It’s hard to remember what our Netflix queues looked like before July 2016. Back then, "The Duffer Brothers" wasn't a household name, and we didn't have a Pavlovian response to the sound of a heavy analog synth. When Stranger Things season 1 episode 1 first dropped, it felt like a weird experiment. Was it a horror show? A kids' adventure? A period piece?
Turns out, it was all of those things. It was "Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers."
Most pilots try too hard. They scream their premise at you. But this one? It’s surprisingly quiet. It starts with a flickering light in a laboratory and a guy running for his life before an elevator door closes on a scream. Then, we cut to a basement in Hawkins, Indiana. It’s 1983. Four kids are playing Dungeons & Dragons. It’s messy, loud, and feels exactly like how 12-year-olds actually talk. Honestly, that’s the secret sauce. If we didn't believe in the friendship between Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will in those first eight minutes, the rest of the series would have fallen flat on its face.
What actually happens in Stranger Things season 1 episode 1
Let's look at the facts of the premiere. We get introduced to the core conflict immediately: Will Byers disappears on his way home from Mike Wheeler's house. He takes a shortcut near Mirkwood, encounters something (we only see a silhouette), and vanishes from a locked shed.
At the same time, a girl with a shaved head and a hospital gown wanders into Benny’s Burgers. This is Eleven. Benny, played by the great Chris Sullivan, gives her a burger instead of calling the cops immediately. It’s one of the few moments of pure kindness in a pilot that is otherwise drenched in dread. Then, of course, the "social workers" show up, and we realize the government is the real monster—or at least, the one with the guns.
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Chief Jim Hopper enters the frame as a mess. He’s popping pills, drinking beer for breakfast, and clearly grieving a life that blew up long ago. David Harbour plays him with this heavy, slumped-shoulder exhaustion that makes his eventual transformation into a hero feel earned rather than scripted. He doesn't believe anything bad happens in Hawkins. "Hawkins is a sleepy town," he says. He’s wrong.
Why the tone of the pilot is a masterclass in nostalgia
People call this show a love letter to Spielberg and Stephen King. That’s true, but it’s also a bit of a reduction. Stranger Things season 1 episode 1 isn't just copying E.T. or Stand By Me. It’s using those aesthetics to hide something much darker.
Think about the lighting. The Duffer Brothers and cinematographer Tim Ives opted for a look that felt like film, even though it was shot digitally (on Red Dragon cameras). They even added a layer of scanned 1980s film grain in post-production. It’s why the blacks look so deep and the reds look so bruised.
The music? Michael Stein and Kyle Dixon of the band S U R V I V E. They didn't go for 80s pop immediately. They went for haunting, pulsing synthesizers. It creates this sense of "synth-wave dread" that keeps you on edge even when the kids are just riding their bikes.
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The things people get wrong about the first episode
Some fans look back and think Eleven was a superhero from the jump. She wasn't. In the first episode, she's a terrified animal. She barely speaks. She uses her powers to stop a fan, and it clearly drains her.
Another misconception is that Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) was always "the crazy wall lady." In the pilot, she's actually remarkably composed given the circumstances. She’s a frantic mom, sure, but the supernatural element hasn't touched her yet. She’s just a parent who knows her kid, and she knows Will wouldn't just "run away."
The tension between the teenagers—Nancy, Steve, and Jonathan—also starts much more conventionally than it ends. Steve Harrington in episode one is, frankly, a jerk. He’s the stereotypical high school king. It’s funny looking back at this version of Steve knowing he becomes the internet’s favorite "mom" later on.
Key Character Introductions in the Pilot
- The Party: Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and the missing Will. Their chemistry is the soul of the show.
- Joyce Byers: A working-class mother struggling to be heard.
- Jim Hopper: The cynical lawman with a tragic past.
- Eleven: The mysterious "test subject" with psychokinetic abilities.
- The Bad Men: Led by Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine), representing the Cold War-era paranoia.
The horror elements you might have forgotten
The "Demogorgon" (though not named yet) is handled like the shark in Jaws. We see the shadows. We see the gate at the lab. We see the sliding chain on the Byers' front door. By not showing the creature fully in Stranger Things season 1 episode 1, the Duffers let our brains do the heavy lifting.
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The most effective horror beat is actually the phone call. Joyce receives a call that sounds like static and breathing, ending with an electrical surge that fries the phone. It’s a classic trope, but Winona Ryder sells the absolute terror of it. It moves the story from a "missing person" case to something "wrong."
How to watch it today with fresh eyes
If you’re doing a rewatch, pay attention to the silence. Modern TV is often terrified of a quiet moment. But in this pilot, there are long stretches where we just watch characters exist in their environments.
Check out the set design in the Wheeler basement. It’s crowded. It’s lived-in. There are real props from the era, not just "vintage-inspired" junk. The wood paneling, the rotary phones, the walkie-talkies—these aren't just props; they are the tools the characters use to bridge the gap between their world and the Upside Down.
Actionable insights for your rewatch
- Watch the lights: The flickering isn't random. It’s the first language of the show.
- Listen to the score: Notice how the music shifts when Eleven is onscreen versus when the boys are together.
- Track the government vehicles: They are everywhere in the background, subtly signaling that the town is already occupied before the search even starts.
- Look at the maps: The geography of Hawkins is established early. Mirkwood, the lab, and the quarry. It all matters later.
The pilot ends with the boys finding Eleven in the woods during a rainstorm. It’s a perfect cliffhanger. It doesn't give you answers; it just gives you more questions. It establishes that the world is bigger and scarier than a game of D&D, but that maybe, just maybe, the rules of the game might be the only way to survive.
Next Steps:
Go back and watch the first ten minutes of the pilot again. Focus specifically on the sound design—the way the wind sounds through the trees and the hum of the electricity in the Byers' house. Then, compare that to the final episode of season four. You’ll see how many of those early visual and auditory "seeds" were planted right at the start of Stranger Things season 1 episode 1. It’s a rare example of a show that knew exactly what it wanted to be from the very first frame.