Sand Worm: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"Stilgar, have we [[Worm Sign|wormsign]]?"''
''"Usul, we have wormsign [[Blasphemous Boast|the likes of which even God has never seen]]."''|Frank Herbert's ''[[Dune]]''}}
So you're travelling the desert. A dangerous place, isn't it? You've got dehydration to worry about, of course, then there's heatstroke, scorpions, snakes, pack animals of dubious trustworthiness, and native peoples who may be ruthlessly territorial or just poorly disposed toward your particular ethnicity. But if you think that's all you've got to worry about, check your setting: if you're somewhere other than Earth, be it a sci-fi or fantasy world, then tread softly; without rhythm and check the ground often, because you may just wind up with a case of
Scaled-up versions of real-life worms, these beasties tunnel through sand and dirt, being halted only by rocky terrain or artificial ground, though often enough they can force their way through that as well. They generally have no eyes or ears, rather detecting vibrations through their bodies. Beyond these basic traits, even the most incidental similarity to real creatures ceases. Sandworms are big, typically ranging between man-sized and resembling something like a moving mountain. They seem to be carnivorous, since they tend to go out of their way to attack and eat anything trudging upon the surface, either leaping without warning to swallow the prey whole or approaching with a [[Worm Sign|telltale furrow of disturbed earth]], depending on whether the writers want to give the target a chance to run away. Arguably, they could just be really, really territorial. Aside from the worm-like shape, these monsters are also recognizable by their mouths: they're always either completely round or trifurcated, lined with rows of teeth, and with long tentacular tongues, the better to grab you by the feet and reel you in.
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Similar monsters can be found in snow or water. These are, perhaps, a bit more believable.
Even in the best of cases, these are obvious instances of [[Artistic License: Biology|artistic license]]; it simply isn't possible for a creature so dense and large to pass that easily through heavy earth, [[Sand Is Water|even if it is fine sand]]. Failure to observe the [[Square-Cube Law]] also applies, especially in larger cases, and especially since worms don't have any internal support structure such as a skeleton. (Exceptions may be made for low-gravity worlds.) Not to mention how does that thing sustain itself? They're usually depicted as being carnivorous, and huge. Nothing is even close to its size, and it doesn't feed ''that'' often, and even so, it'd be sustaining itself on creatures less than a hundredth its size, and it lives in the deserts, which have much less biomass than other biomes.
Though when you think about it, they're kind of like scaled-up, desert-dwelling earthworms.
A related creature is the '''Landshark''', a ground-burrowing creature with the appetite, temperament, and often appearance of a [[Everything's Even Worse with Sharks|Shark]].
Compare [[Space Whale]], [[Flying Seafood Special]], [[Drill Tank]]. See also [[Worm Sign]].
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* In ''[[Trigun]]'', Sandworms are apparently the dominant native species on the planet; in the manga, they play a fairly major part in the story, because they are sentient and able to communicate with one another telepathically.
* Sand worms appeared in one episode of ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'', when Excel fell through a trapdoor and came out in a desert.
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' has sand worms with [[Naughty Tentacles]] [[The Beast Master|controlled by a]] [[Lovable Sex Maniac|naughtier Paio II]] {{spoiler|[[Samus Is a Girl|who turned out to be an extremely naughty loli]]}}.
* Mister from [[Coyote Ragtime Show]] takes advantage of Sand Worms as weapons against the 12 Sisters.
* ''[[Bleach]]''. The hollow Bawabawa acts like one of these in desert-like Hueco Mundo, including giving the protagonists a ride to Las Noches.
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==
* In the original ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Knuckles the Echidna]]'' mini-series, Knuckles encountered a sand worm in the Floating Island's desert, Sandopolis Zone.
** ...which is never encountered in ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles|Sonic (3) & Knuckles]]'''s version of Sandopolis Zone, unless you count the caterpillar-like enemies.
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== Films ==
* ''[[Tremors]]'' reinvented the trope to drastic degrees. Indeed, the Graboids weren't really wormlike at all except in basic principles, and asserted the predatorial habits that have made Sandworms the monster-movie favorite they are now. (actually, there were precursors- a few [[Godzilla]] enemies come to mind- but they had smaller budgets and no [[Kevin Bacon]])
** They made some nice [[Minovsky Physics|theoretical background]] for the series, though. They "swim" through the ground through the use of thousands of little "teeth" on their sides, they ''must'' retreat from explosions due to sheer pain, and they have a brilliantly executed life cycle; the Sandworms which show up on seismometers, mini-velociraptors with [[Infrared X
* The ''[[Dune]]'' film by [[David Lynch]] helped codify their typical appearance. They're also a [[Fantastic Cavalry]].
* ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'', where the ''Millennium Falcon'' lands ''inside'' one - well, inside of an Asteroid Worm - and barely escapes.
** Don't forget the Sarlacc, which resembles a sandworm at least in which parts of it we are able to see. It's pretty stationary, so it might be more like an [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|enormous antlion]] [[In Space]]. It feeds on things that fall in ''very slowly'', preserving them for thousands of years and [[And I Must Scream|absorbing their minds]]. [[Tales From
* ''[[Beetlejuice]]'' was taken out by one of another iconic Sandworm species that lived on Saturn. These had white-and-black stripes and one mouth inside another- compare the xenomorphs of the ''[[Alien]]'' movies.
* The Jags from ''[[Vexille]]''. METAL sandworms. Gigantic tubular rotating masses of scrap (bio)metal.
* The grossly CG sand worms from the [[
* [[Fluffy the Terrible|Jeff]] from ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]] II'', though he uses tunnels which are already built (the NYC subway).
* ''[[Transformers Film Series|Transformers: Dark of the Moon]]'' introduces The Driller, which is essentially a [[Mechanical Lifeform]] version of a sandworm. They're supposedly Cybertron's apex predators. Shockwave has one as a "pet".
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* Subverted in the third book of [[John Varley]]'s [[Gaea Trilogy]]. Yes, there is a giant sand worm; Gaea herself has created and placed it, no doubt directly inspired by Earth fiction. It's miles long, it's probably hungry (it has ''turned'' the original landscape into the desert it is now)...and it moves so slowly that it's basically just a living terrain feature. Some of the passing humans cut graffiti into its skin.
* Diggles in [[Piers Anthony]]'s ''[[Xanth]]'' series are giant worms that could phase through solid rock and literally worked for a song.
* Another [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] example is [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Greater_Krayt_Dragon Greater Krayt Dragons], ridiculously huge ten-legged dragons that mostly ate banthas, but there's an illustration in ''The Wildlife of Star Wars'' of one digging up and eating a ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20150906133750/http://msngroup.aimoo.com/IcewindDaleGamers/krayt_dragon_lg.jpg sarlaac]'' . Usually they stayed buried in the sand.
** They exist in canon. The skeleton of one can be seen when C3-PO is alone on Tatooine.
** Tatooine also has [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dune_worm dune worms], which... are basically exact [[Expy
* The Flayers in the [[Star Trek Deep Space Nine
* In the [[Retief]] story "Internal Affair", the ambassador sent to the planet Quahogg disappears after reporting being chased by forty-foot giant worms, and Retief and Magnan are sent to investigate. The worms turn out to be {{spoiler|the intelligent life forms the ambassador was sent to meet}} (somehow the CDT overlooked this little fact), and, while the ambassador ''was'' eaten, {{spoiler|this did no harm}}
== Live-Action TV ==
* A nod to the ''Tremors'' worms showed up a few times in ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]''.
** They seemed more like Manta Rays than worms, though.
* During its "movie ripoff" phase, ''[[Sliders]]'' likewise did an episode featuring one.
* The ''[[Dune]]'' miniseries.
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== Mythology ==
* The Allghoi Khorkhoi (Mongolian Death Worm), a legendary beast said to inhabit the Gobi Desert, is a
* Inuit folklore held that the dead mammoths they sometimes found embedded in the permafrost were burrowing creatures that died instantly upon contact with air.
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons
** The iconic Purple Worm, which looks very much like a sandworm from [[Tremors]], including the mouth parts, but lives underground and tunnels through solid rock, leaving tunnels similar to the Horta from ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|The Devil In The Dark]]''. It hunts by sensing tremors of moving creatures which touch the ground, so flying is advised. Oh, and they're purple, covered in slime, and pictures of them have [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|inspired a lot of eye-rolling]] from gamers. One of the monsters that would go beyond the game's PG-13 rating, if parents didn't pretend they hadn't seen ''it''. In recent editions, the artwork has made more the worm more scaly and less.... suggestive.
*** In the Desert of Desolation series, Purple Worms (as well as a relative called the Thunderherder) could be found in the title desert.
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* ''Talislanta'' has giant sand ''eels''. Same idea, different flavor-text.
