Something that I haven’t seen discussed is the plot hole of the Russian gate machine causing fridge magnets to demagnetize. If the machine is powerful enough to demagnetize a fridge magnet miles away from the mall, it would have also been powerful enough to wipe all magnetic tape media in Hawkins leading to mass public outcry.
Signals on magnetic tape such as cassette tapes, VHS tapes, Betamax tapes, etc. are stored in the magnetic orientation of metal particles in the tape. Even a small external magnetic field can wipe a tape by disrupting the orientation of these particles. When all of Joyce’s magnets first fell, every single cassette tape and VHS movie in Hawkins should have been wiped as well.
The Russian code on Dustin’s tape would have been deleted before it could be decoded, the movie stores in the mall would lose all their inventory. Security footage, mixtapes, and home movies would all be gone. The the citizens of Hawkins should have been in an uproar asking how this could have happened across the whole town on the same night. It wouldn’t just be Joyce questioning things with no one taking her seriously. Also, any other product relying on a magnetic field would also be affected. All of the gang’s compasses would have been demagnetized etc.
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If this show was intended to be hard sci-fi, I'd be right there with you. But it isn't. It's sci-fi with fantasy and horror elements.
It has characters that can rip holes in the fabric of spacetime with their minds. Those holes (i.e., gates) are basically wormholes. The amount of energy required just to open one gate would be insane. Yet Eleven can do it by screaming and (season 4 spoilers) Vecna is able to open four large ones using psychic energy from ritualistic murders.
So, I'm willing to let the weird electromagnetic interference of said gates slide.
As Harrison Ford famously told Mark Hamill when Hamill pointed out a continuity error while filming the first Star Wars: "Relax kid, it's not that kind of movie."
What was the continuity error in Star Wars?
It was in the trash compactor scene. Luke’s hair is dry after being dunked by the trash creature.
Force dry
Every incel's motto.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
but Mark Hamill was right.
"If people are looking at your hair, we're all in big trouble."
Yeah an easy explanation for this is that because Joyce has been to the Upside Down, she has some kind of resonance with it, so when the Russians try to smash open the gate with electromagnetic energy, she emits a small amount around her too and that's why it was affecting her stuff but no one else seemed to notice that all their magnets fell off the fridge too
I like this. Not necessarily as the intended canon, but as a nice little neat head canon to paste over the plot hole so my science-brain shuts up.
It does, at the very least, explain why it seemed to be a relatively isolated incident.
This exactly. It's not hard-set rules, it's magic disguised as science.
I always treat the narrative like a d&d game. There are important plot puzzles raised early to guide the party to their destination. Ie the compass in s1. The science is usually basic enough to serve as a plot device, but rarely accurate enough to hold a place in a scientific journal.
Not to split hairs, but it's fantasy and horror with sci-fi elements more accurately.
Ok, sure. It doesn't really matter to me what order the adjectives are in. It's all of those things. The point is it isn't hard sci-fi. So expecting hard sci-fi seems like an unreasonable thing when the show has made it pretty clear it isn't that.
What part of the show is fantasy?
The magic wizards from another dimension?
They're not though are they, their kids from our dimension who got experimented on and ended up with 'powers'.
Calling it more fantasy than sci-fi, like the person I was responding to, feels a bit obtuse ngl.
It's fantasy wearing the trappings of sci-fi. Things work because they need to, and the "magic" is sci-fi enough to do the trick.
I don't mean this derisively, mind you. Star Wars does the same thing.
Have you ever seen a demogorgon irl before?
Clearly you haven't met my mother
So is Alien sci-fi or fantasy then?
Alien is sci-fi horror. Comparing Alien to ST is bananas tho. Not the same thing. There's no fantasy/adventure element to Alien, whereas ST is full of adventure/fantasy.
My head canon is that the energy comes from that dimension, not our world. Eleven, Vecna and demogorgon are basically "calling" gates to be opened and that massive energy is pouring from another dimension
Also, remember the gate messing up compasses in for a pretty wide area of land in S1? No way that would not immediately get discovered in the real world. How would there not be loads of confused drivers, pilots, electricians, etc.
Fridge magnets in the 80's were a lot weaker. I swear that scene is suppose to be a joke for those of us who lived through it. You could walk by your fridge magnets and they would just pop off and lose their magnetism. Even Hopper jokes, "That's what fridge magnets do!".
That's a really good point. 🤣 And it would be a very Joyce thing to take something mundane that isn't normally a problem and discover a conspiracy behind it that's actually real.
