The Brown "Out of Ammo" Gremlin

A GREMLINS 2 FOREGROUND PUPPET FROM THE JOHN WAYNE CUT SCENE

Introduction

This entire John Wayne sequence is cleverly integrated into Gremlins 2 as a fourth-wall-breaking gag. In the theatrical release of the film, the gremlins disrupt the movie projector and Hulk Hogan famously intervenes in a movie theater. For the VHS home release, Joe Dante devised this alternate scene where it appears the gremlins have sabotaged your VCR and started changing channels on your TV.

The John Wayne segment comes across as if the movie has switched to a late-night Western broadcast – specifically, footage from Wayne’s 1970 film Chisum – except now gremlins have infested that film too. The integration is surprisingly seamless: they used actual footage of John Wayne and edited in new shots of the gremlin puppets, matching the film grain and lighting of the old Western.

When Wayne is on screen, it’s really him, but whenever the gremlins share the frame or interact, those are new elements shot by the Gremlins 2 team. Careful lighting and color grading make the rubbery gremlins look like they belong in the warm-toned 19th-century New Mexico setting. John Wayne himself appears as a steady, full-color presence just as audiences remember him, giving the absurd impression that the Duke is genuinely trading quips and bullets with these cartoonish creatures. It’s a delightfully surreal crossover of cinematic worlds.

From Joe Dante

"It had been challenging to get the studio to go along with the film-break gag in the theatrical version ("they'll leave the theater"!), but it proved to be very popular. However it wouldn't have worked as well for the VHS, so I asked them to let me do the same kind of joke for the video release, but keyed to a malfunctioning VCR as if the gremlins had taken over your TV set."

"So we cut together what looked like interrupted video tracking as if it was channel switching, and replaced Hulk Hogan with a clip from John Wayne in Chisum. We got the ok from the Wayne estate who told us Chad Everett did the best Wayne imitation, so we had him dub in new dialog. We shot some new material with the puppets and put together a short section that replaced the film-break gag. However, it was only used for the VHS. The laserdisc and dvd cuts are the original theatrical cut."

Part 1: John Wayne Confronts the Gremlin Rustlers

The scene cuts in under bright daylight in a classic Old West setting, as if the VHS tape somehow shifted to a Western movie.

John Wayne comes on screen dressed in his signature cowboy gear – wide-brimmed hat, neckerchief, boots, and six-shooter holstered on his hip – standing on a dusty cattle range landscape. In the mid-ground is a confused-looking cow standing by itself, and hiding at the back of the cow are a group of gremlin cowboys.

Our puppet, a brown "Steve" sculpt foreground gremlin is found on the far left hand side of the screen with a black top hat and bandana covering his face. He has very distinct chestnut shaped eyelids which he keeps semi-closed, presumably due to the strong mid-day desert sun (Gremlins being out in the sun is a whole other issue!).

The other two gremlins are puppets dressed up in western costumes: small leather vests, hats sitting atop the ears of the puppets, and child-sized pistols branded and grasped by their clawed hands.

They glance out from both sides of the cow using the poor bovine as cover. The scene is a parody and a tribute to a cowboy standoff – Wayne on one side and the pesky pests on the other, using a live prop (the cow) as a shield.

Part 2: The Night-Time Shootout

Following a moment of static flicker (as if the VHS is 'channel surfing'), the second half of the John Wayne sequence takes effect. The scene has moved to nighttime, apparently later on the same evening in the film. The atmosphere is tense and dark – a classic western shootout under moonlight.

John Wayne now stands in back of a hitching post with a pistol clutched in his hand. We are seeing him partially in silhouette, the glow of a lamp catching half of his cheek as he looks out into the woods. In front of him, the gremlin cowboys have reformed and taken cover back of a wooden rail and a trough. There are three gremlins to be seen in this shootout crew, their eyes glinting back at him in the dim light.

Muzzle flashes on both sides: Wayne's shots illuminate his intense expression from behind a sea of smoke, and the gremlins' pistols flash with every counter shot, lighting up their ugly grins.

The spotlight goes to the gremlin in the center who becomes a unwitting focal point in this firefight. The gremlin lowers his bandana holding a six-shooter and we catch sight of his upper puppet body: slimey brown skin mottled with large spotted ears and a sneering row of teeth.

This is our same brown "Steve" sculpt Gremlin again, but now is his moment to shine. John Wayne takes a few shots at the Gremlin but after a couple of pulls on the trigger and we hear a click – the Gremlin growls "out of ammo!". The line is told in classic Gremlin style – full of humor. The body language and timing of the gremlin sell the joke as he pulls his pistol up and slowly takes aim at John Wayne.

Just as he's about to fire, Wayne spins around and makes a direct hit on the Gremlin. In a melodramatic shriek, the puppet thrashes and does an exaggerated pratfall. His hat falls forward as he crashes down amongst the fencing.

In all its brevity, the John Wayne sequence plays beautifully into Gremlins 2’s meta, anarchic tone. Joe Dante stuffed its fair share of pop-culture allusions and fourth-wall jokes into the film as it progressed, and this VHS-exclusive segment is the culmination – it breaks the film’s reality in a literal way. The gremlins temporarily escape from Gremlins 2 and play around on the viewer’s TV screen, and it takes a legend of film to set them straight.

The "Out of Ammo" Puppet

The John Wayne "Out of Ammo" Gremlin puppet was a rare find, discovered in Spain and carefully shipped to Los Angeles for restoration. This stunningly detailed piece had fallen on hard times over the intervening years—its foam had broken down, ears torn, and the head had collapsed forward through structural wear.

Restoration artist Joe Petro undertook the delicate task of bringing it back to life, skillfully accessing the internal mechanics through the back of the neck. He installed a discreet support appliance to realign the head into its original upright position, then meticulously repaired the hole, preserving both the integrity and screen-accurate design of the puppet.

The Final Restoration

This puppet turned out incredibly and better than we could have imagined. Joe Petro was able to reuse the original Cinovation Studios PVC and wooden stand and pose this Gremlin in a truly wonderful and dramatic way. Now all we need is a black coyboy hat and some western wear to complete the display!

It's always a treat when a puppet gets such a prominent feature in the movie, but this guy makes one last little appearance at the end during the New York, New York sequence. He's right there dancing along right behind George and Lenny as the camera pans down the staircase. While it was difficult to screen-match him based on this footage alone, we found an alternate take of this in the behind the scenes featurette which gave more concrete evidence that the ear spots matched our puppet.

Special Thanks to Joe Dante who assisted with this article.