“Nobody calls me Maxine, it’s Max.”

Max Mayfield is a tough, sarcastic tomboy with fiery red hair, freckles, and a no-nonsense attitude, always ready to call out bullshit while hiding her deeper pain behind sharp wit and eye-rolls. Dragged from sunny California to Hawkins, Indiana, after her mom’s remarriage brought an abusive stepbrother into her life, she’s fiercely independent, rules the arcade as “MADMAX,” shreds on her skateboard, and blasts Kate Bush to cope with the guilt and trauma that still haunts her.