List Of 80s References In 'Dig Dug' - Stranger Things 2, Episode 5

Dig Dug is of course the name of one of the arcade games we saw Max playing back in episode one. Will episode 5 score highly in our rundown of 80s references in Stranger Things 2? Well, yes, of course it will!

We get a brief look at Mike's watch at the start of the episode. Yes, it's a Casio calculator watch. These were nerd gold in the first half of the 80s. Next to useless, but the closest thing we had to iPads back then.

The Stephen King story gets another nod as Nancy and Jonathan share a motel room. (With separate beds, naturally!) They show their scars, which came from when they cut their hands in season 1 in an attempt to lure the demogorgon. In It, the characters are linked by a blood oath they make by cutting across their palms.

Hopper appears to be channelling Indy in some of these tunnel scenes. He's got the right hat, he's ripped the sleeves off his jacket so is looking a bit more Indy than usual. He's got the pistol, he's just missing a bullwhip.

The food trail Dustin leaves for Dart is very similar to Elliot leaving a trail of Reece's Pieces to lure that alien out of the shed and into his house. What would you prefer, raw meat or chocolate?

The way Dart's head opens up when it barks/screams remind us of the alien in Predator, whose face kind of hinges open in all the wrong ways. Predator is a 1987 film starring Arnie that manages to tick the boxes for the science fiction, horror, adventure and action genres.

Bob mentions looking for pirate treasure, there's even an X marking the spot. It could only be more obvious if Chunk appeared doing the truffle shuffle.

Lucas's sister Erica gets annoyed with Dustin on the walkie talkie. While she's doing that she picks up a He-Man play figure. He-Man was a massively popular toy franchise in the 80s, with a whole range of plastic toy figures and play sets, plus cartoons and even a truly terrible film starring Dolph Lundgren as the Master of the Universe himself.

El using a TV blasting static as a tool with which to communicate to her mother is another nod to Poltergeist. Does the fact she has to wrap a bandana round her head also mean this is a nod to Karate Kid?

Prepare to have your mind blown when Lucas finishes telling Max what happened to Will in season 1. She thinks it's a story and criticises Lucas for making something up which she felt "was a little too derivative in parts. I just wish you had a little more originality, that's all." Which is basically a summary of many of the key complaints about this series being made, in this series. How meta can you get?

As Hopper gets rescued from the tunnels he does a quick grab back to pick up his hat. A move we've seen Indiana Jones perform too!

Hopper being assimilated by the tentacles in the tunnel has got a real Aliens feel about it. The 1986 film included scenes, that were originally edited out of the film, that showed some of the colonists captured by the xenomorphs being cocooned in a nest under the reactor. It looks like something similar was in store for Hopper until Joyce and Bob came to the rescue.