Murray Futterman and his wife Sheila are residents of Kingston Falls. They are the neighbors of the Peltzer family. Six years after the gremlin invasion of Kingston Falls, they toured New York City to visit Billy Peltzer at Clamp Center.
Personality[]
History[]
Gremlins ‘84[]
Murray is a veteran of the Second World War and he is well-known for his paranoia of foreign objects and vehicles. He is also known for a fondness for American made products. Like most of the residents of Kingston Falls, he has been hard hit when Ruby Deagle closed down many local businesses, causing Mr. Futterman to lose his job. As a result, he has no other choice but to start a snowplow business to make ends meet.
He was the first one to predict the danger ahead (even though he knew nothing about Billy's mogwai) when he warned Billy Peltzer and Kate Beringer to watch out for foreign items, because they often had gremlins planted inside, "The same gremlins that brought down our planes in the big one [World War II]."
The gremlins arrived at his home soon after, first crippling his TV antenna and then driving his snowplow through his house, leaving only a pile of rubble. Although it looked as if the Futtermans were killed by the Gremlins, Murray and Sheila both survived the attack.
However, in the Gremlins novel, it describes the snowplow scene in better detail, saying that Mr. Futterman noticed the Gremlins on the roof, grabbing a rifle and shooting a couple down, before they hijacked the snowplow, running him over, and possibly proceeding to the house to injure Mrs. Futterman. Later in the book, some dialogue from the radio and Billy confirms that Mrs. Futterman survived, yet her husband was killed. Since both characters appear in the second movie, it is possible Mr. Futterman was resurrected, retconned, or misunderstood. A deleted scene explained he had been fired from a noodle factory, during the events of the first film.
Gremlins 2[]
Murray and the Bat Gremlin face off.
They visit Billy and Kate in their New York home. It is implied that Murray had been heavily traumatized by the Gremlin attack in Kingston Falls, and has had to be given prescribed medicine and see doctors. Although Sheila has also been scared by the snowplow attack, it appears she had made a better recovery.
While Murray and Sheila are touring New York City, they were attacked by the Bat Gremlin. Murray managed to ward off the Bat Gremlin and dunk him in wet cement. The Bat Gremlin flew away but got stuck atop Saint Patrick's Cathedral where the cement quickly hardened, transforming the Gremlin into a living gargoyle, frozen in time and he will somehow break free when the hardened cement begins to break up and escape Saint Patrick's Cathedral.
Later, when the NYPD has sealed off the Clamp Center, Murray and Sheila were concerned that Kate and Billy are trapped inside. He also warned firefighters before the usage of water against Gremlins. When Murray was the only man to see that Mr. Clamp was able to get onto the street by way of a secret passage, Murray used the secret elevator to get inside the Clamp Center to help Billy. He quickly found him being attacked by Daffy, then scared the goofy Gremlin away with a dentist light. After finding Spider Mohawk burning and saving Marla and Kate, Billy started to worry about the Gremlins escaping the skyscraper, and Futterman told him to not give up. Billy proposed the risky plan of using a fire hose on the Gremlins then releasing the Electric Gremlin on them in hopes they will be electrocuted. When Mr. Futterman was looking for a hose, though, a Gremlin spat on him, and he got so angry that he threw the Gremlin into an elevator, thus killing it. Mr. Futterman aided Billy by turning the hose on them. It is implied that when Murray helped in killing the Gremlins, he had taken his revenge for the snowplow attack and is now at peace. His wife came into the skyscraper and reunited with him afterwards.
Outside the building, his wife was then listening to the star of Microwave With Marge, Marge, who was telling Sheila about a recipe, and Shelia told Murray that his favorite food is cheese food on top of another food, and Murray unhappily and with a lack of interest replied, "Yeah, sure".