History Film / Gremlins

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eb38d0c315c2b605e5d19e6dfbaec486.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[{{Tagline}} Cute. Clever. Mischievous. Intelligent. Dangerous.]]]]

->''"So if your air conditioner goes on the fritz, or your washing machine blows up, or your video recorder conks out, before you call the repairman, turn on all the lights, check all the closets and cupboards, look under all the beds, 'cause you never can tell. There just might be a gremlin in your house."''
-->-- '''Rand Peltzer'''

''Gremlins'' is a 1984 dark HorrorComedy film directed by Creator/JoeDante, and executive produced by Creator/StevenSpielberg.

Inventor Randall Peltzer stops by Chinatown in New York City to pick up a gift for his son, Billy. He ends up getting a mysterious, yet undeniably adorable, critter called a ''mogwai''. The creature comes [[SchmuckBait with instructions]], though:

* [[WeakenedByTheLight Don't let it near bright light.]]
* [[ExplosiveBreeder Don't get it wet.]]
* [[WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve Don't feed it after midnight.]]

The creature, named Gizmo, is gentle and well-behaved, but after he accidentally gets splashed with water, more ''mogwai'' suddenly form, and this new, mean-spirited batch tricks Billy into feeding them after midnight. They all form cocoons, and then turn into ugly, frightening gremlins, who [[HilarityEnsues gleefully cause havoc and terrorize the town]].

Followed by the 1990 sequel, ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch''. This one relocates the main characters to New York City, and features a parody of moguls such as Donald Trump and Ted Turner, as well as references to films like ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' and the ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' series.

[[http://gremlins.wikia.com/wiki/Gremlins_3 A second sequel is rumored to be in the works]]. An animated series for Creator/HBOMax called ''WesternAnimation/GremlinsSecretsOfTheMogwai'' was confirmed in 2020, which features the adventures of a young Mr. Wing and Gizmo as the boy learns to become the BigGood who would be the only man trustworthy to safely contain the ''mogwai''. Characters from the franchise also appeared in Franchise/{{Lego}} form in the video game ''VideoGame/LEGODimensions''. Gizmo and Stripe also appear as playable characters in ''VideoGame/{{Multiversus}}''.

This movie, along with ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'', is the reason why the PG-13 rating was created in the U.S. (and the 12 rating in the U.K.).

For the trope, see GripingAboutGremlins.
----
!!This film and its sequel provide examples of:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Both movies]]
* AdaptationalHeroism: Daffy and Lenny, while arguably the least malicious of the known ''mogwai'', were still antagonistic and ultimately evolved into dangerous Gremlins in the second film. In the ''Gremlins: Gizmo'' video game, they are Eternals you can choose to take control of like Gizmo.
* AlienBlood: The gremlins bleed (often copious amounts) of green goo, even though the ''mogwai'' bleed red.
* AllThereInTheManual:
** The Novelization has a prologue that explains that [[spoiler:Mogwais were genetically engineered by an alien scientist called the Mogturmen as the perfect companion. However, the vast majority of Mogwais turned out to be dangerous, not to mention the unforeseen Gremlin problem. Gizmo is one of the few Mogwais to turn out right (labelled 'Eternals').]]
** Several of the Mogwai and Gremlins are only given names via merchandise or the novelisations. The beady eyed second in command in the first film is called Haskins, while the one tested on by Mr Hanson is called Earl. The second film's initial spawn of Mogwai are Mohawk, George, Lenny and Daffy.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Emphasis on "chaotic" in the case of any of the Mogwai/Gremlins who aren't Gizmo. Emphasis on "evil" when it comes to Stripe and Mohawk. That said, the other Gremlins do not exactly weep over killed comrades.
* ApeShallNeverKillApe: The novelization says that Mogwai are incapable of killing each other. However, this is {{averted}} by the Gremlins, who aren't safe even from each other. They're frequently shown murdering one of their own or doing things like throwing acid in another Gremlin's face.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The twin scientists in the sequel guess that Gizmo is some kind of rodent, yet he lacks the buck teeth that all rodents share; if anything, he looks like a prosimian primate.
** The Gremlins don't seem to reproduce again until Stripe dips his finger in the fountain, even though he and most of the Gremlins have been walking barefoot through snow to reach the bar and the movie theater.
** They most likely have to have water spilled on their torso area combined with the fact that gremlins are most likely cold-blooded and couldn't melt the snow with their body heat.
*** Most likely the latter, as Stripe was able to start spawning more Gremlins by simply dipping his finger in a fountain, but it's been consistently shown that only liquid water (and not snow or beer or other liquids) cause Gremlins to multiply.
* AscendedExtra: Murray Futterman is a relatively minor character in the first film, but has a much bigger part in the second, sneaking into the building the Gremlins are occupying and even pulling a BigDamnHeroes moment to save Billy.
* BilingualBonus: The first Mogwai is bought from a Chinese shop. "Mo-Gwai" is Cantonese for "devil."
* BizarreAlienBiology: The Mogwai and gremlins don't operate under normal biological rules. [[WeakenedByTheLight Most forms of light are painful to them]], and sunlight is outright fatal, they reproduce asexually just from contacting water, and they metamorphosize from the former to the latter just by eating after midnight. The novelization justifies this by saying they are literally aliens.
