ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Before I saw this movie, my friends told me it was like a tribute to the 1950s classics, and they told me I'd love it.

When I finally saw it, I realized it really was. And I really did love it.

The cast is pure gold. Keven Bacon and Fred Ward are terrific as the redneck buddies who finally get up the nerve to leave their dead-end existence in the tiny "town" of Perfection, Nevada — only to be stopped when the only road is blocked by a rock slide and a utility truck that's unoccupied because the workers were eaten by monster worms.





Michael Gross and Reba McEntire are adorable as a married couple whose "rec room" in the basement of their dessert home has enough guns to take down Godzilla!





Victor Wong is just as much fun to watch playing the owner of the only store for a hundred miles as he was as the mystical Chinese tour bus driver in Big Trouble in Little China.

And Finn Carter reminded me of a sexy, funny, younger version of Kathleen Turner the first time I saw the movie. She's delightful to watch, and I get aroused by the scene of her running from the Graboids wearing nothing but a shirt, socks, and panties.

This blue-eyed beauty is delightful.





But when she bravely allows Keven Bacon to treat the cuts on those luscious legs, caused by the barbed wire they were wrapped in, I always cringe and squeeze my eyes closed! The sweet look on Finn's face as she calmly watches Kevin play doctor with her simply steals my heart, but the fake cuts and blood on her legs makes me want to adopt her and pay off all her college loans!

And then there's the Graboids.

All the sequels used CGI to present the wormy creatures bursting out of the ground, and if there was ever a strong argument against CGI compared to practical effects, this movie is it!





The props of the "dead" Graboids and the "live" versions which twitch and wiggle and gobble up people (whenever stagehands give them life) are very convincing.

And yet the whole movie is based on the incredible premise that these creatures can "swim" rapidly through the hard-packed earth of this dessert landscape! The idea is ridiculous, of course, but the movie sells it to us so well we buy it completely.

This film is extremely enjoyable, and after seeing it on cable and satellite channels for years, I finally bought the Blu-ray so I could watch it whenever I was in the mood.

Enjoy the trailer below.

____________ Official Trailer: Tremors (1990)


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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IMDB has 57 trivia items for this movie. Here’s a few of the ones I found the most interesting, in the blue text.
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S.S. Wilson said that he got the idea for the film while he was working for the U.S. Navy in the California desert. While resting on a rock, he imagined what it might be like if something underground kept him from getting off the rock.

Note from me: I guess you could say this was a case of someone "thinking outside the rocks". (So to speak.)

For the scene in which Rhonda had to get out of her pants to escape the Graboid about to eat her, Finn Carter intentionally didn't rehearse the scene. That way the response she gives to having to depants in front of Kevin Bacon in less than five seconds was authentic.

Note from me: This is really a nice trivia item. Finn's character is apparently just as sweet Finn herself.

Although "Tremors" was not a big hit during its theatrical run, the film became a runaway smash in the home video market, and ultimately tripled its original box-office gross with VHS sales and rentals.

Note from me: I'm really glad that the movie managed to find its audience after it was neglected at the theaters.

Was originally given an R-rating by the MPAA not for violence, but for language. The film included as many as twenty f-bombs. As an appeal, producers removed all utterances of the "f" word, with the exception of two. Many of the swears were dubbed over with other words, including "can you fly you sucker?", "we killed that motherhumper," and "what the s***" when Val is overlooking the dead sheep.

Note from me: I'm glad they made the changes! Some of the best lines in the movie are the ones which were dubbed, like when Kevin calls Michael on the radio after he and Reba kill the graboid.

"Congratulations, Bert! But be advised there are two more — repeat TWO more — motherhumpers."

Prior to the film's release, Bacon felt that the film was a career low: "I broke down and fell to the sidewalk, screaming to my pregnant wife, 'I can't believe I'm doing a movie about underground worms!'".

Note from me: Hollywood is a funny place. Actors sometimes make movies they think will be hits . . . but they turn out to be flops. And yet Kevin made a movie about worms . . . and it flopped . . . until the tapes and DVD made it a sleeper hit!

The original screenplay included an additional Perfection resident: Viola, a nagging and hateful old lady, who mostly stayed to herself. She also had an aggressive dog, who barked constantly. She met her demise when the graboids broke through the floor of her house, and ate her off-screen. It has never been officially stated as to why her character was excluded in the film.

