Line #143 Film/Gremlins1984


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gremlins_ver1.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:''[[TagLine What you see...isn't always what you get.]]'']]
3
4	->''"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."''
5	-->-- '''Rand Peltzer'''
6
7	''Gremlins'' is a 1984 dark HorrorComedy film directed by Creator/JoeDante, and executive produced by Creator/StevenSpielberg. It started the ''Franchise/{{Gremlins}}'' franchise.
8
9	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:
10
11	* [[WeakenedByTheLight Don't let it near bright light.]]
12	* [[ExplosiveBreeder Don't get it wet.]]
13	* [[WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve Don't feed it after midnight.]]
14
15	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]].
16
17	Followed by the 1990 sequel, ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch'', and the 2023 animated prequel series, ''WesternAnimation/GremlinsSecretsOfTheMogwai''.
18
19	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.).
20
21	----
22	!!This film provides examples of:
23
24	* 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''.
25	-->'''Mrs Peltzer''': Get out of my kitchen!!
26	* AlienBlood: The Gremlins bleed (often copious amounts of) green goo, whereas the Mogwai bleed red.
27	* TheAllegedCar: Billy has a little Volkswagen Beetle that apparently gives him nothing but grief. He's introduced failing to get it started, forcing him to walk to work.
28	* AloneWithThePsycho: After seeing that the Mogwai he had left at school had become a gremlin and killed the science teacher, Billy realizes that the same went for the other five Mogwai back home where is mother was. He attempts to call her and tell her to get out of the house, but one of them [[CutPhoneLines rips the phone line out]], forcing him to race back home before it was too late.
29	* 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.
30	* AnAssKickingChristmas: It falls under this when the town is invaded by monsters on Christmas Eve.
31	* AssholeVictim: Mrs. Deagle is shown casually evicting a poor widow with her children on Christmas Eve, while also threatening to kill the protagonist's dog by throwing him in the drying machine. A deleted scene leading to her death, which depicted her [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes looking wistfully at a picture of her dead husband]], was even cut because it made her look too sympathetic.
32	* AuthorAppeal: Director Joe Dante is a huge Looney Tunes fan. The gremlins of the film are a lot like Looney Tunes characters rather than the much darker and grislier version of the original script. Creator/ChuckJones also makes a cameo.
33	* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals:
34	** 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. She is, however, shown to coddle her menagerie of rather wild and spoiled cats.
35	** 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.
36	* BackstoryHorror: One of the more quiet and slow-paced scenes in the movie has Kate telling Billy just what happened to make her hate Christmas: Her father tried to enter the house's chimney dressed as Santa when she was a kid, but broke his neck in a fall and got stuck. They thought he was missing for a few days, until they smelled something awful in the fireplace. In a horror comedy that already has plenty of scary moments, this scene especially seems to stick with viewers.
37	* BatterUp: For his final confrontation with Stripe, Billy grabs a baseball bat off the rack as a weapon. He uses it to block Stripe's chainsaw.
38	* 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.
39	* BigDamnHeroes:
40	** Billy manages to decapitate a Gremlin choking his mother.
41	** 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]].]]
42	* BigNo: Gizmo lets out one when he sees Stripe is about to jump into a pool.
43	* BittersweetEnding: The gremlins are all dead, but Kingston Falls has been absolutely ''trashed'' and Billy has to return Gizmo to 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 someday be ready to take care of him.
44	* BlackAndNerdy: Mr. Hanson is a brainy biology teacher who wears a pocket protector, the ultimate sign of a nerd in the 1980s.
45	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Billy's biology teacher Mr. Hanson is the only black character in the film, and the gremlins' first victim. ''Possibly''; the finished film walked back most other intended character deaths, so he may have only been injured and heavily sedated.
46	* 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 start breeding and selling mogwais.
47	* CallBack: Early on, Gizmo watches ''Film/ToPleaseALady'' and imitates the racing scenes. At the end of the film, Gizmo races a toy car, and dialogue from the film plays over the soundtrack.
48	* 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.
49	* 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.
