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Tremors (film)
Encyclopedia
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
. It was distributed by Universal Studios
.
The film was received well by critics and holds an 88% favorable rating at the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes
.
The film emerged as a cult classic
, followed by Tremors 2: Aftershocks
, and continued in a direct-to-video
sequel: Tremors 3: Back to Perfection
, and one direct-to-video
prequel: Tremors 4: The Legend Begins
. Thirteen episodes of Tremors: The Series, a television program based on the film series, aired March through July 2003.
) and Earl Basset (Fred Ward
) work as handymen in Perfection, Nevada
, an isolated ex-mining settlement that contains only fourteen residents, among them survivalist couple Burt
(Michael Gross
) and Heather (Reba McEntire
) Gummer, and Walter Chang (Victor Wong
), owner of the general store. A new arrival is Rhonda LeBeck (Finn Carter
), a graduate student conducting seismology
tests.
Val and Earl tire of their hand-to-mouth existence and leave for Bixby, the nearest town. They discover a man dead at the top of an electrical tower
, though still holding on to the beams. Jim Wallace, the town doctor, announces that he died of dehydration
. Somewhere else, a shepherd
Old Fred and his flock get attacked by an unseen force. Val and Earl arrive only to find the sheep cut to pieces and Fred's severed head lying in the sand. Val and Earl return to Perfection, thinking that a murderer is on the loose. They warn two road-construction workers they encounter, but to no avail. After Val and Earl leave, one of the construction worker's drills stabs something from under the ground and it spews blood. With a hose around his ankle, it pulls that worker away, while the other rushes to help only to be crushed by a rock slide stirred up by it.
Val and Earl discover the town's phones dead and head for the police in Bixby, but are thwarted by the rock slide. They return to Walter's store, where they find something wrapped around their truck's back axle: the severed body of a large snakelike creature. As the townsfolk hunker down for the night, the "snakes" attack the doctor and his wife, killing them both and pulling their car underground.
The next morning, Val and Earl leave to get help, this time on horseback. They discover the doctor's buried car. Suddenly one of the attackers erupts out of the ground. Each "snake" is one of three "tongues" employed by an enormous burrowing worm-creature that Walter later names "Graboid
s". Thrown from their horses, the two men run for their lives. When they jump a concrete aqueduct
their pursuer rams into its wall, killing itself. Rhonda determines from her readings that there are three more creatures in the area. They realize the creatures have extremely acute hearing, and find them due to their vibrations, but cannot tunnel through rock. One of the creatures traps the trio overnight at a cluster of boulders. Rhonda has the idea of pole vaulting from boulder to boulder. They reach her truck and return to town.
They are met with disbelief from the towns-people until a Graboid appears, disabling Val and Earl's truck. Everyone retreats into their homes or the store, but a Graboid bursts through the store's floor and drags away Walter.
The Gummers return to their home after unsuccessfully hunting the "snake-things" and contact the others via CB radio, but the noise of the couple's tumbler
leads a Graboid to smash into their basement. The Gummers kill it with firearms, but another of the monsters disables their vehicle. In town, the Graboids attack the foundations of the buildings, knocking over Nestor's trailer and dragging him down underground. Realizing the town is being dug out from under them, Val and Earl plan to escape on a Semi end dump trailer
pulled by a bulldozer
, which is too heavy for the Graboids to move. Val reaches the vehicle while the others distract the Graboids. Everyone is collected, including the Gummers, and they set out for the safety of a nearby mountain range.
The Graboids dig a pit-trap in the bulldozer's path, wrecking it. The townsfolk use Burt's home-made explosives to drive the creatures away long enough to reach the safety of a boulder, where Earl has another idea: tricking the Graboids into swallowing Burt's bombs. This works once, but on the second try the last Graboid spits the explosive onto Burt's pile of bombs, sending everyone scattering. Val, Earl and Rhonda are stranded yards from the boulder, with the Graboid blocking their path to safety. Val has one more bomb and one last idea: he lets the Graboid chase him to the edge of a cliff and "stampedes" it with the bomb, then jumps out of its way, sending it through the cliff-face to its death. The group returns to town, and Earl pushes Val into approaching the clearly interested Rhonda romantically.
of Reelviews.net gave it 3 out of 4 stars. As of September 2011, Tremors holds a "fresh" rating of 88% at Rotten Tomatoes
based on 23 critic scores.
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
horror
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
comedy
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
film directed by Ron Underwood
Ron Underwood
Ronald Brian "Ron" Underwood is an American film director.-Early Life:-Early career :-Mainstream breakthrough :-Filmography:...
, based on a screenplay by Brent Maddock
Brent Maddock
Brent Maddock is a screenwriter, producer and film director who has worked on several high profile projects like Short Circuit, Tremors, and Wild Wild West. Maddock's writing partner is S.S...
and S. S. Wilson
S. S. Wilson
S.S. Wilson is a screenwriter of cult and mainstream science fiction, and is probably best known for writing , with writing partner Brent Maddock, the Tremors film and television series.-Writer:...
