception of ‘Super 8’, nobody was doing [it].
“And ‘Super 8’ was kind of a one-off. I loved ‘Super 8,’ but then it was just gone. No one else did it. And I do think there was an appetite – or that’s what I hoped – for this type of storytelling, so that really more than anything is what it is, is trying to stay in that zone.”
Whether Abrams bears blame for not pursuing a sequel himself, the fact remains:Super 8did everythingStranger Thingsdid five years earlier, and it’s about time fans recognize as much.
