Eleven (Stranger Things): who is Jane Hopper, the girl with powers?
Character · Subject 011 · Seasons 1 to 5
Eleven, Eleven in the original version, is the heroine of Stranger Things: the little girl with the shaved head who comes out of the Hawkins woods in November 1983, a number tattooed on her arm and powers able to break a Demogorgon. Born Jane Ives, Dr. Brenner's test subject, adopted by Jim Hopper, she goes through five seasons between the lab, the Upside Down, and a family she builds on her own. This page brings together everything: her origin, her powers, her seasons, her ties, and the ending the show chose to leave open.
The essentials
- Real name: Jane Ives, then Jane Hopper; “Eleven,” “El,” subject 011
- Born: June 7, 1971, daughter of Terry Ives
- Childhood: Hawkins National Laboratory, in the care of Dr. Brenner, “Papa”
- Powers: telekinesis, telepathy, remote sight in the Void
- Distinctive signs: the 011 tattoo, the nosebleed, the waffles
- Played by: Millie Bobby Brown
- Status: remains in the Upside Down as it collapses; the show leaves his fate open
Contents
Played by
Millie Bobby Brown
It is Millie Bobby Brown who lends her face to Eleven (Eleven) on the show.
Image: Stranger Things series, via media.vanityfair.fr.
Who is Eleven?
The first time you see her, she is walking barefoot in the rain, in a hospital gown, to the counter of a roadside diner where she steals fries. She barely speaks. On her left forearm, a tattoo: 011. Mike, Dustin, and Lucas find her in the woods the day after Will disappears, and call her Eleven, for lack of a better name. The name will stick.
She was born Jane Ives, on June 7, 1971. Her mother, Terry Ives, took part in the Hawkins Lab experiments during her pregnancy; the child was declared stillborn and taken by Dr. Martin Brenner, whom she learns to call Papa. Eleven grows up in a white room, between the tests, the sensory-deprivation tanks, and the punishments. She is the eleventh child of the program. The first was named Henry.
What makes Eleven a unique character is not only her powers: it is that she learns the world at the same time we do. Waffles, friendship, lying, the promise, anger, love: every word she discovers is a scene. In five seasons, the little girl with no name becomes the freest person on the show.
Why “Onze” and not “Eleven”In the French version, the character is called Onze, a direct translation of her subject number. French-speaking fans use both, and often “El,” the nickname Mike gives her. Only one spelling is wrong: “Elfe,” heard here and there, which never existed in the show.
In the shop: a piece inspired by Eleven, chosen by us.
In the shopWomen's Eleven portrait T-shirt39,90 €See the product
Eleven season by season
1979Before: the lab
At eight, Eleven is the most gifted child in the program, and the loneliest. A kind orderly, Henry, becomes her only friend and manipulates her into removing the chip that holds his powers back. He then massacres the other children and the staff. Eleven faces him, draws on a memory of her mother, and throws him into an unknown dimension by opening, without knowing it, the first gate. Brenner makes her forget. She will only remember in 1986.
1983Season 1: the escape
November 1983. Sent into the Void to spy, Eleven comes into contact with a creature, and the lab gate opens wide. She escapes. Taken in by Mike in the Wheeler basement, she learns the words, the waffles, the promise. She locates Will in the other world thanks to a school pool turned into a deprivation tank. Hunted by Brenner, she faces the Demogorgon in a classroom and disintegrates it. She vanishes with it. Hopper, who has understood, leaves waffles in a box deep in the woods.
1984Season 2: Jane
She survived, brought out of the Upside Down through a gate in a tree. Hopper hides her in his grandfather's cabin, with strict rules she ends up breaking. She finds her mother, Terry, a prisoner of a loop of memories, and a lab sister, Kali, 008, who lives in Chicago and hunts the program's former staff. Eleven chooses to go home. On the night of the battle, she closes the lab gate, which kills the pack of demodogs. Hopper gets her birth certificate: her name is Jane Hopper. At the Snow Ball, she dances with Mike.
1985Season 3: the loss
Summer 1985, Eleven is dating Mike, under Hopper's jealous watch, and discovers with Max friendship between girls, the mall, and the right to say no. The Mind Flayer is back, in Billy's body. In the battle of Starcourt, Eleven is bitten in the leg by the creature; she pulls a piece out, but her powers vanish. Hopper is presumed dead in the explosion under the mall. Three months later, Joyce takes her sons and Eleven to California.
1986Season 4: the return of the powers
In Lenora Hills, Eleven is a teenager without powers, bullied by Angela, who ends up hitting her with a roller skate. Arrested, she is picked up by Dr. Owens and taken to an old Nevada silo, Project NINA, where Brenner, alive, is waiting. To get her abilities back, she has to relive 1979: the chip, the massacre, Henry, the gate. She finally understands who Vecna is. Her powers come back. Brenner dies under army fire protecting her. From a Nevada pizzeria, plunged into a freezer, she enters Max's mind, faces Vecna, and starts her friend's heart again.
