Graboid
Encyclopedia
The graboid is a fictional species that acts as the primary antagonist
of the Tremors film series
. As Suzanne Ferriss and Mallory Young explain, the "destruction of 'graboids', as they are quickly dubbed, becomes the central tension of the film." The creature made its debut in the 1990 film Tremors
(although the name "graboid" was only mentioned briefly), and reappeared in its three sequels and the Tremors: The Series television series. The graboid is based on the Mongolian Death Worm
, which is also said to be a giant worm-like creature that attacks animals, and possibly humans. Within the film world, it is store owner Walter Chang (Victor Wong
) who names them. The only other person in the first film to use the phrase "graboid" is Val McKee (Kevin Bacon
). In the second movie Earl Bassett (Fred Ward
) recalls the name "graboid".
According to UGO.com, "graboids are to the desert what sharks are to the ocean."
, with long, serpentine bodies. When fully grown, a graboid will measure up to 30 feet (9.1 m) long, and 6 feet (1.8 m) across at their widest point, and weigh 10-20 tons. Graboids completely lack eyes; they don't need them, due to living underground. Their heads consist of a massive, black, armored beak, which is used to push aside the dirt whilst digging. The beak opens up like a grotesque flower; it consists of a wide upper jaw, a thinner lower jaw, and a pair of hooked mandible
s on either side. Whether they possess a skeleton or not is unknown, though a faux scientific document written by the SyFy channel hypotheses they have a semi-rigid internal structure, similar to the internal cuttlebone
of cuttlefish
.
Graboids have a trio of long, powerful, serpent-like tentacles, which are prehensile and have a reach of at least ten feet. Normally kept retracted in the graboid's throat, these tentacles were initially mistaken for the actual creatures, causing the characters in the first Tremors film to underestimate their underground opponents. The graboid's common name is derived from these prehensile tentacles, which "grab" prey and suck it back down the graboid's hungry gullet. At times, these tentacles appear to have minds of their own, hissing and writhing like snakes. Food is typically swallowed whole, though early in the original Tremors film, they are shown to dismember and decapitate their prey.
A graboid's hide is thick and leathery, with a rough, pebbly texture, giving them a reptilian appearance, (though they are not reptiles). This makes them very hard to kill with anything short of saturation bombing or large-bore rounds. Graboids possess immense physical strength, able to topple over mobile home
s, tow along an object heavy as a pickup truck without slowing down, smash through brick walls and pull an entire station wagon underground. Encircling their bodies are short spikes, which all move in unison to push the graboid through the dirt, similar to the setae on an earthworm
. They are able to burrow faster than a human can run; a graboid in Tremors 3: Back to Perfection
was able to keep pace with Burt's truck. With armored head and mobile spikes working together in unison, a graboid can "swim" through the loose soil at high speed like a shark in the water, though they are incapable of tunneling through solid rock. Graboids (and their imago
forms, the shrieker and ass-blaster) have distinctive orange blood. Graboids also have a powerful stench, which is made evident on several occasions throughout the first film. Though underplayed in the 2nd and 3rd films, the graboid's stench becomes a critical plot point in Tremors 4; Juan is able to identify the graboids as being the unseen killers in the silver mines later in the film due to them sharing the same vile odor.
s, and humans. They are known to be cannibalistic when the opportunity presents itself; El Blanco consumed an ass-blaster in Tremors 3. Lacking eyes or a nose, they're shown to hunt by sensing seismic vibrations which are produced by sounds and movements (such as walking). Because they are unable to tell the difference between edible and inedible vibration sources they adopt a policy of "eat first, ask questions later," swallowing whatever sets off their vibration sensors and regurgitating
anything that is inedible. Inedible objects can be spat out with considerable force, being propelled high into the air. Due to the sensitive hearing they use for underground navigation, graboids are so sensitive to sound they must retreat from loud explosions, which cause them great pain.
