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| “ | Six. Six people have been taken this week. This thing that took your son… We don’t really understand it. But its behavior is predictable. Like all animals, it eats. It will take more sons. More daughters. I want to save them. I want to save your son. But I can’t do that. Not without your help. | „ |
| ~ Dr. Martin Brenner explaining Joyce Byers about the Demogorgon. |
| “ | Hello, Eleven. I know. You're frightened of me. Perhaps, in our time apart, you may have even grown to hate me. But all I've ever wanted to do is to help you. And right now, I think you very much need my help. | „ |
| ~ Brenner convincing Eleven into helping him restore her powers. |
Dr. Martin Brenner is the overarching antagonist of the Netflix original series Stranger Things, serving as one of the two main antagonists (alongside the Hawkins Demogorgon) of Season 1 and the overarching antagonist of the remaining seasons. He also appears as the main antagonist of the prequel novel Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds.
He was the director of the Hawkins National Laboratory, an American senior research scientist and a government acquaintance of Dr. Sam Owens and Lt. Colonel Jack Sullivan. After discovering the psychic prodigy Henry Creel/One, Brenner raised several child subjects in his lab in hopes of using them as weapons against the Soviet Union during the Cold War, but all his research was halted when One killed all his subjects minus Jane Ives/Eleven, who banished him to the realm known as the Upside Down, leading Brenner to train her as his own living weapon until Eleven finds a way out of his laboratory, setting into motion the events of the show.
He is portrayed by Matthew Modine.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
Debated Validation
- It’s unknown if his care for his father is genuine seeing as how after Mr. Brenner's death he decided to try and find whatever his father found in Dimension X.
Past[]
- He psychologically tortured a young Henry Creel, knowing it would make his powers stronger when possessed by the Mind Flayer. After finding existence of his girlfriend, he ordered his workers to murder the young Patty Newby to destroy Henry only semblance of happiness he had left and allow the Mind Flayer to possess him, making him indirectly responsible for all of his crimes.
- He, Virginia Creel, and the Mind Flayer are responsible for making Henry into the person he is.
- Took Henry to the Hawkins National Laboratory after he murdered most of his family, so his DNA could be used to create psychic children against the Soviet Union. Despite knowing the truth, he let Victor Creel to be judged as insane and be committed to an asylum, ruining his life and causing him to blind himself, only so that Victor can't interfere in the upcoming MKUltra.
- Set up scientific facilities for female college students to scan them to see if they could give birth to children with powerful psychic abilities like those of Henry/One for the CIA-sanctioned project MKUltra, abducting them from their mothers, giving them designation numbers instead of names and raising them in the Hawkins National Laboratory so they could serve as weapons against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
- Abducted Terry Ives' newborn daughter Jane from the hospital the moment she was born due to her strong psychic abilities equaling to those of Henry Creel. To do so, he made sure beforehand to ship Andrew, Terry's lover and Jane's father, off to the Vietnam War to die there and had his men lie about Jane being a stillborn while they took her to the Hawkins National Laboratory, raising her under the designation Eleven.
- When Terry filled a lawsuit against him due to her remembering hearing her daughter cry, meaning that she didn't miscarry, Brenner did all possible for the case to be dismissed due to a lack of evidence.
- When Terry broke into the Hawkins National Laboratory to rescue Jane, Brenner had his men stop her and torture her by forcing her to endure a electroshock therapy session until Terry was left in a perpetual catatonic state, mentally stuck reliving her failed rescue attempt in an endless loop for the rest of her life.
- Although one can argue that Brenner didn't know about the state in which Terry would be left due to his torture, the tie-in novels state that he reveled in breaking Terry's spirit after informing her that he would use children on his research. This suggests that he wouldn't have likely cared for giving her a fate worse than death anyway, under the pretext that she was crazy for killing one of his guards.
- Physically abused One after he tried to sway Eleven to his side in addition to implementing a chip to restrain his psychic powers (though it can be argued that One deserved it for his repulsive nature and what he did to his family).
- Harshly punished Two for picking on Eleven due to unintentionally humiliating him in front of him (although Two deserved it, since he physically assaulted Eleven and threatened to kill her out of jealousy).
- Sent his men to capture One and Eleven when they tried to escape, leading One, who had had his chip removed thanks to Eleven, to gruesomely kill all of Brenner's guards and child subjects, only sparing Eleven.
