Since Christmas is fast approaching, I thought I'd do another movie trivia quiz, one with a relevant theme. And I know, some folks would argue that "Gremlins" isn't really appropriate, since the movie itself isn't about Christmas, or its associated motifs--no character learns the true meaning of Christmas, or anything like that. But, in another, more literal sense it does qualify, since it's set around this holiday. The character who starts the whole proceedings, Gizmo, is actually a Christmas present. So that's close enough for me, and I wanted to talk about "Gremlins, " so here we are. The usual trivia quiz rules apply--SPOILERS abound, and I'll ask the questions first, followed by the answers. Finally, I encourage all of my readers to watch, or re-watch both this film, and its bonkers-but-fun sequel. I think both of them are still streaming on HBOMax, at least here in the U.S.
Questions:
1) The kid who entices Rand Peltzer to his grandfather's store is wearing a baseball cap for a pro sports team. What team is it?
2) Rand tries to sell Mr. Wing a Bathroom Buddy, one of Peltzer's inventions. What features does this device have?
3) How much does Rand pay for Gizmo the Mogwai?
4) What are the three rules of owing a Mogwai?
5) We see a billboard advertising for a Kingston Falls local disc jockey. Who is it?
6) Pete (played by Corey Feldman) works for his father selling Christmas trees. What is his dad's name?
7) What brand of snowplow does Mr. Futterman proudly own?
8) What two defunct comic strips does Mr. Futterman mention to Billy Peltzer?
9) What two movies are playing at the local movie theater on that first day?
10) What famous fast food restaurant do we see in Kingston Falls' town square?
11) What bar does Kate work at for her second job?
12) The evil Mrs. Deagle complains that Billy's dog Barney broke her imported snowman. Where was the snowman from?
13) By what method does Mrs. Deagle say she'd like to kill Barney?
14) What famous cartoonist compliments Billy's comic artwork?
15) At what age does Gerald (played by Judge Reinhold) say he'll be a millionaire?
16) Aside from Coors, what beer brand do we see in the bar?
17) Pete is impressed by Billy's recent comic book purchase. What is it?
18) We see the evil Mogwais playing an electronic arcade game in Billy's room. Which one?
19) What two urban myths does Kate state as fact to Billy?
20) Billy has noticed that Kate doesn't celebrate Christmas. He wrongly thinks it's because she practices a different religion. What religion does he suggest she is?
21) What famous sci-fi/horror movie do we briefly see playing on the television?
22) Director Joe Dante also made the werewolf movie "The Howling." Aside from actors Belinda Balaski, Dick Miller, and Jim McKrell, (who were all in both films), what reference to that earlier film do we see in "Gremlins"?
23) What time does the mogwai given to teacher Mr. Hanson eat?
24) What iconic movie poster is seen on Billy's bedroom wall?
25) Aside from Robby the Robot, what other famous sci-fi movie prop is seen at Rand's convention?
26) According to the filmstrip in the science class, about how many times a minute does an elephant's heart beat?
27) Mr. Hanson jokingly asks for what Christmas presents from his students?
28) The gremlins speak few recognizable words of English. We do, however, hear them use a mild swear word on 3 occasions. What is it?
29) What song do the newly hatched gremlins put on the stereo, presumably to taunt Billy's mother?
30) What happens to the original 6 gremlins?
31) Where does Stripe get wet, and in so doing create the majority of the eventual gremlin horde?
32) What later famous actor plays the deputy police officer?
33) According to the sign, what are the business hours for Deagle Real Estate?
34) And what is the phone number for Deagle Real Estate?
35) Mrs. Deagle has several cats, two of which she calls by name. What are they?
36) We see a man dressed as Santa being attacked by gremlins. Who is this?
37) What brand of stereo is in Billy's car?
38) Rand stops into a gas station at one point, which is part of a large chain. What one is it?
39) Aside from helping with the movie theater explosion at the end, we see Kate directly kill one gremlin. How does she do this?
40) How old was Kate when her father died?
41) What film do the gremlins watch in the town movie theater?
42) We hear a gremlin say a famous candy's name at one point. What candy is it?
43) What famous store does the climatic battle versus Stripe occur in?
44) Aside from some cuts and scratches, Stripe wounds Billy fairly seriously. How?
45) How many times does Stripe fire his gun at the end?
46) What station and television program does journalist Lew Landers work for?
47) Who was Mrs. Deagle's deceased husband? (We briefly see a photo of him.)
48) How many people do the gremlins definitely kill? As in, how many do we see actually killed, or later see or hear evidence of them being killed?
49) Aside from retrieving Gizmo, what present does Mr. Wing accept from the Peltzers?
50) How can gremlins, and mogwais drink? Wouldn't any beverage cause them to form hideous boils in their mouths, throats, and stomachs, leading to more mogwais and gremlins?
51) What's up with the incredibly vague "don't feed them after midnight" rule?!
52) A character in the movie has the same name as a famous, or infamous sci-fi/horror movie lead character. Name them.
53) What make and model is Billy's unreliable car?
Answers:
1) The New York Yankees.
2) According to Rand, it has a shaving mirror, a toothbrush, a toothpick, toenail clippers, a nail file, a dental mirror, and toothpaste. (Later Rand updates it and adds more features.)