50	* CaptainObvious: The old man at the bank when Mrs. Beagle gloats that she will kill Barney the dog by putting him in her dryer on high heat, "a slow and painful death". His response to that: "that would do it, all right."
51	* ChainsawGood: Stripe attacks Billy with an electric chainsaw. When Billy manages to knock him back, the chainsaw catches on the floor and pulls Stripe away, acting like a tank tread.
52	* CheatersNeverProsper: Stripe instantly shoots another Gremlin for trying to sneak extra cards into their poker game.
53	* ChekhovsGun:
54	** 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.
55	** The ornamental sword that keeps falling off the wall is used by Billy on the last gremlin that attacks his mother.
56	* ChimneyEntry: Kate's father tried to surprise his family this way one Christmas. Unfortunately, he broke his neck and died in the process.
57	* ClockTampering: One of the rules for handling mogwai is to never never feed them after midnight, since it turns them into gremlins. One night, the mogwai in the box are making noises like they are hungry. The alarm clock says it's about 11:30, so Billy feeds them some leftover chicken. The next day, [[StoppedClock Billy 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.
58	* 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.
59	* CrazyCatLady: After showing no mercy to a starving family and threatening a kill Billy's dog, Mrs. Deagle is revealed to have a dozen cats that run rampant in her mansion. She names them after currency and babies them sickeningly.
60	* CreatorInJoke: Two to producer Creator/StevenSpielberg:
61	** The working titles for movies ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'' and ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' were "Watch the Skies" and "A Boy's Life" respectively. Both titles are seen on the local theater when Billy walks past it.
62	** Rockin' Ricky Rialto's billboard is in the style of Indiana Jones from ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk''.
63	* CreatorCameo: Steven Spielberg is seen at the inventors' convention, riding a crazy-looking recumbent bike.
64	* CutPhoneLines: The [[GripingAboutGremlins gremlin]] in the Peltzers' basement rips out the phone line as Billy is calling his mom to warn her to get out of the house.
65	-->''[[ShoutOut Phone]] [[Film/ETTheExtraterrestrial Home]], ka ka!''
66	* 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.
67	* 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.
68	* DemBones: After Gizmo [[WeakenedByTheLight lifted the shades to bring sunlight upon Stripe]] that [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath melts his flesh off]] before falling into the fountain, the latter suddenly emerges from the fountain when Billy goes to check if he’s dead, reduced to nothing but his skeleton. He lunges out of the fountain, [[ImMelting only for his skeleton to melt.]]
69	* DestinationDefenestration: This is how Mrs. Deagle meets her end, courtesy of the Gremlins.
70	* 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).
71	* ADogNamedDog: "Gizmo" is the nickname Billy's father gives him. His true owner, Mr. Wing, calls him Mogwai, which is also his species.
72	* DraggedOffToHell: When the Gremlins heckle Mrs. Deagle, she's convinced [[WrongGenreSavvy they're demons who've come for her]]. [[spoiler:The irony is, in a sense, she's ''not'' entirely wrong, since the Gremlin sabotage of her stair lift chair gets her killed moments later.]]
73	* DrowningMySorrows: Mr. Futterman is put out of a job, and then finds out his beloved Kentucky Harvester has foreign-made parts in it.
74	* EveryDeviceIsASwissArmyKnife: PlayedForLaughs with Randall Peltzer's inventions. Particularly the Bathroom Buddy.
75	* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: The film was originally envisioned as a much darker horror film but was made into a more campy horror-comedy, rated PG. Still, its horror origins are very apparent, making it quite a bit more grisly and scary than most other PG films. It was this film, along with ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'', that prompted the MPAA to create a rating between PG and R.
76	* {{Foreshadowing}}: When Billy accidentally sprays water on Gizmo and causes him to multiply, Gizmo looks incredibly sullen and shakes his head, because he already knows that the new Mogwai are going to cause chaos and actively want to become Gremlins.
77	* 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.
