1. Forrest Gump (1994)
In a movie where the main character basically sees it all, there was still one element that was ultimately cut out. Early cuts of the film had Forrest spending a scene of the movie telling his story to Gizmo. This decision was made in an effort to capitalize on Gremlins‘ already established audience, as the original draft of the script called for the scene to star an octopus.
2. Terminator (1984)
Gremlins made waves when it came out in 1984, but the creatures almost made their feature-film debut in another movie from that year. The film The Terminator and the Gremlins was written and directed by James Cameron, and it originally starred a machine-gun wielding, foul-mouthed gremlin from the future. With his large, quiet bodyguard he hunted down Sarah Connor.
After seeing an early version of the film, Steven Spielberg loved the gremlin so much he purchased the character rights to him on the spot. Terminator was then recut to avoid ever showing or mentioning the gremlin. Over an hour was cut from the runtime, including the epic ski chase.
3. King Kong (2005)
When signed on to make the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson said he would only do it if his next film could be a Gremlins sequel. He got his wish – sort of.
Jackson made the most of his film, an epic origin story of how the first gremlin was brought to America. However, the film was left unfinished after drama on set. Motion capture actor Christian Slater quit the production as it was nearing completion, saying the “real actin’ don’t need no fancy computers.” His performance was so good that the studio deemed him irreplaceable on the production. This led to the last second decision of just turning the film into a King Kong remake.
In one weekend, Universal Studios intern Andy Serkis did all the motion capture and the footage was swapped. They then had to bring Oscar-nominated actor Jack Black back for one reshoot to get him to say the classic line “’twas beauty, that killed the beast,” as originally the gremlin was to say it as he hurled Naomi Watts off the Empire State Building.
4. The Graduate (1967)
Technically a Gremlins prequel, the movie catapulted Dustin Hoffman into stardom, but he was almost not in it at all, as the film originally starred the Mogwai Gizmo as the titular graduate. Set to be a wacky comedy about how crazy college is, the film was changed drastically when Gizmo was arrested partway through shooting for driving under the influence. When police searched his car, they found “enough cocaine to start a ski resort.”
Gizmo was fired from the film and in a last second effort to save the shoot, production assistant Dustin Hoffman was thrown into the role. Due to having already lost half their shoot days, the more complicated comedic scenes were taken out and only the “dramatic” scenes were left. Probably the most notable cut was the scene in which the gremlin wins the big football game and yells out “look who just graduated, baby!”
5. The Shining (1980)
When Stanley Kubrick set out to adapt the Stephen King novel of the same name, he said he’d only do it if he could stay as close to the source material as possible, including the main antagonist being a raving gremlin. It was once they were on set that Kubrick set his eyes on Jack Nicholson. In his Vanity Fair interview on The Shining, Kubrick said of Nicholson, “he reeks of charisma. The kind of charisma that just makes everyone in the room uncomfortable and disturbed to their core. He is the most gremlin-like human I have ever encountered.”
The first scene of the film to be shot was the iconic door scene. After watching the gremlin do the scene four times and not get it “right,” Nicholson angrily grabbed the ax and said “we’re running out of doors over here!” and he did the scene himself.
Kubrick loved the performance so much that he fired the gremlin and switched Nicholson to the role immediately. When approached by his producer about “deviating too far from the book,” Kubrick pulled his copy of the book out of his pocket and ate it like an apple.
6. Rocket Power
After a run of movies that all got made and found remarkable success with the gremlins cut out during the production process, Spielberg found himself nearing bankruptcy and in dire need of a hit featuring his iconic little devils. He decided to market gremlins to kids, so he could make millions selling the toys. He told his six assistants to each come up with a child-friendly idea for the creatures. Assistant Chris Columbus threw out the idea that they should put the gremlin on a skateboard because “the kids in my neighborhood skateboard and they seem cool.”
Thus, the hit Nickelodeon show Rocket Power was born. A pilot of the show was made, and it sold immediately. The studio went on to remove the gremlin entirely, and the pilot was recreated, losing the ending moment where the gremlin has all the kids put their hands in the middle and says “the real wave worth catching is time with your friends and family.”
7. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Coming out two years before Gremlins, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was supposed to be the debut of the Mogwai Gizmo. That is, until the lighting accident. While trying to hoist up a fake moon for the iconic bike scene, a C-stand holding a light was knocked over, and the light landed right on top of Gizmo. All his hair was burnt off entirely, leaving a strange fleshy mound in its place.
Having put all of his money into the puppet, Spielberg was forced to push on with the film. Ultimately, the film that could have been a timeless journey for children to experience for decades became nothing more than a forgotten ’80s sci-fi film that inspired a terrifying Universal Studios ride.
8. 12 Angry Men (1957)
Originally titled 12 Angry Men and a Gremlin, the 1950s classic was forced to change after test screenings reported that audiences were terrified at the sight of the gremlin. Viewers reported dumping their popcorn buckets, putting them over their heads saying, “tell me when he’s gone.” The film was re-edited to leave out the gremlin, although on the 2011 Criterion Blu-ray release, it can still clearly be seen for a few scenes during the big musical number at the end of the film.
Will the gremlins be showing up in any new blockbusters anytime soon? We certainly hope so.
Actually, with this track record, don’t count on it.