Eleven (Stranger Things)

Eleven
Stranger Things character
Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven
First appearance	"Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers" (2016)
Created by	The Duffer Brothers
Portrayed by	Millie Bobby Brown Charlotte Ward & Clara Ward (young Eleven in Stranger Things 2)[1]
In-universe information
Full name	Jane Hopper
Alias	Jane Ives (birth name)
Nicknames	El
Gender	Female
Family	Jim Hopper (adoptive father) Joyce Byers (legal guardian) Terry Ives (biological mother) Andrew Rich (biological father) Becky Ives (biological aunt)
Significant other	Mike Wheeler
Home	Hawkins, Indiana, United States

Eleven, born Jane Ives and legally named Jane Hopper, is a fictional character of the Netflix science fiction horror drama series Stranger Things, written and produced by the Duffer Brothers. She is played by British actress Millie Bobby Brown. Eleven has psychokinetic and telepathic abilities.^[2]

Fictional character biography[]

Eleven is the daughter of Teresa "Terry" Ives, a participant in the Project MKUltra experiments conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Eleven appears to have been born telekinetic. However, when she uses these abilities, she becomes temporarily weakened and her nose bleeds. At birth, Eleven was taken away from her mother by Dr. Martin Brenner and was raised in a national laboratory in fictional Hawkins, Indiana, as a test subject, in order to develop her psychokinetic skills. When placed in a sensory deprivation tank, she can use remote viewing to access other dimensions, primarily for the purposes of international espionage. Eleven opens a gate between the Hawkins Laboratory and the Upside Down dimension, and the creature living in that dimension gains the ability to travel between the human world and the Upside Down.

Season 1[]

In the first season, Eleven escapes from Hawkins Laboratory and attempts to steal food from a local restaurant. The owner, Benny, takes pity on her and calls social services. The responding social worker, who turns out to be a Hawkins Laboratory agent, kills Benny. Eleven flees before being taken once again. She is encountered by Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) and Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin), who are looking for their missing friend, Will Byers (Noah Schnapp). The boys learn that her name is Eleven based on a "011" tattoo found on her left forearm. Mike decides to call her "El" for short. Mike allows Eleven to live in his basement in a blanket fort. Fearing recapture, Eleven convinces Mike not to tell any adults so the social workers will not find her.

Eleven helps to locate Will and determines that he is trapped in the Upside Down. The group sets out to find Will using their compasses, but Eleven interferes with their search when she realizes that they are being led toward the Hawkins laboratory. Lucas, noticing her deception, becomes angry at her. She flees, steals boxes of frozen waffles from a store, and eats them in a forest. Mike and Dustin are threatened by bullies; Mike is forced to jump off a high cliff into a lake and Dustin is held hostage. Eleven returns and intervenes before Mike hits the water, and saves both Mike and Dustin.

Eleven, Mike, and Dustin reunite with Lucas and make amends. They travel to the town junkyard with Dr. Brenner and his associates in close pursuit. During the chase, Eleven uses her powers to cause a laboratory van to flip through the air. The group is aided by Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder), Police Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour), Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), and Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton), produce a makeshift isolation tank with a pool and bags of salt. Eleven accesses the Upside Down and confirms that Will is alive. As laboratory personnel close in on the school, Mike tells Eleven she can be a part of his family and asks her to the school dance. He then kisses her after struggling to explain his feelings towards her. Eleven helps the group escape by using her powers to kill most of the agents, although doing so leaves her drained. The monster from the Upside Down makes its way into their dimension, and Eleven seemingly sacrifices herself to destroy the creature and save her friends.

One month later, after a Christmas party, Hopper leaves the police station and drives to the woods. There, he leaves waffles in a concealed box. Eleven's condition and location are left ambiguous.^[3][4]

Season 2[]

After defeating the Demogorgon, Eleven wakes up in the Upside Down dimension. She escapes through a portal, which leads her back to the school. With the government still searching for her, she is forced to hide in the forest. Eleven eventually finds the Eggos Hopper left for her and seeks him out. The two move into a cabin in the woods where he forbids her to leave, fearing for her safety. Hopper hides Eleven indoors for almost a year, telling no one of her whereabouts, not even Mike. During this time, Eleven gains better control over her powers; she is less weakened by the use of her telekinesis, and she is now able to project her mind without the use of a sensory deprivation tank. She uses the latter ability to listen to Mike's attempts to contact her, though she is increasingly frustrated at her inability to reply. Eleven also significantly expands her vocabulary during this time, learning from both Hopper and television.

Eleven becomes restless and longs to reunite with Mike, and this causes tension between her and Hopper. She runs away from home one day and travels to Hawkins Middle School. When she finds Mike, he is with Max, a new student. Eleven mistakenly thinks Max is flirting with Mike and, out of spite, uses her powers to knock Max off of her skateboard before leaving. Upon returning to the cabin, she gets into a heated argument with Hopper over her leaving the cabin, ending with her using her powers to damage the cabin out of anger. The next day, cleaning the mess she made of the cabin, she discovers by looking through records in the cabin's basement that her birth mother is alive, contradicting what Hopper had told her. She then goes to meet her mother, Terry, and her aunt, Becky, and discovers what happened to Terry at Hawkins Laboratory. While there, she realizes Terry is trying to talk with her, but due to her catatonic state, is unable to. Eleven, using her powers, views a flashback from her mother. Terry, after her daughter was taken from her, attempted to force her way into Hawkins Lab to save her. As a response, Brenner and his assistants captured her and subjected her to electroshock therapy, resulting in her current condition. Eleven then uses her abilities to find out she has a "sister" – another gifted girl taken by Dr. Brenner for experimentations – and sets out to find her.