78	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: When Billy's dad in on the phone at his inventor's convention, in the background is a time machine (like the one used in the 1960 film, ''Film/{{The Time Machine\|1960}}'', also seen on ''Series/TheBigBangTheory''). The time machine disappears (having gone back in time) and people start feeling the air around where it was, looking for it.
79	* 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]].
80	* 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).
81	* GiftShake: Billy starts to do this with his present, but is quickly stopped by his father since the box contains Gizmo.
82	* GRatedSex: Mogwai and gremlins reproduce by splashing or immersing them in water. Mogwai come from Chinese lore, and are said to be gremlin-like creatures that inflict harm on people and breed during the rainy seasons.
83	* 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.
84	* GripingAboutGremlins: For anyone who lived long enough to gripe about them, at least. The 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.
85	* GrossUpCloseUp: The shots of the mogwai sloppily devouring the fried chicken Billy gives them.
86	* 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.]]
87	* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: The movie's story starts out as a wholesome Christmas movie about a teen boy who receives a mysterious pet called a mogwai for Christmas along with several rules to follow. The horror starts when the rules are broken.
88	* InfantilizationRetaliation: Gizmo gets water spilled on him, and promptly spawns several Gremlin eggs. While initially cute, they actually hatch into Mogwai, where the ominous music, Gizmo's pained screaming, and the malevolent gazes of the babies as they hatch lets the audience these new Gremlins are very different from Gizmo. Billy's young friend Pete thinks they're cute, and reaches towards one while saying "Hi Cutie". It promptly snaps at his finger.
89	* InformedPoverty: Billy is said to be supporting his family as a lowly bank teller, Billy's father is shown to be a rather inept inventor, and Billy's mother's crying is implied to be about the family's financial straits. However, the family lives in a large house, Billy's mother is a housewife, and Billy's father has $200 on hand to spend on an exotic pet. They must not be doing that bad.
90	* IWarnedYou: "With Mogwai, comes much responsibility. I cannot sell him at any price." Randall Peltzer acquires a mogwai anyway. Warnings about them are ignored and the gremlins run wild. [[spoiler:Ironically, the warnings ''were'' heeded. The mistake came from ''trusting an analog clock that turned out to be stopped'' because the evil Mogwai (later Gremlin) Stripe had sabotaged it. The "do not get them wet" rule being broken was an accident.]]
91	-->'''Grandfather:''' I warned you. With mogwai comes much responsibility. But you didn't listen.
92	* JerkassHasAPoint: Gerald tells Billy to his face that he'd have fired him over the fiasco his dog caused at the bank. He then proceeds to brag about his success. His criticisms of Billy for not doing more with his life, however, are pretty accurate.
93	* JumpScare: After Gizmo defeats Stripe by lifting the shades to shine sunlight on the latter which causes him to melt and fall into the fountain, Billy goes to check to make sure Stripe was dead…but [[DemBones his skeleton]] suddenly springs back from the fountain with a frightening screech.
94	* KarmicNod: Upon seeing the Gremlins for the first time, [[AssholeVictim Mrs. Deagle]] is convinced "they're" coming for her. Her [[VillainousBreakdown breakdown]] into delusional sobbing before she activates her tampered stairlift and her own demise 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).
95	-->'''Mrs. Deagle:''' I'm not ready!!!
96	* 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.
97	* 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.
98	* LandmarkDeclarationGambit: Discussed when Kate mentions a petition to declare Dorry's Tavern as a landmark to stop Ruby Deagle from tearing it down.
99	* LastVillainStand: Inverted in the final act of the movie, as even though all the other [[GripingAboutGremlins gremlins]] had been wiped out except [[BigBad Stripe]] by then, the head gremlin is not in a desperate situation, as he not only has [[TheHero Billy]] at his mercy a couple of times, but he just needs to get to water in order to [[ExplosiveBreeder recreate his army]], which makes the situation into a RaceAgainstTheClock.
100	* 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]].
101	* LeitmotifUponDeath: [[spoiler:A rendition of The Gremlin Rag, the gremlins' leitmotif, plays when Stripe, their leader, melts in the sunlight.]]
102	* 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.