- Raised Eleven in isolation and routinely mistreated her if she didn't follow his orders, such as locking her in a closeted room which led to her developing claustrophobia as evidenced by her later on meeting Mike and not wanting him to close the bathroom door all the way. Whenever she did follow his orders, he would congratulate or act affectionate towards her, not even caring if Eleven killed some of his own men on the way.
- He wanted Eleven to torture and murder a white cat to test her abilities, and when she refused he ordered 2 of his men to lock her in the closeted room which led to their deaths which he treated with indifference instead being impressed with Eleven's abilities.
- Forced Eleven into making contact with the Upside Down in hopes of finding One despite Eleven's terror towards the place, eventually leading to the Demogorgon escaping from the Upside Down and allowing Eleven to escape through a drainpipe just like One once suggested her to do, setting in motion the events of the show. This resulted in the Demogorgon kidnapping Will Byers and killing Barbara Holland.
- He lacks any comedic moments compared to the other villains and is taken 100℅ seriously as a threat.
Season 1[]
- Sends his agent Connie Frazier to recapture Eleven at all costs, leading Frazier to impersonate child services and kill Benny Hammond, who had taken Eleven under his wing and had likely been the first adult to show her actual kindness in her life.
- Orders his men to venture into the Upside Down, leading some of them, such as Shepard, to die in the process.
- Upon learning that the Demogorgon had kidnapped Will and taken him to the Upside Down, Brenner faked Will's death by placing a fake body in one of the lakes near the town, making it look like Will had drowned and devastating most of the townspeople, despite the skepticism of Will's mother Joyce and his friends Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair and Dustin Henderson, leading Sheriff Jim Hopper to find out Brenner's deception.
- His cruel treatment towards Eleven was the catalyst towards her using her powers to point the compass in the wrong direction, which sparked the fight between Lucas and Mike.
- Orders his men to recapture Eleven by going after her friends as well, forcing Mike, Dustin and Lucas on the run.
- Apprehends Joyce and Jim when they infiltrate into his laboratory and forces them to disclose Eleven's location in exchange of letting them go into the Upside Down to rescue Will, hoping that they would die there.
- Has Frazier and her men go to the Hawkins Middle School to capture Eleven, leading to their deaths at Eleven's hands at the cost of Eleven being drained of her strength, allowing him to try to persuade her to return to the laboratory, though she refused as she had realized by then what a monster Brenner truly was, leaving him and his men behind at the mercy of the Demogorgon.
Season 2[]
- Despite being thought to be dead for a while, Brenner's influence on Eleven still lingered on her, who, during a temper tantrum, accused Jim Hopper of treating her like her "Papa" when Jim grounds her, suggesting that Brenner deprived her from everything she liked but she still sees him as her father due to being her sole parental figure up to that point, showcasing how much Brenner screwed her mentality.
- When Eleven met with Kali Prasad/Eight, another of Brenner's child subjects who escaped thanks to Terry's infiltration in the laboratory back when Eleven was little, once Eleven had second thoughts of assisting Eight in her quest for revenge, Eight made her hallucinate Brenner's presence to scare her into accepting, proving how much damage Brenner inflicted on Eleven to the point his appearance scared her.
- His actions of faking Will's death left a profound effect on Will himself as they caused Will to be considered to be an outcast and ridiculed amongst his peers who cruelly nickname him "Zombie Boy" before he got possessed by Vecna/The Mind Flayer, leaving him with the mentality of a child for two years until he grew out of it.
- Brenner's actions also had a profound effect on the other main characters, giving them severe trauma which started to grow even worse over the next two years as they kept facing new threats from the Upside Down.
Season 4[]
- Returns to Eleven's life once he realizes that One, now as Vecna, has started a killing spree over Hawkins, which Lt. Colonel Jack Sullivan blames on Eleven, so he decides to help her restore her powers after being stripped from them by the Mind Flayer with Project NINA at a Nevada facility, despite Eleven's obvious resentment towards him.
- Constantly clashes out with Dr. Sam Owens throughout Project NINA due to Owens calling him out for his rough treatment towards Eleven.
