We totally agree with you. And, no, they’ve never said why, at least to us.
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Why are graboids starting to appear more often now, unlike the odd case like in Rejection (T4), why did they start popping up more and more in such a short span of time?
Our logic is that graboids have a long life span, but also lie dormant for extended periods. So when they appeared in Perfection in 1990, it was the start of a new cycle. So they began to appear in Mexico, Argentina, and other locations.
What is the the music on the radio that Grady says he knows before the graboid snags the chain, and what is the song as they are being pulled around?
Both songs were written by Jay Ferguson, who created the music for Tremors 2 and Tremors 4. I don’t think he gave the songs titles.
In “The Key” how did they get El Blanco’s fat ass on that truck?
You see Tyler using a winch that is pulling a cable; that’s what’s pulling El Blanco up the ramp into the truck. We just didn’t show how the cable was attached to El Blanco’s tail. Tyler would have used tow straps. He knows all about that of stuff.
In Night of the Shriekers, why didn’t you guys show Dr. Megan Flint’s bones after the shriekers ate her up?
Well, we don’t feel we have an obligation to always show everyone’s eaten bones. We felt it was very clear what happened to her. Also, of course, there are budget issues. Sometimes we don’t want to pay the extra money to have the FX folks make eaten bones.
What was Burt Gummer’s watch?
We assume this question refers to Tremors 3, in which Burt’s watch plays a key role. Sadly, it’s also a question whose answer has slipped away over time. Even director Brent Maddock does not remember the brand of the watch. If any fans recognize it, please let us know!
Dec 2023 update. A helpful fan did just that! Burt’s watch in Tremors 3 is a version of the Storm Navigator.
Did the shriekers in Shriek and Destroy manage to eat anyone once they got to the carnival through the pipe?
This is one of those times where what we wrote and what was shot and edited is a bit conflicted. Our intention was that Tyler manages to lead the shriekers away before anyone is actually attacked. And technically, you don't see anyone actually attacked in the sequence. But we have to admit there are a lot of shots that make it look like shriekers could pretty easily have gotten somebody. Admission aside, the "official" answer is: No, they didn't.
Toward the end, how come they didn’t just take Burt’s truck to escape the shriekers instead of of blowing it up? It was never shown that the shriekers ate the engine.
While it is true that the shriekers did not destroy the engine, the entire building was full of them. Four people never could have made it to the truck, climbed in, started it, and backed out before being swarmed by shriekers and eaten!
Why didn’t you guys put reinforced steel or something to prevent El Blanco from busting through the floor like he did in Feeding Frenzy?
If by “you guys” you mean the people of Perfection, our logic is that such retrofitting of buildings is very expensive, Jodi has a limited budged, and not everyone is as paranoid as Burt. Also, El Blanco hadn’t been causing much trouble up to that point, so they didn’t expect the attack.
In the night time scene before you get the graboid releasing shriekers, you hear burt supposedly kill three more graboids “on a cluster charge.” But with the main graboid about to release shriekers, I had to wonder: Are those really Graboids he is killing, or are they actually Shriekers and he does not yet know it?
Our opinion is Burt killed graboids. The logic is that not all of the graboids would release shriekers at exactly the same time. Earl and Grady’s graboid could be an early one. Other graboids in the area might change later.
Is the documentary Burt is watching in Tremors 2 a real one, or just a clip made up for the movie? (Either way, Burt watching a war documentary is right in character!)
It is made up. Just silent stock film footage from WWII that we bought. And, thank you, we thought it was the prefect way to introduce Burt, too. The narrator you hear on the TV, by the way, is T-2 director S. S. Wilson.
How much of Julio was left before Earl and Grady killed the shrieker?
About half.
When the shrieker attacks Julio, why don’t we hear it “shrieking” first?
Well, the screenwriter answer is, “Because it’s not as dramatic and surprising!” However, we have to admit this particular scene maybe bends the shrieker rules a bit. Shriekers do shriek when they see food. Here’s a half-answer: the shrieker was far away when it first spotted Julio, so we didn’t hear it shriek. Then it ran toward him in total silence! Okay?
What is the name of the music used at the beginning of Tremors 2 and is it available for purchase anywhere?
We assume this question refers to Mexican-style tune that plays over the opening titles. It is a beautiful original tune by our composer, Jay Furguson. Sadly, no, it is not officially available to buy, as Universal Studios has never released any of our Tremors film scores. (This answer is Oct 2019. If anyone finds any Tremors music legitimatley available, please let us know so we can share!)
Was Nestor stupid or did he just make really bad decisions under pressure?
He was not stupid, but yes, he did make bad decisions under pressure. Also, to be fair, when you watch the movie, you have to imagine these people are encountering graboids for the very first time. No one in the world knows anything about them, so Nestor can’t be blamed for not quite understanding the threat. When he gets toppled off his house trailer, he does try to find cover as quick as he can. The big tire isn’t the best choice, but the way we designed that set, there weren’t a lot of good places for him to go.
