Netflix finally closed the book on Stranger Things last week with a two hour finale, and while fans are still unpacking Vecna’s fate, the Upside Down, and who actually made it out alive.
The internet has latched onto something far less serious, the final battle looks suspiciously like a Linkin Park music video, specifically, people can’t stop comparing Vecna’s Abyss to the visual world of Linkin Park’s ‘In the End’.
The Abyss, which became central to the show in its final stretch, is a scorched, desert like wasteland drenched in yellow brown tones.
It’s bleak, empty, and feels like the end of the world is constantly five seconds away, sound a little familiar? That same palette, atmosphere, and post apocalyptic emptiness defined the video for ‘In the End’ back in 2000.
Linkin Park ‘In The End’ video
During the finale, as Vecna holds children captive and the main cast storms the Abyss for one last fight, social media lit up with comparisons, with fans joking that Linkin Park apparently invented the dimension decades ago, while others pointed out how the mountains, dust, and washed out lighting feel ripped straight from early 2000s MTV.
Some posts leaned into humour, imagining the band casually filming a music video while Hawkins’ kids sprint past fighting for their lives, others framed it as accidental cultural foreshadowing, with Linkin Park “walking so Stranger Things could run”.
A few fans even stitched together clips from the finale and the video, blending them into one cursed but fun mash up.
Unintentional
There’s no suggestion this was intentional, but it fits neatly into Stranger Things’ long running love affair with rock and metal culture, from Metallica’s ‘Master of Puppets’ resurrecting Eddie Munson as a modern icon, to nods toward Iron Maiden, Dio, W.A.S.P., Deep Purple, and Kate Bush, the show has always worn its influences loudly.
Whether the Abyss was inspired by Linkin Park or it’s just one of those uncanny coincidences, the comparison feels fitting, both tap into the same turn of the millennium dread. Dust, decay, and the sense that everything is already falling apart.
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