{"id":391654,"date":"2026-01-06T11:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T11:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/391654\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T11:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T11:50:08","slug":"stranger-things-5-episode-8-how-the-duffer-brothers-scored-two-prince-songs-for-the-series-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/391654\/","title":{"rendered":"Stranger Things 5 Episode 8: How the Duffer Brothers Scored Two Prince Songs for the Series Finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article contains major character or plot details.<\/p>\n

If Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) had his way, the Upside Down would have blown up to the punk beat of the Butthole Surfers. But the wormhole\u2019s collapse in the Stranger Things<\/a> series finale required something more grandiose. That\u2019s why series creators Matt and Ross Duffer, who also wrote and directed Episode 8, turned to “When Doves Cry” and “Purple Rain” from Prince and the Revolution\u2019s iconic 1984 album, Purple Rain.<\/p>\n

\"Brett<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we came up with the idea that the record was going to be the trigger for the bomb, we knew we needed an epic needle drop, and so many ideas were thrown around,\u201d Ross Duffer tells Tudum. \u201cI think there\u2019s nothing really more epic than Prince.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Duffer Brothers looked for albums that started with a celebratory song and ended with a weighty track that had emotional gravitas. Luckily, Ross Duffer notes, \u201cPrince lined up perfectly for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Hopper (David Harbour) and Murray (Brett Gelman) set off the bomb\u2019s remote trigger in Episode 8, the gang escapes the interdimensional bridge to the upbeat sounds of \u201cWhen Doves Cry.\u201d Later, as the mood turns somber, the song shifts to \u201cPurple Rain\u201d \u2014 Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) appears at the MAC-Z gate, seemingly still in the Upside Down as it falls apart. (The Duffer Brothers have left it up to viewers to determine what really happens to Eleven<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\"Millie<\/p>\n

The Duffer Brothers had \u201cnever talked about a song choice as much as we did for that moment,\u201d Ross Duffer explains. \u201cWhat is also very exciting about it is it just has not been used. [Prince\u2019s] estate does not generally allow that song to be licensed outside the\u00a0Purple Rain movie.\u201d The song choice was also thrilling \u201cbecause I think it summed up the emotion of the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, thanks to Kate Bush, we were able to acquire the rights,\u201d Matt Duffer notes. Bush\u2019s 1985 classic \u201cRunning Up That Hill (A Deal with God)\u201d saw a huge resurgence in popularity<\/a> \u2014\u00a0it shot up to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 2022 \u2014\u00a0after it was used in the fourth season<\/a> of Stranger Things.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the Stranger Things creators said they wanted to feature the two Prince songs in the finale, \u201cwe were told that it was a real long shot, so we just crossed our fingers,\u201d Matt Duffer says. \u201cThank God they agreed.\u201d<\/p>\n

See how both songs play out in the Stranger Things<\/a> series finale, which is streaming on Netflix. Plus, get the full rundown of every song in every season of Stranger Things here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article contains major character or plot details. If Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) had his way, the Upside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":{"0":"post-391654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}