Graboids are ambush predators, preferring to sneak up on their quarry, though they are shown to chase it down with great determination. They erupt from the ground and use their tentacles to ensnare prey, pulling them into their mouth (sometimes only the tentacles break the surface). The tentacles wrap around the prey, biting into its flesh or hooking the prey with their horn-like spikes. When prey attempts to flee by climbing (for instance onto the roof of a house or car), graboids will dig away the earth under the hiding place, undermining it until it collapses or sinks low enough to allow the graboid to pluck off the prey. When they are unable to break down the prey's hiding spot, the undaunted graboids will continue circling it, like sharks at sea, until it ceases making vibrations. Usually they wait so long the prey dies of dehydration
or starvation
, i.e. several days.
Graboids are depicted as highly intelligent, possessing memory and the ability to learn. For instance, in the first Tremors movie the characters successfully killed a graboid by having it swallow homemade dynamite
. The second graboid (nicknamed "Stumpy" by Val) had apparently noticed this trap and simply regurgitated the dynamite. Other examples are when the characters escaped on a bulldozer
which was too big to be toppled (weighing 30 tons) or undermined (it could drive away before the graboids had a chance to dig away enough of the dirt under it), the creatures dug a trap in its path.
or grub
, with a serpentine body, four massive, black, armored beaks on its head, and no eyes. Instead of hunting visually the graboids find their food by sound; they are also able to sense ultrasonic signals as demonstrated in the third Tremors movie. It also has several spikes on its sides that it uses to push itself along underground. The juvenile form of the Graboid is about two feet long and looks somewhat similar to the adult form. The younger Graboid has a proper beak (without the three separate jaws that form the lower part of the beak) and lacks the trio of serpentine tentacle tongues. Also, since they are not strong enough to pull a victim underneath the dirt, they instead propel themselves out of the dirt with extreme speed to take down a moving target. These young Graboids are seen in Tremors 4: The Legend Begins
wherein the characters refer to both juvenile and adult Graboids as "Dirt Dragons". Graboids are also intelligent and learn very quickly. For instance, in the first film, when two graboids discover that the bulldozer is too heavy to lift, they simply dig a trap in its path.
The full adult form is about thirty feet long. Graboids have a trio of long, powerful, snake-like tentacles, which are prehensile and have a reach of at least ten feet. Each of the three tentacles has a small, tooth-filled mouth and two horns. They often seem to have minds of their own. They die as soon as the graboid they belong to does.
In Tremors 2: Aftershocks
, "Shriekers" are introduced. Fully grown graboids die while giving birth to a ramdom number of creatures depending on the amount of food the consumed , these creatures are the shriekers. Much smaller than graboids, about 6 feet (1.8 m) long and 4 feet (1.2 m) high, shriekers live above ground and resemble a small dinosaur, with stout, three-toed legs and a compact body. They have similar beaks on their heads, but lack the tentacles of a graboid instead having a single, long tongue, and like graboids lack eyes and noses, but they don't have ears. Shriekers find prey through a retractable, heat seeking crest on the top of their heads as well as their tongues which they use to find cold food through taste. They are hermaphroditic and will gag up small shriekers as long as they find food.
The third stage, the "ass-blaster", is introduced in Tremors 3: Back to Perfection
. Shriekers turn into ass-blasters, which resemble their original shrieker, shedding their skin as they grow and change. They are capable of gliding with the use of red/pink-colored sail-like structures at the sides of their bodies, consisting of a semi-translucent skin supported by rigid stems and a third dorsal sail that extends from the spine down the back and tail. In order to take flight, they shake and quiver their tails and backsides and seem to be mixing two liquids which produce an explosion of flames from their rear end, similar to a Bombardier beetle
's blast of acid. Ass-blasters fall into a "food coma" when eating too much and carry graboid eggs within their bodies, supposedly bringing the life cycle full-circle.
graboid named "El Blanco". As the animal is sterile, it lives on instead of giving birth to shriekers. Since graboids have been declared an endangered species, it may not be killed by the townspeople, who in turn profit from their valley being declared a protected habitat.
Steve Traiman writes, "MCA piqued consumer interest for the direct-to-video title Tremors 2: Aftershock with the Graboid Game, which challenged Web site visitors to hunt for the giant worms featured in the movie."
In Final Fantasy XI
there is a "Notorious Monster" named Glavoid, an alternative romanization
of Graboid. Its design is very similar to that of Graboids from the Tremors movies.
