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Now was that civilized? No, clearly not; fun, but in no sense civilized.

—The Brain Gremlin

The Brain Gremlin (or just simply Brain) is one of the two main antagonists in Gremlins 2: The New Batch, as he takes over for the film's original antagonist Mohawk following his demise.

Personality[]

Before his mutation The Brain Gremlin acted just like the other Gremlins.

After his mutation he became more intelligent and was not as destructive as the other Gremlins and spoke in a more refined well-spoken voice and was shown to be somewhat fascinated by human culture and their way of life, although a villain he was shown to be very articulate and cultured for a Gremlin, his mischievous nature still prevailed such as when he shot one of his fellow Gremlins who was annoying him. He then remarked that while such an action may have been fun, it would do nothing to help the Gremlins achieve "civilization", which is what he somehow felt they should strive for.

Physical Appearance[]

The Brain Gremlin was a brown-colored Gremlin with a light-brown underbelly, a light brown mouth, small spikes on his brow and around his cheeks, long arms with small spikes on the biceps, three-clawed hands, short legs, three-toed feet, a light-brown mouth, and red eyes.

When he first got mutated his only attire was a pair of glasses that appeared out of nowhere. When he appeared again he wore a white button up shirt with the sleeves torn off and a black tie. During his interview with Fred he wore a blue turtleneck, and a gray single button jacket, During the "New York New York" musical number he wore a gray suit, a white button up shirt, a black tie, and a gray fedora. In one deleted version of the "New York New York" musical number, he wore a black tuxedo, a white button up shirt, a black bow tie, and a black top hat.

History[]

Gremlins 2: The New Batch[]

Brain Gremlin originally started as a normal gremlin, spawned from whether one of the three gremlins, Lenny, Daffy, George, or another spawned Gremlin.

He drank a potion called the Brain Hormone, created by Dr. Catheter. The hormone made the gremlin go through a seizing transformation, after which his intelligence had expanded. He immediately talks to the scientists in the lab (who are too scared to even respond), "I wanna talk a little bit about what's going around in this room, because I think there's some fascinating ramifications here for the future. When you introduce new genetic material of research-quality to a lifeform such as ours, which is possessive of a...a sort of...I hesitate to use the word 'atavism', but let us say a highly aggressive nature. For example, for that fellow near the, um, I believe that's a common bat of the order Chiroptera; the only mammal, I might add, capable of true flight".

As he watches Bat Gremlin form, he shows his mischievous, chaotic side. He identifies genetic sunblock, the cure for the Gremlins' weakness of sunlight, which will allow them to escape the building unharmed. He seems to still communicate with fellow gremlins, even while speaking as a human. As he approaches Bat Gremlin, he explains his "potential". He injects genetic sunblock into Bat Gremlin. He encourages Bat Gremlin to fly out and check out the city. Though to the scientists, they believed he was encouraging him to "eat children"; either way the group were unsuccessful at stopping Bat Gremlin.

Later, several gremlins attack and slaughter people, and while the Brain Gremlin helps his team of monsters win, he doesn't attack people since he develops a fond nature of manners and the desire of having his team civilized.

The Brain Gremlin wanted his species, the Gremlins, to be civilized, or at least his definition of being civilized. He explains this when a Clamp TV show host named Fred and cameraman Mr. Katsuji interview the Brain Gremlin. The Brain Gremlin claims that their reaction is a desire to have civilization and that they were "stumbling along the way". He attempts to show how he wants to be by using an example of a gremlin who's annoying him. To which he reverts to his nature and shoots the fellow Gremlin; while watching on as his fellow monsters laugh, he admits he found it "fun" but not civilized.

He was later seen singing 'New York, New York' with several gremlins (around 200 to 300 gremlins were inside the building), and they were ready to leave the building. However, when they plan to exit the building so that New York City will no longer have human existence and instead replaced by a civilization of gremlins, Billy Peltzer trapped a gremlin who drank an electric potion (turning the gremlin into raw electricity) inside a phone, then his friends Kate Peltzer and Murray Futterman help him to stop the gremlins: Murray sprays the gremlins with water as the Brain Gremlin becomes the first to get blasted by water, and then Billy aims the Electric Gremlin at them. Then the wet gremlins all exploded and melted due to the result of electricity and water. Then the Brain Gremlin tries to finish singing the song 'New York, New York', with his dying words being "New York, New York," till his voice reverted to gargling once again and he lost his human voice before he fell to the ground; dead with the words "I'm melting away." can be heard from the remnants of The Brain Hormone left in his blood.

Trivia[]

  • He is a fan-favorite among the Gremlins 2 fans.
  • Brain's clothing while singing 'New York, New York', like the song, is a homage to Frank Sinatra.
  • In the original draft, Brain was supposed to have a different death: After singing 'New York, New York', Gizmo shoots a dart that injects him with a helium serum, causing him to bloat like a balloon and float out of a window to his doom. This scene was cut and never filmed.
  • Brain is the first leader to not be spawned from Gizmo. He was spawned from one of the other gremlins.
  • In the novelization of the film, his name was Mr. Glasses.
  • He never seems to mention the Bat Gremlin after its death; which is odd as he specifically sent it out into the city to scout for him.
  • He makes a brief cameo in the Gremlins 2: The New Batch (video game), where he appears in a card where the player chooses to Continue the Game or Quit the Game when he/she pauses. He does not appear in the video game's story, however; which makes little sense as he is the main antagonist of the film.
  • Along with the Vegetable Gremlin, he is the only mutated Gremlin to have become wet in the film, and he most likely spawned more Gremlins. It is unknown what happens to mutated Gremlins if they get wet, as they might pass down the same traits to their clones. He possibly would've spawned more Gremlins with higher intelligence or just spawned normal Gremlins had he merely been electrified instead of electrocuted.
  • During the interview scene of Gremlins 2: The New Batch, several studio lights are seen shining down on the Brain Gremlin, even though gremlins fear bright light; perhaps the Brain injected himself with the genetic sunblock as he did to the Bat Gremlin or he's intelligent enough to not fear artificial light. More likely however is that this is just a plot hole in the film, as the gremlin that Brain Gremlin shoots also had little issue with the bright studio lights.
  • In Gremlins 2: The New Batch, he was voiced by the late Tony Randall. In LEGO Dimensions, he is voiced by Christopher Swindle.
    • Tim Curry was considered for the voice of the Brain Gremlin.
  • He is the only Mutant Gremlin not to have any external physical-differences from the other normal Gremlins.
  • He makes a surprise appearance in the Teen Titans Go! episode, Warner Bros. 100th Anniversary, where he serves as an ally to the Teen Titans.
    • He is voiced by Jeff Bennett.

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