Warning: spoilers for Stranger Things season 4 parts 1 and 2.
The final episodes of Stranger Things season 4 saw every subplot coming together to help Eleven and the Hawkins group defeat Vecna, with Jim Hopper killing the last Demogorgon in Russia with a sword – but where did that sword come from? After a long wait due to delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the highly-anticipated season 4 of Stranger Things was finally released in two parts: the first seven episodes were released on Netflix in May 2022, and the final two were released on July 1st.
After destroying the Russian lab underneath the new Starcourt Mall, the death of Billy Hargrove (Dacre Montgomery), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) losing her powers, and Hopper (David Harbour) seemingly dying, Stranger Things season 4 caught up with its main characters in three different locations: Hawkins, California, and Russia, with the group once more divided into teams. The Hawkins crew had to deal with a mysterious wave of murders connected to the Upside Down; the team in Russia had to find a way out of prison (and the country) while also fighting a Demogorgon; and the group in California went after Eleven, who was taken by Dr. Owens (Paul Reiser) and Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) to help her regain her powers.
Although at first most of these subplots felt disconnected, the finale of Stranger Things season 4 brought them together and saw the group in Hawkins attacking Vecna, Eleven entering Max’s mind to fight Vecna while the California team kept her safe, and the team in Russia got rid of all the Demogorgons in the Russian prison. With the help of Murray (Brett Gelman) and Joyce (Winona Ryder), Hopper killed the Demogorgons and fought the last one standing with a sword he found on the floor. The sword seemed to magically appear for Hopper right when he needed it, but the sword had actually been there the whole time – it’s just that Stranger Things made it hard to remember.
Why You Forgot Where Hopper’s Sword Came From
The decision to split Stranger Things season 4 into two parts worked in terms of keeping the audience’s attention and leaving them wondering about what would happen next, but it also had its cons. One of them is that there were various details that the audience forgot about due to the gap between episodes and there was also a lot going on in the Russian subplot that things like where the sword could have come from are easily missed. In episode 7, Hopper, Antonov, and some of their fellow prisoners were sent to the courtyard to fight a Demogorgon, but they were just there to die. The guards gave the prisoners a key to the weapons locker so they could get whatever they needed to fight the Demogorgon, and there were a variety of objects to use. The sword could have been among those weapons (while the camera points at the open locker at one point, there are some objects that are a bit difficult to identify), but it could have also come from another part of the prison, as by the time Hopper, Joyce, and Murray returned, the place was destroyed by the Demogorgons and things were scattered all over, so the sword could have been used by someone to defend themselves in the courtyard.
Hopper’s Sword In Stranger Things Belonged To Schwarzenegger’s Conan
Hopper finding the sword and using it to kill the Demogorgon isn’t just a satisfying moment but it also has a cool behind-the-scenes story. David Harbour revealed in an interview with GQ that the sword is the same one used by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1982 movie Conan the Barbarian, in which the title character finds the sword in the tomb of an ancient king. While there’s no connection between Conan the Barbarian and Stranger Things as they are completely different worlds, it makes sense that the Duffer Brothers added this detail to their show as it continues the many homages to 1980s pop culture they have done in Stranger Things. With Hopper back in Hawkins and the Upside Down taking over the town, it’s to be seen if Hopper kept the sword and if he will use it again to defeat more threats in the near future.
