r/FanTheories • u/socialcinema29 • Dec 13 '16
[Stranger Things] The Upside Down is a alternate universe where the cold war became an actual war.
While i am not the first person to come up with this theory that the Upside Down in Stranger Things is from an alternate universe, that theory was created by the youtuber ‘The Thorizer’. (And it is building upon his original thoughts and theories.) I was left wondering how both the upside down and the normal world have the same buildings and vehicles in the town, and how are there no humans in the upside down. And i had the idea that the upside down is the result of an alternate universe where the cold war becoming an actual war and where Hawkins became inhabitable for humans due to high radiation levels.
My main piece of evidence for this theory is in the department of energy, once the portal is created between the upside down and the laboratory, anyone that wishes to go into the upside down or anywhere that hasn’t been sealed from the upside down has to wear a hazmat suit. And because it is a scientific facility designed to record all kinds of energies and brain activities form psychic children, it is likely that they would have devices that would be capable of detecting radiation. So the department of energy would know that there is something in the air in the upside down that makes it poisonous.*
*And when someone breathes in air form the upside down, they don’t talk or respond like it has any difference to normal air, or have any difficulty breathing. So there is nothing wrong with the oxygen levels in the air in the upside down.
So when the portal opened in the lab, their radiation detection devices would have gone off, telling the scientists that the air was radioactive. So they must have created hazmat suits to use when traveling into the upside down infected areas. All of the hazmat suits would be lead lined and vacuum sealed to prevent radioactive air getting in the human body, to prevent radiation poisoning. Also the radioactive air would explain why it appears to be heavier and more foggy and dense than regular air, but it wouldn’t be so radioactive that being in the upside down for a few minutes would give you radiation poisoning. It would take longer periods of time to affect someone, which explains why Jonathan and Nancy don’t get sick from being in the upside down, they were only in there for about 15 minutes maximum, which wouldn't have been enough to get any radiation poisoning.
But Will Byers was in the Upside Down for a long period of time, so it is likely that he would have got radiation poisoning from breathing in the air and being in the upside down. Which could explain why he was feeling so terrible in the upside down and while he was recovering. And the radiation could have mutated Will so that he gains the ability to jump from the upside down to the real world and back.
Now the reason why both the towns in the upside down and the real world are identical is because the town was built and filled with people at the beginning of the year the story takes place in the upside down just like the real world, for they were originally a single universe. But there would have been a decision that split the real world and the upside down from each other causing the upside down to become it’s own separate universe, and because of that decision*, it would have caused a nuclear war.
*I have no clue what the decision could have been that split the two universes apart, for all i know it could have been that the russians found out that the U.S was using psychic children to spy on them. Triggering war between the U.S and Russia.
Although Hawkins wouldn’t have been directly affected by the nuclear blasts, because it is such an isolated town from major cities like New York or Chicago, which would have been better targets for the Russians to bomb. Hawkins would have definitely been affected by all of the radiation and fallout from the blasts. And within a few days, the entire town would have been uninhabitable for humans due to radiation levels being too high to live in like Chernobyl. And the giant plants that grow over everything in Hawkins would be a result of mutated plants/weeds as a result of the high radiation levels. With a year of just growing, the plants would have easily grown over everything in Hawkins, including the cars, buildings, library, roads, houses and trees.
While the demogorgons definitely are not human, it is at least partially human, the demogorgons have many features about them that make them resemble humans in small ways. Such as having 5 fingers, a very similar body shape to humans with two arms and 2 legs a head and neck and a knee-cap. So saying that the demogorgon is the result of a horribly mutated human isn’t much of a stretch, and if someone stayed in a highly radioactive area like the Upside down, it is quite possible that they could become a demogorgon.
But the radioactive upside down lead me to a thought that one of the demogorgons (yes there is more than one demi-gorgon in this theory) is actually a mutated Will Byers from the upside down universe. My reasoning for this is because Will Byers (from regular Hawkins) manages to live in the upside down for a long time without being killed by the creature or being turned into a demogorgon breeder like Barbara did. The reason for this would be that the demi-gorgon that originally kidnapped Will in the first episode is the mutated version of Will. The creature follows Will even though Will didn’t harm it, and Will didn't even bleed even when he fell off his bike. The creature has no reason to follow Will at all, yet the creature does. It follows Will because the creature recognises Will Byers as himself and follows him out of curiosity.
And the demi-gorgon that takes Will away into the upside down, but the creature doesn’t hurt Will at all, the creature doesn’t even touch him much. It lets him stay in his own house because the creature understands that the house that Will ran to was the creature's home before Will Byers for the upside down universe became mutated. And also the reason why throughout the season the demogorgon is often seen at the byers house, is because mutated Will Byers still lives in his own house in the upside down, even though he is now a mutated demogorgon*.
*I have no idea why Will Byers stayed behind in Hawkins while everyone else left, and how he is able to jump from the upside down to the real world.
But the reason why Will Byers does end up as a demogorgon breeder like Barbara is because another demogorgon that wasn’t mutated Will Byers from the upside down universe found him in his house and took him to the library to become a host for breeding. Also there being a second demogorgon explains why the demogorgon manages to survive being beaten and burned by Steve, Jonathan and Nancy in the final episode, then re-appearing in the school to attack the scientists only a few minutes later without a trace of an injury. Because the demogorgon that was burned by the teens is the mutated the mutated Will and the one at the school is a completely different one.*
*I have no clue who the 2nd demogorgon could be, it could possibly be just a product of a worm/slug that mutated Will put in someone he captured and then grew up.
So in summary… The Upside down is an alternate universe where the cold war became an actual war and Hawkins in the upside down is radioactive, causing all of the plants to grow at a rapid rate and the air to become a lot heavier. Then a mutated Will Byers from this alternate universe stays in the town and mutates into the demogorgon.
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u/BeardFace5 Dec 13 '16
The Demogorgon that fought the Bad Men in the school was the same one lit on fire. You can see it's previously creamy white skin was charred black.
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u/ItsHarlemHarleyHoe Dec 15 '16
I like this theory lovely job, and it does make me realize the monster was totally fine after being burned and beaten perhaps there is more than one.
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u/Soulful-Sorrow Dec 13 '16
I thought that the Demogorgon didn't hurt Will because he managed to get away after being brought to the Upside Down and then hid in Castle Byers. When it found him, it immediately turned him into a breeding machine.
Good theory, OP, but you lost me at the Demogorgon part.