* CelestialDeadline: Mogwai shall not be fed "after midnight", lest they turn into Gremlins. Nothing is said about when you can feed them again. Sunrise, maybe?
** {{Lampshaded}} in the second movie, when the security crew mocks Billy by coming up with various scenarios, such as eating on a plane and passing into another time zone.
* ClockDiscrepancy: One of the rules for handling mogwai was to never NEVER feed them after midnight (as turns out, it turns them into gremlins). One night the mogwai in the box were making noises like they were hungry. The alarm clock says it's about 11:30, so the boy feeds them some leftover chicken. The next day, [[StoppedClock the boy notices the clock reading the exact same time]]. Seems the extension cord had been ripped from the plug, the mogwai actually chewed through the electrical cord, [[OhCrap so it was after midnight]] after all.
** In the sequel, Billy has all the clocks in Clamp Tower set ahead a few hours, to convince the Gremlins the sun has gone down and it's safe to come out.
* ComedicSociopathy: The Gremlins may well define this trope.
* CuteIsEvil: The cuteness of the Mogwai blinds people to the fact that they could possibly be dangerous.
* ExplosiveBreeder: Mogwai start to pop out new mogwai whenever they get wet. Gremlins do this too, and they make more gremlins rather than mogwai.
* TheFairFolk: The novelisations outright state that the Mogwai/Gremlins are their direct inspiration, and they are modelled after a particular fey creature anyways. [[spoiler:If you consider the novels' statements about them being aliens to be true, then they also reference the similarities between traditional fairies and the grays]].
* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence / FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: To the point that the graphic content of the first movie (along with [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom another Spielberg production]]) was used as an indication that a rating between PG and R was necessary.
* FollowTheLeader: There were oodles of gremlins-like creature features in between the two films, including ''Film/{{Ghoulies}}'' and unfortunately ''Film/{{Hobgoblins}}''. (The movie ''Film/{{Critters}}'' was ''not'' following the lead of ''Gremlins'', as it had been in the works before ''Gremlins'' went into production.)
* GeneticMemory: Gremlins, as part of their nature, are born with the capacity to understand the interworkings of machinery and how to sabotage it. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking As well as an apparently instinctive grasp and love of pop culture.]]
* TheGenieKnowsJackNicholson: In spades; both Gizmo and the Gremlins are ''huge'' pop culture junkies. This quality is exaggerated and highlighted in the second film.
* {{Gorn}}: The Gremlins have green blood and guts, which leaves them open to extremely gory deaths that only get more gruesome in the sequel.
* GreenAesop: After the mayhem in the first film, the Chinese shopkeeper returns to collect Gizmo, berating the Peltzers all the while. "You have done with mogwai what your society has done with all of nature's gift!" Definitely shoe-horned on, considering the causes for the mayhem was an innocent accident with water, followed by the mogwai tricking Billy into feeding them after midnight.
** It can be argued that the real cause of the whole incident was Billy's father going against the Mogwai's original owner and taking it from the place where it was protected and understood, then bringing it into an environment that was both unfamiliar with it and to it, so the Aesop still stands. As for the whole "alien genetic experiment" angle, it's not in the original movies, where the "nature's gift" line was first spoken, so it's more like a case of AdaptationInducedPlotHole.
** The Aesop is also undermined by the man delivering it: if you know anything about Chinese Folk Medicine, then you'll know that the Chinese do more than their fair share of exploiting and harming nature for selfish reasons.
* GripingAboutGremlins: For anyone who lived long enough to gripe about them, at least. The first film features a monologue by Mr. Futterman about the typical Gremlin legend, which Billy later latches on to as a handy name for the critters. They do embody some elements of the mythical gremlins, notably being very adept with technology, usually to the detriment of human beings.
* HorrorHatesARulebreaker: The series is a classic example of this trope/genre of horror. The adorable little Mogwai named Gizmo had a number of rules that anyone taking care of one needed to know.
** The first rule was never to place a Mogwai [[WeakenedByTheLight near bright light, especially sunlight as that would kill them]].
** The second rule was never to get any water on them or have them drink it, as this was [[BizarreAlienReproduction their primary means of reproduction]], and when this rule was broken, it resulted in a number of Mogwai getting born from Gizmo's back who weren't nearly as nice as him.
** The third and final rule was never to feed a Mogwai after midnight (something the new Mogwai tricked the protagonist into doing by means of ripping the wires out of a mains-powered analog clock), because that would result in the Mogwai undergoing a transformation into one of the eponymous Gremlins. The key to defeating them turned out to be weaponizing the first rule, which worked on both Mogwai and Gremlins alike.
* ImMelting: Prolonged exposure to sunlight causes gremlins to melt. For added points ''Gremlins 2'' has one dressed as a witch recite the [[Film/TheWizardOfOz trope namer]] as he melts.
