Sand Worm: Difference between revisions

 

 

''"Usul, we have wormsign [[Blasphemous Boast|the likes of which even God has never seen]]."''|Frank Herbert's ''[[Dune]]''}}

 

 

 

* 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.

== 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]])

* 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.

* 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.

** 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]]s of sand worms.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** 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.

* ''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...?]] }}

** "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.

* 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]].

* ''[[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]]s.

* ''[[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...)

* Great Wyrms in ''[[Master of Magic]]''.

* ''[[Overlord]]'' features giant sand worms in the later levels.

* The [[Pokémon]] Onix and Steelix may count.

** Also, Dunsparce.

* ''[[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.

* The Subterranean in ''[[Turok (series)|Turok]]: Dinosaur Hunter'' (N64).

* ''[[Mousehunt]]'' has the "[[Alliteration|Big Bad Burroughs]] Mouse" and its smaller brother, the Itty-Bitty Burroughs Mouse. They're pretty much a [[Mix-and-Match Critters|cross between this trope and a mouse]].

* ''[[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.

[[Category:Alien Tropes]]

[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]