In the video game Resident Evil 3 there are two to three giant burrowing worms that vaguely resemble the Graboids. The young ones found in the sewers resemble the Graboid's mouth tentacles.
Both the Graboid worm form, and the Shrieker form can be seen on display at the Lone Pine Film History Museum in Lone Pine, California.
They also appear in Metriod Prime Hunters as shriekers on many of the planets.
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
of the Tremors film series
Tremors (film)
Tremors is a 1990 American science fiction horror comedy film directed by Ron Underwood, based on a screenplay by Brent Maddock and S. S. Wilson, and starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross and Reba McEntire...
. As Suzanne Ferriss and Mallory Young explain, the "destruction of 'graboids', as they are quickly dubbed, becomes the central tension of the film." The creature made its debut in the 1990 film Tremors
Tremors (film)
Tremors is a 1990 American science fiction horror comedy film directed by Ron Underwood, based on a screenplay by Brent Maddock and S. S. Wilson, and starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross and Reba McEntire...
(although the name "graboid" was only mentioned briefly), and reappeared in its three sequels and the Tremors: The Series television series. The graboid is based on the Mongolian Death Worm
Mongolian Death Worm
The Mongolian death worm is a creaturereported to exist in the Gobi Desert. It is generally considered a cryptid: an animal whose sightings and reports are disputed or unconfirmed.It is described as a bright red worm with a wide body that is long....
, which is also said to be a giant worm-like creature that attacks animals, and possibly humans. Within the film world, it is store owner Walter Chang (Victor Wong
Victor Wong
Victor Wong was a Chinese American character actor who appeared in supporting roles throughout the 1980s and 1990s.-Education:...
) who names them. The only other person in the first film to use the phrase "graboid" is Val McKee (Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....
). In the second movie Earl Bassett (Fred Ward
Fred Ward
Freddie Joe "Fred" Ward is an American actor. He began his career in 1979 alongside Clint Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz. He is best known for his starring roles in the motion pictures Remo Williams, Tremors, Henry & June, Short Cuts, The Right Stuff and Exit Speed...
) recalls the name "graboid".
According to UGO.com, "graboids are to the desert what sharks are to the ocean."
Physiology
Graboids are depicted as subterranean animals, superficially resembling gigantic worms or grubsLarva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
, with long, serpentine bodies. When fully grown, a graboid will measure up to 30 feet (9.1 m) long, and 6 feet (1.8 m) across at their widest point, and weigh 10-20 tons. Graboids completely lack eyes; they don't need them, due to living underground. Their heads consist of a massive, black, armored beak, which is used to push aside the dirt whilst digging. The beak opens up like a grotesque flower; it consists of a wide upper jaw, a thinner lower jaw, and a pair of hooked mandible
Mandible
The mandible pronunciation or inferior maxillary bone forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place...
s on either side. Whether they possess a skeleton or not is unknown, though a faux scientific document written by the SyFy channel hypotheses they have a semi-rigid internal structure, similar to the internal cuttlebone
Cuttlebone
Cuttlebone, also known as cuttlefish bone, is a hard, brittle internal structure found in all members of the family Sepiidae, commonly known as cuttlefish....
of cuttlefish
Cuttlefish
Cuttlefish are marine animals of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda . Despite their name, cuttlefish are not fish but molluscs....
.
Graboids have a trio of long, powerful, serpent-like tentacles, which are prehensile and have a reach of at least ten feet. Normally kept retracted in the graboid's throat, these tentacles were initially mistaken for the actual creatures, causing the characters in the first Tremors film to underestimate their underground opponents. The graboid's common name is derived from these prehensile tentacles, which "grab" prey and suck it back down the graboid's hungry gullet. At times, these tentacles appear to have minds of their own, hissing and writhing like snakes. Food is typically swallowed whole, though early in the original Tremors film, they are shown to dismember and decapitate their prey.
