Fans, I need help on this one! I didn’t write most of the episodes, and didn’t even see the last two because I left to work on Tremors 4. I’m SURE there are fans out there who know this answer without even having to think about it.
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In “Night of the Shriekers,” why did Dr. Megan Flint have her people keep the shriekers from turning into ABs? Did they not know that ABs have more advanced heat seeking sensors than shriekers? Wouldn’t those sensors be more beneficial in finding those “earthquake victims?”
Technically, yes. But a couple of things work against the idea. One, ABs are more aggressive, powerful and difficult to control. Two, her funding was for for work with Shriekers; she’d have had to do a lot of writing and petitioning to get the government to okay such a significant change in her program.
Did Walter really not have a gun or did he just lie to keep Earl from getting it for free?
Great question! That would be totally like Walter, but no, he really didn’t have a gun. He only sold ammo at his store — mostly to Burt.
How strong are graboid acids?
Ummm, we don’t think we’ve ever said that Graboids have acids in their blood or saliva. They’re not like the Alien, after all. Fans, are we wrong on this one?
Ok, after Earl warns the highway workers that “there’s a killer on the loose” the guy’s foot gets stuck in the air-pressure hose. How did that happen since the scene immediately prior shows it clearly outside of it? Did the Flash mess with the time-line again?
Actually, there is a very clear closeup of him stepping into the loop of hose right before the jack-hammer takes off.
Why did the graboids in Tremors eat parts of people then leave the other parts behind? But in Tremors 2 and Tremors 3 they swallowed people whole?
Graboids are individuals with different preferences. Some are picky eaters. Some wolf their meals. Also, if a person’s arm happens to come off while being swallowed, the Graboid might necessarily know it, and would have a hard time finding it after the fact (as it will be making no noise).
The other answer is that in T2 and T3 we had better Graboid moving special effects rigs that could raise them up and down much faster, so it was exciting to for us to get to lift one up with a whole person actually riding with it.
Is there a reason that the oil field in Mexico had so many graboids, considering that later attacks had so few graboids.
Good question! Hopefully Rhonda or Kate has done some research on this. For now, we’ll have to guess that there was an abundance of food in that area of Mexico. More baby Graboids survived, thus more adults.
The first film had the best distinctive theme song why didn’t you guys keep it as the main theme for all the films?
Believe it or not, the original score was not loved. In post production, much of it was thrown out and some “action” music hastily written by a new composer. That said, we love the “Val and Earl” theme, if that’s what you’re referring to; but using it in later productions would have been a tough sell to the studio.
If a shrieker sensed a dead shrieker, would it resort to cannibalism?
Absolutely. Shriekers are all about eating — anything, anytime, as fast as possible.
When El Blanco consumed the AB, how come its two volatile chemicals [didn’t] erupt from El Blanco? Also, is it cannibalism for El Blanco to eat the species that he was birthed from?
Question one is a perfectly rational question. As El Blanco crushed the AB, it is quite possible that the chemicals in its abdomen would mix and explode. It would have been totally cool if El Blanco had burped fire as he went down. Wish we had thought of it. Or, maybe we thought of it and our low budget wouldn’t allow it.
On question 2, there are many examples of animals eating their own kind in the wild. Parents eat their babies. Babies eat their parents. Some female insects eat their husbands, etc. So while it is technically cannibalism from a human perspective, Mother Nature wouldn’t think it was in the least out of the ordinary.
what sounds were used for the shriekers in tremors 2, 3, and the series
We are sorry to report that we no longer know, if we ever knew. When we were making the movies, I always thought I’d remember all those details. But film making is such a fast and intense process, it’s possible I never even thought to ask the people in the sound department how they created that cool sound.
OK ! Enough Hollywood trickery!! In the final action scene, Kevin Bacon starts running and the ‘ground’ under his feet is BOUNCING. Please go back and edit this, then re-release the movie in all major theaters across the world.
That’s funny! Yeah, nearly all the effects in the original Tremors were done “live” right on the location, so we did end up with things like bouncing dirt. Under Kevin was a big sheet of plywood covering the large hole in which the Graboid was placed during other parts of the scene. I guess today any young person with an iPhone and a movie app could digitally erase our dirt bounce. But we’ll leave it as is for posterity.
I just watched Tremors 5, and my main question is do you believe El Blanco still alive at the time of T5? They never make any references to the series or El Blanco in the movie.
We like to think El Blanco still lives in Perfection Valley. But we did not work on Tremors 5, so we can’t say what the writer or director of that movie intended.
I am assuming that Stampede has no involvement in the new Tremors series,but do you think that by contacting Blumhouse Productions (one of the Tremors series producers), you can influence them in your favor?
We already tried that. They refused to meet with us.
Can you set up a petition for fans to convince Universal to lend creative control back to Stampede?
We always appreciate these kinds thoughts. But it would not change the minds of the powers at Universal. Tremors 5 made enough money that they are already working on Tremors 6. Without us.