Note from me: I wish they'd kept the old lady in the movie and let the graboid eat her, but spared poor Walter Chang, the likable old Asian guy.

Burt's elephant gun, an 8-gauge Darne Shotgun, was rented from a private collector for uses in the film. It fired dummy cartridges custom-made from solid brass rod stock.

Note from me: The elephant gun scene has always bothered me. The gun is so long and heavy, Michael Gross can't hold it up correctly and put the butt of the stock firmly against his shoulder! When he fires it, the butt is well behind his armpit. That is NO way to fire a firearm which is more powerful than a shotgun!





_________ Tremors - Basement Shooting Scene


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The "elephant gun" used by Burt to kill the Graboid in his basement is a Belgian-made William Moore & Co. 8-gauge shotgun.

Note from me: So, the gun was in fact a shotgun, but we see Bert load it with large shells made of solid brass. Interesting.

Brent Maddock said that while writing the script, he imagined Burt & Heather Gummer being played by Chuck Norris and Linda Hamilton.

Note from me: I just can't picture those two in the roles that Michael and Reba played so magnificently. Bert Gummer is wonderfully goofy, and Heather is sweet and so countrified she's practically fried in batter and smothered in gravy!

The original ending of the film was much different. Val and Earl head out to Bixbie and Val doesn't hook up with Rhonda. But it is implied. The two are looking for their lighter and realize that Rhonda still has it, they turn around and head back. This ending was shot, and tested for one audience, and was not well received. It is available in the documentary on the DVD.

Note from me: I watched that unused ending on my DVD's special features, and I was extremely glad they hadn't used it. The alternate ending wasn't really bad, but the ending that was used is just perfect.

And we also wouldn't have Reba singing during the closing credits!

_______________ Tremors 1990 • Final Scene


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Here's Reba's song all by itself — with enough healthy volume to get you up off the couch and doin' the Boot Scootin' Boogie with your wife all over the living room!

____________ Reba McEntire - Why Not Tonight?


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

My God! Why no ton of responses to this great film?

If there was ever an homage to the marvelous creature flicks of the 50's this is it!

But...It is so much more than that!

Great characters! Each and every one a very real person! Every one an individual fully drawn from the pantheon of human archetypes!
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Eadie]

Because as of now there are 6 movies (the latest is 2018's Tremors 6: A Cold day In Hell) and the short-lived TV series and they get more repeatable and eventually boring.
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Art Should Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.

[Krel]

Bud, an 8-gauge shotgun uses brass shells because of the powder and pressure. But 8-gauge shotgun or Express Rifle, holding it like that is begging for a broken arm. You hold both tight against your shoulder, so the stock's butt doesn't slam back and break your shoulder. A shooting pad should be used also, because the recoil force can cause nerve damage.

I'm surprised that Burt didn't have a Howdah Pistol, which is a cut-down express rifle used to kill Tigers when they would attack the Howdahs on the backs of Elephants. They could be had with 1 to 4 barrels, and were designed to stop a Tiger cold in mid-leap!

David.

[Bud Brewster]

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I love this movie, and you'll love this documentary, followed by two short documentaries about the special effects.

Dig 'em, Dudes!__
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___________ Tremors - The Making of Tremors.


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_____ TREMORS Graboid Design and Creation ADI


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______________ Tremors - Behind The Scenes


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[ralfy]

Dad loves this movie because of Burt's character. Apparently, he wants to have his own bunker with stockpiles. I don't know why, but it reminds me of that shelter filled with MREs in Ravagers (1979).

[Bud Brewster]

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I have a rec room in the basement, with my gun collection on the wall.

But they're all Nerf guns because I'm a pacifist . . .



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

The Outer Limits } "The Invisible Enemy'' October 31, 1964.

The 4-man M~2 Probe lands on Mars & soon discovers that an enormous creature moves through the Martian soil like "like a shark in the ocean.''

Based upon the story "The Invisible Enemy,'' printed in Imaginative Tales in 1955.

[Bud Brewster]

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Hey, I vaguely remember seeing that one. I found a Youtube clip from it. (Notice the borrowed special effects of the spaceship).

_______ THE OUTER LIMITS: THE INVISIBLE ENEMY


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The problem with the basic concept in Tremors is that no sand on Earth could possibly be light and "fluid" enough to allow the graboids to move through it the way they do.