A graboid's hide is thick and leathery, with a rough, pebbly texture, giving them a reptilian appearance, (though they are not reptiles). This makes them very hard to kill with anything short of saturation bombing or large-bore rounds. Graboids possess immense physical strength, able to topple over mobile home
Mobile home
Mobile homes or static caravans are prefabricated homes built in factories, rather than on site, and then taken to the place where they will be occupied...
s, tow along an object heavy as a pickup truck without slowing down, smash through brick walls and pull an entire station wagon underground. Encircling their bodies are short spikes, which all move in unison to push the graboid through the dirt, similar to the setae on an earthworm
Earthworm
Earthworm is the common name for the largest members of Oligochaeta in the phylum Annelida. In classical systems they were placed in the order Opisthopora, on the basis of the male pores opening posterior to the female pores, even though the internal male segments are anterior to the female...
. They are able to burrow faster than a human can run; a graboid in Tremors 3: Back to Perfection
Tremors 3: Back to Perfection
Tremors 3: Back to Perfection is a direct-to-video 2001 comedic monster movie, the third in the Tremors series featuring the subterranean worm-creatures dubbed "Graboids". It was directed by Brent Maddock and stars Michael Gross...
was able to keep pace with Burt's truck. With armored head and mobile spikes working together in unison, a graboid can "swim" through the loose soil at high speed like a shark in the water, though they are incapable of tunneling through solid rock. Graboids (and their imago
Imago
In biology, the imago is the last stage of development of an insect, after the last ecdysis of an incomplete metamorphosis, or after emergence from the pupa where the metamorphosis is complete...
forms, the shrieker and ass-blaster) have distinctive orange blood. Graboids also have a powerful stench, which is made evident on several occasions throughout the first film. Though underplayed in the 2nd and 3rd films, the graboid's stench becomes a critical plot point in Tremors 4; Juan is able to identify the graboids as being the unseen killers in the silver mines later in the film due to them sharing the same vile odor.
Behavior
Graboids are shown to be ravenous carnivores, always on the hunt for food. Indiscriminate eaters, their diet includes sheep, cattle, horses, donkeys, coyoteCoyote
The coyote , also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf, is a species of canine found throughout North and Central America, ranging from Panama in the south, north through Mexico, the United States and Canada...
s, and humans. They are known to be cannibalistic when the opportunity presents itself; El Blanco consumed an ass-blaster in Tremors 3. Lacking eyes or a nose, they're shown to hunt by sensing seismic vibrations which are produced by sounds and movements (such as walking). Because they are unable to tell the difference between edible and inedible vibration sources they adopt a policy of "eat first, ask questions later," swallowing whatever sets off their vibration sensors and regurgitating
Regurgitation (digestion)
Regurgitation is the expulsion of material from the mouth, pharynx, or esophagus, usually characterized by the presence of undigested food or blood.Regurgitation is used by a number of species to feed their young...
anything that is inedible. Inedible objects can be spat out with considerable force, being propelled high into the air. Due to the sensitive hearing they use for underground navigation, graboids are so sensitive to sound they must retreat from loud explosions, which cause them great pain.
Graboids are ambush predators, preferring to sneak up on their quarry, though they are shown to chase it down with great determination. They erupt from the ground and use their tentacles to ensnare prey, pulling them into their mouth (sometimes only the tentacles break the surface). The tentacles wrap around the prey, biting into its flesh or hooking the prey with their horn-like spikes. When prey attempts to flee by climbing (for instance onto the roof of a house or car), graboids will dig away the earth under the hiding place, undermining it until it collapses or sinks low enough to allow the graboid to pluck off the prey. When they are unable to break down the prey's hiding spot, the undaunted graboids will continue circling it, like sharks at sea, until it ceases making vibrations. Usually they wait so long the prey dies of dehydration
Dehydration
In physiology and medicine, dehydration is defined as the excessive loss of body fluid. It is literally the removal of water from an object; however, in physiological terms, it entails a deficiency of fluid within an organism...
or starvation
Starvation
Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy, nutrient and vitamin intake. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, death...
, i.e. several days.
Graboids are depicted as highly intelligent, possessing memory and the ability to learn. For instance, in the first Tremors movie the characters successfully killed a graboid by having it swallow homemade dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
. The second graboid (nicknamed "Stumpy" by Val) had apparently noticed this trap and simply regurgitated the dynamite. Other examples are when the characters escaped on a bulldozer
Bulldozer
A bulldozer is a crawler equipped with a substantial metal plate used to push large quantities of soil, sand, rubble, etc., during construction work and typically equipped at the rear with a claw-like device to loosen densely-compacted materials.Bulldozers can be found on a wide range of sites,...
which was too big to be toppled (weighing 30 tons) or undermined (it could drive away before the graboids had a chance to dig away enough of the dirt under it), the creatures dug a trap in its path.
