--- title: Stranger Things: Netflix Series Similar to Beyond Two Souls description: Stranger Things seems to share common themes with this Ellen Page-starring video game. canonical: https://time.com/4455088/stranger-things-beyond-two-souls/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-19T21:10:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:50:23.456Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Stranger Things Shares Common Themes With Ellen Page Video Game og:description: So many of the same strange things og:url: https://time.com/4455088/stranger-things-beyond-two-souls/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcf5d151ffd06faef/6988a2d5196cf4053a03ce43/strangerthings.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 1 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stranger Things Shares Common Themes With Ellen Page Video Game twitter:description: So many of the same strange things twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcf5d151ffd06faef/6988a2d5196cf4053a03ce43/strangerthings.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Stranger Things_ Shares Common Themes With This Ellen Page Video Game ## Video: Stranger Things | Trailer 1 HD | Netflix [Watch (HLS stream): Stranger Things | Trailer 1 HD | Netflix](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EJPcDoRV.m3u8) (2:25)  _Published 2016-08-19_ by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Aug 19, 2016 9:10 PM UTC  Stranger Things Stranger ThingsNetflix by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Aug 19, 2016 9:10 PM UTC [_Stranger Things_](http://time.com/4426157/10-questions-stranger-things-still-needs-to-answer/), a show so continually obsessed over that it’s become a game of [find that reference](http://time.com/4436008/stranger-things-netflix-references/), is still fascinating fans. The thriller [pays tribute](http://time.com/4380827/winona-ryder-stranger-things-johnny-depp/) to a ton of iconic [shows and movies](http://time.com/4436008/stranger-things-netflix-references/), sometimes in ways that make the audience feel rewarded and cool, and other times in ways that make people feel like conspiracy theorists tumbling down an endless rabbit hole filled with mystery waffles. Of all the roughly 8,362 different influences in the canon of influences that the creators [confirmed](http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/stranger-things-finale-duffer-brothers-interview-season-2-1201816664/) inspired the series, the PlayStation game [_Beyond Two Souls_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtEoS0MaNyA) starring Ellen Page isn’t one of them. But the interactive drama adventure game and the Netflix series do share some common elements. It’s not that the show is directly referencing this game. It’s that in the summer of _Stranger Things_\-mania, diehard fans might find some of the coincidental parallels a solid excuse to dive back into the rabbit hole. Released at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2013, the David Cage-directed Quantic Dream cinematic game is about Jodie (Ellen Page) who shows up out of nowhere with a shaved head and reveals she can totally do telepathy. There’s more. She’s linked to the supernatural ghost guy, Aiden. (Like _Stranger Things_, it’s alternate reality-themed, and the young woman’s the key to the creature.) “Ever since I was born, I’ve been linked to an entity,” she confesses to a cop after shattering a perfectly innocent coffee cup with her mind. Like Eleven, Jodie has an all-access pass to the otherworld, but unlike Eleven, Jodie joins the military. So the game doesn’t have what [_SNL’s_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn8c6hgPDkM) Stefon might call “[everything](http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/weekend-update-stefon-on-spring-break/n33632).” But in the storyline, Jodie’s the only one who knows how to “deal with what lies beyond the rift,” and she accidentally opens a passage to “Aiden’s world.” Plenty of this is somewhat like the strangest people and things you’ll ever meet in 1980s Hawkins, Ind. Eleven also opened the portal to the otherworld, letting a flower-faced creepy creep of a monster loose, who Eleven goes up against. (This was particularly unfortunate because Mike just asked her to be his date to the Snow Ball right before she exploded into a million pieces.) Jodie can’t get the romance thing down either. She’s a young woman so sadly tortured by her knowledge of the otherworld that you know instantly she’ll never even come close to “having it all.” Speaking of things that run parallel to the things in _Stranger Things_, in _Beyond Two Souls_, Willem Dafoe plays the overbearing surrogate dad researcher, Nathan Dawkins over at the Department of Paranormal Activity. The guy totally loses his crackers like Dr. Brenner a.k.a. “Papa” (Matthew Modine) in _Stranger Things_. Like Eleven on the Netflix show, Jodie wears sensors on her head when she’s being studied, _Firestarter_\-style. So to recap: Young girl with shaved head. Check. Totally appropriate relationship with the father figure studying young girl. Check. Sensors to keep tabs of young girl’s powerful mind. Check. Otherworld that only the young girl is really good at going to. Check. Passage to that world dangerously open. Check. Linking up with a creature other people are obsessed with. Check. This game may not fill the _Stranger Things_\-sized holes in everyone’s hearts, and it may never bring Barb back, but it has so many shades of summer’s biggest hit show including a tough young women with the power to break teacups, people and stuff without moving. So it just proves that everything anyone’s ever done or will ever do will closely resemble some aspect of _Stranger Things_. Both the _Stranger Things_ creators and the creators of _Beyond Two Souls_ declined to comment on this story. For more things to watch that have _Stranger Things_ vibes, see TIME’s list [here](http://time.com/4436008/stranger-things-netflix-references/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4455088/stranger-things-beyond-two-souls/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4455088/stranger-things-beyond-two-souls/"},"headline":"Stranger Things Shares Common Themes With This Ellen Page Video Game","datePublished":"2016-08-19T21:10:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:50:23.456Z","description":"It has a lot of the things from Stranger Things","url":"https://time.com/4455088/stranger-things-beyond-two-souls/","keywords":["Tech","Entertainment","Television","Video Games","Stranger Things"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcf5d151ffd06faef/6988a2d5196cf4053a03ce43/strangerthings.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcf5d151ffd06faef/6988a2d5196cf4053a03ce43/strangerthings.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"1","caption":"1","creditText":"Netflix","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4455088/stranger-things-beyond-two-souls/","name":"Stranger Things Shares Common Themes With This Ellen Page Video Game"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"BEYOND_ Two Souls - Launch Trailer | PS4","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/IJ1igcaq/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-08-19T16:36:43.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/IJ1igcaq.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4455088/stranger-things-beyond-two-souls/","duration":"PT1M55S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4455088/stranger-things-beyond-two-souls/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Stranger Things | Trailer 1 [HD] | Netflix","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/EJPcDoRV/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-08-19T16:37:48.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EJPcDoRV.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4455088/stranger-things-beyond-two-souls/","duration":"PT2M25S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4455088/stranger-things-beyond-two-souls/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```