What Stranger Things Used For Will's Body In The Season 1 Morgue Break-In Scene
It's hard to narrow down the creepiest moments on "Stranger Things," though Season 1 did a great job of keeping viewers on the edge of their seats. Right off the bat, we know that something dangerous is on the loose in Hawkins. It's not easy to watch as kind-hearted Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) is stalked through the night by a shadow figure that stays just out of sight, though his abduction throws even more questions into the mix. Is Will truly dead, or do Joyce's (Winona Ryder) claims that her son is alive have any merit? It seems like the case is closed when Will's body is found in a quarry, but Police Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour) decides to look into the situation himself.
Hopper is a seasoned investigator, so it doesn't take him long to figure out that something strange is going on at Hawkins Lab. He infiltrates the facility and finds Will's body in the morgue, but when Hopper touches the corpse, it doesn't seem right. It's gut-wrenching to watch him cut into Will's chest with a knife, revealing the body to be an eerily accurate fake, but it's a major turning point in the narrative.
During a Reddit AMA, a fan of the show asked David Harbour what was used to make Will's body seem so realistic and the answer came in the form of the actor's succinct but informative reply: "Full body dummy made of rubber. It was hard to cut and felt super gross."
David Harbour had to cut open a rubber dummy
David Harbour just wants Hopper to be happy at the end of "Stranger Things," and it's easy to see why. Out of all the characters on the show, Hopper has been dealt more than his fair share of heartbreak. After facing the tragic death of his daughter, Sara (Elle Graham), and the subsequent collapse of his marriage, he moved back to his hometown only to fall into a deep depression. When viewers first meet Hopper, he's relying on alcohol and prescription medication to get out of bed in the morning. Nothing interesting ever happens in Hawkins, but Will's disappearance changes that. Suddenly, Hopper is on the hook for a missing kid, and the stakes are precariously high.
In the morgue scene, Hopper acts as a stand-in for the viewer. When he realizes that there's a larger conspiracy at play, it confirms everything we've seen up to that point. When he realizes that Will's body is just a dummy, he begins his investigation of Hawkins Lab in earnest, a path that ultimately leads him to become Eleven's (Millie Bobby Brown) father-figure. Will's supposed death is gruesome and painful, but it's the catalyst for Hopper's transformation into one of the show's most beloved protagonists. Will's body might be fake, but the character development is as real as it gets.
Hopefully, "Stranger Things" Season 5 will feature a peaceful conclusion to Hopper's story, even if he has to fight some monsters along the way.