- Forces Eleven to relive the traumatic encounter she had with One back in the Hawkins National Lab, much to Eleven's discomfort, yet this act was ultimately successful in restoring Eleven's powers.
- Despite Owens letting Eleven leave the Nevada facility so she can go back to Hawkins to rescue her friends from Vecna, Brenner doesn't let her go, threatens to kill Owens if she escapes and restrains her with a power-dampening collar, all because he feels that she isn't ready to face Vecna yet, uncaring about the danger her friends will be in if she doesn't intervene.
- When called out by Eleven for shattering her mother's mind, Brenner expresses no remorse for how he ruined Terry's live, even trying to manipulate her into thinking he did the right thing and hypocritically calls her sick and a danger to others. He also tries to guilt trip Eleven by saying it's her fault Vecna escaped his prison, even though it's actually his.
- Knocks out Eleven with a needle when she tries to escape the facility with Owens.
- Even in his last moments as he expires from his wounds due to the ambush Jack Sullivan led to the facility, he doesn't even apologize for ruining Eleven's childhood as well as those of her fellow test subjects, asking her to understand that all he did was for her own good, leading Eleven to finally leave him behind to die alone. Furthermore, his lack of remorse for his many heinous actions prevents him from undergoing a genuine redemption.
- His actions of not letting Eleven go back to Hawkins when she wanted indirectly prevented her from being able to return in time and not being able to fully assist her friends back there to stop Vecna, leading to the deaths of Eddie Munson, Jason Carver and 21 other innocents, the crippling/hospitalization of Max Mayfield, the devastation of Hawkins, and the endangerment of Earth and all of humanity.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- Despite his inhumane and cruel actions towards his child test subjects, Brenner did care for them and saw them as his adoptive children, particularly having a good and healthy relationship with Ten, defending Eleven from Two for his bullying towards her and being genuinely saddened and horrified after One killed them all, even cradling towards Ten's dead body in tears. His entire goal throughout the series was to find Henry in the Upside Down and atone for failing him.
- He genuinely cared about Shepard, wishing him luck on his journey into the Upside Down and ordering his men to save him, being genuinely upset when Shepard died unlike with his other men, whose death's he reacts to with indifference.
- Even though his methods were too extreme, he was a well-intentioned extremist, as all he wanted with his child test subjects was to use them to fight against the Soviet Union and protect his country.
- Despite Henry killing most of his staff as well as test subjects and Brenner torturing him, he regretted torturing Henry for his MKUltra project and partly started the Upside Down mission to retrieve him.
- He joins forces with Sam Owens despite the two not liking each other so they could help Eleven to get back her powers to save Hawkins, even though that wouldn't have benefited him in any way, proving that he was willing to save the town for selfless reasons.
- While being pursued by Sullivan and his men, instead of leaving the weakened Eleven behind and escape for his life, Brenner takes her and runs while holding her in his arms so they can both escape. He then removes her power-dampening collar as he dies so she can use her powers freely.
- His death was played for sympathy, as he admitted his genuine care and love for Eleven, leading Eleven to peacefully part ways from him despite telling him that even if she loves him, she can't forgive him for his many terrible actions, and Brenner dies watching Eleven escape.
Trivia[]
- Initially, during the first two seasons of the show, Dr. Martin Brenner was morally scaled as Near Pure Evil, but all this changed once the fourth season revealed that Brenner actually cared for his child subjects, being written in a more humanized manner. In fact, his horror at the deaths of his subjects at Vecna's hands could be very well the reason Brenner raised her more roughly and abusively, as Eleven was the only test subject he had left at that point.
- Dr. Martin Brenner is the only Stranger Things character to be both Inconsistently Admirable as well as Inconsistently Heinous.
- While Martin Brenner is currently Inconsistently Heinous, there is a slight possibility this may change once season five is released, as Matthew Modine has expressed interest in returning to the role, hypothesizing that he may not be what he seems and actually has similar abilities that both Eleven and Vecna possess. However, it is currently unknown whether or not he will be returning to season five.
- Matthew Modine, whilst greatly enjoyed his role as Dr. Brenner, felt very uncomfortable with his character's actions towards the children, particularly Millie Bobby Brown, whom he had grown quite close to.
External Links[]
- Martin Brenner on the Villains Wiki
- Martin Brenner on the Stranger Things Wiki
- Martin Brenner on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
