Tom CruisefromRisky Businessis a lazy Halloween classic: Find some Ray-Bans and an oversized white shirt, pull up your socks halfway up your calves, and you’re good to go.
The “dancing and sliding through his house in socks” Tom Cruise is iconic enough that you could still wear it to any costume party decades later and people will know who you’re dressed as without a name tag.
ButStranger Thingsseason 2 takes place just one year afterRisky Businesscame out in theaters, and so, while Steve and Nancy’s costumes might have looked a little less than recognizable to our modern eyes, they would have been right in the zeitgeist in 1984.
Credit: Netflix
The couple went as Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise) and Lana (Rebecca De Mornay) from the 1983 comedythe wealthy high school student and the prostitute he hires the weekend his parents are out of town.
While Steve’s (Joe Keery) black blazer looks a little off (Cruise’s was gray), his facial expression was dead-on.
Meanwhile, Nancy’s (Natalia Dyer) white tennis sweater with the black bow is a perfect match for Lana’sat least before she spills punch all over it, after which she looks a little bit more likeCarrie.
Netflix
If you look closely in the back of the party scene, you’ll see plenty of ’80s pop culture references: a member of Cobra Kai fromKarate Kid, a fewMadonnaensembles, aReagan, and an originalLynda CarterWonder Woman.
All better than Jonathan’s (Charlie Heaton) “A guy who hates going to parties,” but none as adorable as themain quartet’s dead-onGhostbustersgetupseven if no one wanted to be Winston.
Warner Bros
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