[The story contains major spoilers for Stranger Things 4 Volume 2.]
Out of all the horror and sci-fi Easter eggs in Stranger Things 4 Part 2, one moment in particular probably stood out for John Carpenter Halloween fans. And no, it wasn’t Eddie (Joseph Quinn) wearing the mask, although that was an excellent touch.
The moment takes place during the climax in the season finale, just after it seemed all hope was lost. But Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) was able to eventually overpower Henry Creel, aka One, aka Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) in Max’s (Sadie Sink) mind so that the gang in the Upside Down could attack his vulnerable body.
After the group in the Upside Down throws two Molotov cocktails at Vecna, causing his entire body to go up in flames, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) shoots him multiple times with a sawed-off shotgun. The force of the blast pushes Vecna back until he finally falls backwards outside the second floor window and lands on the floor. Of course, when the group goes out to see the body, Vecna is gone—leaving his fate open for the fifth and final season.
That’s exactly how Michael Myers ships in the original Halloween, albeit with some differences. During the climactic fight in Carpenter’s 1978 horror masterpiece starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) shoots Michael Myers several times with a revolver before the killer falls backwards outside the second floor window and lands on the floor. After a pause, Loomis looks out the window to see the body, but Michael is gone.
It could also be argued (and probably by fans) that the Nancy moment is also a nod to Terminator 2: Judgment Day, particularly at the end when Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) fires the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) multiple times with a shotgun, each blast pushing it backwards toward a barrel of molten steel. Of course Sarah ran out of grenades at the worst possible moment, but Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 had her covered with his grenade launcher.
Stranger Things 4 Volume 2 is now streaming on Netflix.