, and starring 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....
, 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...
, Finn Carter
Finn Carter
Finn Carter is an American actress. She is the daughter of former United States State Department Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, Hodding Carter III, and his first wife, the former Margaret Ainsworth Wolfe.-Film career:Carter became well known while playing Sierra Estaban Reyes...
, Michael Gross
Michael Gross (actor)
Michael Gross is an American television, movie, and stage actor who plays both comedic and dramatic roles. His most notable roles are as the father Steven Keaton from Family Ties and the Graboid hunter Burt Gummer from the Tremors franchise.-Early life:Gross was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son...
and Reba McEntire
Reba McEntire
Reba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band , on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma...
. It was distributed by Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
.
The film was received well by critics and holds an 88% favorable rating at the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.
The film emerged as a cult classic
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
, followed by 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,...
, and continued in a direct-to-video
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
sequel: 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...
, and one direct-to-video
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
prequel: 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:...
. Thirteen episodes of Tremors: The Series, a television program based on the film series, aired March through July 2003.
Plot
Valentine "Val" McKee (Kevin BaconKevin 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....
) and Earl Basset (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...
) work as handymen in Perfection, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, an isolated ex-mining settlement that contains only fourteen residents, among them survivalist couple Burt
Burt Gummer
Burt Gummer is a fictional character, played by actor Michael Gross, from the Tremors film series and the short lived SciFi Channel TV program of the same name...
(Michael Gross
Michael Gross (actor)
Michael Gross is an American television, movie, and stage actor who plays both comedic and dramatic roles. His most notable roles are as the father Steven Keaton from Family Ties and the Graboid hunter Burt Gummer from the Tremors franchise.-Early life:Gross was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son...
) and Heather (Reba McEntire
Reba McEntire
Reba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band , on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma...
) Gummer, and 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:...
), owner of the general store. A new arrival is Rhonda LeBeck (Finn Carter
Finn Carter
Finn Carter is an American actress. She is the daughter of former United States State Department Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, Hodding Carter III, and his first wife, the former Margaret Ainsworth Wolfe.-Film career:Carter became well known while playing Sierra Estaban Reyes...
), a graduate student conducting seismology
Seismology
Seismology is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other planet-like bodies. The field also includes studies of earthquake effects, such as tsunamis as well as diverse seismic sources such as volcanic, tectonic, oceanic,...
tests.
Val and Earl tire of their hand-to-mouth existence and leave for Bixby, the nearest town. They discover a man dead at the top of an electrical tower
Electricity pylon
A transmission tower is a tall structure, usually a steel lattice tower, used to support an overhead power line. They are used in high-voltage AC and DC systems, and come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes...
, though still holding on to the beams. Jim Wallace, the town doctor, announces that he died 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...
. Somewhere else, a shepherd
Shepherd
A shepherd is a person who tends, feeds or guards flocks of sheep.- Origins :Shepherding is one of the oldest occupations, beginning some 6,000 years ago in Asia Minor. Sheep were kept for their milk, meat and especially their wool...
Old Fred and his flock get attacked by an unseen force. Val and Earl arrive only to find the sheep cut to pieces and Fred's severed head lying in the sand. Val and Earl return to Perfection, thinking that a murderer is on the loose. They warn two road-construction workers they encounter, but to no avail. After Val and Earl leave, one of the construction worker's drills stabs something from under the ground and it spews blood. With a hose around his ankle, it pulls that worker away, while the other rushes to help only to be crushed by a rock slide stirred up by it.
Val and Earl discover the town's phones dead and head for the police in Bixby, but are thwarted by the rock slide. They return to Walter's store, where they find something wrapped around their truck's back axle: the severed body of a large snakelike creature. As the townsfolk hunker down for the night, the "snakes" attack the doctor and his wife, killing them both and pulling their car underground.
The next morning, Val and Earl leave to get help, this time on horseback. They discover the doctor's buried car. Suddenly one of the attackers erupts out of the ground. Each "snake" is one of three "tongues" employed by an enormous burrowing worm-creature that Walter later names "Graboid
Graboid
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...
s". Thrown from their horses, the two men run for their lives. When they jump a concrete aqueduct
Aqueduct
An aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....
their pursuer rams into its wall, killing itself. Rhonda determines from her readings that there are three more creatures in the area. They realize the creatures have extremely acute hearing, and find them due to their vibrations, but cannot tunnel through rock. One of the creatures traps the trio overnight at a cluster of boulders. Rhonda has the idea of pole vaulting from boulder to boulder. They reach her truck and return to town.
They are met with disbelief from the towns-people until a Graboid appears, disabling Val and Earl's truck. Everyone retreats into their homes or the store, but a Graboid bursts through the store's floor and drags away Walter.