* ''[[Deadlands]]'' has rattlers. No, [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?|not those]]. Mojave rattlers are named for the noise a cowpoke's teeth make as they race toward him. Before taking one on, re-read that part about "varying intelligence" real careful: rattlers in different parts of the country even have different ''personalities'', implying at least the intelligence of a clever hunting animal. {{spoiler|They're [[Cosmic Horror|smarter]] than they seem, too. And they don't eat everyone they catch. [[Body Horror|What do they do with them...?]] }}
* [[Warhammer
** "The Red Terror" was a relative of the Ravener species (snake or worm-like Tyranids) that had the ability to burrow its way onto the battlefield and swallow smaller enemies whole. The Red Terror was later removed from the playable creatures: the Raveners got its burrowing abilities.
** The Trygon is a giant version of the Ravener with all its burrowing abilities. Since Raveners were much too small for a proper Sand Worm, the Imperial Armour books introduced their giant form.
** January 2010 had Games Workshop feature a new sub-strain of the Trygon called the Mawloc. It is the most Sandworm-like creature in the game so far, having shorter arms and a multi-jawed mouth. On top of everything the Mawloc is not only able to burrow underground, but move around while underground and reappear elsewhere later (apparently it's faster while underground than on the surface).
* In Yu-Gi-Oh, the Medusa Worm is a card that, when flip summoned, can destroy an opponents monster. You can then flip it back down so it can eat your opponents monsters again next turn.
* The Graveworm from ''[[GURPS]]: Creatures of the Night'' is an effectively harmless version of this. They're very easy to kill (literally, they have the "Easy To Kill" disadvantage) and have no real attacks but if people that spend to much time around a living one find their intelligence being drained away.
* ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]'' has dholes (gigantic underground worms) and chthonians (somewhat smaller underground worms with blood-draining tentacles and telepathy).
* ''[[Arkham Horror]]'', being [[Cthulhu Mythos]] [[The Board Game]], has dholes and cthonians as per the literature example above. In game terms, dholes are massive and incredibly powerful while cthonians can damage all the investigators by causing earthquakes.
* The CCG Guardians has a card called "The Great Ba'te" and it is one of the largest creatures in the game.
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== Videogames ==
* ''[[Sands of Destruction]]'' has sand''whales''.
* So does [[Serious Sam|Serious Sam: BFE]].
* ''[[Gears of War]] 2'' features the Riftworm, a gigantic worm that the Locust use to sink cities, awakened by the detonation of the lightmass bomb in the first game. "Giant" doesn't even BEGIN to describe
** "[[Memetic Mutation|It's a GIANT WORM! They're sinking]] '''[[Memetic Mutation|cities]]''' [[Memetic Mutation|with a GIANT WORM]]!"
** It's also somewhat [[Handwaved]] as far as biology and physics go. It's supported by a skeleton, and doesn't seem to be carnivorous. Yes, some people get in its path, and are devoured with everything else, but it seems to eat minerals like a real worm.
*** Also it has red blood, [[Paint the Town Red|and a lot of it]].
* Lanmola, Moldorm, Molgera, and Twinmold in ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]''.
** ''[[Twilight Princess]]'' sizes down the Sand Worms to a more reasonable size. ''[[The Wind Waker]]'' has both the aforementioned gargantuan Molgera, and its smaller offspring [[Mook Maker|that it likes to summon during the fight.]]
** On a more minor scale, ''[[Ocarina of Time]]'' has the Leevers, things like fat leeches that appear in some parts of the desert, and ''[[Spirit Tracks]]'' has the Malgyorgs, quintessential [[Land Shark
** ''Adventure of Link'' has sandworm-like creatures in desert-based [[Random Encounters]].
** You could be forgiven for thinking The Forsaken in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword|The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword]]'' is a
* [[Shadow of the Colossus|Dirge the Tenth Colossus]] is a giant sand worm. Except it hits you. At high speeds. [[That One Boss|And it's hard]]. Oh, yeah, it '''[[Giant Flyer|flies]]'''.
** Only metaphorically, of course. Phalanx the 13th Colossus is the giant worm that '''literally''' flies.
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* A recurring enemy in the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series. Probably the most memorable ones are in ''[[Final Fantasy V|V]]'', where its corpse provides a stable path across the desert, and ''[[Final Fantasy VI|VI]]'', where being eaten by a specific one on a specific island leads to a hidden dungeon and party member.
** A particular area of the overworld in ''[[Final Fantasy V|V]]'' has a winding path of greenery passing through the desert. Simply traveling across the desert is faster, but you run the risk of encountering these things, which will almost certainly kill you at that point of the game.
