Tremors: Difference between revisions

In the third movie, ''Tremors: Back To Perfection'', eleven years after the first, the Graboids return to Perfection and it falls to [[Crazy Survivalist]] Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) -- the [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] from the first two films -- to stop them. {{spoiler|The Shriekers turn into a third form, jet-propelled airborne "Ass-blasters".}}

 

 

The TV series, also called ''Tremors'', directly continues on from the third movie. A new character, Tyler Reed, buys the Desert Jack Graboid Tour business and finds himself unintentionally partnering up with Burt Gummer, who has semi-officially become a go-to-guy for the Government when Graboids are spotted in America. However, it turns out Perfection has some new monsters of its own crawling around, thanks to an abandoned governmental research lab and a mutagenic compound called "Mixmaster".

 

 

----

 

* [[Action Survivor]]: Most of the characters, save for Earl and Grady in 2 and Burt in general.

* [[Alien Blood]]: Graboids' blood is a bright reddish-orange, its exact shade varying slightly between films.

* [[Aliens in Cardiff]]: Perfection, Nevada. [[Lampshaded]] in ''2''.

* [[All There in the Manual]]: Promotional materials created by Sci-Fi Channel for the TV series give details on Graboid biology. Fun fact: Graboids are Kingdom ''Animalia'', Phylum ''Bilateria'', Class ''Cephalopoda'', Subclass ''Coleoidea'', Order: ''Sepioida'', Family ''Vermiformidae'', Genus ''Caederus'', Species ''americana''.

** Using the obsolete Linnaean taxonomy, this means that Graboids are most closely related to ''cuttlefish''.

** One of the scientists in the third movie also seems to be the Animal Wrongs type. He gets on Burt's case for making a career out of hunting Graboids and Shriekers, completely disregarding the fact that Graboid encroachment poses a major threat to human life. [[Karmic Death|He later gets his back torn to ribbons by a Shrieker.]]

* [[Analogy Backfire]]: [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] in Tremors 4:

'''Juan''': Speak for yourself, gringo. }}

* [[Arc Words]]: "Do what we can with what we've got" (in the TV series)

* [[Ascended Fanboy]]: Grady in the second movie certainly acts this way and does have genuine admiration for Earl.

* [[Asian Store Owner]]: All the same family/store. The one in the first movie is eaten; in the third movie, his relative comes to take over the store; and in the fourth, it's their ancestor settling in the town.

* [[A-Team Montage]]: The third movie features one, with characters building weapons literally off what they find in a junkyard.

* [[Bad Vibrations]]: Caused by the Graboids, but subverted with the first appearance of the Shriekers.

** Case in point, wiping over two dozen Shriekers singlehandly, his words implying he ''killed some with his barehands!''

* [[Badass Mustache]]: Burt, of course.

* [[Attack of the Town Festival]]: Happens in the TV series.

* [[Big Bulky Bomb]]: 2.5 tons of high explosives.

*** And the gatling gun he gets in the final scene, which is hinted to have sparked the love of guns that would be passed down to Burt.

* [[Blatant Lies]]: This telephone exchange in the second film:

'''Burt:''' No, negative. Keepin' busy. Lots of projects. ''[brushes food crumbs off his shirt.]'' }}

* [[Book Ends]]: In the 1st movie, the first and fourth (last) graboid both die after ramming themselves through a concrete canal wall and cliff face respectively.

* [[Breakout Character]]: Burt, all the way.

* [[Brick Joke]]: In the first film, as Val and Earl are about to leave Perfection on horseback, Earl comments that he doesn't believe the "snake creatures" could be fast enough to outrun a horse. Val returns with:

** Cue the third movie, where: {{spoiler|Shriekers morph into Ass-Blasters, a heat-seeking, ''airborne'' menace.}}

** Also, in the first movie, {{spoiler|Val ultimately defeats the last Graboid by stampeding it off a cliff, shouting, "Can you fly, sucker?!" as it falls to it's demise, making this [[Foreshadowing]].}}

** In the beginning of the first movie, Val approaches Earl, who is snoozing in the bed of his truck, and wakes him by faking a stampede. At the end, after they have discovered the Graboids are sensitive to loud noises, Val uses the last bomb by lighting it and throwing it ''behind'' the Graboid, sending it fleeing in pain to carom out of the side of the cliff--a tactic used by ranchers to direct stampeding cattle.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: "Pardon my French."