103	* MarsNeedsWomen: Kate is the only young woman attacked by the gremlins, and she's the only person they abduct rather than try to kill. One gremlin dressed as a flasher "exposes" himself to her.
104	* MicrowaveMisuse: One of the eponymous monsters is killed in the microwave; going pop in a very spectacular fashion.
105	* MicrowaveTheDog: One of the gremlins is killed in a microwave. (Yes, it was a pet before it transformed)
106	* 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.
107	* 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.
108	* 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.
109	* NotMeThisTime: Billy rightfully suspects Mrs. Deagle of abusing his dog Barney by stringing the poor thing up with a bunch of Christmas lights, since she had already made threats to do even worse. However, she's not responsible, it was Stripe and the other evil Mogwai.
110	* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Rockin' Ricky Rialto is heard being attacking by gremlins as they invade his studio. Later, we hear Ricky none the worse for wear, defiantly announcing that he's still on the air, having apparently fought off the gremlins.
111	* OffWithHisHead:
112	** In the DarkerAndEdgier original script, Billy returned home to see his mother's head rolling down the stairs.
113	** 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.
114	* OhCrap:
115	** Billy's reaction after the last gremlin, Stripe, jumps into a public swimming pool. Gremlin Army ensues.
116	** 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]].
117	** The Gremlin choking Billy's mom, just before Billy chops his head off. "Uh-oh."
118	** Billy when he gets the phone call from Mr. Hanson saying that "It just hatched."
119	** Again when he finds Mr. Hanson's dead body.
120	** Billy's mom when she hears the Gremlins upstairs, then goes up to Billy's room and sees the hatched cocoons.
121	** Billy calling his mom to warn her that "They've hatched, get out of the house!"
122	** Billy ''and'' his mom as the phone call gets cut off, then "Do You Hear What I Hear" starts playing downstairs.
123	** Billy's Mom when she sees the Gremlin eating one of her gingerbread men.
124	** Billy, when he hears Rockin' Ricky saying that the marines are standing by with fire hoses to deal with the gremlins should they return.
125	** Stripe when he sees the theater explode with all his gremlin minions inside.
126	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Mrs. Futterman is a cheerful and doting wife to her depressed and sour husband. When they're about to be crushed by his plow, however, she turns on him and starts screaming at him. This is likely an artifact of the original, darker version of the script, in which the couple is killed.
127	* 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.
128	* 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".
129	* PoliceAreUseless: Joe Dante probably defines this trope best in the commentary track: [[EnforcedTrope "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.
130	* ProperlyParanoid: Mr. Futterman's crazy drunk talk about gremlins had some truth to it. During the climax, Billy even says that he was right.
131	* 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.
132	* RedEyesTakeWarning: All Gremlins have them. Although they don't normally glow, there's a very striking moment when Mrs. Peltzer slashes open Billy's Christmas stocking thinking there's another Gremlin hiding inside ([[CatScare which turns out to just be a motorized toy robot)]], only to find out a second too late that a pair of red lights in the tree behind her are ''not'' part of the decorations.
133	* ShirtlessScene: Billy gets one after his [[BunglingInventor father]]'s orange juicer explodes on him, forcing him to change shirts.
134	* ShoutOut:
135	** There's a [[Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau Doctor Moreau]] who works at the animal clinic.
136	** 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.
137	** 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]].
138	** [[Film/ForbiddenPlanet Robbie the Robot]] and Film/TheTimeMachine1960 appear (or disappear, in the latter's case) in the inventor convention attended by Mr. Peltzer.
139	** At Dory's when talking with Billy Gerald orders a martini shaken not stirred.
140	** 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.
141	** Mr. Wing's son is dressed like [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom Short Round]].
142	** The gremlin cocoons bear a resemblance to the eggs from ''Film/{{Alien}}''.
143	** 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''.
144	** The iconic Gremlin Rag was [[https://youtu.be/IEQa--ydUDE?t=98 recycled from the segment]] that was a remake of the episode ''Nightmare at 20,000 Feet''. Both the episode and the remake featured a gremlin, making it a clever nod to the story that popularized gremlins.