* IncongruouslyDressedZombie: Whenever a Gremlin bothers to wear clothes, it's liable to be this trope. The bar scenes from the first movie in features Gremlin bar floozies, Gremlin beatniks, a Gremlin in a ''Flashdance'' outfit, a ski-masked Gremlin armed robber, and even a Gremlin ''flasher''.
* InevitablyBrokenRule: The three rules of keeping a Mogwai: never expose them to light, never get them wet, and never '''ever''' feed them after midnight. The breaking of the second and third rules causes the Gremlin infestation, while the breaking of the first rule ends it.
* ItAmusedMe: The main motivation behind the Gremlins' actions. Most of them aren't inherently evil - it's just that they are TheUnfettered in their pursuit of fun, resulting in it often involving wanton destruction.
* ItCanThink: A lot of the problems arise from the human characters fatally underestimating the Gremlins' intelligence. After the evil Mogwai are spawned, they trick Billy into feeding them after midnight by sabotaging his analog clock, and on several other occasions they damage equipment to cause accidents, like cutting the brakes of a police car. Stripe knows full well that water creates more Gremlins, so he jumps into a pool when Billy pursues him, and also knows how to operate tools (he attacks Billy with a pistol and a ''mini-chainsaw'').
* JerkAss: Most gremlins qualify for this, save for Lenny and Daffy, but Stripe and Mohawk especially stand out in the jerk department.
* KillerRabbit: The mogwai, save for Gizmo. Gizmo himself qualifies when he TakesALevelInBadass and models himself after Franchise/{{Rambo}}.
* KnightOfCerebus: While the Gremlins are played for violent laughs in general, both Stripe and Mohawk are played deadly straight.
* LaughablyEvil: Most gremlins in general. They're both incredibly dangerous and ''very'' funny.
* LighterAndSofter:
** The first film compared to the original script, where the gremlins usually killed and ate people in exceedingly horrific ways.
** The second film to the first, which set out to be much sillier and slapsticky rendition than the occasionally dark first one (compare Kate's Santa monologue with the way a similar one is treated in the sequel).
* MagicAIsMagicA: Sunlight kills mogwai and gremlins who are also afraid of bright lights. Water splashed onto either of the two produces more creatures spawned from their backs. Feeding a mogwai after midnight causes it to metamorphosize into a gremlin. This gets played with in the second movie.
* MammalMonstersAreMoreHeroic: While Gizmo is the only truly heroic Mogwai, it's clear that part of the reason why he ''remains'' heroic is because he never transforms into a Gremlin, which are larger and more muscular, obviously reptilian with scales instead of fur, and sharp claws and fangs. In an earlier draft, Gizmo would have become a Gremlin and tried to kill Billy.
* MetamorphosisMonster: The Mogwai transform if fed after midnight.
* MonsterDelay: In both films, we at first don't see much if anything of the gremlins except glimpses of their arms and shadows and hearing their voices after their cocoons hatch. After a short time, we finally see them in all their monstrous glory, and from then on they get a lot of screen-time for the rest of either film. This trope's re-use in the second film remains effective due to the four metamorphosing mogwai's unique appearances.
** Part of this, at least in the first film, is the limitations of the puppets, and Chris Walas always racing to keep up with the film's shooting schedule.
* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: While no one seems to make a big deal out of who kills what gremlin, it always seems to be Gizmo's destiny to be the one to destroy the lead gremlin which seems to be his main rival.
** For that matter, while some manage to kill at least one gremlin, it always seems to be Billy's plan that exterminates the entire horde of gremlins except the leader.
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The fluffy mammal-like Mogwai outside of Gizmo are already depicted as a malicious bunch, but they become an unstoppable horde who create havoc in the town and kill several people only after they're turned into fierce reptilian-esque Gremlins.
* RestrainingBolt: In the novelization, Stripe tells Gizmo right to his face that he wants to kill him but can't for some reason. Gizmo explains that their alien creators made sure that Mogwai could never kill each other. That RestrainingBolt vanishes after Stripe becomes a Gremlin, since he isn't a Mogwai anymore.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: The mogwai, particularly Gizmo. At least before they have an after-midnight snack.
* SpeciesTitle: About the [[GripingAboutGremlins odd creatures]] with a penchant for havoc and terror.
* ThrewMyBikeOnTheRoof: In addition to enjoying scaring people, gremlins seem to like wrecking property just to be dicks.
* TookALevelInBadass: Gizmo goes from harmless furby to sharp-shooting Rambo-clone over the course of the two films.
* YouHaveToBelieveMe: Poor Billy runs headlong into this trope in both films.
** First, he's trying to convince the local sheriff that thousands of vicious little monsters spawned from his one tiny, fuzzy friend are terrorizing the town. He starts off acknowledging how insane he sounds and trying to be reasonable, but considering the damage the Gremlins can cause, that doesn't last long.
-->'''Billy''': Sheriff! Sheriff, ''will you listen to me?''\\
'''Sheriff''': '''You listen to me, kid!''' Go on home, take little Gizmo there, sit by the fireplace, and open your Christmas presents, huh? Attaboy.
** In ''Gremlins 2'', after getting arrested trying to sabotage the Clamp building to keep the Gremlins from getting wet, he's a bit more forceful and incoherent.
