Historical Events  Movies
Deer Hunter

Alternate:
Spike

Current:
Stripe

The Mogwai wants a drink after midnight

Remember the bad Gremlin from the 1984 Gremlins movie? Was he called Spike or Stripe? Many remember Spike, but watching the movie today find he was called Stripe.

There's a twist to this one. It appears so many people "misremembered" the name that the movie producers went ahead in 2016 and made some T-Shirts calling him "Spike". That's a great way to muddy the waters for Mandela Effect researchers!

People are reporting another reason he was called Spike - models of him today all have spikes on his back.

Big Hit

Gremlins was a huge success, and having Steven Speilberg behind it didn't hurt either. The name "Gremlin" is said to originate from the Second World War when the British Air Force used the term as a humorous explanation for why equipment would fail - it was because some little, mythical creatures were interfering with it when they weren't looking. Roald Dhl also published a children's book in 1943, titled "The Gremlins", and presenting them as similar little monsters.

The movie was pitched as a horror-comedy,  which was quite rare for the day. A sequel, "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" was released in 1990. There's a rumor the Mohawk Gremlin had to be renamed to avoid causing upset to the Native American Indians.

There's a part where one of the kids talks about the stripe on his head when Gizmo is born after having water spilled on him, which fits in with the name.

Although it was pitched at a PG-13, there were many scenes which were considered too scary for children, including a woman chopping up a gremlin, one in a blender and another exploding in a microwave oven.

References

There are many references to him being called Spike. In fact, most people who only watched it when it first came out, when asked to name the main bad guy, do actually say Spike.