Would El Blanco eating an AB have had any effect on his biology?
We’re not sure where this fascination with members of the Graboid life cycle attacking each other is coming from. But of course, in the case of Tremors 3, it is our fault, since we had Jack TRICK El Blanco into eating an AB. That said, we don’t think El Blanco would be changed in any significant way, except maybe for getting indigestion. He wouldn’t end up with mangled AB/Graboid DNA or anything. He would simply digest the AB and move on to his next meal.
What is the name of the song that Tyler is listening to in his car at the beginning of the first episode?
Dang, sorry. Work on the series was so fast and furious none of us can remember what that song was. It’s even possible we never knew. Sometimes, in the rush to get the show ready for its airdate, things like that are thrown in last-minute by the editing team or music editors. Any help from fans on this one?
There was a question about the Tremors 1 blown-up Graboids’ insides looking like eggs, but you answered that they are not eggs, and that Graboids don’t lay eggs. Well, what about the eggs in Tremors 4 that Graboids hatch from?
Ah, but the eggs in Tremors 4 were laid by AssBlasters, not Graboids. You have to watch ALL the movies to learn the whole complicated life cycle. Most of it happens via metamorphosis – like when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. Graboids metamorphose into Shriekers. Shriekers make more Shriekers hermaphroditically (there are egg-like sacs inside Shriekers, but they don’t lay them). Later, Shriekers metamorphose into AssBlasters. It is only AssBlasters that lay eggs — one egg each. Those eggs, if kept warm enough, hatch into baby Graboids, and the process starts over. We just didn’t see the AssBlaster in Tremors 4. In fact, we’re not sure how long AssBlaster eggs can lay dormant. It may be a really long time.
How many graboids did Earl and Grady end up blowing up in total? And how many did Burt blow up on his own?
We don’t know. And here’s why. In Tremors 1 it was important to say exactly how many Graboids there were, so that the heroes and the audience would know when there was only one left. In Tremors 2, it didn’t matter so much, because ALL the Graboids turned into Shriekers. So we just wrote that they killed a lot, and cut in lots of explosions. We even re-used some of our Graboid explosions (using different camera angles) to make it look like they got even more.
In the beginning of the movie Val and Earl are putting up a barbed wire fence. I was wondering if the multiple attempts to hit the nail was planned or if he missed that many times on purpose.
It was an accident. Kevin just didn’t hit the nail for a few times. Director Ron Underwood thought it was a great moment that seemed very real, so he left it in the final film.
In the opening scene when Kevin Bacon is taking a whiz over the edge of the cliff, and the ending scene where they run full tilt toward the same spot, are they really at the edge of a cliff, or is it special effects?
It is a special effect — a beautiful old-school, perfectly done matte painting. We couldn’t find a cliff that looked right anywhere in the area where we were shooting. It had to look like dirt, not rock. So we finally had to bring in a world-class matte painting team, Illusion Arts.
Can we have all generations of graboid in one film? That is, can we have a fight to the death between all generations?
There seems to be a theme in the current batch of fan questions: a desire to see Graboids, Shriekers, ABs and, I guess, even Mini-graboids in some sort of all-out battle. Frankly, we don’t see why such a battle as being likely, given the rules of the Tremors world. But perhaps one of you would like to tackle it in fan fiction? Maybe you could show us how or why it might happen!
In future Tremors I was wondering if you would consider casting some living monster movie legends in Cameos? Ben Chapman, Julie Adams and Ricou Browning (the Gillman!) are still touring festivals. I think it would be really neat to place some of the classic 50s B Monster Movie actors in Tremors, which has become the modern-day successor of the classic monster film franchises.
Though we have no more involvement with Tremors I couldn’t resist at least posting this question as it is a lovely idea. At Stampede we would absolutely be open to it.
Are you aware that there is a huge market out there for Tremors franchise merchandise?
We get this a lot. It’s bittersweet, since, yes we know it and, no we do not control the franchise. We have no say in how Universal studios handles marketing and product licensing. Fans have had many great ideas for products. Here’s a couple of the more elaborate ones:
“a table centerpiece, rectangle in shape, featuring the creature shapes in order, one after the other… egg, baby graboid, adult graboid, shrieker, ass blaster & back to egg… in their habitats. For instance, an egg shell in “water” as in T4, a baby graboid on sandy “soil” as it starts to disappear, adult graboid head as it rises up from the dirt, etc.”
“an AB that really blasts fire!” (Admittedly, there are probably liability issues with that one).
When Burt drove his truck into the garage, and the captured Shrieker is carried into the office, nobody heard the incapacitated Shrieker under the truck or knew how it got there. Where the did he come from?
Here’s what we intended: Burt reports that he ran over dozens of the creatures, so one of them became lodged in the truck’s undercarriage, but not killed. It regained consciousness after he parked inside, and immediately began seeking food.