Stranger Things: Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up(2025)

2h 5m

Release Date: Dec 31, 2025

As Hawkins faces its final battle against the horrors of the Upside Down, Eleven and her friends make their last stand. In the feature-length series finale of Stranger Things, alliances are tested, futures are shaped and the very fabric of reality hangs in the balance. Every choice matters as the gang fights to keep their world “rightside up.”

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Director & Top Cast

Arkasha Stevenson
Director

Winona Ryder
Joyce Byers

David Harbour
Jim Hopper

Millie Bobby Brown
Eleven

Finn Wolfhard
Mike Wheeler

Gaten Matarazzo
Dustin Henderson

Caleb McLaughlin

Lucas Sinclair

Noah Schnapp

Will Byers

Sadie Sink

Max Mayfield

Natalia Dyer

Nancy Wheeler

Charlie Heaton

Jonathan Byers

Joe Keery

Steve Harrington

Maya Hawke

Robin Buckley

Brett Gelman

Murray Bauman

Priah Ferguson

Erica Sinclair

Jamie Campbell Bower

Vecna

Cara Buono

Karen Wheeler

Alex Breaux

Lt. Akers

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Dolby Atmos

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States

Language: English

Summaries

Plot Summary

Stranger Things: Chapter Eight — The Rightside Up is the eighth and final episode of the fifth season of the American sci-fi horror drama Stranger Things, created by Matt and Ross Duffer for Netflix. This installment serves as the feature-length series finale, running over two hours and bringing nearly a decade of storytelling to a close. Released on December 31, 2025, the episode premiered simultaneously on Netflix and in select theaters across North America and Canada, where it played through January 1, 2026. Directed and written by the Duffer Brothers, The Rightside Up reunites the Hawkins crew — including Eleven, Mike, Will, Joyce, Hopper, and more — for one last confrontation with Vecna and the collapsing world of the Upside Down. Blending science fiction, horror, and emotional character resolution, this finale explores themes of friendship, sacrifice, identit,y and the price of growing up. Designed to wrap up the arcs of its core characters, the episode doubles as both a thrilling adventure and a farewell to one of Netflix’s most iconic series. With its expansive runtime and culmination of season-long stakes, The Rightside Up is crafted for fans of character-rich sci-fi that balances supernatural peril with heart.

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Fun Facts

Little known to many viewers, Eleven’s disappearance was staged with minimal visual effects, relying more on performance, lighting, and editing than spectacle to make the moment feel intimate rather than superheroic.