If you still had creative control of the Tremors films, what would you have done differently?
We have not seen Tremors 6 or 7. But we would have continued trying to do what we always did, keep the creature rules consistent, never make fun of people dying, and make the movies both scary and funny without being nasty, gross, or farcical.
Quote from Wikipedia: “Promotional material once hosted on the Sci-Fi Channel website gave them binomial names: Caederus americana (Graboid), C. mexicana (Shrieker), C. mexicana combustus (Ass-Blaster). It put them in the Sepioida order in the cephalopod class of mollusks, in a fictional family called Vermiformidae.” Is this, in any way, official or canon? I read the archived page and it gives some decent reasoning for the classifications such as the similarities between Graboids and Octopuses with their lack of skeletal structures and relatively high intelligence.
When we came up with graboids 30 years ago, you can be sure we never DREAMED we’d be asked questions like this. But hey, I’m happy you’re all out there still wondering such things. To be honest, when we did the series we did not have control or input over what the Sci-FI (SyFY) marketing department did. We were way too busy getting the episodes written and shot. I don’t think we ever even saw this reference. However, in reading it now, it sounds pretty logical! I will quibble and say that shriekers and ABs look like they have skeletons, so I’m not sure the whole graboid life cycle belongs with mollusks. But that’s probably already more than most of you want to know. Thanks for a rather science-heavy question!
How much explosive was used to destroy the refinery building at the end? And was the crater seen afterward real or a computer graphic?
First of all, the refinery building that actually blows up is a beautiful, highly detailed miniature that was about six or eight feet long in reality. Built by Joshua Culp, it was set up in a field near our location. We used several “sticks” of very powerful high explosive for the scene, though I don’t remember the exact number. They were embedded in plastic drums full of dust and powder inside the miniature building. The special effects team always has to be very careful not to use anything that would become dangerous shrapnel in a blast. The crater, I’m proud to say, is NOT CGI. It is a genuine old-school film special effect called a matte painting. It was painted by Rocco Gioffre to exactly match footage of the actors that we had already shot. It was then filmed and combined with that footage to create the final image of the characters walking toward it. S. S. Wilson still owns the original painting.
What do you guys think ole Twitch is up to?
Agent W.D. Twitchell is a government employee, so has pretty good job security. Even though being the official protector of El Blanco was stressful, we think he’d have stuck with the job as long as possible. And if he moved on, or up in the system, we kind of hope he did well, since he was basically a nice guy underneath his bluster.
In the first film near the end, did you guys ever think of having the graboids start digging really deep and sinking the large boulders the people were on — just to keep the horror going on?
I confess we did not think of that. But I’ll defend our position as follows: the boulders are not “floating” on the desert sand, but rather are sticking up from, and are connected directly to, the underlying ancient layer of solid rock beneath the whole valley. So the graboids would not have been able dig under them or sink them. Rhonda could probably explain it better than I, but that’s the idea.
In the episode “Graboid Rights” we find out that Ray had trashed Burt’s fences. Did he actually get inside Burt’s bunker and trash the inside too or was it just the fences?
Just the fences. Burt’s place is way too well defended for a loser like Ray to break in. Alarms would go off. Burt would get auto-radio alerts, etc. Burt was probably angry that he didn’t have such anti-intruder hardware defending his fences, though. And probably added some.
What airplane type was used in Tremors 6? Will there be a possible reunion type movie? One where the still living original cast come together? Are there currently any plans for tremors 7? Will Kevin Bacon’s Tremors TV series somehow get back on track?
Sorry, we have no information on Tremors 5, 6, a possible 7 or the Kevin Bacon series that was cancelled.
As of this post (July 2019) Michael Gross (who plays Burt Gummer) has been occasionally updating fans on Tremors 5, 6, and 7. So one possible way to get future info is to follow him on Twitter.
What are you working on now, since it’s not Tremors? We don’t see anything new on the website. Will future projects feature allusions or nods to Tremors?
Many fans have been asking this sort of question — and we appreciate it. We work independently trying to get other projects going. If we ever do, we might put in Easter Egg references or homages, since we love that sort of thing. Ron Underwood directs many, many TV shows. Brent Maddock and S. S. Wilson keep writing and trying to sell new scripts. Wilson is about to publish new Fraidy Cats book (called “Fraidy Cats, TOO!”) But we have shut down Stampede as a company. This website is now just an archive of info on our past projects — and a place for S. S. Wilson keep answering questions!
Love your work. The Michael Gross character, Burt Gummer, is a great inspiration to me. “Make the most with what you have!”
Thanks — we like Burt, too!
I know you have no plans for a video game, but a Left For Dead style co-op game with three phases (survival/chase from graboids, shooter segment with shriekers, and a hybrid survive and shooter with Ass Blasters leading to an escape ending the map) might work really well.
This keeps coming up — sadly only from fans and not studio people. But I’ve put it on because it’s a new take. It’s bittersweet for us to read such a well-thought-out pitch for a game. As far as we know there are no Tremors games being considered at Universal.