With Stranger Things' fourth season currently ongoing, people are once again reminded of the terrifying power of psychics. The ability to warp the world with one's mind has always been fascinating to moviegoers, and Eleven is far from the first telekinetic powerhouse in media.
Movies have used psychic powers as a cool visual effect and plot device for decades. Whether it stems from supernatural heritage, scientific experiments, or a combination of both, one thing is for sure. When these characters get angry, things tend to explode.
Charlie McGee
Firestarter is based on the 1980 novel by Stephen King and focuses on 7-year-old girl Charlie McGee (Drew Barrymore). She has the power to start fires with only her mind. her parents are psychics as well, though their powers are vastly different from hers. After a tragic attack by mysterious secret agents, Charlie is on the run with her surviving parent.
Charlie McGee, much like Eleven, is a psychic with a headstrong and naive attitude. Their tempers along with their powers make them incredibly dangerous. However, both are kind people at heart. Charlie McGee also shares the simple morality that Eleven has. Often, this manifests in psychic vengeance.
Darryl Revok
Scanners focus on the titular "scanners", people with psychic abilities that give them great power. However, that power comes at the cost of their mental stability. The great power they wield is often directed at the world around them, and the effect it has on their minds makes them incredibly dangerous.
Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside) is a perfect foil to Eleven. Both had abusive fathers who exploited them for their powers. However, where the isolation and abuse drove Revok into villainy, it pushed Eleven towards heroism. Though of course, both of them could explode somebody's head if they wanted to.
The Chronicle Trio
Chronicle is a uniquely made sci-fi drama, told through the medium of found footage. Three teens, Andrew (Dane DeHaan), his cousin Matt (Alex Russell), and popular student Steve (Michael B. Jordan) find a strange luminous object in a cave on the outskirts of town. They quickly learn that their exposure to the object has given them all telekinetic skills.
Chronicle does feature telekinesis, but it's a surprisingly grounded take. Not so much the powers, but the way ordinary people use said powers. The movie explores just how careless teenagers would be when handed incredible power, along with all the emotional turmoil that entails.
Mewtwo
The first Pokémon movie focused on Mewtwo, a lab-grown Pokémon with incredible psychic abilities. Mewtwo's anger at human beings leads it to go on a quest to eradicate all of humanity. Mewtwo was the first "big" villain that Ash and the gang ever have to face, and to say it's a Herculean task is understating it.
Mewtwo also has several similarities to Eleven. Both were experimented on by an indifferent group of scientists, and both lash out against their perceived captors. Unlike Eleven, however, Mewtwo is far less naive about humanity. Not to mention, he's shown feats that Eleven would struggle to compare with.
Saiki Kusuo
Saiki Kusuo might seem like a normal everyday student, but as the pink hair and antenna show, it's far from the truth. Saiki is actually the most powerful psychic in the world. Every psychic ability under the sun, Saiki probably has. The only reason he hasn't conquered the world is his complete lack of interest in doing so.
Saiki Kusuo might be the complete polar opposite of Eleven, personality-wise. In contrast to Eleven's fiery temper and a deep desire for socializing, Saiki is absurdly calm and prefers his own company. The cast of Stranger Things does their best to help Eleven with her goals. In contrast, Saiki's friends are so quirky and dumb that they are often the source of conflict.
Matilda
The film Matilda is about the titular Matilda, an incredibly gifted girl with an absurdly mean and un-gifted family. After a particularly nasty evening, Matilda's telekinetic power manifests by blowing up their television. With her newfound powers, she sets out to fix all the wrongs in her life.
Matilda Wormwood is relatable to any child who feels like they have no control over their lives. With mean bullies at every turn, Matilda does her best to respond to them calmly. It is an uncharacteristic trait for most psychic children in media, but it makes her stand out.
Jean Grey
Jean Grey is the gifted psychic mutant of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Jean was found at an early age by a then still-friendly Erik Lensherr and Charles Xavier. They both realized the vast power she is capable of. Though they do not say it at the time, both of them had very different plans for the girl.
Jean Grey is usually on the side of good, but when she is possessed by the Phoenix Force, she becomes an apocalyptic threat. Her abilities might far surpass the powers of anybody else in the X-men franchise. Much like Eleven, they both have higher forces connected to their powers that they'd rather not talk about.
Tetsuo Shima
Tetsuo Shima is Kaneda's childhood friend and a Capsules member. Despite his closeness with Kaneda, he has an inferiority complex and resents him intensely. After a horrible accident, Tetsuo awakens with incredibly psychic power, and goes on a rampage against a world he believes has wronged him.
The scale of destruction left in Tetsuo's wake is something to behold. It's feats like these that make viewers understand why people fear powerful psychics in media, regardless of their sympathy for their plight. Tetsuo, much like Eleven, shows how dangerous their powers are for both the traumatized psychic and the people around them.
Carrie
Carrie is a sheltered girl who constantly deals with bullying. Her classmates bully her, her religious mother bullies her, and life is generally terrible. However, when the handsome Tommy invites her to prom, Carrie thinks that things just might turn around. Prom was going to be a night to remember indeed, but for all the wrong reasons.
Stephen King's Carrie White is the cinematic poster girl for psychic freakouts in movies. She embodies all the classic qualities of a sheltered psychic teen. These qualities would be mimicked by every troubled psychic in media for decades to come. Fans should just hope the fourth season of Stranger Things doesn't involve prom night.
Wanda Maximoff
Wanda Maximoff, once a Sokovian orphan refugee, quickly became one of the most powerful beings in the MCU. During her childhood, she was constantly exposed to the Mind Stone. This exposure led her to develop reality-warping powers. Soon, these powers were combined with genuine dark magic.
Both Eleven and Wanda were the result of amoral laboratory experiments. Their powers have roots both in the scientific and the supernatural. Both are also incredibly volatile emotionally, and their powers tend to lash out in times of stress. Unfortunately for Wanda, she no longer has the same support structure that Eleven still enjoys.