With the most recent trailer for Stranger Things' fifth and final season recently hitting the internet, it's hard to overlook how much the landmark Netflix series lifted from J.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 8 has largely been forgotten. Meanwhile, Stranger Things has ascended to become one of the most popular multimedia franchises of the 21st century. Stranger Things' creators, the Duffer brothers, have admitted that Super 8 was 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 8 is 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 movie using 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 in Stranger Things.
How 'Stranger Things' Lifted Elements From 'Super 8'
Stranger Things aped several aspects from Super 8, beginning with its teenage cast (three boys, one girl). Joe, Martin, Cary, and Alice in Super 8 behave almost identically to Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Will (Noah Schnapp), and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) in Stranger 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 how both Stranger Things and Super 8 pay 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 as E.T., The Goonies, The Monster Squad, Poltergeist, Gremlins, Back to the Future, and more.
Another glaring way Stranger Things mimics Super 8 relates to the main characters' relationship with law enforcement. It's easy to spot the analogy between Sheriff Jim Hopper and his relationship with Eleven in Stranger Things and Deputy Sheriff Lamb and his son, Joe, in Super 8. Both relationships are built on past trauma, with Hopper becoming a surrogate father figure to Eleven over time. Granted, Stranger Things has far more room and runtime to develop its characters with a richer complexity than Super 8, but the similarities are impossible to overlook.
Much like law enforcement, the role of government is similar in Stranger Things and Super 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.
What the Duffer Brothers Had to Say About 'Super 8' Comparisons
Although the Duffer brothers have made no secret about Stranger Things' countless '80s movie inspirations, they also specifically cited Super 8 as a major blueprint. In 2022, the Duffers spoke to the Happy Sad Confused podcast, saying the idea was to go back to the fun, escapist entertainment of their childhood, which Super 8 nailed 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 8 did everything Stranger Things did five years earlier, and it's about time fans recognize as much.
Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Like Follow Followed Super 8 PG-13 Thriller Science Fiction Mystery 9.0/10 Release Date June 10, 2011 Runtime 112 minutes Director J.J. Abrams Writers J.J. Abrams Producers Steven Spielberg Cast See All Joel Courtney Joe Lamb Elle Fanning Alice Dainard
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