48 Fun Facts About Gremlins

Who directed the 1984 film Gremlins?

Joe Dante directed Gremlins; he had come up cutting trailers for Roger Corman's New World Pictures before Spielberg's Amblin hired him for the 1984 film.

Which future Home Alone director wrote Gremlins as a spec script?

Chris Columbus wrote Gremlins on spec after hearing mice scurrying around his loft at night; Steven Spielberg bought the script, launching Columbus's career years before Home Alone.

Rand Peltzer buys the mogwai as a Christmas present in an antique store located in which neighborhood?

The antique shop is in Chinatown; its owner Mr. Wing refuses to sell the mogwai, and his grandson secretly hands Gizmo over for $200 along with the three rules.

Which of the three mogwai rules is stressed as the most important, 'above all'?

Never feed it after midnight is the rule the grandson calls the most important; the other two, avoiding bright light and water, cover what kills a mogwai and what makes it multiply.

What is the name of the snowy small town where Billy Peltzer works at the local bank?

Kingston Falls is the town; its picture-postcard setting deliberately echoes It's a Wonderful Life, a clip of which plays on television in the film.

Which actor plays Billy Peltzer?

Zach Galligan, a relative unknown, won the part of Billy after Spielberg saw his screen test with the actress cast as Kate and pushed for him.

Which Fast Times at Ridgemont High actress plays Billy's girlfriend Kate Beringer?

Phoebe Cates played Kate; Gremlins was the highest-grossing film of her career, and she largely left acting in the mid-1990s, later opening a New York boutique.

Which country singer-songwriter plays Billy's inventor father, Randall Peltzer?

Hoyt Axton, the country singer-songwriter, played Rand Peltzer; after an introductory scene was cut, his voice was kept as the film's narrator.

The actor who plays Rand Peltzer wrote which 1971 Three Dog Night song that spent six weeks at No. 1?

Rand Peltzer's actor wrote Joy to the World, which Three Dog Night held at No. 1 for six weeks in 1971; he also wrote The Pusher for Steppenwolf and Greenback Dollar for the Kingston Trio.

Which comedian, later the host of Deal or No Deal, provided the voice of Gizmo?

Howie Mandel voiced Gizmo while starring as Dr. Wayne Fiscus on St. Elsewhere, and he returned to voice the mogwai in the 1990 sequel.

Which prolific voice actor, famous for Scooby-Doo's Fred, voiced the gremlins' leader?

Frank Welker, the longtime voice of Scooby-Doo's Fred, voiced the gremlins' leader in 1984 and returned for the 1990 sequel to voice the new leader, Mohawk.

What is the aggressive mogwai leader, named for the white tuft on his head, called?

Stripe is the leader; in the original draft Gizmo himself was to turn into the villain, but Spielberg vetoed it because audiences would want the cute mogwai kept around.

In which department store's fountain does the lead gremlin try to spawn more of his kind?

It is the Montgomery Ward store; the leader had left the cinema early for candy across the street, which is why he alone survived the gas explosion that killed the rest.

In her monologue about hating Christmas, Kate reveals her father died how?

Kate says he broke his neck climbing down the chimney dressed as Santa; the director refused to cut the monologue, arguing it captured the film's mix of horror and holiday cheer.

Which future Goonies star plays Pete Fountaine, the kid who accidentally spills water on Gizmo?

Corey Feldman, soon to star in The Goonies, played Pete; his spill spawns five new mogwai, and the mischievous ones sabotage Billy's bedside clock so they get fed late.

How does Steven Spielberg make his cameo in Gremlins?

Spielberg appears as a man on a recumbent bicycle at the inventors' convention; other cameos include the film's composer in a telephone booth and animator Chuck Jones as Mr. Jones.

Gremlins opened in North America on June 8, 1984, the same day as which other blockbuster?

Ghostbusters opened the same day and won the weekend with $13.6 million to Gremlins' $12.5 million; both films finished in 1984's domestic top four.

Roughly what was the production budget of Gremlins?

Gremlins cost about $11 million to make; Warner Bros. released it in June 1984 and it finished as one of the year's four highest-grossing films in North America.

Approximately how much did Gremlins gross in its North American run?

Gremlins grossed about $148 million in North America, the fourth-highest domestic total of 1984, and passed $200 million worldwide once overseas markets were added.

Complaints about violence in Gremlins and which other 1984 PG film led to the PG-13 rating?

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, released two weeks before Gremlins, drew the same complaints; Spielberg, connected to both, suggested an intermediate rating and the MPAA created PG-13 in July 1984.

Which film was the first released theatrically under the new PG-13 rating in 1984?

Red Dawn, released August 10, 1984, was the first film to reach theaters with a PG-13; the rating had been introduced on July 1, weeks after Gremlins opened with a plain PG.

Who composed the score for Gremlins, including the mischievous 'Gremlin Rag'?

Jerry Goldsmith composed the score, including the 'Gremlin Rag', and won a Saturn Award for it; like Chuck Jones and Spielberg he also sneaks into the film in a cameo.

The composer of Gremlins won his only Academy Award, from 18 nominations, for which film?

The Omen, in 1976, brought the composer his only Oscar from 18 nominations; his last completed score was Looney Tunes: Back in Action in 2003, another film by the Gremlins director.

Gremlins puppet designer Chris Walas later won a makeup Oscar for which film?

The Fly, in 1986, won Chris Walas the Academy Award for Best Makeup alongside Stephan Dupuis, and that win led to his directing debut on The Fly II in 1989.

Which scene from the much darker original screenplay was cut before filming?

