The Nina Project

This article is about the experimental government program. For the episode, see The Nina Project (episode).

'The Nina Project'
Type	Government facility and program
Location	Nevada
Staff	Dr. Martin Brenner † Dr. Sam Owens Unnamed medical scientist Anne Tracey Military Police Guards

"The Nina Project" was the codename of a top secret government facility and program located in the Nevada desert, conceived and developed by former Hawkins Lab directors Dr. Martin Brenner and Dr. Sam Owens. Nina was designed to rejuvenate Eleven's psychokinetic abilities, following her loss of access in July 1985, by forcing her to "re-experience" her memories. This state of "re-experience" could be achieved through a combination of experimental drugs, sensory deprivation and audiovisual stimulation (Brenner's archived tapes of Hawkins Lab CCTV).

Brenner and Owens persuaded Eleven to participate, claiming that her regaining her abilities was the only way to stave off the continued threat posed by the Upside Down. Though initially hesitant, Eleven agreed to participate, and gradually, she started to regain her powers. Through this series of experiments, Eleven would "re-experience" repressed memories at Hawkins Lab, as a seven-year-old in 1979. In this state of "re-experience", Eleven remembered that Henry Creel was responsible for the September 8, 1979 massacre of her fellow test subjects. She relived her battle with Henry, in which she ultimately overpowered him and banished him to the Upside Down, causing her to recover her full strength.

Brenner sought to continue the experiments, wanting to push Eleven's abilities even further past their previous limit. Brenner and Owens began to argue when Eleven insisted on returning to Hawkins, which provoked Brenner to forcefully incapacitate both Eleven and Owens. Shortly after this, the US Military arrived and commenced a full-scale attack on the facility; Lt. Colonel Sullivan believed Eleven to be the root of the issues plaguing Hawkins, and sought to eliminate her. Brenner and a host of Nina Project personnel were killed in the attack, but Eleven managed to escape unscathed, defeating much of the military in the process.

History

1985

On July 4, 1985, Eleven fought the Mind Flayer's proxy form at the Hopper cabin. While she managed to overpower the creature, a piece of the creature embedded itself inside Eleven's leg, wounding her. Later that night, Eleven collapsed and suffered a stroke - or something very similar to a stroke - prior to the battle at Starcourt Mall. Eleven recovered from her injury, but also discovered she no longer had access to her psychokinetic abilities.

Dr. Martin Brenner believed that the attack on Eleven "scrambled the signals" in her brain to the point that she effectively "forgot" how to use her powers. However, Brenner's hypothesis appeared to be inaccurate, since Vecna later implied that he had used the Spider Monster to absorb and steal Eleven's 'power'. Vecna identified Eleven's power as "a means to open [his] own doors" (interdimensional gates), which would enable him to return to the human world and continue the Upside Down's invasion of Hawkins.

1985 - 1986

At some point prior to March 1986, Brenner and Dr. Sam Owens learned of the loss of Eleven's abilities and began working on the Nina Project. Brenner codenamed the project "Nina", inspired by Nicolas Dalayrac's 1786 opera, Nina. In the play, the main character, Nina, is so traumatised by her lover's death, that she represses the memory of the death, forgetting the event had ever occurred; this paralleled Eleven's own experience with repressed trauma. Though the project as a whole was codenamed "Nina", the name specifically referred to a custom sensory deprivation tank, fitted with screens. This was the centerpiece of Brenner and Owens's scheme: a means through which Eleven could potentially "re-experience" her repressed memories.

Brenner and Owens repurposed an unused intercontintental ballistic missile (ICBM) silo in Nevada, giving it a "facelift" and transforming the space into the Nina facility. They recruited a large team of scientists to work on the project.

Around this time, Owens was fired from an unspecified position in the US Military, apparently due to failing to detect the secret Russian invasion and scheme involving the Starcourt Mall. Owens and his colleagues' relationship with the Military and Pentagon became deeply antagonistic, with different factions of government forming their own distinct perspectives on how to best manage the situation involving the Upside Down, the Mind Flayer and Eleven. Owens believed Eleven's powers to be "the cure" to the existential threat posed by the Upside Down. Lt. Col. Jack Sullivan disagreed, perceiving Eleven as the source of the problem, and distrusted her, Owens and Brenner. For this reason, Owens and his people did everything his power to hide that Eleven, who was presumed to have died in 1983, was still alive.

1986

On the evening of March 22, 1986, Colonel Sullivan visited Owens at his home in Ruth, Nevada, and threateningly questioned him about Eleven's whereabouts. Owens continued to deny that Eleven was alive.

After Sullivan's departure, Owens realised he was rapidly running out of time to execute his plan and could delay no longer. Owens sent an encrypted message to his colleagues via his personal computer, informing them it was finally time to initiate the next stage of the Nina Project.

