Warning: this story contains spoilers for Stranger Things 4: Volume 1. “Sometimes I imagine myself running to you, pulling you away,” reads Max’s (Sadie Sink) letter to late step-brother Billy (Dacre Montgomery) in Chapter 4 of Stranger Things 4. “I imagine that if I had, you would still be here.” Cursed by Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), a supernatural villain from the Upside Down preying on the guilt and trauma of Hawkins’ teens, Max is doomed to die in the Mind Lair. To break Vecna’s spell, Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and friends fire up Max’s Walkman to play her favorite song: Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” from her 1985 album Hounds of Love.
During Day 4 of Netflix’s Geeked Week virtual fan fest, Sink reunited with her castmates to react to the iconic scene on the official Season 4 aftershow Stranger Things 4 Vol. 1: Unlocked. Watch Sink (Max), McLaughlin (Lucas), Finn Wolfhard (Mike), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), and Priah Ferguson (Erica) discuss the scene in the video below.
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“That was shot over, I think, it might have been a week we spent on that. A lot of time spent in a harness,” Sink recalled with a laugh. “It was pretty intense. We did get really lucky this year because Vecna was pretty much fully practical effects, which made it easier for me because I’m not staring at a man in a green suit.”
Sink “got a little scraped up” running up that hill to escape Vecna, she added, “but it was really, really fun.”
In what has become one of the most talked-about scenes of the first part of Stranger Things‘ penultimate season, Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” spares Max from the grim fate suffered by Vecna’s victims. The Mind Lair scene propelled the 1985 single onto the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, giving Bush her first-ever top 10 U.S. hit at No. 8.
According to Billboard, “Running Up That Hill” saw an 8,700% increase in global streams and a 9,900% in U.S. streams on Spotify following the May 27 premiere of Stranger Things 4: Volume 1.
Stranger Things 4 stars Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbour (Jim Hopper), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven/Jane), 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), Priah Ferguson (Erica Sinclair), Brett Gelman (Murray), Matthew Modine (Dr. Brenner), Robert Englund (Victor Creel), and Jamie Campbell Bower (Vecna).
Stranger Things 4: Volume 1 is now streaming on Netflix. Stranger Things 4: Volume 2 premieres July 1.