1987Season 5: the sacrifice
November 1987. Hawkins is under quarantine, and Eleven leads the incursions into the Upside Down in search of Henry. She finds Kali, a prisoner of the army, who dies in the assault on the lab. In the Abyss, the dimension from which Henry wants to reshape the world, she faces him directly, with Will, and impales him; Joyce finishes the job with an axe. The group detonates a bomb to destroy the Upside Down. Eleven chooses to stay on the other side while it collapses. The epilogue, in May 1989, does not show her. But Mike, by cross-checking details, convinces himself that Kali and she had a last plan, and that Eleven is alive somewhere, free. The show lets each viewer choose to believe it.
Her powers
She moves, crushes, throws with her mind: a van in mid-flight, a Demogorgon to ashes, a mall taken apart. The price: a nosebleed, then exhaustion.
She enters minds, reads memories, and in 1986 joins Max inside her own head. That is how she faces Vecna on his ground.
A black space where she sees at a distance, her eyes covered, a white radio in the background. That is where she finds Will, Terry, and the creature that started everything.
She opened the first one without meaning to, in 1979 and in 1983. She closes one in 1984. The whole mythology of the show passes through her hands.
Their ties
| Person | What he or she is to Eleven | The key moment |
|---|---|---|
| Mike Wheeler | The first friend, the first love, the one who teaches her the words | The love confession in the pizzeria, 1986, which gives her the strength to hold against Vecna |
| Jim Hopper | The father, adoptive then chosen | The waffles in the woods, then Jane Hopper's birth certificate |
| Max Mayfield | The best friend, the first girl of her life | The afternoon of shopping at Starcourt, 1985 |
| Kali / 008 | The lab sister, the other possible path | Chicago, 1984; then the lab, 1987, where Kali dies |
| Brenner | Papa, the tormentor who thinks he is a protector | His death in Nevada, 1986, covering her with his body |
| Will Byers | The adoptive brother, the other child linked to the hive | The Abyss, 1987, where they strike Henry together |
Another piece from the selection: a piece inspired by Eleven.
In the shopLego Eleven mini figure on a skateboard14,90 €See the product
Not to be confused
| People often say | In reality | The landmark |
|---|---|---|
| Eleven is called Elf | Eleven, Eleven, El, or Jane; never Elf | The tattoo: 011 |
| Eleven is Brenner's daughter | Her mother is Terry Ives, her biological father died in Vietnam; Brenner stole her | Terry, a prisoner of her memories, in 1984 |
| Eleven dies at the end of season 1 | She is thrown into the Upside Down and comes back out | Hopper's cabin, 1984 |
| Eleven dies at the end of the show | She stays in the other world as it collapses; her fate is left open | Mike's deduction, May 1989 |
A rarer confusion: Eleven is not Henry Creel's sister, even if both are children of the program. Henry is subject 001, the first; she is 011. He manipulated her, she banished him. Nothing binds them except the lab and Brenner.
Our Eleven products
Eleven is the most iconic character on the show and one of the most requested: pink dress and headband, waffles, 011 T-shirts, figures, and posters inspired by her seasons. We pick every piece ourselves, and claim nothing beyond our passion for the show.
To complete the reading: a piece inspired by Eleven.
In the shopChibi Eleven blond wig and waffle keychain12,90 €See the product
Frequently asked questions
Who is Eleven in Stranger Things?
Eleven, or Eleven, is Jane Ives, a child born in 1971 and raised as a test subject at Hawkins Lab by Dr. Brenner. Gifted with telekinesis and telepathy, she escapes in 1983, meets Mike, Dustin, and Lucas, and becomes the heroine of the show. Adopted by Hopper, she takes the name Jane Hopper.
Why does Eleven have powers?
Her mother, Terry Ives, took part in the lab experiments during her pregnancy. Eleven was born with psychic abilities that Brenner then trained and exploited. The show does not give a complete scientific explanation: it shows the consequences, never the formula.
Does Eleven die in Stranger Things?
The show does not decide. In the last chapter, after defeating Henry with Will and Joyce, Eleven chooses to stay in the Upside Down while it is destroyed. The epilogue does not show her, but Mike convinces himself she survived thanks to a plan prepared with Kali. The creators have said they wanted to leave the choice to viewers.
Why does Eleven lose her powers in season 3?
During the battle of Starcourt, in July 1985, the Mind Flayer bites her in the leg and leaves a fragment of flesh in her, which she pulls out. Her powers vanish at once. She gets them back in 1986, in Nevada, by reliving the 1979 massacre with Brenner.
Who is Eleven's father?
Her biological father, Andrew Rich, died in the Vietnam War before she was born. Brenner, whom she calls Papa, is not her father: he took her from her mother at birth. Her real father, the one she chooses, is Jim Hopper, who adopts her in 1984.
Who plays Eleven?
Millie Bobby Brown has played Eleven since 2016, from her twelve years to the end of the show. The images on this page come from the show and its promotion; they remain the property of their rights holders.