-->'''Billy''': They feed after midnight, and then they form these cocoons, and then they--\\
'''Forrester''': Peltzer, you're having a psychotic episode. [[DeadpanSnarker Thanks for sharing it with us.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Gremlins]]
* ActionMom: Mrs. Peltzer turns unexpectedly and brilliantly badass when she kills three (pre-gremlin army) gremlins in one scene alone. Her weapons of choice: Blender, kitchen knife, and ''microwave''.
-->'''Mrs Peltzer''': Get out of my kitchen!!
* AnAssKickingChristmas: It falls under this when the town is invaded by monsters on Christmas Eve.
* AloneWithThePsycho: After seeing the gremlin that had attacked Mr. Hanson, Billy immediately knew that his mother was in danger and quickly raced back home. Subverted by his mother [[ActionMom turning the tables]] and taking three of them out herself.
* AndYourLittleDogToo: Mrs. Deagle's EstablishingCharacterMoment involves her showcasing herself as a very vile woman in many ways, mentioning that she hates the Peltzers and culminating with threatening to kill Billy's dog in the most grisly way she can think of in retribution for it accidentally destroying her property.
* ArtisticLicenseEconomics:
** As soon as Randall Peltzer finds out that Gizmo reproduced upon getting wet, he thinks that selling mogwai could be his big break. Yeeeeeeeeah... because a species that [[ExplosiveBreeder reproduces]] when exposed to a little water [[SarcasmMode is sure going to stay in demand for awhile.]]. JustifiedTrope -- Rand's frequently shown to be absolutely terrible with money, to the point Billy's the breadwinner for the household.
** So kicking out tenants that can't pay without providing them so much as a single day's extra time even if they beg for it and treating them like absolute crap (and being such an absolute bitch that everybody in town knows it) is supposed to provide Mrs. Deagle with money, ''how''...? [[spoiler:No wonder AllThereInTheManual exposes that it's a deliberate part of a [[TheCon real estate scam]] (a mall in deleted scenes, a company that was going to use the land to ''dispose of toxic waste'' in the novelization).]]
* AssholeVictim: Mrs. Deagle was SUCH a bitch, especially in the deleted scenes that reveal she was forcing people out of their homes to put down a strip mall, effectively destroying Kingston Falls.
** In the novelization, she was selling their land to a chemical company (named "[[MeaningfulName Hitox]]" of all things), so one can assume she was going to turn the town into a toxic waste dump.
** Even in the onscreen version, she is a heartless ice-bitch who casually evicts poor widows with children on Christmas Eve, and gleefully threatens to kill helpless little dogs by throwing them in the drying machine.
*** Almost {{Lampshaded}} herself after seeing the Gremlins for the first time, convinced "they're" coming for her. Her [[VillainousBreakdown breakdown]] into delusional sobbing before she activates her tampered stairlift and her own demise [[strike: almost makes you feel sorry for her]] makes you cheer as she ''literally'' flies down to Hell where she belongs (the Latin American translation even adds "to go to Hell" to the line below).
--->'''Mrs. Deagle:''' I'm not ready!!!
** There's actually a bit cut out of the scene leading up to her death, where she looks at a picture of her dead husband and sighs "Oh, Donald. . ." It was ''so'' good they had to cut it out because it made her too sympathetic. And this ''after'' she's threatened to put a friendly, cute dog into a spin dryer on high heat!
* AutomaticDoorMalfunction: The novelization mentions that the Gremlins messed with automatic doors in some stores by making them open normally but then slam shut with enough speed and force to injure people.
* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals:
** On top of telling a woman and her children that she will not allow them so much as a day's extension in their delayed payment and she will have them kicked out of their home on Christmas Eve, Mrs. Deagle establishes she is a complete monster by threatening to snatch Billy's dog and toss the poor thing in her drier in revenge for the dog accidentally smashing her porcelain snowman (Billy offers to pay her back and she insists she will not accept anything less than the dog's life as retribution).
** The Gremlins' extra-vicious leader Stripe isn't any better, even when he's still a fuzzy little Mogwai. One of the early amber flags (if not ''red'' flags) about the new Mogwai's true nature is that in the night, Stripe has Billy's dog strung up on the porch with Christmas lights and left hanging outside in the frigid winter air. The Peltzers don't piece together that it was the cloned Mogwai who were responsible, but to the viewer, it's clear.
* BigBad: Stripe, the first mogwai/gremlin born when Gizmo got wet, and the leader of the gremlins. He proves to be a much more dangerous threat than the other Gremlins, nearly killing Billy at several points.
* BigDamnHeroes:
** Billy manages to decapitate a Gremlin choking his mother.
** Gizmo [[spoiler:exposes Stripe to sunlight at the end, just as the gremlin is about to shoot Billy and [[HereWeGoAgain produce a new army of gremlins]].]]
* BigNo: Gizmo lets out one when he sees Stripe is about to jump into a pool.
* BittersweetEnding: The Gremlins have been defeated and everything is safe again, but Gizmo has to go back to Chinatown with Mr. Wing, who delivers a withering TheReasonYouSuck to the family for the chaos they unwittingly unleashed. However, seeing the bond Gizmo has developed with Billy, Mr. Wing acknowledges that Billy may one day be the one to take care of Gizmo.