Shrieker
- The second stage of the graboid life cycle first seen in Tremors 2.
- Unlike their previous incarnations, the huge, subterranean and limbless graboids, shriekers live on the surface. Much smaller than graboids, shriekers are about 5 feet (1,50 m) long and 4 feet (1,20 m) tall. While graboids are worm-like in shape, shriekers slightly resemble dinosaurDinosaurDinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
s or heavy ground-dwelling birds, having stout, three-toed legs and a compact body. They also have a short, stump-like tail. This tail, as well as some small bulges in the neck, has some orange coloring on it. Its function is not mentioned.
- The one thing that shows shriekers are related to graboids is their skull- just like a graboid's, it consists of a powerful, beak-like armored upper jaw and a much narrower lower jaw surrounded by two mandibles. Both the jaws and the mandibles have sharp hooks and serrations to hold on to prey. The beak is very powerful; shriekers are capable of ripping through sheet metal with ease. While graboids have three prehensile tentacles for tongueTongueThe tongue is a muscular hydrostat on the floors of the mouths of most vertebrates which manipulates food for mastication. It is the primary organ of taste , as much of the upper surface of the tongue is covered in papillae and taste buds. It is sensitive and kept moist by saliva, and is richly...
s, complete with jaws, shriekers have more normal tongues: singular ones lacking jaws. Like a graboid's, the tongue is relatively stiff (for a tongue). It can be stretched out approximately 3 feet (90 cm) and has some short bristles on it, not unlike the tongue of a cat.
- The shriekers' most notable feature is their heat sensor, a brain-like pulsating organ atop their head which is usually covered by a frill-like flap of skin, which is supported by a small ridge at the base of the skull. Using this sensor, shriekers sense infraredInfraredInfrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
heat, which is their only sense other than taste and touch as they lack eyes, ears or a nose. As shown by shots in Tremors 2 depicting the creatures' point of view, the heat sensed by the shriekers is apparently processed into an image highly similar to that of an infrared camera.
- Shriekers are much easier to kill than graboids, being smaller, surface-dwelling and more easily damaged by firearms, although they hunt in groups. Like graboids, shriekers have orange blood.
Hunting and intelligence
- Unlike the solitary graboids, shriekers are pack hunters, using their numbers to bring down large prey. In Tremors 2, the Graboids appeared to spawn 3 Shriekers per worm. However, in Tremors 3, Burt discovers that one Graboid can spawn 6 from itself. It is likely that the exact number varies, somewhat like the number of pups in a dog's litter. Shriekers are able to hunt in packs. By eating sufficient foods of any kind and getting enough to eat, they have the ability to multiply. The creatures are hermaphrodites, being able to double a number every few minutes. In Tremors 3, the six Shriekers were able to spawn an entire herd in under 12 hours. Sensing heat, they let out loud screams (earning their name). While the sound is useless (as they are deaf) they produce a lot of heat when screaming, alerting each other to the presence of prey. Another thing unexplained in the films is the shriekers' ability to "see" heat before raising the frill covering their heat sensor; they always seem to know when to raise it. It is explained on the Stampede Entertainment FAQ that they can see some heat through the frills. Raising them merely enables them to make full use of the obviously delicate sensory organ, similar to opening one's eyes widely.
- When hunting shriekers show some good feats of insight and cooperation, using each other to form natural ladders to reach prey hiding on high ground such as rooftops.
- Graboids, hunting by vibrations, often attack inedible objects, and the heat-seeking shriekers are no different. They have been observed attempting to eat warm car engines, electronic cables and steamed clothes.
- Shriekers also feed on cold objects which they find by dragging their tongue over the ground. They have been observed eating military rations, and could possibly also feed on plants, which would make them omnivores.
Ass-blaster
- The ass-blaster (Caederus mexicana combustus) is a fictional species in the "Tremors" series of films. It is the third and final stage of the life-cycle including the graboid and shrieker. The ass-blaster appears in Tremors 3 and an episode of the TV series. It is named in Tremors 3 by Jodi Chang (Susan Chuang), the niece of Walter Chang, who named the graboids in the original Tremors.
