An Ode to Stranger Things' Chief Jim Hopper

Stranger Things might be the best sepia-toned send-up to the weird and wonderful fiction that dominated ’80s culture in a good, long while. It’s campy and it’s goofy and each of the show’s eight episodes finds a way to appeal to everyone’s not-so-secret love of childhood nostalgia and good old fashioned supernatural mysteries.

But while Stranger Things’ countless nods and nudges to classic flicks makes for the framework of a great show, it’s the characters that really hammer the experience home. Stranger Things’ collection of characters is as varied as the show’s retro roots. Affable, yet dorky Indoor Kids, a telepathic battle girl, and charming rich kids with imitable hairstyles(shoutout to Steve, lowkey a great dude) might make up the majority of the show’s cast, but one man stands tall above the rest. That man — Chief Jim Hopper — is the Hero that Hawkins, Indiana never knew it deserved.

There are a hundred different reasons to appreciate the man that Jim Hopper is. He’s a roughneck cop; an arbiter of the law with one hell of a right hook. Hopper’s the kind of guy you want on your side in a fight not because he’s a man with a badge, but because he knows how to get shit done.

We’re shown this from the minute that Hopper appears on screen. His introduction is a view into man’s most primal state: hurt, hungover, and late for work. But Hopp doesn’t seem to let that get him down. He manages to get dressed and crack jokes about banging another officer’s wife, hurricane raging in his head, be damned.

And if there was ever an indicator into Hopper’s personality, it would be moments like that. He doesn’t relent. From the morning that he learns of Will Byers’ disappearance to the moment he crosses into a different dimension, Hopp is determined. He is a shark with a police’s badge, the man doesn’t stop moving.

Obviously, it’s a cop’s job to solve cases and that means a lot of legwork. But time and time again, Hopper goes above and beyond and pretty much circumnavigates the call of duty.

My personal picks for the ̶2̶0̶1̶6̶ 1983 Getting Shit Done Awards are all related to Jim Hopper. They are, in no particular order:

• Breaking into a government-owned, spooky-ass laboratory simply by using bolt cutters and his good punching hand. I’ve never done any breaking and entering in my life, but I’m pretty sure you’ve got to be Batman or someone equally as agile to pull something like that off
• Smoking a cigarette IMMEDIATELY after brushing his teeth. Try that sometime, I dare you.
• Plunging a knife into a dead child’s body with reckless abandon. Sure, it winds up to be a fake, but damn, he didn’t even bother to, like, slice a leg in order to check. Nope, Hopp went right for the solar plexus.

It’s important that we pay special attention to the fact that Jim Hopper is a big-time smoker. Plenty of Stranger Things’ characters pray at the altar of Big Tobacco, but Hopp’s in a league of his own when it comes to smoking with purpose. Jim Hopper smokes every cigarette like it will either be his last, or the next drag will grant his life some much-needed clarity.

And clarity is something that Hopper seems to seek. He’s had a rough life. We’re told that he was a Big City Cop in his life before Hawkins. Hopp had a family; a wife and daughter that he loved and lost. In the time since the little-seen tragedy, Hopp’s life has changed and become a confusing array of booze, small-town ladies, and conspiracy theories.

Part of Hopper’s appeal, too, is that he is genuinely willing to believe in Stranger Things’ grand mystery. His time on the show is divided almost neatly between two distinct versions of Jim Hopper. There’s the Hard-Nosed Police Chief Hopper and Woke-Ass Conspiracy Theorist Hopper. They’re two discreet personalities, all part of one man — Jim Hopper is a Janus-faced cop who is willing to skirt the law that binds him in order to do what he believes is right.

As far as Stranger Things’ fiction goes, Jim Hopper is the glue that holds it all together. While every one of the show’s key characters have their moments, Hopper’s occur with alarming frequency. Ol’ Hopp has a CM/E (clutch moment per episode) average that can’t be rivaled. Like the hurricane of a hangover that he must always have, Hopp storms throughout Stranger Things in a perpetual search for the truth. Whether he chastises some immature kids or bops a sucker outside of a dimly-lit dive, Hopper is an unrelenting force of care. Caution can go pound sand, so long as Jim Hopper wears the Police Chief’s wide-brimmed hat.

Hopper genuinely gives a shit about the people who surround him, and that’s the best thing that you can say about anyone, isn’t it?