The following day, Owens, accompanied by Agent Ellen Stinson, Agent Harmon and Agent Wallace, set out to locate Eleven and bring her to the Nina facility. They learned that Jane was in the custody of California police after assaulting her bully, Angela. Owens intervened and assumed custody of Jane, interrupting her transferal to a juvenile detention center, and made it so the charges against Jane would be dismissed. Owens took Eleven to a nearby diner, where he revealed he had figured out a way to rejuvenate her powers, and that a war with the Upside Down was fast approaching. Eleven agreed to join Owens and travel to the Nina facility.

Owens and Eleven arrived at the Nina facility the next day. Eleven remained willing and enthusiastic to participate, until, to her displeasure, she discovered Dr. Brenner was alive and also working on the project. Eleven angrily attempted to flee the base, but Brenner ordered Eleven to be forcefully sedated. The technicians then placed an electrode cap on Eleven's head, injected her with serum, and placed her inside the Nina sensory deprivation tank. While inside, she was exposed to audiovisual stimuli from Hawkins National Laboratory, 1979, via the form of old CCTV tapes playing on various screens.

Eleven awoke to find herself "re-experiencing" her memories from 1979. In this first episode of "re-experience", Eleven relived an exercise where she and the other test subjects manipulated light bulbs using their powers; in this exercise, Eleven struggled to illuminate a single bulb. Shortly after, she had a momentary vision of the September 8 massacre, before finally waking up back at the Nina Project. In a fit of rage, Eleven attacked Brenner with a defibrillator and attempted once more to escape. Guards tried to restrain her, but as she let out an outburst of anger, the guards were sent flying and knocked unconscious; Eleven's powers were beginning to resurface, due to Nina's influence. Brenner gave Eleven the option to leave the facility if she so desired, but she agreed to stay and continue the experiments.

Finally, she fully re-experienced what happened on September 8, 1979; Eleven remembered that Henry Creel was responsible for the September 8, 1979 massacre of her fellow test subjects. She relived her battle with Henry, in which she ultimately overpowered him and banished him to the Upside Down. After reliving this final memory, Eleven's powers were seemingly restored to her previous limit.

After Eleven used the Void to spy on her friends in Hawkins, she grew concerned for Max, and wanted to help in their fight against Vecna. However, Brenner sought to continue the Nina experiments, wanting to push Eleven's abilities beyond their previous limit. Brenner and Owens began to argue when Eleven insisted on returning to Hawkins, with Owens supporting her choice and began to make preparations. Brenner later incapacitates both Eleven and Owens; guards loyal to Brenner chained Owens to a rail inside the observation room, while Brenner personally sedated and collared Eleven.

Shortly after this, Lt. Colonel Sullivan launched a full-scale military attack on the facility, deploying vehicles, weaponry and a helicopter. They burst down the door to the facility with a bomb and charged inside, killing the guards. Most, if not all, of the scientists attempted to escape through a hidden escape hatch, but were all apparently shot and killed by the helicopter's sniper. After locating Owens and ignoring his pleas to spare Eleven, Sullivan ordered his men to execute her. However, Eleven used her telekinetic powers to crash the helicopter into the ground. Brenner died from a gunshot wound, while Eleven was rescued by her friends. Sullivan and his men were seen emerging from the facility, but it is unknown what came to be of Dr. Owens.

Profile

• Elevator
• Tank room
• Observation room
• Tape storage room
• Corridors (repurposed ICBM silos)
• Testing rooms
• Living quarters
• Exit hatch

Personnel

• Dr. Martin Brenner - presumed co-director
• Dr. Sam Owens - presumed co-director
• Unnamed medical scientist
• Anne
• Tracey
• M.P. Guards

Behind the scenes

The Nina Project's entrance was filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, while the set for the interior/missile silo complex was built in a warehouse in Atlanta.

After conducting exhaustive research into various types of American missile silos, Chris Trujillo and the Art Department decided to combine aspects of Atlas and Titan 1 silos to create the Nina facility, relying on declassified technical specs to achieve a high degree of architectural accuracy. Trujillo strove to create an environment that was grand, yet claustrophobic, while "fully embrac[ing] the gritty reality of a decommissioned derelict military installation":

“

The crew built the set as one continuous space nearly three hundred feet long, three large rooms connected by two tunnels. We restrained our color palette, went heavy on the ageing, spared no expense on vintage lighting and hardware, and lined the walls of the missile chamber with carefully recreated blast panels. For good measure, we even based the NINA tank on the material style of an ICBM. — Chris Trujillo

”

Trivia

• According to a teleplay of unconfirmed authenticity, the Nina Project is located at Nevada Silo #432734 at Nevada National Security Site N2S2.