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Billy's biology teacher is the only black character in the film, and the gremlins' first victim.
* BunglingInventor: Randall Peltzer's inventions are nothing but disasters that leave tremendous messes behind and it's implied Billy is the primary bread-winner of the family because of this. He still insists in trying to make money out of them, even thinking it would be a good GetRichQuickScheme to try to exploit the mogwais' ability to make more of them by making them wet (even if it's obvious that such a thing would make demand run out real quick, let alone the "newborns are evil" thing).
* TheCameo: Creator/ChuckJones is the man who compliments Billy's drawing skills at the bar early in the film. Jim [=McKrell=] (host and announcer of a few game shows, most notably ''Celebrity Sweepstakes'') and a young [[Series/TheHollywoodSquares Tom]] [[Series/AmericasFunniestHomeVideos Bergeron]] (then a personality at WBZ-TV 4 in Boston) make appearances as TV news reporters.
* CaptainErsatz: Mrs. Deagle looks and acts a lot like [[Film/TheWizardOfOz The Wicked Witch of the West]] and her human counterpart Miss Gulch, right down to threatening the main character's dog.
* CheatersNeverProsper: Stripe instantly shoots another Gremlin for trying to sneak extra cards into their poker game.
* ChekhovsGun: At the beginning of the movie, the first rule explains that Gizmo's species hates bright lights and that sunlight in particular is lethal to them. At first, this just seemed like a necessary rule to care for Gizmo, but it ends up being the most important weapon in the fight against the gremlins, the former part allowing them to drive them off while Gizmo ends up using the latter half to destroy the gremlin leader.
** The ornamental swords hanging next to the door (and which keep falling off every time someone comes into the house) are actually pretty deadly when put to good use.
* ChimneyEntry: Kate's father tried to surprise his family this way one Christmas. Unfortunately, he broke his neck and died in the process.
* CookedToDeath: Billy's mom is attacked in the kitchen by the initial batch of title monsters. She tosses one into a mixer and backs another one into a microwave, which she then activates.
* CrazyCatLady: Mrs. Deagle again. She is shown to adore her numerous cats and nurture them in a disturbingly affectionate manner. Not that the heartless old hag showed '''any''' of the same kindness to ''children'' who can be made homeless by one word from her, mind you. The fact that the cats are all named after various pieces of currency from around the world plainly shows [[OnlyInItForTheMoney what she REALLY cares about]].
* CreatorInJoke: The working titles for Creator/StevenSpielberg's movies ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'' and ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' were "Watch the Skies" and "A Boy's Life" respectively. Both were referenced as a CreatorInJoke in ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'' (which Spielberg produced), as two movies reportedly showing in the town theater when Billy walks past it. Also, Rockin' Ricky Rialto's billboard is in the style of Indiana Jones from ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk''.
* CreatorCameo: Steven Spielberg is seen at the inventors' convention, ridign a crazy-looking recumbent bike.
* DarkerAndEdgier: The first film is definitely this to the LighterAndSofter sequel, having a ton of frightening imagery, making the Gremlins nightmarish demons with a sense of humor that ranges from corny to twisted. Not to mention the death toll by the end of the film.
** And the original script compared to the first film. The script includes such scenes as the Mogwai eating Barney (before they turn into Gremlins), killing Billy's mom immediately after they turn (and throwing her dismembered head down the stairs just as Billy walks in the front door and thus landing at his feet...imagine that image welcoming you home as you walk unsuspectingly into your house), a UsefulNotes/McDonalds full of half-eaten burgers (by people) and half-eaten people (by Gremlins). Oh, and Gizmo turned into a Gremlin, indistinguishable from any of the others. Rumour suggests he might have even originally been in the place of Stripe as the leader of the Gremlin gang.
* DartboardOfHate: Poor Gizmo is himself strapped to the dartboard not long after the Gremlins emerge from their cocoons, who then proceed to chuck darts at him, showing how much their contempt for him has grown. The scene serves as a meta one for the filmmakers as well, who made it to express their own frustration in how difficult it was to make the small Gizmo puppet work alongside the much larger gremlins.
* DeadlineNews: Subverted with "Rockin' Ricky" Rialto's radio broadcast. We hear him believing the radio listeners calling to denounce the gremlin-caused chaos are pranking him and then his desperate screaming as the Gremlins attack him before the transmission cuts off but he comes back a few scenes later having apparently fought them off by himself.
* DestinationDefenestration: This is how Mrs. Deagle meets her end, courtesy of the Gremlins.
* DisneyDeath: It appears that the Futtermans are crushed and killed by a snowplow-driving gremlin, but at the very end of the movie we hear a news reporter mentioning that he'd just spoken with the lovable old couple, who are still alive and well. Viewers who missed that often mistake their reappearance in the sequel as an UnexplainedRecovery (although how they survived the encounter isn't shown, either).
** The novelization, based on an earlier draft of the script, reveals this to be a last second addition. They're explicitly stated to have died in that version.
* DrowningMySorrows: Mr. Futterman is put out of a job, and then finds out his beloved Kentucky Harvester has foreign-made parts in it.