Physiology
- Also like shriekers, ass-blasters have birdBirdBirds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
-like legs ending in three-toed feet, and their feet have three slender black talons. The ass-blasters' most striking features are their wingWingA wing is an appendage with a surface that produces lift for flight or propulsion through the atmosphere, or through another gaseous or liquid fluid...
s – they have red/pink-colored sailSailA sail is any type of surface intended to move a vessel, vehicle or rotor by being placed in a wind—in essence a propulsion wing. Sails are used in sailing.-History of sails:...
-like structures at the back of their bodies, consisting of a semi-translucent skin supported by rigid stems. A third dorsal sail extends from the spine down the back and tail. Ass-blasters use these wings to glide through the air. In order to take off, they produce an explosionExplosionAn explosion is a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, usually with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases. An explosion creates a shock wave. If the shock wave is a supersonic detonation, then the source of the blast is called a "high explosive"...
from their rear ends, earning them their name. This is achieved by mixing two chemicals near their colonColon (anatomy)The colon is the last part of the digestive system in most vertebrates; it extracts water and salt from solid wastes before they are eliminated from the body, and is the site in which flora-aided fermentation of unabsorbed material occurs. Unlike the small intestine, the colon does not play a...
(by shaking their hind quarters). Creature Designers Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis borrowed this design from the real life Bombardier BeetleBombardier beetleBombardier beetles are ground beetles in the tribes Brachinini, Paussini, Ozaenini, or Metriini—more than 500 species altogether—which are most notable for the defense mechanism that gives them their name: When disturbed, the beetle ejects a noxious chemical spray in a rapid burst of pulses from...
. The mix explodes upon exposure to air, launching the creature into the air. The ass-blaster also learns at an extreme rate and can easily comprehend how to use its natural means of transportation as a torch, such as when one attempted to melt through a fire door in Tremors 3. Ass-blasters have been known to spontaneously combust when accidentally poked with sharp flaming objects. - Like the other life cycle stages, ass-blasters have orange blood.
Hunting and intelligence
- Ass-blasters hunt like birds of prey, scanning the ground for prey while gliding on hot air currents. Their heat sensors are much wider than shriekers', allowing them to view large sections of land at the same time. Judging from shots in Tremors 3 depicting the ass-blasters' point of view the heat they sense is processed into an infrared-camera-like image, just like how shriekers see the world. An ass-blaster's heat vision is much more detailed than a shrieker's. Like the other creatures, ass-blasters are also attracted to inedible heat sources such as fires.
- For reasons unexplained in the film, unlike their previous form Shriekers, an ass-blaster will slip into a comaComaIn medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
after eating, instead of multiplying.
- Like the other life cycle stages, ass-blasters are intelligent, capable of learning from their mistakes. When several ass-blasters were blown up by being shot with burning spears fired from a makeshift potato gun in Tremors 3, one ass-blaster quickly learned to dodge these projectiles.
Life cycle
- Graboids are hatched from eggEgg (biology)An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
s laid by ass-blasters (the final stage in the life cycle), as indicated in Tremors 3. These eggs split open diagonally. Carbon dating has shown that the eggs can lay dormant for at least 300 years, explaining why graboid sightings are rare and random. As shown in Tremors 4, the hatching of the eggs is prompted by warmth- in Tremors 4 hatched eggs were found in a hot springHot springA hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. There are geothermal hot springs in many locations all over the crust of the earth.-Definitions:...
.
- Baby graboids (niknamed Dirt-Dragons) are 4 feet (1.2 m) long and are much shorter and compact in comparison to the adults, but already have the typical set of jaws and mandibles. The baby graboids also have a row of armored scales on their backs for protection, which are shed before they fully mature.
- Like adults, they have large spikes used for digging; extra large rows of spikes sprout from the sides of their body. Being smaller than the adults, baby graboids are able to hurl themselves out of the dirt to tackle prey, like "some kind of demonic trout", according to Hiram Gummer. Their tentacles are underdeveloped at this point in their lifecycle.