** Grady's sheepish "I forgot..."

* [[Chekhov's Armory]]: Burt Gummer's Rec Room is a ''literal'' example, as it's a [[Chekhov's Gun]] plot-wise while also being an armory.

** The scene in Burt's rec room shows a wall visibly patched in the same spot a Graboid had burst through in the previous movie (of course, there's also the ''giant stuffed Graboid head'' mounted on the wall next to Burt).

** There is a short scene where Earl explains how the Graboids got their name in the first movie.

*** A Chang [[Running Gag|frequently]] seems to be instrumental in naming the various life stages of Graboids, with Graboid, Ass-Blaster and Dirt Dragon all being coined by a member of the family.

** The third movie has a couple as well:

* [[Crazy Prepared]]: Burt Gummer was [[Crazy Prepared]] even ''before'' he learned his hometown was infested with underground monsters. By the third film, he's ready for ''anything''.

** To give you an example: some people have generators to power their homes, and Burt does too. A few people have backup power in case the main generator gives out, and so does Burt. But only Burt has ''backup'' backup power.

'''Burt:''' [[Crazy Awesome|For my]] [[Captain Obvious|cannon]]. }}

** Lampshaded in the third movie when they build a makeshift potato/harpoon gun to shoot down an assblaster.

'''Burt:''' [presents lighter] Damn right I am. }}

* [[Crazy Survivalist]]: Burt Gummer, a heroic version.

* [[Crying Wolf]]: Melvin Plug in the first film.

* [[The Croc Is Ticking]]: Because Grady left the radio blaring on the ground in the second film.

* [[Disney Villain Death]]: Averted. The last Graboid at the end of the first movie falls to its death, but it's shown onscreen in all its orange, splattery glory.

* [[Diving Save]]: Valentine does this to save Mindy from a Graboid in the first movie.

* [[Every Car Is a Pinto]]: Averted. A car in the second film takes a [[BFG]]'s bullet to the engine without exploding. When Burt's truck explodes, it's because it was stuffed full of high explosive.

** Which may have more to do with the Graboids' tendency to ''eat cars'' than realism. Letting them blow themselves up by chomping on Pintos wouldn't have been as exciting.

* [[Fan Service]]: Rhonda losing her pants in the first film.

** Justified, since her legs were tangled badly in barbed wire with a Graboid closing in on her. But hey, [[Fetish Fuel|if you're into that sort of thing...]]

* [[Feed It a Bomb]]: The easiest way of killing Graboids.

** Subverted in the first movie, when Stumpy spits the bomb back at them.

* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: In 2, Earl chastises Grady for not knowing geology terms, and then refers to the seismograph as a [[Buffy-Speak|"Seismojigger"]].

** Later on, Burt goes on a rant about how the oil company that brought them in didn't brief them about the Shriekers, something they couldn't have ''possibly'' known about. Twice in the movie, once before this point and once afterward, Burt's actions [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|put the group in further danger]] due to [[Contrived Coincidence|something he couldn't have known about]].

** In the series, one episode has the team go out to a town filled solely with UFO-revering conspiracy theorists. Burt finds them all utterly ridiculous, at one point verbally proclaiming they are "all nuts". Then again, they actually accused Burt of being a government cover-up agent, so he kind of had a point.

* [[I Just Shot Marvin in the Face]]: [[Shown Their Work|Heavily averted]] by Burt Gummer, who shows proper gun-handling technique at all times, and occasionally chastises other characters for not doing so.

** Crowning example? He gives an idiot a revolver to get him to cooperate - an ''unloaded'' revolver. After he takes it back, he pops the cylinder just to make sure it's unloaded. '''This is what you are supposed to do anytime you pick up a firearm, just so you do not Shoot Someone In The Face'''.

** Unfortunately, they get a little lax regarding this in the third movie. One example would be when Burt finds out that Jack's gun is fake, and hands him a pistol. Jack sticks the thing ''down his pants'', which is a great idea if you plan on [[Groin Attack|blowing your own nuts off]], but generally something you want to avoid; Burt doesn't even bat an eyelid at this.

** Oddly, it's also waived somewhat in the rec room scene from the first movie, where the flare gun already has a chambered round when it's taken from the wall.

* [[Identical Grandfather]]: Michael Gross plays both Burt and Burt's great-grandfather Hiram.