Yeah I mean some folks were mad at the fact the Russians were able to have their lab directly beneath the mall.
I think Joyce just had shitty magnets
Honestly, I think this might be the best possible answer.
Melvald's has shitty magnets, and she bought all hers there.
It actually isn’t a plot hole once you look at how the show treats the Gate’s energy. People assume the Russian machine was blasting out some giant uniform magnetic field across Hawkins, but that’s not what we see on-screen. The Gate tech doesn’t behave like a big electromagnet, it behaves like a multidimensional resonance device. Basically: it’s warping space and polarity in weird pockets, not flooding the town with one steady field.
That’s why Joyce notices localized magnet weirdness (her fridge, some in-town spots) instead of Hawkins collapsing into a magnetic apocalypse. If it were a uniform field strong enough to wipe tapes, you’d see signs flipping, car electronics frying, every compass in the county spinning — but none of that happens. Even in Season 1 the original Gate made compasses freak out but didn’t erase every VHS in Indiana, so there’s already precedent.
And fridge magnets are super weak. it doesn’t take much at all to knock their polarity off. Magnetic tape is way more resilient and only erases under a steady, consistent, high-strength field. The Gate’s distortion is unstable and oscillating, which is exactly the opposite of what wipes cassettes or VHS tapes. Random polarity fluctuations will drop a weak magnet long before they ever erase recorded media.
So yeah basically the Gate wasn’t erasing magnetism, it was warping polarity in pockets, which is enough to knock a fridge magnet off your freezer but nowhere close to wiping every tape in Hawkins. The show is actually internally consistent, it’s just not a “giant magnet beam,” it’s a “dimensional glitch in the magnetic field.”
This should be the top comment.
This is a great analysis.
Sure sure sure, if you believe “big science” and the big science agenda! Next thing you’ll say is that vaccines are safe and the world is round! /jk.
In all seriousness, thanks for the explanation that could make sense.
Haha oh jeez I wouldn't go that far! (/s) and np! At the end of the day it is just a tv show but I do think the Duffer bros are relatively onto it
Love this explanation and makes much more sense to me, thanks!
Yw :)
Wasn't the reason they bought up surrounding property outside of the mall to contain knowledge of the massive project they undertook below the mall? From the looks of it, they built something similar to the Large Hadron Collider to amplify the beam that opens the gate. If that were the case, it would also track that it wasn't a uniform set of symptoms caused, but localized to near the area of the circumference of their collider.
I don't believe any of this was explicitly stated, but it's what I infer from having seen it many times.
Fridge magnets do not need polarity to keep sticking to metal. Small temporary fluctuations should have no effect. Tape media is more susceptible to that
Of course they do, fridge magnets depend on stable magnetic domains, they’re just weak. so small chaotic distortions can knock them out. Tape media actually needs strong consistent field disruptions to erase, not random fluctuations.
I mean they also have walkie-talkies that can reach across an entire town, in and out of houses. I don't believe those things could do that in real life.
I think they use the hawkins av club radio as a repeater. Same way police radios are usually relayed via a more powerful radio in the car.
And in season 1 Mike even says the walkie talkies have weak, short signals. LOL
She wanted the magnets to work so Bob's portrait could stay on the fridge. I'd be ballistic too
The biggest gripe is why would the Indiana Flyer song be layered into the Russian Code when they recorded the message a mile underneath Hawkins. "We found out Russians invaded Hawkins" yet Dustin was able to talk to Suzie half way across the country, it could have been literally anywhere else.
Season 3 was just for funsies + gut wrenching ending of Hopper’s death (which also in hindsight was just done for funsies)
It’s a miracle 60 some comments and not one person realizing it’s a insane clown posse lyric post
Boy I hope someone got fired for that blunder
This makes sense to me, I feel like in later seasons they do that a lot, just kind of inroducing things when it suits them but not really being dilligent about the implications of things
Yes, this happens everywhere, not just in ST.
You're right, it happens in a lot of shows and movies. I do feel like some writers are much more intentional about making sure everything makes sense though.
I feel like the Duffers in particular built up this reputation of being extremely intentional, how there are "no coincidences", "nothing is by accident", etc. I don't get that, Stranger Things has gaping plot holes everywhere you look. We'll have to see how s5 wraps up but I personally think that people confuse them liking to place easter eggs in the show with them being dilligent about consistency.
Here’s a better plot hole for you: why the fuck we’re the Russians broadcasting a secret code to themselves saying (in code) “we’re in the mall!”
They were all already in the USA, why broadcast anything?
