Is Stranger Things inspired by a true story? The Montauk Project and MK-Ultra
Universe · Inspirations · MK-Ultra and Montauk
No, Stranger Things is not a true story. But Hawkins Lab rests on two very real sources: the MK-Ultra program, experiments run by the CIA on human subjects between the 50s and the 70s, and an American urban legend, the Montauk project. Here is what inspired the show, and where reality stops.
The essentials
- Real: MK-Ultra, the CIA mind-control program (1953-1973)
- Legend: the Montauk Project, secret experiments on Long Island
- Fiction: the Upside Down, the Demogorgons, Eleven's powers
- In the show: Terry Ives, an experiment subject, like the real MK-Ultra volunteers
Contents
MK-Ultra: the real program behind the lab
From 1953 to 1973, the CIA funded a secret program, MK-Ultra, meant to explore mind control: drugs, including LSD, sensory deprivation, hypnosis, electroshock, often on subjects who did not know they were in an experiment. The program was revealed in 1975 by a U.S. Senate committee, after most of the archives had been destroyed.
In the show, that is exactly what Terry Ives's story tells, Eleven's mother: a student volunteer for a “psychological” study, drugged, plunged into a sensory-deprivation tank, pregnant without knowing it. Dr. Brenner is presented as a veteran of that program. Even the experiment's code name, which appears in the files of season 1, points to MK-Ultra.
Sensory deprivationThe salt-water bath Eleven enters to project her mind is taken directly from the isolation tanks used in 50s and 60s research, popularized by neuroscientist John C. Lilly, himself involved in state-funded experiments.
The Hawkins Lab T-shirt, for classified-file fans.
In the shopWomen's Welcome to Hawkins Indiana patch T-shirt39,90 €See the product
Project Montauk: the legend that gave the first title
The show was supposed to be called Montauk and set in that Long Island town, near a former Air Force base, Camp Hero. Since 1992, a book and contested testimonies claim that experiments were run there on children with psychic abilities, portals opened to other dimensions, and time travel.
No proof exists, and historians class the Montauk Project among urban legends. But the imagery is there, almost trait for trait: a secret lab, children with powers, a door to elsewhere. The Duffers kept the outline when they moved the story to Indiana.
What is pure fiction
| Element of the show | Reality |
|---|---|
| the Upside Down | No real basis: a dimension inspired by Silent Hill and horror cinema |
| Eleven's powers | The research on “remote viewing” existed (Project Stargate), with no proven result |
| The creatures of the Upside Down | Invented from scratch, and named after the Dungeons & Dragons bestiary |
| The town of Hawkins | Fictional; rural Indiana was chosen for its “average America” side |
| The Russian base under a mall | Fiction, but fed by the Cold War fears of the 80s |
Project Stargate, for its part, did exist: from 1978 to 1995, the U.S. Army funded research on “viewers” supposed to observe enemy sites at a distance. The program was stopped for lack of usable results. It is the closest source for what Eleven does in the tank: seeing at a distance, listening to conversations, locating someone.
Why this mix works
The strength of the show is that it sets a fantastic fiction on a documented base. The viewer who discovers MK-Ultra after seeing Season 1 finds that the most disturbing part, state experiments on ordinary people, is the true part. The monster is invented; the institution that let it out is not.
That is also what makes Brenner so effective as an antagonist: he has no powers, only a budget, a lab, and an authorization. That kind of character has existed.
The Eleven figure, subject number 011.
In the shopLego Hawkins party mini figures (set of 4)39,90 €See the product
MK-Ultra, in detail: what the program really did
Project MK-Ultra existed. Launched by the CIA in 1953 and continued until the early 70s, it aimed to control the human mind through drugs, sensory deprivation, hypnosis, and electroshock. Volunteers, but also hospital patients and inmates, were given LSD without their knowledge. The program was revealed in 1975 by a U.S. Senate committee, after most of the archives had been destroyed on the agency leadership's orders.
The show draws Eleven's mother from it. Terry Ives volunteers for experiments at Hawkins Lab, where she is locked in a sensory bath under drugs: that is, almost to the letter, the description of certain experiments in the real program. Where the show invents is in the consequences, a child born with powers. The CIA never produced an Eleven; it produced victims, and lawsuits.
Montauk, and the other legends
Project Montauk is a legend, born of a book published at the start of the following decade, that claimed to reveal mind-control and time-travel experiments run at Camp Hero, a decommissioned Long Island base. None of that has been proven, but the legend was popular enough for the Duffers to name their project “Montauk” and first set their story there. The cold of Long Island in November made them move the shoot to Georgia, and Montauk became Hawkins.
The show also draws on very real “remote viewing” programs the American army funded during the Cold War, where subjects tried to spy on Soviet sites by thought: that is exactly what Brenner asks of Eleven in 1983, sending her to listen to a Russian spy. The show adds the monster; the paranoia was already there.
True or false, item by item
| In the show | In real life |
|---|---|
| A federal laboratory that drugs volunteers | True: MK-Ultra, 1953-1973 |
| Espionage experiments through thought | True: remote-viewing programs were funded until 1995 |
| The name Montauk | A legend without proof, born of a book from the following years |
| Hawkins, Indiana | An invented town, filmed in Georgia |
| A child with psychic powers | Fiction |
| A parallel dimension and its monsters | Fiction |
| The Satanic Panic against Dungeons & Dragons | True, in the 80s |
The poster that reminds you the gate is open.
In the shopHawkins Indiana plate keychain12,90 €See the product
Frequently asked questions
Is Stranger Things based on a true story?
No. The show is fiction, but Hawkins Lab draws on the CIA's MK-Ultra program, very real, and on the urban legend of the Montauk Project.
What is MK-Ultra?
A secret CIA program (1953-1973) that tested drugs, hypnosis and sensory deprivation on human subjects, revealed in 1975 by a U.S. Senate committee.
What is the Montauk Project?
An urban legend about secret experiments at Camp Hero, Long Island: psychic children, portals, time travel. No proof exists, but the show keeps the outline.
Did Hawkins Lab exist?
No. It is fictional, filmed in a former university building in Atlanta. The experiments it evokes, they, have real precedents.
When was MK-Ultra revealed?
In 1975, by a U.S. Senate committee, after the destruction of most of the program's archives on the order of CIA leadership.
Why was the show called Montauk?
According to the legend of the Montauk Project, supposed experiments at Camp Hero, on Long Island, where the story was first meant to take place before the shoot left for Georgia.
Does Hawkins exist?
No. It is a made-up town in Indiana, filmed in Georgia, around Atlanta, where the town of Jackson served as downtown.