145	** 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.
146	** 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.
147	* 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.
148	* StepfordSmiler: Billy's mother is introduced cooking in the kitchen and spontaneously breaking into tears, most likely due to the family's financial woes. She blames it on the "sad movie," but she's watching the end of ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'', perhaps the most famous feel-good movie finale of all time. When her husband returns home, she puts on a smile and says she'll talk about it later.
149	* 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.
150	* 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.
151	* 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.]]
152	* TagalongKid: Billy seems to have an older brother type of relationship with a kid called Pete who hangs out with him.
153	* TakenDuringTheEnding: At the end of the movie, Mr. Wing shows up at the Peltzers' house to take Gizmo back to his shop in Chinatown after a Gremlin infestation shows him that they're not responsible enough to take care of the Mogwai.
154	* TechnicolorDeath: It's not enough for sunlight to just kill Gremlins. [[spoiler:It has to melt them alive]].
155	* ThemeNaming: All of Ms. Deagle's cats are named after different currencies: Dollar Bill, Kopeck, Drachma, etc.
156	* 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."]]
157	* TowerDefense: Pete is seen defending his room's window against invading gremlins.
158	* 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.
159	* 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 right eye, whereas Stripe has a mohawk of white hair on his head which he retains as a Gremlin.
160	* VagueAge: Billy and Kate. They both look like teenagers, and Billy still lives with his parents, but they both seem to be out of high school and have full time jobs. Billy even receives a lecture from Gerald about how he's wasting his life, implying he's been out of school for a while.
161	* VillainsOutShopping: Late in the film, the gremlins take a break from their usual mischief to watch ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' in the theater.
162	* TheVoice: The DJ at the town radio station, "Rockin' Ricky Rialto". Gremlins are heard breaking into his studio, but as noted above he survives.
163	--->'''Rockin' Ricky:''' Hey wait a minute, you're not Rockin' Ricky fans!...
164	* WeSellEverything: The store where Billy has his final fight with Stripe sells toys, boomboxes, chainsaws, crossbows, and firearms, and it also has an entire garden center.
165	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
166	** 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 he gets cut off. Pete doesn't appear in the sequel (Corey Feldman was in rehab at the time), nor is he even mentioned.
167	** 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.
168	** 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.
169	** 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.
170	* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve: Do not feed Mogwai after midnight.
171	* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The first film takes care not to mention where [[EverytownAmerica Kingston Falls]] is located or which "Chinatown" Rand visited. Most of it was shot on the Universal Studios backlot in Los Angeles, using the same small town sets as ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture''. However, [[AllThereInTheManual according to the script]], Kingston Falls is located somewhere in Pennsylvania and the sequel establishes that Mr. Wing's shop is in New York City.
172	* 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.]]
173	* YouAreNotReady: Although it is hinted that Billy may be one day.
174	* 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.
175	* YouHaveToBelieveMe: Billy is 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.
176	-->'''Billy''': Sheriff! Sheriff, ''will you listen to me?''\
177	'''Sheriff''': '''You listen to me, kid!''' Go on home, take little Gizmo there, sit by the fireplace, and open your Christmas presents, huh? Attaboy.
178
179	!!Tropes exclusive to the novelization:
180
181	* AdaptationalKarma: The novelization explains that Mr. Wing's Grandson was severely punished by his grandfather for the back alley sale of Gizmo.
182	* AdaptationalVillainy: In the novelization, Mrs. Deagle was selling the evicted tenants' 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.
183	* AllThereInTheManual: The Novelization has a prologue that claims that 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').
184	* ApeShallNeverKillApe: The novelization says that Mogwai are incapable of killing each other. Gremlins, however, feel no such limitation.
185	* 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.
186	* DeathByAdaptation: The novelization, based on an earlier draft of the script, reveals the survival of the Futtermans to be a last second addition in the film. They're explicitly stated to have died in the book.
187	* TheCon: Mrs. Deagle evicting tenants is revealed to be a deliberate part of a 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).
188

Context Film / Gremlins1984