* EatsBabies: In the original script, a scene was planned where Billy and Kate would have come across a UsefulNotes/McDonalds full of partially devoured people, including ''many'' empty baby strollers and a gremlin so bloated from its feast that it had been abandoned by its fellows.
* FromBadToWorse: After four of the original gremlins are wiped out[[note]]the whereabouts of Earl, the gremlin from school, being unknown[[/note]], Stripe, the last one remaining, flees. Billy and Gizmo track him down to the Y.M.C.A...where he jumps into a pool.
* GamblingBrawl: A group of Gremlins are playing poker in the bar when one of them tries to cheat. Stripe pulls out a gun and shoots the other Gremlin dead on the spot, which causes the rest of his ilk to [[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor burst into laughter]].
* GetRichQuickScheme: One of these is what makes the whole mess happen -- Mr. Wing's grandson sells Gizmo to Randall Peltzer because the store's location (and Mr. Wing's persnickety nature) have turned it into a money pit. It's also showcased that Peltzer's inventions are this and thus Billy is the primary breadwinner of the family. When he sees the way Mogwai reproduce, Randall briefly entertains the thought of selling the Mogwai as "the Peltzer Pet" (not thinking of how quickly demand will run out if all it takes to make more of them is any amount of water, and not knowing that all Mogwai but Gizmo are very vicious even before turning into Gremlins).
* GiftShake: Billy starts to do this with his present, but is quickly stopped by his father since the box contains Gizmo.
* GrossUpCloseUp: The shots of the mogwai sloppily devouring the fried chicken Billy gives them.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Rockin' Ricky manages to survive a Gremlin assault on his radio station, and is back on the air at the end of the movie. In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it line from his survival broadcast, he mentions Marines have arrived to keep the creatures away from his station. [[FromBadToWorse Armed with fire hoses.]]
* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: All of the events happen during Christmas Eve.
* JerkAss: Gerald qualifies although he does seem to have some kind of liking for Billy. He doesn't so much put Billy down as to question why he isn't doing more with his life, even if he's not terribly nice about it.
* KickTheDog: In the DarkerAndEdgier original script, the gremlins killed the Peltzers' pet dog, and Billy would have returned home to see his mother's head roll down the stairs. In the final version they just dangle Barney up with Christmas lights, and the mother survives with minor injuries.
* KillItWithFire: Finding that the gremlins have gathered in a movie theater, Billy and Kate set off a gas explosion in the hopes of wiping them all out. It works, but Stripe survives because he had left the theater to get some candy from a nearby store.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: A [[ShowWithinAShow Movie Within a Movie]] version when Billy and Gizmo are watching ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers1956''. Miles Benell's mad rant at the end of the film regarding the pod people could be seen like it was aimed at Billy and Gizmo, [[{{Foreshadowing}} warning them about the gremlins]].
* LeitmotifUponDeath: [[spoiler:A rendition of The Gremlin Rag, the gremlins' leitmotif, plays when Stripe, their leader, melts in the sunlight.]]
* LighterAndSofter: At least, compared to the original script draft.
* TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday: Mr. Wing's shop is in a basement deep in Chinatown and his own grandson mentions that clientele doesn't arrive very often as a result.
* MicrowaveMisuse: One of the eponymous monsters is killed in the microwave; going pop in a very spectacular fashion.
* MyCarHatesMe: Played with. In the beginning, Billy's car refuses to start, forcing him to walk to work. In the middle of the Gremlin attack, it actually starts for him. But later, when he tries to drive it again, it won't start. This might actually have some Fridge Brilliance behind it.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Billy unwittingly feeding the mogwai after midnight, though that can be forgiven as they had to trick him into doing it. Also implied near the end of the film where Rockin' Ricky can be overheard on the radio saying that the marines are planning to spray down the Gremlins with firehoses, though the main characters manage to stop them before that ever happens.
* NightmareFace: The sight of the gremlin laughing evilly up close facing you after the deputy's car crashes is enough to give ''anyone'' a nightmare. Yeah, good luck trying to sleep after seeing this.
* NobodyCanDie: Sort of a SeriesContinuityError. In the first movie we see Mrs Deagle's body and a number of humans seem to die offscreen. But early in the second movie Kate mentions that fortunately nobody got killed.
** One wonders how the science teacher survived, plus the news report at the film's end ''explicitly'' confirms that Mrs. Deagle had indeed died and hadn't just been knocked out. Maybe Kate was lying.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Possibly with Rockin' Ricky Rialto. The gremlins attack him while he's on the air, but he later comes back to the airwaves, apparently none the worse for wear. This could imply that he managed to defeat whatever gremlins attacked the radio station, although the gremlins may also have simply broken off their attack to go to the movie theater with the others.
* OffWithHisHead:
** In the DarkerAndEdgier original script, Billy returned home to see his mother's head rolling down the stairs.
** In the film itself, Billy decapitates a gremlin with a sword and kicks the severed head in the fireplace, and it screams as it's on fire.
