Tremors

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{{Infobox Film | name = Tremors | image = Tremors.jpg | caption = IMDB Image:5 out of 5.png 7.0/10 (12,034) | director = Ron Underwood | producer = Gale Anne Hurd
S.S. Wilson
Ron Underwood | writer = S.S. Wilson | starring = Kevin Bacon
Fred Ward
Finn Carter
Michael Gross
Reba McEntire
Victor Wong | distributor = Universal Pictures | released = 19 January, 1990 (world premiere) | runtime = 96 min. | language = English | budget = USD$11,000,000 (estimated) | imdb_id = 0100814 ||}} Template:Infobox television Image:Earl Bassett.jpg Tremors are a series of films (followed by a television series) about a group of people from a small town fighting precambrian subterranean creatures called Graboids. Tremors was originally conceived by the writer S.S. Wilson, who also directed the second and fourth films, the original Tremors was directed by Ron Underwood.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Perfection is a small desert town with usually less than 15 residents. Superficially, Perfection seems to be comprised of hired hands, a paranoid gun-toting survivalist, a hardware store owner, and a few nuclear families. It was once a mining town, and the series established that after the mines ran out a military biological research was established there for a while using old mine shafts. The research lab was shut down decades ago and it subsequently served as a supply center for a number of local ranches.

Perfection is also home to giant, prehistoric, burrowing monsters with three snake-like tongues that have been termed "Graboids" by the locals (specifically Walter Chang, who named them shortly before being eaten by one). The Graboids undergo a series of metamorphoses during their short biological life cycle, showing variants including the "Shrieker" and the "Ass-Blaster." Perfection's only stable income (a small town store called Walter Chang's Market) is offset by increasing tourism caused by the wide national coverage of the first documented Graboid attack in 1990 (the very first attack occurred in 1889, documented in the fourth movie, but was subsequently covered up). By the continuity established in the television series, Perfection has become a somewhat popular tourist and big-game hunter destination.

At the center of each and every Graboid assault is paranoid conspiracy theorist, Burt Gummer (Michael Gross). Burt and the rest of the town killed four Graboids in 1990. Fellow Perfection survivor Earl Basset was contracted by Mexican oil concerns to exterminate approximately fifty in Mexico in 1996 and invited Burt along to assist. Burt then encountered several more back in Perfection in 2001. This time around government officials complicated Gummer's agenda, stating that Graboids were an endangered species and could not be killed. Once the Graboids began to consume said government officials, Burt and company began to destroy the remaining Graboids, who were beginning to change into Shriekers and, for the first documented time, Ass-Blasters.

After the attack in 2001, there remained one Graboid nicknamed "El Blanco," an albino Graboid incapable of maturing into Shriekers. With the government firmly opposed to El Blanco's destruction, Perfection has come to an uneasy peace with it. Due to El Blanco's status as an endangered species, the town of Perfection is guaranteed protection from people like Melvin, who want to buy the land for housing projects.

The last noted Graboid attack occurred in summer 2003, this time in Toluca, New Mexico. Traces of a biological government project called Mix-Master have been observed in Perfection Valley, leading some to speculate that the town's difficulties are not yet over.

Contents

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Setting

The Tremors fictional universe is set in the dusty backwater town of Perfection (originally Rejection), Nevada (except for in the second film, which had the bulk of its action take place in Mexico, though Perfection was shown, however briefly, to re-introduce the main characters and set off continuity). Perfection has a very small population that continues to fluctuate between, during, and after Graboid attacks, though it usually stays below 15 residents.

Perfection had almost virtually no source of income, despite a small town store, until after the first modern Graboid attacks occurred in 1990. After the attacks gained national media recognition, thousands have flocked to the small, seemingly quiet town every year.

Ever since the discovery of El Blanco, the US Department of the Interior has maintained a firm hold on Perfection and any and all unusual activity that occurs within the town's limits.

In spring 2003, Perfection's residents discovered traces of the biological agent Mix Master, which has been commissioned by the government in the early 1950s for experimentation. Mix Master is a mutagen capable of splicing the genes of any non-human life forms. While most of the mutants will die shortly after being born, the percentage that survives has a tendency to become a problem. So far, the only mutant that has not caused any serious problem and, thus has not been disposed of is the mysterious "Invisibat".