** These monstrosities are living, breathing, adventurer-eating ''entrances'' to [[Bonus Boss|special boss fights]] in ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]''. There are also much smaller person-sized worms that cast
** The first time you face a Sand Worm in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'', it has the most HP of any enemy you've faced thus far (and [[Boss in Mook Clothing|it's only a random encounter]]!). Fortunately, it's not ''too'' deadly, and it's vulnerable to attacks that remove fractions of the enemy's HP, so if you have some Shadow Gems lying around, you can make quick work of one.
** The [[Up to Eleven|Abyssal Worm]] in the [[Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] can be farmed for the very valuable items that allow you to exceed the 9999 damage cap. Unfortunately, they're located after the [[Point of No Return]].
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* The pop culture reference-heavy ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' has a quest that involves sandworm riding.
* ''[[Space Quest]]'' 1 used one of these to [[Border Patrol|prevent the player from venturing into the open desert]].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140416221125/http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=279075 Death Worm,] in which you play a giant worm, leaping from the ground and eating people to grow larger.
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has a few, the first being Ouro, a then-unique model boss in the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj. The Burning Crusade expansion introduced acid-spitting worms capable of tunneling through solid rock in Hellfire Peninsula and the Bone Wastes in the middle of Terrokar Forest. Jormungar of Northrend are quite a bit smaller, but adhere to the same principles (and spit acid too). With the release of the Cataclysm expansion, ''World Of Warcraft'' got sandworms that are made of stone [[Stargate
* ''[[Phantasy Star IV]]'' had these infesting the planet Motavia, with an enterprising farmer deciding to open a sandworm ranch. Unfortunately, it gets too big for its britches, and thus becomes one of the first ([[That One Boss|and hardest]]) [[Bonus Boss]] fights in the game at that point. You often fought baby Sandworms in [[Random Encounters]], and at least one variant, if you left a single one alive, would run off and summon [[Mama Bear|Mama]] (another full-sized one like the boss mentioned above). When you get the [[Tank Goodness|Land Rover]], one of the enemies you ran into was a [[Palette Swap]] of the Sandworm, while swaps of both the small and large kind could be found in the planet's oceans.
* The [[Bonus Boss]] of [[Gaia Online|zOMG]] shares its name with this trope's alternate title/humorous variation: Landshark. It is, quite literally, a shark that swims through (and appears to be made of) sand. Other than than its anatomy, it acts almost exactly like a sandworm, burrowing underground and eating unsuspecting Gaians.(It can kill a [[Power Levels|CL 10.0]] Player with multiple armor buffs and a health boost in 3 hits, and unbuffed players in [[One-Hit Kill|less than that]]. It took 3 6-Person Crews of CL 10 players to take it down. Plus the area it spawns in is usually filled with CL ''5'' players. No wonder tourism is hurting so much...)
* Nydus Worms in ''[[
* Great Wyrms in ''[[Master of Magic]]''.
* ''[[Overlord]]'' features giant sand worms in the later levels.
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* The [[Pokémon]] Onix and Steelix may count.
** Also, Dunsparce.
*** Don't forget Diglett and Dugtrio. They're the [[Home Improvement (TV series)||Wilson]] of the Pokémon world, so who knows what the unexposed portion of their bodies looks like.
*** [https://web.archive.org/web/20200122130338/http://resource.mmgn.com/Gallery/full/RCGKXQ62.jpg Of course we do].
* ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' 2 features Amorbis, a trio of Sand Worms, as the boss of Agon Wastes. [[Rule of Cool|They're both awesome and completely physics-defying]].
* ''[[Mabinogi (video game)|Mabinogi]]'' has two different types of these.
** One is an odd twist on the traditional sandworm type; which bizarrely occurs in normal terrain rather than sand, including inside certain dungeons, moving indiscriminantly through turf, rock, and soil. Possibly justified, in that it appears to be partly supernatural in nature. This was the first version developed. There is a high-level field boss version, the giant sandworm, which does occur in desert sand dunes; and a minor variant, the ice worm, found only in snowfields. Both of these are played completely straight.
** A second type is called a "lungfish" (and looks vaguely like a real-life lungfish). Although the appearance is actually that of an eel-like fish, it acts like a straight sandworm, and is found in desert sand dunes.
* ''[[Gradius]] Gaiden'' has a snow worm as its first boss.
* ''[[Breath of Fire]] IV'' actually has a
* ''Armageddon 2'', a map-pack for Skulltag, has a pair of these as bosses in the "Sand Worm Trench" level. They don't swallow people, just breathe fire at them (and are lanky, looking somewhat like snakes).
* ''Runescape'' has the Strykewyrms, which come in Jungle, Desert and Ice varieties. They're normally unagressive and can only be fought as a Slayer task.
