With the pleasant holiday frost fair of the last episode behind them, Sean and Cody lock themselves in Clamp Tower with the titular monsters of this extremely bizarre 1990 film, a sequel to an iconic '80s fantasy. In Gremlins 2: The New Batch, the furry pet of cartoonist Billy (Zach Galligan) is kidnapped and taken to a genetic engineering lab, where it spawns a legion of mischievous lizardy creatures. The monsters proceed to take over an urban skyscraper and possibly threaten to destroy the world...unless Billy and his billionaire industrialist boss can stop them. Environmental issues discussed include the 1980s-1990s real estate development career of Donald Trump, pre-politics, and especially his strange unrealized project "Trump City," which has eerie similarities both to the setting of this film and the 20th century career of New York urban designer Robert Moses.

What effect did Trump—one of the models for Gremlins 2's billionaire character Daniel Clamp—have on the environment of New York City? What was "Trump City" supposed to be, and why wasn't it built? What about Ted Turner, the other model for the Clamp character? Who was Robert Moses and how did he make New York a more racist place? Can we blame the Baby Boom generation for climate change? Does CNN really have a "doomsday video" in their vault that they plan to show on the day the world ends? Does this film actually have a plot? How come everybody loves Gizmo despite the fact that he's one of the most dangerous creatures on Earth who must be destroyed for the survival of humanity? Do the Gremlins films take place in the same literary universe as Stranger Things? What the hell were we thinking when we added this film to the Green Screen list? All those questions and more are multiplying in water in this very unusual episode of the podcast.

Where you can find Gremlins 2: The New Batch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/gremlins-2

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099700/ Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/gremlins-2-the-new-batch/

Next Movie Up: The Congress (2013)

Additional Materials About This Episode

Gremlins 2: The New Batch

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