* [[Immune to Bullets]]: Subverted. The Graboid that breaks into Burt's rec room at first appears to be immune to bullets, but Burt is very persistent and VERY well armed. After [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|taking sustained fire from ever-larger guns for two solid minutes of screentime]], the Graboid finally goes down.

* [[Improvised Weapon]]: The pipe bombs in the first and third movies, and the fire arrow shooting potato gun in the third movie.

* [[It Can Think]]: The Graboids learn at a pretty alarming rate.

* [[It Only Works Once]]: In the first movie, the Graboids have a tendency to find ways to work around the humans' counter-attacks before very long. In the second movie, one of the more successful methods of destroying the Graboids (tricking them into eating explosives) is used, but is adjusted a bit to prevent the Graboids from having a chance to spit the bombs back out (as had happened in the first film).

* [[Jerkass]]: Melvin Plug in all of his appearances. In the series, he even flirts with the [[Moral Event Horizon]] a couple times, if not [[Complete Monster|outright crossing it]].

* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: In the second movie.

'''Grady''': Of course, stuff like this only happens in the middle of nowhere! }}

** And in the first movie, when everyone keeps asking Rhonda about the Graboids when her guess is as good as theirs:

'''Rhonda''': ...''Why'' do you keep asking me? }}

* [[Living Motion Detector]]: The Graboids.

* [[Lowered Monster Difficulty]]: Totally subverted in the first film, in that the Graboids display the ability to learn from experience and innovate.

"That's fine, we've got some new things to teach them!" }}

** Played with in the second movie. The Shriekers are smaller and considerably more fragile than the Graboids they mutated from, and are easier to fire at since they're above the ground. However, they're also far more numerous and, in that particular situation, Burt had stocked up on low ammo, high impact weapons expecting to deal with Graboids, which results in him burning through his ammo rather quickly once the Shriekers show up.

*** Actually, in the latter example, they weren't likely eating as a means of escape through numbers, but simply because, well, there was food.

** Though a single graboid is always a threat, in a way this seems to apply to the entire series. Each movie introducing a new form, with the previous movies being more common. {{spoiler|Culminating in the fourth movie, in which most of the movie involves fighting the form before the "first", with a classic graboid as the final enemy, in the same way the new forms were introduced in the previous films.}}

* [[MacGyvering]]: Common in the later films and TV series.

* [[Magic Bullets]]: Averted. Bullets behave realistically: small arms can't penetrate the ground to the Graboids, while a massive anti-tank weapon has a little ''too'' much penetrating power.

** It's also quite odd that she always wears thin T-shirts, as judging by her chest it's very cold in Perfection.

** Taken to its logical extreme in one episode where she dives into a watering trough to avoid being eaten. She actually spends the next few scenes in a soaked white t-shirt. Amazingly, not a single character draws attention to this.

* [[My Car Hates Me]]: In the third movie, Desert Jack has a switch in his car that he uses to intentionally invoke this on his "Graboid Safaris".

* [[NameDar]]: How the Graboids are named.

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Burt occasionally runs into this. In the second film, he uses an anti-tank rifle to take out a Shrieker, and as noted above also accidentally destroys the getaway vehicle they were heading for. Later, he manages to trap a Shrieker pack inside a building, which he only then learns is filled with food (which causes the creatures to multiply rapidly).

** In the third film, he blows up his compound to prevent a fully-evolved Ass-Blaster from reaching ''his'' food, only to again belatedly learn that when they overeat they instead slip into a coma:

** In the first film, Burt was angry at Val and Earl for getting them stuck on a huge boulder while on their way to the mountains. A Graboid set a trap while the survivors were riding on a heavy truck.

'''Val:''' Just back off, man! }}

* [[Nothing Can Stop Us Now]]: Val and Earl each say this while heading for Bixby in the first movie.

* [[Nothing Is Scarier]]: In ''Tremors 4'', Juan describes how not seeing what attacked the other workers in the mine made it scarier than if he had.

* [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]]: A team of three federal agents appear in the third movie to protect the endangered Graboids. Naturally, they're all killed by the things. Lampshaded by Burt when they finally come to him for help and ask what they should do:

** Twitchell in the series is always around blackmailing and pestering the town in one form or another. He seemed to be getting nicer as the series went along though.