The Gummers return to their home after unsuccessfully hunting the "snake-things" and contact the others via CB radio, but the noise of the couple's tumbler
Tumble polishing
Tumble finishing, also known as tumbling or rumbling, is a technique for smoothing and polishing a rough surface on relatively small parts...
leads a Graboid to smash into their basement. The Gummers kill it with firearms, but another of the monsters disables their vehicle. In town, the Graboids attack the foundations of the buildings, knocking over Nestor's trailer and dragging him down underground. Realizing the town is being dug out from under them, Val and Earl plan to escape on a Semi end dump trailer
Dump truck
A dump truck is a truck used for transporting loose material for construction. A typical dump truck is equipped with a hydraulically operated open-box bed hinged at the rear, the front of which can be lifted up to allow the contents to be deposited on the ground behind the truck at the site of...
pulled by 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 is too heavy for the Graboids to move. Val reaches the vehicle while the others distract the Graboids. Everyone is collected, including the Gummers, and they set out for the safety of a nearby mountain range.
The Graboids dig a pit-trap in the bulldozer's path, wrecking it. The townsfolk use Burt's home-made explosives to drive the creatures away long enough to reach the safety of a boulder, where Earl has another idea: tricking the Graboids into swallowing Burt's bombs. This works once, but on the second try the last Graboid spits the explosive onto Burt's pile of bombs, sending everyone scattering. Val, Earl and Rhonda are stranded yards from the boulder, with the Graboid blocking their path to safety. Val has one more bomb and one last idea: he lets the Graboid chase him to the edge of a cliff and "stampedes" it with the bomb, then jumps out of its way, sending it through the cliff-face to its death. The group returns to town, and Earl pushes Val into approaching the clearly interested Rhonda romantically.
Cast
- Kevin BaconKevin BaconKevin 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....
as Valentine McKee - Fred WardFred WardFreddie 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...
as Earl Basset - Finn CarterFinn CarterFinn Carter is an American actress. She is the daughter of former United States State Department Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, Hodding Carter III, and his first wife, the former Margaret Ainsworth Wolfe.-Film career:Carter became well known while playing Sierra Estaban Reyes...
as Rhonda LeBeck - Michael GrossMichael Gross (actor)Michael Gross is an American television, movie, and stage actor who plays both comedic and dramatic roles. His most notable roles are as the father Steven Keaton from Family Ties and the Graboid hunter Burt Gummer from the Tremors franchise.-Early life:Gross was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son...
as Burt GummerBurt GummerBurt Gummer is a fictional character, played by actor Michael Gross, from the Tremors film series and the short lived SciFi Channel TV program of the same name... - Reba McEntireReba McEntireReba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band , on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma...
as Heather Gummer - Victor WongVictor WongVictor Wong was a Chinese American character actor who appeared in supporting roles throughout the 1980s and 1990s.-Education:...
as Walter Chang - Robert JayneRobert JayneRobert Jayne , sometimes credited as Bobby Jacoby, is an American actor.Starting his career as a child, he has appeared in many television series. His credits include: Knots Landing, The Greatest American Hero, St. Elsewhere, Manimal, The Love Boat, Highway to Heaven, Murder, She Wrote, Diff'rent...
as Melvin Plug - Ariana RichardsAriana RichardsAriana Clarice Richards is an American actress and professional painter. She is best known for her roles as Mindy Sterngood in Tremors, Lex Murphy in the film Jurassic Park, and as Carol Wetherby in the film Prancer....
as Mindy Sterngood - Charlotte StewartCharlotte StewartCharlotte Stewart is an American film and television actress.She is most famous for her role as the schoolmarm 'Miss Beadle' on Little House on the Prairie and her work with director David Lynch....
as Nancy Sterngood - Tony GenaroTony GenaroTony Genaro is an American film, television and stage actor. He is perhaps best known to audiences for his role as Miguel in the 1990 film , Tremors....
as Miguel - Richard MarcusRichard MarcusRichard Marcus is an actor best known for his roles in St. Elsewhere, Tremors, and The Pretender.-Actor:Richard Marcus' first role was on the television show The White Shadow, guest starring in two episodes. He worked steadily throughout the 1980s, and landed a recurring role on the acclaimed NBC...
as Nestor Cunningham - Sunshine ParkerSunshine ParkerSunshine Parker was an American actor. He was born as Lloyd Olen Parker in Lawn, Texas.He is best-known for his roles as Emmet in Road House and Edgar Deems in Tremors...
as Edgar Deems - Conrad Bachmann as Jim Wallace
- Bibi BeschBibi BeschBibiana "Bibi" Besch was an Austrian/American actress.-Early life:Besch was born in Vienna, Austria, the daughter of theater actress Gusti Huber, who starred in German films during World War II and left Austria in the mid 1940s. Besch had a stepfather, Joseph Besch, a radio executive and former...
as Megan Wallace
Reception
The film was hailed by critics for its diverse cast and humor. James BerardinelliJames Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
of Reelviews.net gave it 3 out of 4 stars. As of September 2011, Tremors holds a "fresh" rating of 88% at Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
based on 23 critic scores.