MovieChat Forums > Stranger Things (2016) Discussion > cars and buildings in the Upside Down bu...

cars and buildings in the Upside Down but no people?

posted 8 years ago by PhilAdams60 (4)
12 replies | jump to latest

Something I didn't understand from the show was how there could be a "mirror" dark version of the real world but there were no people living in it so how did the buildings and cars and other things get there with no one to build them? I could almost understand a dark weird world just existing there but not with any of the things from our world co-existing. Also, wouldn't things change over time? Buildings get torn down and new structures built in their place. And then was there only one monster in the entire world? They kill the one monster but they never sealed the gateway so what's to keep other monsters from coming thru? And why was there an entry point inside that hollow tree? Was that where the Keebler elves lived? LOL...ok, I know it was a nod to Empire Strikes Back but still doesn't really make sense if the gateway was really inside that government facility. But then there wouldn't have been any way for Steve and Nancy to go monster hunting either.

[–] chrisjdel (2714) 8 years ago

My theory, which I posted several times in the old IMDB forums, is that the gateway's formation was like firing a bullet through glass. It created a pattern of fractures radiating out several miles from the lab (remember Steve and Nancy discussing the fact that the monster's appearances were all within that range?). The monster is able to force open those cracks to come through, but they close up again within a few minutes. So places like the Byers house, that section of forest where Nancy went through, and the area in back of Steve's house, are all basically interdimensional weak spots where the creature is prone to showing up.

As for where the structures came from, that depends on the nature of the Upside Down. If it's indeed some kind of flipside to our reality, a dark reflection, then every change made to our world will also manifest there (and possibly vice versa to some extent). It could also be a parallel timeline where some disaster, an incursion of alien life from yet another parallel universe for example, has wiped out the population. In other words the Dark Side Hawkins was a virtual twin of the one on this side, probably populated with doubles of the very same people, right up until the catastrophe that destroyed the place. One that may be threatening to overtake our world in season 2, based on that brief teaser they showed during the Super Bowl.

[–] Xenopharb (617) 8 years ago

It has to be a snapshot of some sort because changes made on one side no longer affect the other side.

If that was not so, the monster would have been killed by rush hour traffic long before episode 8.

[–] chrisjdel (2714) 8 years ago

There isn't necessarily a one-to-one correspondence between events in the two places. Otherwise people in the Hawkins public library (the creature's lair on the other side) would have been getting knocked aside by something they couldn't see whenever the demogorgon was "home".

[–] Xenopharb (617) 8 years ago

That is for living things, but cars show up in the upside-down, and they would have to move around if that world was a reflection that updates.

[–] chrisjdel (2714) 8 years ago

What if they tear down a three story building and put up a five story one in its place? Does the demolition of the original structure trigger its instantaneous disappearance from the Upside Down? There seems to be an organic quality to almost everything over there. Like the way those temporary interdimensional portals close up, I think it's quite possible the original building would slowly morph into the new one over the time the project takes in our world.

This assumes the dark reflection theory is accurate. If the Upside Down is really just an adjacent timeline whose luck ran out in the recent past, it's no big mystery that the Hawkins over there is almost identical to the one over here.

[–] Xenopharb (617) 8 years ago

I don't know.

Will's fort in the woods was destroyed in the upside down but not in the real world.

So far, the upside down looks like an instance captured in time, but it may just be that there are holes in the writing.

[–] chrisjdel (2714) 8 years ago

There's a 30-page document the Duffer Brothers put together detailing everything about the Upside Down. They said a much larger portion (although certainly not all) of that mythology will be explored in the upcoming season. So I'd hold off jumping to conclusions. Most of the questions people are asking undoubtedly have answers that we'll get in due time, as the story plays out.

[–] Xenopharb (617) 8 years ago

Some of the fun of Sci-Fi is a little bit of speculation.

But of course, we will see more and know more next season.

[–] Strannger (2007) 8 years ago

I hope so. I got my own theories like nuclear war and I like to see if It was close.

[–] tobisama (34) 8 years ago

Wait for season 2!!, according to wikipedia they are going to explain even more.

And in horror films, and sci fi, for me not everything needs a detailed scientific explanation....

[–] AndersHede (8) 8 years ago

What if the upsidedown World is created when the contact is established? Wouldn't that be an acceptable answer? Then everything is as it was from that moment

[–] Xenopharb (617) 8 years ago

That is similar to what I posted a month ago; perhaps the instance starts there.