Image:Earl Bassett 2.jpg

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Characters and cast

What follows is a list of most of the primary and secondary characters in the Tremors series' fictional universe (tertiary characters, those with few scenes and/or little impact on the story, are not included):

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Creatures

  • Dirt Dragons - Tremors 4: The Legend Begins. These are supposedly the first creatures that will metamorphose into all the other creatures in the first 3 movies. Apparently hatching from eggs. these creatures are roughly 3 feet long and have the same jaw shape as the other incarnations but have tiny legs on each side that help them move through the dirt. They attack their prey by shooting themselves out of the ground and "flying" towards them, clutching them with their jaws. They seem to have come out of some form of hibernation when warmed up by hot spring water from the local silver mine. Like the Graboids, Dirt Dragons hunt by sound. However, they don't seem to be quite as adept at hunting by feeling vibrations in the ground.
  • Graboid - Tremors - Tremors 2: Aftershocks - Tremors 3: Back to Perfection - [Image graboid.jpg]-Tremors 4: The Legend Begins. Graboids are almost like the Dirt Dragons, except that they are much larger and they detect their prey by sound and by feeling vibratons through the ground. They also shoot out their tentacles (tongues) out of the ground to find and catch it. These tentacles resemble snakes or eels and were initially mistaken for the full creatures. It's because of the hooks around the mouth-like opening in the tentacles and the opening that they were called Graboids. The name was then transferred to the creature attached to the tentacles. Graboids produce a terrible odor and have orange blood. This makes blowing up a graboid a disgusting prospect.
  • Shrieker - Tremors 2: Aftershocks - Tremors 3: Back to Perfection. Shriekers are small bulldog-like animals with two large hind legs for speed running, a large jaw for biting, and tentacle-like tongues used to grab food. Shriekers have no eyes or ears and can "see" only by using heat sensors on top of their heads. They use the large underground worms, known as graboids in the series, as cocoons and eventually eat their way out of the beasts three to six at a time. Shriekers reproduce asexually, regurgitating their young, which grow to adult size in a matter of minutes. The rate at which they reproduce depends on how much food they eat and the nutritional values of the foods they eat.
  • Ass-Blaster - Tremors 3: Back to Perfection. The Ass-Blaster is the final stage in the Graboid life cycle and is only featured in the third movie of the series. The Ass Blasters are much like shriekers in the sense that they hunt by sensing the heat of their prey. They use volatile liquids in their stomachs that, when mixed, ignite and fire out of the "ass" end to propel the monsters into the air. The Ass-blasters then glide with great speed. This ultimately proves to be their downfall when the three heros of the third movie find out that they can destroy the creatures by igniting the volatile chemicals inside their bodies. They fly using wing-like fins of skin and bone on the sides of their body. Unlike Shriekers, Ass-Blasters will go into a "food coma" after eating too much. The exact nature of their reproduction is unknown, but it is known that they contain Graboid eggs. This was discovered when the first Ass-Blaster to be killed landed on a metal fence, thus being cut open.

A recently-hatched Graboid eggshell was discovered in the third film that carbon dated to approximately three hundred years old, suggesting that the eggs can lay dormant for an extremely long period of time. This might explain why Graboid appearances can be so infrequent without the species going extinct.

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Films

There are currently four Tremors films:

There is a rumor circulating that there is a finished screenplay for a fifth Tremors film, but whether or not this is true, and if it is, if Universal Studios will even greenlight another Tremors installment, is unknown.

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Television series

In 2003, the Sci-Fi Channel launched a spin-off television series simply titled Tremors: The Series (produced at the same time as Tremors 4). Though Sci-Fi's highest-rated program at the time, it failed to hit the demographic that Sci-Fi wanted and was cancelled after one season of 13 episodes. The reason for this is often cited by fans to be the fact that the show was in direct competition with Earthsea, which was also in production at the time. It is reasoned that due to Sci-Fi's focusing of funds and hype toward Earthsea doomed the show to rely on low production values and less viewer recognition.

The series has yet to be released on DVD.

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External links

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Internet Movie Database Links

fr:Tremors (série télévisée) ru:Толчки (фильм)

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