Alexei (Stranger Things): the Russian scientist, the cherry slushie, and the fair
Character · The Russian scientist · Season 3
Alexei is the Soviet scientist Hopper and Joyce kidnap in the summer of 1985, and who becomes, in a few days, the most endearing character of season 3 of Stranger Things. Engineer of the machine that reopens the gate under Starcourt, he refuses to talk without a cherry slushie, discovers America at a fair, and dies there from a bullet. This page brings together everything: his role in the Russian base, his kidnapping, Murray, the fair, and why his death hit so hard.
The essentials
- Name: Alexei, scientist on the Soviet operation in Hawkins
- Role: one of the engineers of the machine that forces the gate under Starcourt
- Appearance: season 3 (summer 1985)
- Distinctive sign: the cherry slushie, and nothing else
- Ties: Murray Bauman, Hopper, Joyce
- Played by: Alec Utgoff
- Status: shot by Grigori at the Hawkins fair, on July 4, 1985
Contents
Played by
Alec Utgoff
It is Alec Utgoff who lends his face to Alexei on the show.
Image: Stranger Things series, via hips.hearstapps.com.
Who is Alexei?
Alexei wears a lab coat, glasses, and a kid's smile that no situation seems to wipe off. A Soviet scientist assigned to the secret operation in Hawkins, he works on the machine installed under Starcourt Mall, the one meant to reopen the gate the lab closed in 1984. He is neither a spy nor a soldier: an engineer, doing his job, far from home.
Hopper and Joyce come across him while investigating magnets that lose their pull, and kidnap him in a stolen car. He does not speak English. They do not speak Russian. Season 3 gets its best scenes from that deadlock: a prisoner who only cooperates in exchange for a slushie, the right flavor, and a paranoid translator who ends up adopting him.
Alexei is the first Russian on the show to have a face, and the only one to have a desire: to see America, the real one, the one of rides and stuffed-animal games. He gets it for the space of one evening. That is where they kill him.
The cherry slushieKidnapped, cuffed, terrified, Alexei has only one demand: a cherry slushie. Hopper brings him strawberry; he refuses to talk. The scene became one of the most quoted of season 3, and the slushie, the character's emblem. Murray finally understands that it is not a whim: it is the only power left to a man in chains.
In the shop: a piece from the show's universe that goes with this file, chosen by us.
In the shopMen's 3/4-sleeve baseball bikes in the Upside Down forest T-shirt44,90 €See the product
Alexei in 1985, day after day
Summer 1985The base under Starcourt
For months, a Soviet team has been digging under the Hawkins mall, financed by a secret deal with the mayor. Alexei is one of the scientists who run the machine that opens the gate. The tests cause magnetic disturbances across town: magnets fall off fridges. That is the detail Joyce notices.
July 1985The kidnapping
Hopper and Joyce follow the trail to a warehouse guarded by the Russians. They escape with a hostage: Alexei, thrown in the trunk, handcuffed, screaming in Russian. Unable to understand him, they take him to the only man they know who speaks Russian, Murray Bauman, in his Illinois bunker.
July 1985Murray and the translation
Alexei falls silent, then asks for a slushie, then talks: the machine, the gate, the key to stop it. Murray translates, gets angry, grows attached. The two men watch cartoons together. Alexei understands he will never go back to Russia, and he seems to make his peace with it.
July 4, 1985The fair
The group goes to the Hawkins fair, where Alexei discovers the rides and wins a stuffed toy at a shooting game. Murray leaves him for a few minutes. Grigori, the killer sent by the Russians to recover or silence the runaway, finds him in the crowd and shoots him. Alexei collapses, the stuffed toy in his hand. Murray finds him dying and stays with him to the end, then goes down under Starcourt with Hopper and Joyce to finish what Alexei had explained.
The Soviet operation under Starcourt
To understand Alexei, you have to understand what he is doing in Hawkins. After the closing of the gate by Eleven in 1984, the Soviet Union tries to reopen one, at home first, without success: the matter between the worlds is too thick everywhere else. Hawkins, for its part, has already been pierced. The Russians therefore install there, under cover of the construction of the Starcourt mall, an underground base with a machine able to force the passage.
Alexei is one of the scientists who keep this machine running. He knows its architecture, its weak points, and above all the two keys that have to be turned at the same time to shut it down. It is that knowledge, and that knowledge alone, that makes him a precious hostage: when Hopper and Joyce kidnap him, they do not yet know they hold the instruction manual for the end of the season.