Using her abilities once again, Eleven locates her sister and discovers that she is an older girl named Kali ("Eight"), with the ability to cause people to have visual hallucinations. Eleven stays with Kali and her friends – runaways who are determined to take revenge on people who have hurt them. Kali tells Eleven that while using her powers, she needs to think about what makes her most angry. When they go to get revenge on Brenner's assistant who helped hurt Eleven's mother, Eleven begins to choke him to death but stops upon realizing that he has two daughters. She then stops Kali from shooting him. Back at the hideout, Eleven witnesses Hopper and Mike in danger through the void. While the gang are about to flee, Eleven realizes she needs to go back to her friends because they need her help.

Eleven goes back to Hawkins and finally reunites with Mike with a heartfelt embrace and her friends after saving them from a Demodog. The group realizes that she needs to close the gate to the Upside Down, and she and Hopper head to Hawkins Laboratory. There, Eleven uses Kali's advice and focuses her anger into her powers, closing the gate and draining her powers. Afterward, it is discovered that Dr. Owens has forged a birth certificate allowing for Hopper to become Eleven's legal adoptive father as a way to help keep her in hiding. Eleven's new legal name is Jane Hopper. Hopper lets her attend the Snow Ball at Hawkins Middle School. She meets up with Mike, dances with him, and they share their first kiss as a couple.

Season 3[]

At the start of season three, Eleven and Mike have been dating for seven months, much to the dismay of Hopper, who is annoyed that El and Mike are constantly together, spending all of their time alone kissing. When Hopper confesses to Joyce that he feels uncomfortable about the situation, she suggests that he sit down and calmly talk to El and Mike about how he feels. This backfires, however, and Hopper resorts to verbally threatening Mike to stay away from Eleven, or he will end their relationship. When Mike is forced to lie to Eleven about why he can no longer visit her, she becomes suspicious and seeks advice from Max, who asserts that Mike is pushing Eleven aside to spend time playing games with the boys, and suggests that they have some fun of their own by going shopping at the new Starcourt mall.

The girls spend quality time together at the mall where they encounter Lucas, Will and Mike, who are attempting to buy Eleven a makeup present. When Mike lies and says the present is for his sick grandmother, Eleven breaks up with him and leaves on a bus with Max, where the girls spend the night sleeping over at Hopper's house and use Eleven's telepathic powers to spy on the boys. This leads to a game they create in which they spin a bottle and spy on whoever it lands on. Eleven spies on Billy and it appears he has kidnapped someone, so the girls go to look for him and discover a fellow lifeguard has also gone missing. They discover that Billy has been taken over by the Mind Flayer as well as the missing lifeguard known as Heather.

They reunite with Mike, Lucas, and Will. Mike is annoyed that El would spy on him and has an argument with Max about his feelings for Eleven while she is spying on the Flayed. She holds off the Mind Flayer when the cabin is attacked, but the Flayer wounds her and leaves a piece of itself in the wound. El and Mike make up, but the Mind Flayer and Billy track them due to El's wound. Eleven loses her powers after removing the piece of the monster from her leg, but the group defeat the Mind Flayer by closing the portal to the Upside Down. Hopper is presumed dead in the explosion that closes the gate and Eleven is taken in by the Byers. While the Byers are packing to leave Hawkins, El reveals to Mike that she also loves him and they share a kiss. Joyce gives her a letter written by Hopper that he intended to use when talking to her and Mike about how he felt about them dating. Eleven and the Byers then leave Hawkins where Eleven cries as they drive away.

Development[]

Conception and writing[]

The Duffer Brothers based the character of Eleven on survivors of the Project MKUltra experiments, with influences from E.T. and the idea of being an outsider. They also drew inspiration from the animes Elfen Lied and Akira,^[5] saying they "wanted there to be a mystery in her past, and also have her seem a little scary."^[6] Stranger Things was pitched as a limited series, and it was planned that Eleven would sacrifice herself in the last episode of the series. But, Netflix were keen for the show to be continued in a second season, so the brothers decided to keep this character alive.^[7]

Casting[]

The brothers believed Eleven was the most difficult role to cast, as the character had few lines. They wanted a child actor who was able to convey much emotion. The Duffers were concerned that they would not find someone who could stay in character when not speaking. The brothers were relieved after meeting Millie Bobby Brown, who they described as "something special, alright, with a downright spooky preternatural talent." Brown had to shave her head for the role. Initially she and her parents were worried about this, although after she was shown a photo of Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa, she agreed to getting her hair cut.^[5]

Reception[]

The performance of Millie Bobby Brown received widespread acclaim and 13-year-old Millie received two nominations for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series and two nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, becoming one of the youngest nominees for the awards.

The character and Brown's performance have received critical acclaim; Alice Vincent of The Daily Telegraph wrote:

"Millie Bobby Brown continues to be the star of the show: she has inspired fan art and tattoos, a worldwide acknowledgment of Eggos, the waffles her character devours and given a whole new life to the phrase 'mouth breather'".^[8]

Ashley Hoffman of Time magazine recommended Eleven as a mascot for National Waffle Day.^[9]

However, Lenika Cruz of The Atlantic said that "despite a rich backstory, Eleven is the show's most thinly sketched protagonist".^[10]

At the 69th and 70th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2017 and 2018, Brown received a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. At the 2017 MTV Movie & TV Awards, she was nominated for Best Hero and Best Actor in a Show, winning the latter award. She won Best Performance by a Younger Actor in a Television Series at the 43rd Saturn Awards. She was twice nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series in 2017 and 2018. She won a Kids Choice Award for Best Female Actor in 2018 and 2020.

See also[]

• List of Stranger Things characters
• Project MKUltra

References[]

External links[]

• Eleven on IMDb