I've always 100% believed this was a Juggalos reference
Aside from this plot, another annoying plot hole is how Hopper got into Russia.
Don’t get me mad talkin all that science and shit
Wait til you hear about the interdimensional portals.
Whatever nerd
Isn’t a volcano just an angry mountain?
Meh. Wouldn't bother most. The show definitely doesn't go out of its way to pretend to be highly accurate science based vehicle.
The show is basically changing genres every season based on what lore they are trying to explore for Upside down.
The earlier seasons had sci fi elements that subsequently deteriorated every season but in S4 it pivoted hard into magic territory. Like what do u mean that in order to open portals, you need to torment depressed kids and kill them psychically and crushing them like twigs. And The bad guy who got banished into that world got disfigured to look like a corpse.
That's not sci fi. Thats more Harry Potter.
And this season, they went Wandavision route with Vecna's powers
That's a really good point. Why did those kids have to be tormented in order to open portals. Sounds pretty ridiculous when you say it.
Joyce was Donald Trump
😂😂😂😂😂
Apparently, Joyce went to the library and found out how they work!
Ask Pavel Buchnevich. He knows.
Just put them in water, baba bing, no more magnet
I don’t think this is a plot hole. Wasn’t the Russian base not located directly under the mall, but under Hawkins lab? Dont forget Steve and the gang had to walk miles to get to the dimensional drill. So I think it only reached a few places on the surface like Joyce’s house (which is close to the lab , another reason that Will was taken in season one)
ugh i love nerds 🙏🏽
Finally some scientific scrutiny. This sht wouldn't pass the peer-review process
Not often that Stranger Things gets to quote a President, but here we are.
Everything one was too busy worrying about their fridge magnets to try using any VHS tapes /s
We wouldn’t have Season 3 if she ignored her magnets lol
well just a quick search says that VCRs were an expensive luxury only in 1% of homes in 1980, 10% in 1983, & 50% by 1987
This show has more plot holes than black holes in the universe. Ignore them and we will enjoy the show more
The Simpsons did a bit with the Star Trek actors at a meet and greet where an audience member goes into real esoteric areas and I think the actors response was “We travel at the speed of light and walk around on planets billions of light years away without masks and your question is why didn’t the hyperdrive get stuck when I accidentally put it in reverse in one of the episodes? It’s a prop meant to move the storyline along!”
This has always bothered me! I’ve seen the sixth on cinema Oscar special, I know what magnets do to VHS tapes.
I never thought that I'd see anything ICP related to stranger things but here we are I guess
My (probably wrong) understanding is the night the Russians opened the gate burst of electromagnetic energy was released. So the tape that Dustin made at the end of premiere would be fine.
I have so many questions about so many plot holes in this series. However, the Duffer Brothers have said in many interviews that every question we have about this series will be answered by the finale. So I’m putting my faith and trust in them that every plot hole and question we have about the series will be answered.
I mean there's so many questions I doubt they meant literally all of them, probably just hyperbole for the most important questions, so plot holes like this may not be resolved or at least not all of them will.
Okay TRUE. Dang it I didn’t think about that. Now I’m wondering what they WON’T answer.🫣🫣🫣
When will people will understand that in movies (tv sows or else) the setup is in a completly different universe so things may work torally differently unless it's a story that represent real life events.
It’s not any less realistic than making wormholes by remotely obliterating kids
You’re taking it to deep, also taking the show to serious it’s just a freaking tv show for entertainment.
Some people are still thinking while consuming. I know it‘s a hard concept for some who just like to turn off their brains
You can think while consuming and still know when to turn your brain off.
But I don‘t want to turn my brain off?
Not sure why you're downvoted. I like media that treats its consumers as smart and capable people.
Suspension of disbelief only works if people willingly suspend it and accept the rules before thinking too hard about things.
It rarely works if the media has to repeatedly ask a viewer to do it.
It‘s a coinflip really. Sometimes I write the same comment twice to see the outcome. Just recently I got a comment upvoted and the other downvoted. They literally were the same comment, nothing was changed
You guys have brains ?¿
Good boy
Do yall use ur thinking caps when consuming media or just not think about what you're reading
Season 3 was bad writing across the board
S3 was the best season. It’s been in decline since then
It has been discussed before, but I personally have just dismissed the magnets as MYSTERY, because technically it's complete nonsense, as you are writing yourself.
I am not sure how someone can even come up with that idea and then millions of dollars are spent for actually producing it. Stupid ideas for a stupid audience ? 😎