* ''[[Darksiders]]'' has these in a desert called the Ashlands, with an even larger one as the boss of the area.
* The Subterranean in ''[[Turok (series)|Turok]]: Dinosaur Hunter'' (N64).
* ''[[Mousehunt]]'' has the "[[
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' series has some robotic ones in ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles|Sonic 3 & Knuckles]]'' located in Sandopolis zone. Alien worms appeared in ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]''. More organic and fiery ones can be found in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006
* ''[[Time Splitters]]: Future Perfect'' has twenty-foot-long vicious dirt-worms in the backyard of the haunted mansion. The player gets to rescue a scientist who had taken refuge in a tree by defeating the worms with a flamethrower. The scientist also references ''[[Tremors]]'' by name, in keeping with the game being filled with movie [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]].
* The [[Spell My Name with an "S"|Hapurubokka]] from ''[[Monster Hunter]] Portable 3rd'' is a three-way cross between a sandworm, a sand shark and a submarine. It even has the distinctive "burst up vertically from the sand and eat something on the way" move.
* ''[[Black Sigil]]'' has a desert in which are sandworms. You can avoid them by walking through a specific path, but going out of said path leads to interesting items (in [[Inexplicable Treasure Chests|chests]], of course).
* ''[[Bug!]]!'' had a [[That One Boss|really nasty]] swamp worm as the boss of [[Bubblegloop Swamp|Splot]].
* ''[[Heavy Weapon]]'' has the robotic Mechworm boss, fought in [[Shifting Sand Land|Antagonistan]]. It jumps out of the sand and spams missiles and bombs.
* One of ''[[Wario World|Wario World's]]'' bosses is a
* ''[[Panzer Dragoon]]'' has plenty of examples; they make an especially prevalent appearance in the second level of the first game.
* [[EVO Search for Eden]] featured these in one level. Notably, they are the only invincible enemy in the game, fortunately they wouldn't attack you actively, though one might pop out of the ground under or in front of you. A later level featured sand-dwelling dinosaur-like creatures called Mosuchop which would jump out and bite you before retreating under the sand. (Real Moschops, the mammal-like reptile on which it was based, were not known to do this.)
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* [[Terraria]] has quite a few: Giant worms, devourers (corrupted versions of the former), the Eater of Worlds, diggers, world feeders (stronger versions of the first two) and the Destroyer (a robotic version of the Eater of Worlds).
* Several appear in [[Epic Battle Fantasy]].
* ''[[Penumbra (video game series)|Penumbra]]'' has these deep inside an old mine. They are mutations of indigenous rock worms. They are "only" about four to eight feet in diameter...
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' had the Alaskan Bull Worm, which went around eating half the town, prompting Sandy and Spongebob to go hunt for it. At one point, Sandy even claims to have found "wormsign", which is [[Visual Pun|a small wooden sign with "WORM" written on it]].
** "It's [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|BIG, SCARY]] and [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|PINK]]!"
* ''[[Ben 10]]'' ran afoul of several of these while trapped on an alien planet.
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* [[Scooby-Doo]] encountered a (fake, natch) sand worm while on a cross-country race in Mexico.
* At least two episodes of the TV series version of Disney's [[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]] featured or alluded to what was essentially a landshark-variety sandworm hunted by an [[Moby Dick|Captain Ahab]] [[Captain Ersatz]].
** It was much more sharky than wormy.
* ''[[Pirates of Dark Water]]'' had one of these, though it was referred to several times in dialog as a "crustacean," it had a long, serpentine body and other characteristics that fit this trope.
* In ''[[The Flight of Dragons]]'', the band encounters a giant worm swimming in some kind of slime in Ommadon's kingdom. They were able to defeat it by having Danielle shoot a flaming arrow into its mouth, causing its head, then body, to explode.
** The slime was sulfuric acid that the worm oozed from its skin as a defensive mechanism. Fortunately for the heroes, it was also highly flammable.
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* In an episode of ''[[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy]]: [[Recycled: the Series|The Animated Series]]'', Imhotep sends a sand worm after the heroes.
* Sandworms weren't just in the live action ''[[Beetlejuice]]''. They were also a fairly constant theme in the [[Beetlejuice (animation)|animated series]] as well, and Beetlejuice was pretty darned terrified of them.
* ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]'' had one episode dealing with a sand ''whale'' attacking the house, trying to get back his accordion from Eustace (who he [[Generation Xerox|thought was his father]], who actually ''did'' steal the accordion). At the very end of the episode when he does get it back, it's revealed that he's part of an entire ''orchestra'' of sand whales.
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[[Category:Alien Tropes]]
[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]
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