* [[Oh Crap]]: For a creature without a face, the last Graboid from the original film conveyed this trope remarkably well when {{spoiler|it burst out of the cliffside and found that it wasn't at the right stage of its life cycle to fly}}.

** Earl and Grady in the second movie when they find the remains of a Graboid that just gave "birth" to Shriekers.

* [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist]]: See Hot Scientist above. In the first movie, she's a <s>geographer</s> <s> geologist</s> seismologist grad-student, and just as ignorant about the Graboids as everyone else:

'''Rhonda:''' ''Why'' do you keep asking me? }}

** Though she's probably good enough at all her guessing and extrapolating to count. Among other things she devises the Graboids' method of propulsion and that they "see" by vibrations.

** {{spoiler|Which rather becomes a [[Brick Joke]] in the third film. No, it can't, but its ass-blaster parents and children ''could''.}}

* [[Promoted Fanboy]]: Grady in the second movie; Larry in the series.

** In the series, whenever Burt is concerned about something, [[Ignored Expert|he's usually waved off]], [[Cassandra Truth|despite the fact that he's usually right]].

** Burt's (justified) paranoia also came up in the third movie. He spent years preparing for the possibility the Graboids would return to the valley, which they ultimately do - much to everyone else's surprise. When the government shows up to interfere with the residents taking on the worms, Burt remains unsurprised by their actions.

* [[Roof Hopping]]: Well, Rock Hopping actually; averted in town, where the rooftops in Perfection are too far apart for the trapped residents to do this.

* [[Sand Worm]]: The Graboids are probably the best known example next to ''[[Dune]]''.

* [[Screwed by the Network]]: The TV series. Stiffed in terms of promotion, shown completely out of order, and then canceled out of spite when it got good ratings anyway.

** The series was also filmed at the same time as ''Tremors 4'', which meant that Burt had to be left out of the show at times.

* [[Short Distance Phone Call]]: In Tremors 3, Burt Gummer and Jack Sawyer have an angry conversation while Burt is driving. When Burt arrives and parks, he is perhaps ten feet from Jack, yet they continue talking on the phone. At least until Burt hangs up and delivers to Jack's face that classic line "Is your head up your ass for the warmth?".

* [[Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon]]: He's a co-star.

*** Of course it would have predated the fossil record. [[Incredibly Lame Pun|There are probably very few things it couldn't eat.]]

* [[Stuff Blowing Up]]: Burt can always be counted on to bring on the explosions:

'''Burt:''' ''Not enou...'' Never mind, just run! ''Run!'' }}

* [[Swallow the Key]]: Not done intentionally, but El Blanco the Graboid ate a gangster in an early episode of ''Tremors: The Series'', who happened to have the key to a mob safety-deposit box around his neck at the time. In a later episode, the gangster's surviving associate returns to try to kill El Blanco and retrieve the key, hoping to empty the deposit box of its millions.

* [[That Poor Car]]: Vibrations from burrowing Graboids set off the car alarm in the Gummers' SUV, inciting them to destroy the vehicle.

* [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]]: "Man, Burt, you put a whole new shine on the word 'overkill'."

** In the series, the tables are turned and Burt calls out an military general for wanting to get rid of the current problem with Mixmaster by essentially ''nuking Perfection.''

* [[There Was a Door]]: A Graboid decides to pay the Gummers a visit by headbutting through their wall. Not a straight case since Graboids are 1) too big to use doors, 2) have no hands/thumbs, and 3) would be absolutely horrifying if Graboids actually ''could'' use doors.

** In the [[Attack of the Town Festival]] episode of the TV series, the heroes have to scrounge weapons from a house in which this trope also applies... with antique black-powder firearms.

* [[We Need a Distraction]]: Several times in the first movie the characters have to come up with ways of distracting the noise-sensitive Graboids away from their immediate target; the most basic is simply stomping on the ground.

** It doesn't work with the last Graboid. As Val realizes, "It's not falling for it."

** And this is, of course, also put to use with the heat-seeking Shriekers and Ass-Blasters. A great example of this is in the second movie, when Earl soaks a piece of clothing in hot water to use as a distraction for the Shriekers so he and Kate could move to a safer location. Later on, Burt uses ''himself'' as a distraction to lure the Shriekers into the garage to trap them inside, though that doesn't work out as planned thanks to the piles of sweet snack foods, rice, and flour inside.

[[Category:Horror Films]]

[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]

[[Category:Film]]