Randall "Rand" Peltzer, played by Hoyt Axton, is a fictional character in the 1984 film Gremlins.
Rand was a struggling inventor who visited a Chinatown antique store at the urging of a young Chinese boy. During a failing sales pitch, he hears a sound that attracts his attention and discovers a mogwai. Rand offers to buy it as a gift for his son, Billy. Mr. Wing, the shop owner refuses to sell the mogwai for any price telling Rand it comes with too much responsibility.
Before Rand leaves, the boy, Mr. Wing's grandson, sells the mogwai to Rand for $200, telling him they needed the money. Rand brought the mogwai home and relays the three rules the boy gave him to care for the mogwai: 1) don't expose it to bright light, especially sunlight, because it will kill it. 2) don't get it wet; and 3) don't feed it after midnight. Rand leaves the mogwai with Billy, having named it Gizmo.
While at an inventors' conference, not only had Gizmo been exposed to water, causing it to reproduce, but its clones were not as relaxed in temperament and tricked Billy into feeding them after midnight. Due to the feeding, the mogwai metamorphosed into larger, more dangerous versions of mogwai.
When Rand finally made it back home, he found his hometown Kingston Falls in ruins and arrived just in time to see the leader of the evil mogwai, Stripe, dying while exposed to sunlight. After those events, Mr. Wing arrives at the Peltzer home, throws the money on the couch and takes Gizmo back to Chinatown.