Goofs for
Gremlins (1984) More at IMDbPro »

• Revealing mistakes: Snow on the underside of branches.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Crew member pushing the Christmas tree over.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After Stripe's struggle in the Christmas tree, he then smashes though a window. As the camera pulls back from the window, you can see that the bottom of frame has been cut away to allow the puppeteer's hand though the frame.
  
  

• Continuity: In the tavern, Billy is looking at Gerald's face, and then instantaneously at the table.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: The arm of a puppeteer can be seen when the gremlin is choking Billy's mother.
  
  
• Plot holes: Sunlight kills mogwais. Yet, when Billy takes one of the "newborns" to his biology teacher, both the one he brings and the one that spawns off it are sitting in direct sunlight from the window blinds.
  
  
• Continuity: As Grandfather leaves the house after retrieving Gizmo, he is holding the "smokeless ashtray" gift in his hand as he walks out the door. In the outside shot immediately following, the ashtray has disappeared.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When the police car is shown upside down, you can see the stunt equipment on the underside of the car to make it jump the truck.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the cocoons are opening up in Zach's room, you can clearly see a green light bulb inside one of them.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the widescreen DVD version, Stripe's control rods are visible on the left of the screen as he attacks Billy with the saw.
  
  
• Plot holes: Mogwai can't eat after midnight, yet it's never established when they can start eating again (some find it safe to assume they can eat at some point around sunrise).
  
  
• Continuity: When Pete cuts the line of Christmas lights that a Gremlin is hanging from outside his bedroom window, the bulbs are still lit after the wire has been cut.
  
  
• Continuity: Just before Pete cuts the line of Christmas lights, the Sheriff closes the window of the police car (in order to keep a gremlin out). The window is alternately open/closed in subsequent shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Gremlin is hiding under the table, the plastic brain over the table changes position between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When Billy carries Gizmo to the bathroom to bandage his head, Gizmo is visible in the bathroom, already sitting on the counter.
  
  
• Plot holes: Mr. Peltzer tells Billy one of the rules is to keep the gremlin away from water. He tells him, "Don't give him any water to drink and whatever you, do don't give him a bath". We learn later in the film that they multiply with water. Yet they can still walk around in the snow (frozen water) and drink beer and soft drinks (water based) without any signs of multiplication.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Billy walks through the town on his way to work, even though there is heavy snow in the town square, the hills behind the cinema have no snow on them.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When the science teacher is calling the gremlin to come out from under the desk, his mouth does not move with the words being said.
  
  
• Continuity: After Billy accidentally squirts the shaving cream at his father's face, Mr. Peltzer tries to clean himself off. In the next shot, his face is completely clean, but his chest is covered in it.
  
  
• Continuity: When Billy goes in to the Y.M.C.A "Stripe" jumps out at Billy and Billy lands on the floor and the tear marks are already on his shirt before "Stripe" claws his chest.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The items that the gremlins use, such as guns, tools and utensils are too small to be normal (human) sized and appear to be made specifically for gremlins.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Billy finds Barney wrapped in the Christmas lights outside, it's obviously a stuffed toy dog that takes the place of the real one when Billy gets him down.
  
  
• Continuity: In the wide shot after the title "Gremlins" comes up, on the left of the screen you can see a bench with a snowman behind it and no-one is sitting on the bench. In the next shot, two kids are on the bench.
  
  
• Continuity: After the gremlin has tampered with the Sheriff's brakes, the police car nevertheless slows down, displaying its braking lights, as it approaches the next corner. In the next shot, the brakes are not working again.
  
  
• Factual errors: V.W. Beetles (Bugs) are air cooled cars. However, at the beginning of the show, Billy's Bug is steaming. Impossible!!!
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the kitchen scene, when Mrs Peltzer is watching a Gremlin eat out of the blender, in the background you can clearly see a matte line. Meaning the Gremlin scene was pre-filmed, and composited as a background shot.
  
  
• Continuity: After the gremlin in the blender is killed his legs are inside the edge of the blender , but when Billy comes home, it's legs are sticking out of the blender.
  
  
• Continuity: When the science teacher is looking for the changed gremlin after the class leaves, the movie projector is still running and gets to the end of the reel. You can see the film flapping as you would expect, but it's on the feed reel, not on the take up reel on the back as it should be when a film finishes. Not to mention there is no drive on the feed reel, only the take up reel. (the feed reel just turns as film is pulled from it)
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Billy's mom takes the picture of Gizmo in the beginning, Gizmo becomes frightened and runs over to Mr. Peltzer. When the scene is slowed, you can clearly see the puppeteer's hand underneath while operating the Gizmo doll.
  
  
• Continuity: When Gismo is thrown into the chute, you can clearly see him not make it in. Then somehow he manages to land at the bottom.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: For a movie supposedly set in late December in a Northern State, all of the Deciduous trees still have leaves on them. The most obvious place to see this is in the opening scene when Billy is trying to start his car in front of his house.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Early in the hatching scene, Rand Peltzer states to his wife that it is Christmas Eve. Later in the scene, the high school science teacher is showing a film to his students. It's hard to believe that an American school would be in session on Christmas Eve.
  
  
• Factual errors: The kids are in school on Christmas Eve. Schools are closed that day.
  
  

• Crew or equipment visible: SPOILER: Second unit camera briefly visible during the cinema explosion scene (far left corner).
  
  
• Factual errors: SPOILER: Rand Peltzer and the dog enter the department store at dawn. Just a few minutes later, when Gizmo raises the shade to let the sunlight kill the gremlin, the sunbeam is shining down at a fairly steep angle, almost 45 degrees. This would place the sun much higher in the sky than it would be just after dawn, indeed, higher than it would be even at noon in a Northern state in the middle of winter.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: SPOILER: When Mr. Peltzer spots Stripe melting in the store, you can see two wires used to make Stripe's head and body move until he falls into the fountain.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: The little table Billy’s mother grabs to shield herself from the flying plates during the kitchen fight clearly has dents from previous takes.
  
  

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