- Upon maturing, graboids will resume attacking and consuming prey. After that, they will seek a secluded spot where they will metamorphose. Three to six shriekers will emerge from their body where they have been growing in large sacks, killing the graboid. The exact number of shriekers that emerge could possibly depend on how well-fed the graboid is.
- Upon emerging, shriekers will search for food. When having eaten a sufficient amount of food, shriekers will spit out a cocoon containing a mini version of themselves. This ability to reproduce asexually allows them to greatly expand their numbers over a short period of time, although it is unknown whether a shrieker can produce more than one cloneCloningCloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
. The newborn shrieker is fully developed, about 10 inches (25 cm) long and starts growing right after birth.
- When a shrieker is around 24 hours old, it will undergo a moultMoultIn biology, moulting or molting , also known as sloughing, shedding, or for some species, ecdysis, is the manner in which an animal routinely casts off a part of its body , either at specific times of year, or at specific points in its life cycle.Moulting can involve the epidermis , pelage...
ing process, turning into an ass-blaster. Ass-blasters can live up to several years (an individual sold to Siegfried and Roy in Tremors 3 was still alive two years later). They attack anything warm. While shriekers reproduce asexually when they have fed enough, ass-blasters, slip into a comaComaIn medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
when they eat a large amount of food. They can reproduce, however – each ass-blaster carries a graboid egg in its gut. Because they cover large distances when flying, they can carry these eggs further away, as theorized by Jodi Chang in Tremors 3.
Origins
- The graboid's evolutionEvolutionEvolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
ary origins are intentionally kept very vague; the creators of the film were unconcerned with this detail, offering no explanation as to where the graboids came from in the original film, (wanting to avoid the typical clichés of the monster movie genre.) The main characters even satirize this convention by attempting to guess where they came from- outer space, nuclear mutations, genetic engineering and prehistory are all offered up as possible explanations.
- The answer was revealed in Tremors 2, when a fossilFossilFossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
graboid spike was discovered and dated back to the PrecambrianPrecambrianThe Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale...
, making it at least 600 million years old- the graboids are apparently from earth, or have at least existed on earth for a very long time. Strangely, no prey large enough for graboids to eat had evolved yet at the time; in fact there was no life on the land at all, and most of the land was composed of bare rocks. A write-up written by the SciFi channel for Tremors: The Series retconned this by saying the fossil was incorrectly dated and actually from the DevonianDevonianThe Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya , to the beginning of the Carboniferous Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya...
period. By that time, prey big enough for graboids to eat had evolved (amphibianAmphibianAmphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...
s), though they don't rule out a possible extraterrestrial origin.
Film appearances
There are three varieties of Graboid shown in the films. The standard Graboid, seen in all four films, is a subterranean animal, resembling a gigantic wormWorm
The term worm refers to an obsolete taxon used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, and stems from the Old English word wyrm. Currently it is used to describe many different distantly-related animals that typically have a long cylindrical...
or grub
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
, with a serpentine body, four massive, black, armored beaks on its head, and no eyes. Instead of hunting visually the graboids find their food by sound; they are also able to sense ultrasonic signals as demonstrated in the third Tremors movie. It also has several spikes on its sides that it uses to push itself along underground. The juvenile form of the Graboid is about two feet long and looks somewhat similar to the adult form. The younger Graboid has a proper beak (without the three separate jaws that form the lower part of the beak) and lacks the trio of serpentine tentacle tongues. Also, since they are not strong enough to pull a victim underneath the dirt, they instead propel themselves out of the dirt with extreme speed to take down a moving target. These young Graboids are seen in Tremors 4: The Legend Begins
Tremors 4: The Legend Begins
Tremors 4: The Legend Begins is a 2004 straight to video movie, that premiered January 2, 2004 on the Sci-Fi channel. It is the fourth film in the Tremors series of monster films. It is a prequel to the earlier movies.-Plot:...
wherein the characters refer to both juvenile and adult Graboids as "Dirt Dragons". Graboids are also intelligent and learn very quickly. For instance, in the first film, when two graboids discover that the bulldozer is too heavy to lift, they simply dig a trap in its path.