3) $200.00
4) Keep him out of the light, and sunlight especially will kill him. Keep him away from water, don't get him wet. Never, ever, feed him after midnight.
5) Rockin' Ricky Rialto.
6) Alex.
7) A Kentucky Harvester. Which, according to the internet, doesn't exist. The online consensus was that the snowplow in question was really a Ford 3910 or an International Harvester.
8) Smilin' Jack and Lil' Abner.
9) "A Boy's Life," and "Watch the Skies." Which are the fake names used by producer Spielberg for his earlier movies "E.T." and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
10) A Burger King.
11) Dorry's Tavern.
12) Bavaria, Germany.
13) She wants to put him in her spin dryer, on high heat.
14) Chuck Jones.
15) 30.
16) George Killian's, both from bottles and a sign.
17) Hooded Menace No. 1, a real 1951 comic book.
18) A portable Donkey Kong game.
19) That suicide rates increase around the holidays (they actually fall, and rise a few weeks or months later), and the myth about guys playing Santa dying in the chimney, that are found by their families days later when they start a fire.
20) Hindu.
21) The original, 1950's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
22) The smiley face sticker used by killer Eddie Quist is on the Peltzer's refrigerator.
23) 2:20 am. We see the clock right before it steals the sandwich.
24) "The Road Warrior" (1981). Known in some places as "Mad Max II."
25) The titular device from the 1960 movie "The Time Machine." It even disappears, perhaps to another time?
26) 25.
27) A cassette deck or Super Bowl tickets.
28) "Caca." As in, excrement.
29) "Do You Hear What I Hear?"
30) Billy's mom kills 3 of them--one in the food processor, one with a knife, and one in the microwave oven. Bill dispatches 1 with a sword. Stripe escapes, obviously births the gremlin horde, and then is killed by sunlight in the battle at the store in the end. The fate of the final one, that Mr. Hanson was experimenting on, is unknown. It gets away from Billy, and flees the school. Presumably it met up with its fellow gremlins, joined their group, and died in the theater explosion.
31) He jumps into the swimming pool at the Kingston Falls YMCA.
32) Jonathan Banks, who appeared in such movies as "Airplane!" (1980), "Stir Crazy" (1980), "48 Hrs." (1982), "Beverly Hills Cop" (1984), and television's "Community" (2014), but is probably most famous for playing Mike on both "Breaking Bad" (2009-12) and "Better Call Saul" (2015-2022).
33) 10:30--11:15, Monday through Friday. Or less than an hour a day!
34) 555-2001.
35) Kopek and Dollar Bill. Her other cats, reportedly were also named after currency--Ruble, Peso, and Drachma.
36) Dave Myers.
37) A Sapphire XI.
38) Mobil.
39) In Dorry's, she speeds up the fan one is hanging on, causing it to fly off and crash into a neon sign. Some fans think she kills the gremlins by using the flash on the camera, but I doubt that was enough to kill them--I think they were just stunned.
40) 9.
41) "Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs." (1937). As Billy notes, they love it.
42) Milk Duds. Stripe says this.
43) Montgomery Ward, a huge department store chain in the U.S.
44) He shoots Billy in the left arm with a small crossbow bolt.
45) 5 times. 3 at Billy, 2 at Gizmo, all misses.
46) WDHB's Action Central News. Landers also appears in "The Howling" (1981).
47) Convicted stock smuggler Donald Deagle.
48) At least 1, probably 2. Mrs. Deagle flies out of her window on the malfunctioning chair lift, and is confirmed as dead on the newscast. Teacher Mr. Hanson sure appears to be dead in his classroom. Probably by having his face ripped off, and/or by having an air bubble injected into him. The Futtermans both survive--it's also mentioned on the newscast, and they appear in the sequel. There's also a car accident seen, but we don't know for sure that anyone died. To be sure, the gremlins almost certainly killed other people, but it's all off screen, and not confirmed.
49) He takes one of Rand's Smokeless Ashtrays.
50) I know it's a silly movie, but it's weird, since we see gremlins drinking beer and liquor, which both are liquids, and mostly water. As are many foods. True, they're not pure water, but the pool water that worked on Stripe surely contained chlorine, so it wasn't pure either. Or, the gremlins run around in the snow, which is frozen water and air, and would surely get their feet and legs wet. So a plot hole, I guess. Doesn't affect my enjoyment of the movie, but I noticed it just the same.
51) The sequel mocked this one a bit, mentioning flying into different time zones, or if one tiny scrap of food comes out from between the teeth from an earlier meal and is swallowed by a gremlin after midnight, etc. But one detail isn't commented on that always struck me, even back in 1984. Okay, you can't feed them after midnight, but when can you start again? Technically 1 am., 9 am., and 5 pm. are all after the previous night's midnight. I always assumed that dawn was the reset time, but they never say, and this is very important info! Also, using human constructs like "midnight" as your timing rule deadline is bizarre. Something more concrete like sundown would be more logical for an animal. And I know, it's a movie. But it's another loophole.
52) In the opening scene, while Billy is walking through the town square he greets a Dr. Moreau, like the evil doctor from various film versions of that story.
53) It's a Volkswagon Beetle, according to online car buffs a 1967 Sedan Type 1.
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