* OhCrap:
** Billy's reaction after the last gremlin, Stripe, jumps into a public swimming pool. Gremlin Army ensues.
** When he's lying on the ground gasping in pain from Stripe shooting a crossbow bolt into his arm, and then he hears [[FromBadToWorse the sound of an electric chainsaw whirring to life]].
** The Gremlin choking Billy's mom, just before Billy chops his head off. "Uh-oh."
** Really, one after another after another as soon as the Gremlins hatch:
*** Billy when he gets the phone call from Mr. Hanson saying that "It just hatched."
*** Again when he finds Mr. Hanson's dead body.
*** Billy's mom when she hears the Gremlins upstairs, then goes up to Billy's room and sees the hatched cocoons.
*** Billy calling his mom to warn her that "They've hatched, get out of the house!"
*** Billy ''and'' his mom as the phone call gets cut off, then "Do You Hear What I Hear" starts playing downstairs.
*** Finally, Billy's Mom when she sees the Gremlin eating one of her gingerbread men.
** Stripe freaks out when he realizes that Kate has found a way to repel his Gremlins with a camera flash.
* OutOfFocus: Mrs. Peltzer has one ActionMom scene and then disappears for most of the movie. Possibly because in the original script the gremlins killed her.
* ParentsAsPeople: Billy's handling of Gizmo in his defense is pretty responsible, the two bond very closely, and he does ''try'' to follow the rules for caring for the Mogwai. Unfortunately, he never anticipates ''other'' forces breaking the rules instead, like his friend clumsily spilling water on Gizmo, or the resulting Mogwai intentionally sabotaging his clock so he will feed them after midnight. Mr Wing at least seems to acknowledge Billy's efforts in the end, noting he might be ready "one day".
* PoliceAreUseless: Joe Dante probably defines this trope best in the commentary track: "Whenever you have a sci-fi film, and police, you always have to have a scene with the police, and it's always the same scene." Which ends with the police, still not believing Billy despite seeing Gizmo with their own eyes, leaving to investigate the Futterman's "freak accident" with the snowplow, seeing Mrs. Deagle and a guy playing Santa getting attacked by Gremlins, then getting their brake lines cut and presumably dying in the ensuing car crash.
* ProperlyParanoid: Mr. Futterman's crazy drunk talk about gremlins had some truth to it. During the climax, Billy even says that he was right.
* PupatingPeril: It's eventually discovered that Mogwai who are allowed to eat after midnight end up encased in creepy, Giger-esque cocoons as they begin metamorphosing into Gremlins. This is played for much ominousness when Billy discovers that five of his six Mogwai are now cocoons clustered around his bed; it eventually results in an especially nightmarish moment in which the newly-metamorphosed Gremlins begin clawing their way out of their cocoons while a terrified Gizmo tries to hide.
* SchmuckBait: "And the most important rule of all, the one you must never forget: no matter how much he cries, no matter how much he begs, never, EVER feed him after midnight."
** Subverted. Billy takes this rule seriously, even though he doesn't know what exactly is going to happen, and honestly intends to follow it. The evil Mogwai had to trick him into breaking it. [[spoiler:To be specific, he thought it was safe to feed them as it wasn't midnight yet. His clock had been tampered with.]]
* ShirtlessScene: Billy gets one after his [[BunglingInventor father]]'s orange juicer explodes on him, forcing him to change shirts.
* ShoutOut:
** "Hi, [[Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau Doctor Moreau]]."
*** Notably, this isn't the neighbor Billy takes his injured mother to after the Gremlins first hatch (that's Dr. Mollinaro). This is someone Billy sees as he's running down the street to get to work at the bank. Apparently, Dr. Moreau works at the animal clinic...
** When Billy is hunting down Stripe in the department store, he walks past a row of plush dolls. Not only is Stripe hiding amongst them (a direct reference to ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'') he pushes away an ''actual'' doll of E.T. while poking his head out.
*** Another E.T reference comes when one of the gremlins says "Phone home"...right before [[CutPhoneLines ripping out the phone line and disconnecting Billy's call with his mother]].
*** One of the theaters is showing ''A Boy's Life'', which was the working title of ''E.T.'', and ''Watch The Skies'', the working title of ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind''.
** [[Film/ForbiddenPlanet Robbie the Robot]] and Film/TheTimeMachine1960 appear (or disappear, in the latter's case) in the inventor convention attended by Mr. Peltzer.
** At Dory's when talking with Billy Gerald orders a martini shaken not stirred.
** Rockin' Ricky Rialto's billboard is a reference to ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', complete with Rialto's name in the same font as the ''Raiders'' poster and Rialto's likeness dressed as Indiana Jones.
** Mr. Wing's son is dressed like [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom Short Round]].
** The gremlin cocoons bear a resemblance to the eggs from ''Film/{{Alien}}''.
** In Billy's bedroom you can see a ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie'' title marquee in the background. The film featured a segment Joe Dante himself directed: A radically different remake of the episode ''It's A Good Life''.
** Billy mentions he got a comic book from "Dr. Fantasy's". Dr. Fantasy is the nickname of movie producer Frank Marshall, a regular collaborator with Spielberg.
** One of the gremlins in the bar is doing the dance from ''Film/FlashDance''. Michael Sembello, who did the song "Gremlins...Mega Madness" for this movie, also did the famous "Maniac" song.