The full adult form is about thirty feet long. Graboids have a trio of long, powerful, snake-like tentacles, which are prehensile and have a reach of at least ten feet. Each of the three tentacles has a small, tooth-filled mouth and two horns. They often seem to have minds of their own. They die as soon as the graboid they belong to does.
In Tremors 2: Aftershocks
Tremors 2: Aftershocks
Tremors 2: Aftershocks is a 1996 action-horror-sequel to Tremors, in which the character of Earl Bassett, returning from the first movie, is hired to deal with a subterranean "Graboid" infestation at a Mexican oilfield. It was directed by S.S. Wilson, and stars Fred Ward, Christopher Gartin,...
, "Shriekers" are introduced. Fully grown graboids die while giving birth to a ramdom number of creatures depending on the amount of food the consumed , these creatures are the shriekers. Much smaller than graboids, about 6 feet (1.8 m) long and 4 feet (1.2 m) high, shriekers live above ground and resemble a small dinosaur, with stout, three-toed legs and a compact body. They have similar beaks on their heads, but lack the tentacles of a graboid instead having a single, long tongue, and like graboids lack eyes and noses, but they don't have ears. Shriekers find prey through a retractable, heat seeking crest on the top of their heads as well as their tongues which they use to find cold food through taste. They are hermaphroditic and will gag up small shriekers as long as they find food.
The third stage, the "ass-blaster", is introduced in Tremors 3: Back to Perfection
Tremors 3: Back to Perfection
Tremors 3: Back to Perfection is a direct-to-video 2001 comedic monster movie, the third in the Tremors series featuring the subterranean worm-creatures dubbed "Graboids". It was directed by Brent Maddock and stars Michael Gross...
. Shriekers turn into ass-blasters, which resemble their original shrieker, shedding their skin as they grow and change. They are capable of gliding with the use of red/pink-colored sail-like structures at the sides of their bodies, consisting of a semi-translucent skin supported by rigid stems and a third dorsal sail that extends from the spine down the back and tail. In order to take flight, they shake and quiver their tails and backsides and seem to be mixing two liquids which produce an explosion of flames from their rear end, similar to a Bombardier beetle
Bombardier beetle
Bombardier beetles are ground beetles in the tribes Brachinini, Paussini, Ozaenini, or Metriini—more than 500 species altogether—which are most notable for the defense mechanism that gives them their name: When disturbed, the beetle ejects a noxious chemical spray in a rapid burst of pulses from...
's blast of acid. Ass-blasters fall into a "food coma" when eating too much and carry graboid eggs within their bodies, supposedly bringing the life cycle full-circle.
Other appearances
In the television series, the townspeople live more or less in harmony with a thirty-foot albinoAlbinism
Albinism is a congenital disorder characterized by the complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes due to absence or defect of an enzyme involved in the production of melanin...
graboid named "El Blanco". As the animal is sterile, it lives on instead of giving birth to shriekers. Since graboids have been declared an endangered species, it may not be killed by the townspeople, who in turn profit from their valley being declared a protected habitat.
Steve Traiman writes, "MCA piqued consumer interest for the direct-to-video title Tremors 2: Aftershock with the Graboid Game, which challenged Web site visitors to hunt for the giant worms featured in the movie."
In Final Fantasy XI
Final Fantasy XI
, also known as Final Fantasy XI Online, is a MMORPG developed and published by Square as part of the Final Fantasy series. It was released in Japan on Sony's PlayStation 2 on May 16, 2002, and was released for Microsoft's Windows-based personal computers in November 2002...
there is a "Notorious Monster" named Glavoid, an alternative romanization
Romanization of Japanese
The romanization of Japanese is the application of the Latin alphabet to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is known as , less strictly romaji, literally "Roman letters", sometimes incorrectly transliterated as romanji or rōmanji. There are several different romanization systems...
of Graboid. Its design is very similar to that of Graboids from the Tremors movies.
In the video game Resident Evil 3 there are two to three giant burrowing worms that vaguely resemble the Graboids. The young ones found in the sewers resemble the Graboid's mouth tentacles.
Both the Graboid worm form, and the Shrieker form can be seen on display at the Lone Pine Film History Museum in Lone Pine, California.
They also appear in Metriod Prime Hunters as shriekers on many of the planets.