No eating after midnight rule flawed

By Jeff

"Gremlins" is one of my all-time favorite movies. Not because it's made well, or the plot is spectacular. It's just one of the first movies I remember seeing and has always had a place in my heart. And come on, who wouldn't want Gizmo or another friendly and adorable mogwai as their pet?

Well, someone mentioned gremlins at work this week. They weren't referring to the movie but my mind immediately went to old memories of watching it on my family's 25-year-old television that changed channels with a knob. But then I got to really thinking about the movie, especially and the rules mogwai live by. They hate bright lights, direct sunlight kills them, they can't get wet and they can't eat after midnight. If you're not familiar with the movie, mogwai are cute, furry creatures that are about a foot tall. When they get wet, they shoot little balls out of their backs that spawn into more mogwai (No sex for these guys.). If they eat after midnight, they go into a cocoon and come out in a reptilian form that is then called a gremlin.

I don't even mind that Gizmo's eyes
are almost as big as his hands.

It's that last rule that has been on my mind the past few days and led to many questions.

First, how does the mogwai's body know it's after midnight? It's not like they're looking at a clock when they eat. They know what clocks do, as the evil mogwai sabotaged the clock so that they could trick their master into feeding them after midnight, but you never saw them looking at a clock and evaluating if they should eat or not.

Second, What exactly constitutes "after midnight". Is it 12:01 to 11:59 a.m.? This question can go really in depth, as there are many theories on time. Just for a start, go to the Wikipedia entry on the topic. Where's Albert Einstein when we need him? Granted, you could say that Einstein's theory on relativity would address all of the topics regarding this curious event.

Third, how strict are mogwai with this rule? If "after midnight" is indeed 12:01 to 11:59 a.m., will the mogwai go into cocoons if they eat at 12:01 a.m.? Once again, whatever theory of time the mogwai follow would determine the answer to this question.

The existence of these strange creatures doesn't bother me. I'm fine with the idea that they can take over a town despite being a foot tall. The fact 99 percent of mogwai have bad intentions makes sense to me. But it's this whole eating after midnight thing that I can't get over. I still love the movie, but these questions will always be in the back of my head.

Matt Sharp and Rivers Cuomo - Time Song