* SoftGlass: The Gremlins (mostly Stripe) have no problem breaking through windows seemingly by just running through them. Possibly justified by their scaly skin giving them enough armor to protect them from such minor injuries.
* StuckInAChimney: Kate's father tried to surprise his family by ChimneyEntry one Christmas. Unfortunately, he broke his neck and died in the process. Kate's family didn't find this out until later when they broke through the chimney to discover why there was a bad smell coming from it.
* SurprisinglyFunctionalToys: When the heroes track down Stripe to a department store, Gizmo finds a toy car sized for him, which he can drive around by the steering wheel, and even has a functioning horn, and soon the good Mogwai is driving around in the store looking for Stripe.
* SympathyForTheDevil, the second Gremlin Billy's mom kills is stabbed to death with a butcher's knife. [[spoiler: Or so you think until you see it behind her pinned to her cutting board wiggling around trying to pull the knife out! Sure they are nasty little monsters but being pinned to the ground with a knife through the gut is a horrible way to go. Finish the little bugger off at least.]]
* TagalongKid: Billy seems to have an older brother type of relationship with a kid called Pete who hangs out with him.
* TechnicolorDeath: It's not enough for sunlight to just kill Gremlins. [[spoiler:It has to melt them alive]].
* ThemeNaming: All of Ms. Deagle's cats are named after different currencies: Dollar Bill, Kopeck, Drachma, etc.
* TooDumbToLive: Kate's father had to have been a very stupid man. [[spoiler:Jumping down your own chimney while overloaded with presents like Santa Claus is only asking for trouble. To quote WebVideo/CinemaSins, "Christmas didn't kill your father, Kate, stupid did."]]
* TowerDefense: Pete is seen defending his room's window against invading gremlins.
* UniformityException: Both Gizmo and Stripe have a distinguishing feature that sets them apart from the other Mogwai/Gremlins' "standard" design: Gizmo has a white patch over his left eye, whereas Stripe has a mohawk of white hair on his head which he retains as a Gremlin.
* VillainsOutShopping: Late in the film, the gremlins take a break from their usual mischief to watch ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' in the theater.
* TheVoice: The DJ at the town radio station, "Rockin' Ricky Rialto". Gremlins are heard breaking into his studio, but as noted above he survives.
--->'''Rockin' Ricky:''' Hey wait a minute, you're not Rockin' Ricky fans!...
* TroublemakingNewPet: Even before turning into Gremlins, Gizmo's offspring demonstrate their cruel and rambunctious streak to the Peltzers' other pets, tormenting Gizmo multiple times, and tying Barney up with Christmas lights. They easily get away with the latter due to Billy's suspecting Ms. Deagle, who vocally hated Barney.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
** Billy's friend Pete is last seen firing his slingshot at a few gremlins. Then later we hear him calling into the radio station trying to give a warning out about them, and then [[FridgeHorror he gets cut off]]. Pete doesn't appear in the sequel (Corey Feldman was in rehab at the time), nor is he even mentioned.
** Judge Reinhold's character Gerald is seemingly introduced as an (unsuccessful) rival for Kate's affections, and disappears from the movie after appearing in two scenes. A deleted scene shows that he was hiding out in the bank vault while the Gremlins ran wild, and is losing his sanity.
** The final fate of the Mogwai/Gremlin that Billy lent to Mr. Hanson is never really explained.
*** He could have joined with the other Gremlins afterwards.
** The two cops flip their car after a Gremlin cuts their brakes, and don't appear for the rest of the movie. It's unclear whether or not they survived.
** Mr. Wing's Grandson is never seen again in the movie or mentioned in the sequel. The novelization however explains that he was severely punished by his grandfather for the back alley sale of Gizmo.
** Mr. Hanson get his hand chewed/clawed up and a syringe in the butt, but it's never outright stated that he's been killed, and he's never mentioned again.
* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve: Do not feed Mogwai after midnight.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: One particular Mogwai, stated as Earl in official media, is hinted in the film and novel as being one of the few Mogwai blessed with a more docile personality similar to Gizmo, [[spoiler:that is until he is taken to the middle school to be experimented on and then happening on that sandwich, condemning him to become another psychotic Gremlin and (presumably) suffer the same ill fate as all his other brethren.]]
* YouAreNotReady: Although it is hinted that Billy may be one day.
* YouCantThwartStageOne: There are three rules to properly care for Mogwais. Billy goes far enough as to break two of those rules so that the movie can really set in full gear in favor of the Gremlins. However the third rule is used to finally thwart Stripe.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: Ruby Deagle was a dowager in her early sixties, but she was played by Polly Holliday, who was 46 at the time.
[[/folder]]

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* CheatersNeverProsper: Stripe shoots another Gremlin for trying to sneak extra cards into their poker game.

* ApeShallNeverKillApe: Averted. The Gremlins aren't even safe from each other. They're frequently shown murdering one of their own or doing things like throwing acid in another Gremlin's face.

* BigBad: Stripe, the first mogwai/gremlin born when Gizmo got wet, and the leader of the gremlins.