The base is huge, guarded by soldiers, run by officers who do not joke. Alexei is only a cog. The show insists on that: he does not defend the machine, he believes in none of this project. He explains everything, once the slushie is obtained, with an engineer's precision and the relief of a man who never wanted to be there.
What defines him
He discovers America like a child: cartoons, carnival rides, the slushie. The show grants him an innocence his employers do not have.
He knows how the machine works, and therefore how to stop it. Without him, Joyce would never have found the keys.
His only bargaining chip, and he uses it to the end. Alexei gives way on nothing until he has the right flavor.
He knows he will not make it home. He chooses to enjoy what is left: a fair, a stuffed toy, one evening.
Key moments
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The trunk
Hopper slams the trunk on a man screaming in Russian. Joyce asks what they are going to do with him. Nobody knows.
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The strawberry
Hopper brings back a strawberry slushie. Alexei looks at it, pushes it away, and stays silent. Murray understands first.
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The cartoons
Alexei and Murray, on the bunker's couch, laugh in front of the television. Two lonely men who found each other.
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The stuffed animal
At the shooting stand, he aims, wins, and holds up his giant stuffed animal. The widest smile of season 3.
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The crowd
A man in a raincoat, a gunshot muffled by the music, and Alexei sliding to the ground. Murray arrives too late.
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Their ties
| Person | What he or she is to Alexei | The key moment |
|---|---|---|
| Murray Bauman | The translator who became a friend, the only one who mourned him | The bunker couch; the fair |
| Jim Hopper | The kidnapper who brings him the wrong slushie | The strawberry |
| Joyce Byers | The one who listens to him explain the machine | The keys under Starcourt |
| Grigori | The killer sent to silence him | The fair, July 4, 1985 |
Not to be confused
| People often say | In reality | The landmark |
|---|---|---|
| Alexei is a spy | A scientist, engineer of the machine | The lab coat and the glasses |
| Alexei survives season 3 | He dies at the fair, shot by Grigori | The stuffed toy |
| Alexei is Enzo | Enzo is Dmitri, the 1986 guard; Alexei is the 1985 scientist | Two Russians, two seasons |
| Alexei speaks English | He speaks only Russian; Murray translates everything | The Illinois bunker |
A rarer confusion: Alexei did not build the machine alone. It is a large-scale Soviet project, with dozens of scientists and soldiers under Starcourt. He is one of the engineers, the one who has the misfortune of being in Hopper's path.
Our Alexei products
The cherry slushie has become a cult motif for fans: T-shirts and posters inspired by Alexei and the 1985 fair. We pick every piece ourselves, and claim nothing beyond our passion for the show.
To go with your reading: a piece from the show's universe that goes with this file.
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Frequently asked questions
Who is Alexei in Stranger Things?
Alexei is a Soviet scientist assigned to the secret operation run under the Starcourt mall in the summer of 1985, where a machine tries to reopen the gate to the Upside Down. Kidnapped by Hopper and Joyce, translated by Murray, he explains how to stop the machine before dying at the fair.
How does Alexei die in Stranger Things?
July 4, 1985, at the Hawkins fair, where Murray took him to discover America. Grigori, the killer sent by the Russians, finds him in the crowd coming out of a shooting gallery and shoots him. Alexei dies with a stuffed toy in his hand, Murray at his side.
Why does Alexei want a cherry slushie?
It is the only power he has left, cuffed in a bunker: refusing to talk until he has the right flavor. Hopper brings strawberry, Alexei stays silent. Murray understands and brings him cherry. The scene became the character's emblem.
What is the link between Alexei and Murray?
Murray Bauman is the only man Hopper and Joyce know who speaks Russian. He translates Alexei, gets angry at him, watches cartoons with him, and ends up growing attached. It is Murray who takes him to the fair, and Murray who stays with him when he dies.
Are Alexei and Enzo the same character?
No. Alexei is the Russian scientist of season 3, kidnapped in 1985, who dies at the fair. Enzo is the code name of Dmitri Antonov, the Kamchatka camp guard who helps Hopper in 1986 and survives. They are the two sympathetic Russians on the show.
Who plays Alexei?
Alec Utgoff plays Alexei in season 3. The images on this page come from the show and its promotion; they remain the property of their rights holders.