Lynn Peltzer being decapitated, her head tossed down the stairs, was cut from the original darker script, as were the gremlins eating Billy's dog and attacking a McDonald's.

Which company produced Gremlins brand breakfast cereal in the mid-1980s?

Ralston was the go-to maker of movie tie-in cereals in the era, cranking out boxes for Batman and Barbie too.

In the 1984 Atari 2600 game, what food must Billy catch before the mogwai eat it?

Hamburgers fall from the top of the screen and Billy must catch them before the mogwai eat them and turn into gremlins; a second phase has him fighting the descending gremlins.

A Gremlins game holds the distinction of being the last game ever released for which console?

The Atari 5200 version of Gremlins, released in 1986, was the last official game for that console and a substantially different game from the earlier Atari 2600 cartridge.

Which children's author, a former fighter pilot, published a book called The Gremlins in 1943?

Roald Dahl, a former RAF fighter pilot, wrote The Gremlins in 1943; Walt Disney published and optioned it, and the little saboteurs had been aviator folklore since the 1920s.

The word 'mogwai' comes from Cantonese, where it means what?

Mogwai means devil or demon in Cantonese, written 魔怪, which is why Mr. Wing warns that great responsibility comes with owning one.

Which small-monster film is cited as an unrelated knock-off inspired by Gremlins' success?

Ghoulies, released in 1985 with a creature popping out of a toilet on its poster, was the best-known Gremlins knock-off; Munchies and Critters followed in a late-1980s wave of pint-sized creature features.

Spielberg chose the Gremlins director largely because of which 1981 werewolf film he had made?

The Howling, released in 1981 with Rob Bottin's on-screen werewolf transformations, was the horror-comedy calling card that convinced Spielberg to hire its director for Gremlins.

Gremlins 2 (1990) is set almost entirely inside Clamp Center, a skyscraper in which city?

Clamp Center is in Manhattan; screenwriter Charlie Haas moved the gremlins to a big-city skyscraper after earlier pitches had sent them to Las Vegas or even Mars.

Eccentric billionaire Daniel Clamp was modeled on Donald Trump and which cable-TV mogul?

Ted Turner, the cable-TV mogul, and Donald Trump were the models for Daniel Clamp, whose empire lets the film parody genetics labs and cable television alike.

What is the first name of Christopher Lee's Gremlins 2 character, Doctor Catheter?

Cushing is his first name, making him Dr. Cushing Catheter in tribute to Peter Cushing, Lee's frequent Hammer co-star and close friend.

The sequel's new mogwai George and Lenny are named after the main characters of which novel?

Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck's novella, supplies the names: George is a caricature of Edward G. Robinson, while buck-toothed Lenny is the gentle giant.

Which Odd Couple star voiced the erudite Brain Gremlin?

Tony Randall, television's Felix Unger, voiced the Brain Gremlin, who gains his intellect by drinking a lab serum and then gives a very civil television interview.

Robert Prosky's Clamp cable-network horror host, Fred, was based on which classic sitcom character?

Grandpa Munster of The Munsters inspired Grandpa Fred, who ends the film promoted after covering the gremlin outbreak live with a Japanese tourist as his cameraman.

The sole surviving gremlin, a female who corners security chief Forster, is nicknamed what?

Greta becomes female after drinking one of Dr. Catheter's serums, misses the lobby massacre, and ends the film pressing security chief Forster to marry her.

After drinking a lab serum, the leader Mohawk mutates into a centaur-like hybrid of what creature?

Mohawk becomes a spider hybrid after drinking a spider serum; another gremlin turns bat-like and is given a genetic sunblock that makes it immune to sunlight.

In a Rambo homage, Gizmo kills Mohawk with a makeshift arrow tipped with an ignited bottle of what?

Correction fluid is the accelerant: Gizmo lights a bottle tied to his makeshift arrow and fires it at Mohawk, who had spent the movie abducting and torturing him.

Which wrestler appears as himself, bullying the gremlins who hijack the projection booth into restarting the film?

Hulk Hogan appears as himself in the theatrical cut, threatening the gremlins who hijack the projection booth; the home-video version swaps the gag for a VCR takeover and a John Wayne impersonation.

Which Looney Tunes character interrupts Bugs Bunny in the animated opening of Gremlins 2?

Daffy Duck interrupts Bugs Bunny in the opening; the animated bookends were directed by Chuck Jones, the veteran Looney Tunes animator who had cameoed as Billy's drawing mentor in the first film.

Which actor plays sunny billionaire developer Daniel Clamp in Gremlins 2?

John Glover plays Daniel Clamp, the relentlessly upbeat owner of Clamp Center; Glover later became known as Lionel Luthor on Smallville.

Which song does the Brain Gremlin lead hundreds of gremlins in singing in the film's big musical number?

New York, New York is the number: the Brain Gremlin leads the horde in a Sinatra-style singalong in the Clamp Center lobby just before the gremlins are hosed down and electrocuted.

The animated prequel Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai is set in the 1920s in which city?

Shanghai in the 1920s is the setting; the series tells how 10-year-old Sam Wing, the future Mr. Wing, first met a young Gizmo.

Secrets of the Mogwai debuted on May 23, 2023, on the launch day of which streaming service?

Max, the rebranded HBO Max, launched on May 23, 2023, with Secrets of the Mogwai as a launch title; the first episode had screened nearly a year earlier at the Annecy animation festival.

Which actress plays the miserly Mrs. Deagle in Gremlins?

Polly Holliday, known as Flo on the sitcom Alice, plays Mrs. Deagle, who dies when the gremlins sabotage her stair lift and launch her out of a window.