# The original Gremlins movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 6, 2011, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650 "2011-01-06T20:11:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/21 "2011-01-06T23:50:20Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > You have to see the sequel! It’s brilliant fun! Unnecessary additional exclamation point!! !! ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/22 "2011-01-06T23:55:30Z")
Gah! To Netflix Insta Watch…except…it’s NOT AVAILABLE! Commence rocking back and forth in the fetal position! ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/23 "2011-01-06T23:58:16Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > If you’re not supposed to get wet, what are they supposed to drink? Alcohol? Or maybe it’s only more or less pure water that has the effect; as pointed out by **Freudian Slit** food is full of water. So fruit juice or Pepsi is good, plain water bad. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/24 "2011-01-07T00:11:04Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Alcohol? Or maybe it’s only more or less pure water that has the effect; as pointed out by **Freudian Slit** food is full of water. So fruit juice or Pepsi is good, plain water bad. Aw. Mogwai get to follow the exact opposite dieting advice as humans. Life IS more fun as a Mogwai, I knew it! ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/25 "2011-01-07T00:23:20Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Aw. Mogwai get to follow the exact opposite dieting advice as humans. Life IS more fun as a Mogwai, I knew it! “What is that I see? Fresh water?!” \* \\* “You’ll drink vodka and Pepsi and like it young man!” ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/26 "2011-01-07T00:57:11Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Absolutely. In _Gremlins 2_, they were troublemakers even in fuzzy form. Gizmo was the only good Mogwai. Even in the original, the non-Gizmo Mogwai were a bunch of assholes. Bossing Gizmo around and I’m pretty sure pre-gremlinized Stripe tried to bite that one kid. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/27 "2011-01-07T01:08:15Z")
I wonder if it’s just that Gizmo was a unique case, and most Mogwai were savage little beasts. Or, perhaps, Mogwai who are the result of normal reproduction are nice, and budded types are evil. Or, perhaps, budded Mogwai are always of the opposite demeanour to the original they bud off of. Maybe they just got unlucky with all of the Gizspawn… ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/28 "2011-01-07T01:16:33Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > I wonder if it’s just that Gizmo was a unique case, and most Mogwai were savage little beasts. According to the Wikipedia article on Mogwai, this is the case. I guess there’s been novelizations that added more details and Gizmo is an extreme rarity among Mogwai-kind. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/29 "2011-01-07T02:32:07Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Alcohol? Or maybe it’s only more or less pure water that has the effect; as pointed out by **Freudian Slit** food is full of water. So fruit juice or Pepsi is good, plain water bad. Perhaps. There was a scene in the first movie where they were in a bar drinking beer. From a chemical standpoint beer is mostly H2O, but I’m guessing the alcohol negates any effects water would normally have on them. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/30 "2011-01-07T02:39:38Z")
They totally need to do Gremlins 3. IN it Gizmo the Mogwai would spawn smaller Mogwai which, along the lines those Chipmunks movies, could form a band playing postrock to twenty-something single men. It’d be awesome. If they could Phoebe Cates involved, double Awesome. Jason Lee and you have Super Triple Awesome Alpha DX Turbo. ---
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/31 "2011-01-07T04:56:40Z")
I always thought it would be neat to see what happened when you expose a mogwai to sunlight. The gremlins melt into green goo; what would happen to the furry ones? ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/32 "2011-01-07T10:40:10Z")
Looks like you have a script based answer. I don’t have it handy, but I think there was also some kind of background information in the Gremlins novelization. Edited to add: looks like the wiki page does have that info! > [@](#): > > In the novel Gremlins, by George Gipe, published by Avon Books in June 1984, it is stated mogwai were created as gentle contemplative creatures by a scientist on an alien world, and that the transformation into gremlins was an unintentional side-effect. > > Also, in the novel, it is stated that for some reason, mogwai are now almost always born mischievous or just plain evil, with a very rare (1 in a thousand) gentle one (such as Gizmo, Earl and Greta (the female gremlin from Gremlins 2)) viewed as an anomaly and hated by other mogwai. The book also states that there are 3 other “minority” mogwai on this planet, hinting that they were once plentiful. > > A side-note, the “minority” are also referred to as the “eternal ones” as they are, for all intents and purposes, immortal. From the list of Gizmo’s previous owners in the book, he has been around since at least the Renaissance and presumably later moved to China and became a legendary Chinese folklore creature. However, in the event that an “eternal” eats after midnight, he becomes like his majority brethren, “short lived and violent”. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/33 "2011-01-07T11:10:29Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > If you’re not supposed to get wet, what are they supposed to drink? How can a creature live without water? Zoological knowledge has undoubtedly improved, but last time I checked–sometime in the late 70s–you weren’t supposed to give koala bears water either, in the ill-advised event that you bought one as a pet. They got all the moisture they needed from eating eucalyptus leaves, and a dish of water could choke and drown them. Maybe this inspired the weird prohibition with mogwai. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/34 "2011-01-07T11:13:01Z")
If mogwai are from another planet, then “after midnight” makes even less sense. ---
**Author:** ![Manwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/35 "2011-01-07T12:59:13Z")
I always thought the no food after midnight thing was deliberately silly, maybe a reference to a mummy’s curse or fairy godmother’s warning. Well, I say always but actually when I was a kid I thought I was really clever for working out that “after midnight” makes no sense, until some adult pointed out what Gremlins was really doing. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/36 "2011-01-07T13:10:03Z")
Funny, I always thought they needed to be civilized, and with proper nuture would mature into nice mogwai. But since the kid didn’t know how to socialize the little bastards (or let them loose too young) all hell broke loose. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/37 "2011-01-07T13:36:26Z")
> [@Manwich](#): > > I always thought the no food after midnight thing was deliberately silly, maybe a reference to a mummy’s curse or fairy godmother’s warning. > > Well, I say always but actually when I was a kid I thought I was really clever for working out that “after midnight” makes no sense, until some adult pointed out what Gremlins was really doing. What _was_ it doing? ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/38 "2011-01-07T14:02:13Z")
I always assumed that “after midnight” meant the midway point between sundown and sunrise. [QUOTE=Khan] I always thought it would be neat to see what happened when you expose a mogwai to sunlight. The gremlins melt into green goo; what would happen to the furry ones? [/QUOTE] In the book, there was one more mogwai that popped out of Gizmo than in the movie. That one got caught in direct sunlight somehow (It’s been nearly thirty years since I read it.), and turned into a crispy critter. IIRC, only some scraps of fur were all that were left. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/39 "2011-01-07T15:37:41Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > I always assumed that “after midnight” meant the midway point between sundown and sunrise. > > In the book, there was one more mogwai that popped out of Gizmo than in the movie. That one got caught in direct sunlight somehow (It’s been nearly thirty years since I read it.), and turned into a crispy critter. IIRC, only some scraps of fur were all that were left. I remember that from the book as well. Gizmo wouldn’t tell the other Mogwai the rules, knowing that they’d, well, end up doing what they did. There was even a bit of dialogue between the Mogwai about it: as I recall, Stripe grinningly told Gizmo that “Clorr is dead,” pleased that he’d figured out that sunlight was deadly. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650/40 "2011-01-07T15:47:35Z")
In the spirit of “How did the Alien grow so fast?”, where did the extra mass come from when Stripe jumped into the swimming pool at the YMCA and spawned a bajillion new gremlins? And what happens if you throw a mogwai into the Pacific? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-gremlins-movie/566650.md?page=3)