But The Invisible Enemy proposes a special kind of granular materials that displaces easily and flows much like a liquid. The lighter gravity on Mars would be part of the reason for this, causing a layer of the material not to pack down as firmly as Earth's sand.

Think about those "ball baths" at the fast food places. The balls roll around easily, and they don't weigh much, so the kids can crawl rapidly along the bottom of the "tank" and push the balls out of the way.

Presto! Kid-oids!

____ The Big Bang Theory Sheldon Bazinga! in ball pit


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By the way, I found the whole episode on DailyMotion! I was delighted to see that one of the astronauts on the second Mars mission was Adam West . . . costar of Robinson Crusoe on Mars with Paul Mante!

________ The Outer Limits: The Invisible Enemy


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bogmeister]

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________________ Tremors Official Trailer #1


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This is among a small group of favorites with me in a certain category — a couple of others are THE HIDDEN (1987) and NIGHT OF THE COMET (1984) — meaning . . . low budget sci-fi / horror films which transcended their own limitations.

Despite the small budget, this one consistently entertains to the very end. It takes place in and around the tiny town of Perfection, located in the middle of the desert and seemingly as far removed from the rest of civilization as is possible nowadays in the USA.

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Keven Bacon & Fred Ward play a couple of local handymen who have just made plans to move on when the . . . worms turn, so to speak. The two actors overplay it a bit, but it mostly works — these are very average guys caught in an 'Attack of the Monsters' situation.

Michael Gross and Reba McEntire almost steal the movie as a couple of survivalists who become very useful to the rest of the inhabitants of the town (population: about a dozen — I said it was tiny). The desert locations are a plus and the mixture of humor & action is very well done. Watch for a very young Ariana Richards, who would then play one of the kids in Jurassic Park (1993).


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Tremor Trivia: There was a direct-to-video sequel in 1996 — Tremors 2: Aftershocks — with Fred Ward starring, then another one in 2001 in which Michael Gross took center stage, then a prequel in 2003 and then a short TV series.


BoG's Score: 8 out of 10

______________ Tremors - Edgar on the Tower


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BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bud Brewster]

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Thinking Outside the "Plot"!
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As I mentioned in a post above, the one aspect of this great franchise that's difficult to accept is the notion that the graboids would be capable of traveling rapidly through the dirt of a desert terrain!

In fact, the idea that they could move a single inch when encased in dry, hard-packed dirt is preposterous!

However, I'm not really criticizing the movie — I'm actually complimenting it for making the story so appealing that we're all willing to ignore the unrealistic premise.

So, with that in mind, let's consider an alternative that doesn't require quite as much suspension of disbelief.

Bear in mind that whole idea was to present a land-based version of Jaws which suggested that standing on dry land in the desert could be just as dangerous and swimming in the ocean!

That said, consider this.

~ A Question for the Members: Could there be species of graboids which evolved in the swamp lands in the Southeaster United States?

~ My Theory: These aquatic versions of their desert cousins would be able to travel through the soggy marsh lands almost as fast as they would through water — since they wouldn't have fragile appendages like the fins that fish do! Plowing through the wet, sandy soil would be too abrasive on those delicate fins.

Even so, these eel-like creatures would be remarkably fast in the water.

With that in mind, imagine how these "swamp graboids" could rise up beneath small fishing boats in the Florida Everglades and devour those poor unsuspecting people who never imagined being eaten by a shark-sized predators in the swamps!

I should point out that the food supply for these aquatic versions of the graboids would be a veritable feast for these creatures!

The Everglades is packed with wildlife, and these "swamp graboids" would enjoy a daily banquet — compared to the meager pickings which their poor relatives in the desert would have make due with.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]

Bud you should pitch that to the people doing the Tremors movies. The story is certainly a lot better than the last few movies.

David.

[ralfy]

Pop enjoys watching the franchise because of Burt!

An update on the latest:

"The Shriekers Are Back! The Seventh ‘Tremors’ Film is Officially Titled ‘Tremors: Shrieker Island’"

https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3626711/shriekers-back-seventh-tremors-film-officially-titled-tremors-shrieker-island/

[Krel]

OH MY GOD! GRABOIDS ARE REAL!...IN A WAY.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_7ByiYbCYM

David.