Gremlins 2: The New Batch includes a hilarious "end of the world" video aired by a fictional cable network, but it was inspired by real life events. 1984's Gremlins is a treasured classic for many, and is often held up as one of the best mixes of horror and comedy ever made. Sure, Gremlins isn't likely to scare many adults, but its titular creatures are so much fun to watch wreak havoc on the small town of Kingston Falls. Much more divisive, however, is 1990 sequel Gremlins 2.
While Gremlins 2 retains enough characters and connective tissue to make it a recognizable sequel to the original, it's not really the same kind of movie. Gremlins 2's comedy stylings are much weirder, sometimes esoteric, unrelentingly meta, and embrace a spirit of over the top chaos that leads to a sequel in which it's almost impossible to predict what the next development will be on first viewing. It's almost like returning director Joe Dante and new writer Charles S. Haas just threw a whole basket of Gremlins-related ideas into a blender and let the results fall where they may.
Yet, those who enjoy Gremlins 2 tend to really, really love it, not in spite of the strange meta chaos, but because of it. Gremlins 2 may be odd, but it's also exceedingly clever, as shown in a great scene where eccentric media executive Daniel Clamp (John Glover) shows Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan) his cable network's pre-recorded message should the apocalypse occur. It seems like another wacky gag in a film full of them, but it actually has a basis in fact.
Gremlins 2's Apocalypse Video Was Inspired By True Events
Back when CNN first launched in 1980, media mogul Ted Turner made it clear that when the channel began broadcasting, it would begin with the national anthem, and never stop broadcasting programming afterward. The only exception would be if the world were ending, then Turner said the song "Nearer My God to Thee" would play before CNN's final sign-off. At the time, people thought Turner was joking to put over the then new idea of a TV channel that broadcast 24/7. It turns out he was dead serious, and had such a video made to play in case of the end times, reports of which first surfaced in 1988.
Aware of those reports, Gremlins 2 decided to make fun of Turner's idea by having Daniel Clamp's Clamp Cable Network have a similar apocalyptic sign-off prepared. CCN was already somewhat of a CNN parody, as the call letters make obvious, so it fit. In 2015, Michael Ballaban, a former CNN intern turned online journalist, unveiled the famous CNN apocalypse video to the world for the first time, having recorded it while there. Sure enough, it's exactly as Turner described, with a band playing "Nearer My God to Thee" before fading to black. Sadly, it wouldn't really work for a modern apocalypse, as its 4:3, standard definition look is now a bit hard to take.