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Tremors
Val McKee and Earl Bassett are in a fight for their lives when they discover that their desolate town has been infested with gigantic, man-eating creatures that live below the ground.
1990 · Directed by Ron Underwood · 96 min · Comedy · Horror · Science Fiction · Screenplay in the scene database · 13 frames
Tagline
They say there's nothing new under the sun. But under the ground…
Plot
In the isolated desert town of Perfection, Nevada, handymen Valentine "Val" McKee and Earl Bassett decide to leave for the nearby town of Bixby after growing dissatisfied with their work. Before they can depart, they discover resident Edgar Deems dead atop an electrical tower. The town doctor determines that he died of dehydration after refusing to come down. Soon afterwards, a shepherd and his flock are killed by an unseen creature. When Val and Earl find the shepherd's severed head, they suspect a serial killer is at large. Two road workers are then killed, and a rockslide blocks the only road out of town. The men return to warn the residents, only to find that the phone lines are dead as well. During another attempt to leave, a snake-like creature wraps around their truck's rear axle and is torn apart as they drive away.
Val and Earl then ride horseback toward Bixby for help. On the way, they find the doctor's station wagon buried near his camper, with the doctor and his wife missing. A giant, burrowing, worm-like creature suddenly erupts from the ground, revealing that the earlier snake-like creature was one of its tentacled tongues. With the men thrown from their horses, it pursues them until it crashes into the concrete wall of a culvert and dies. They are soon joined by Rhonda LeBeck, a graduate student studying seismic activity, who concludes that three more creatures are in the area. Stranded overnight on boulders, the three realize that the creatures hunt by sensing vibrations in the ground. Using discarded poles, they jump between rocks and eventually escape in Rhonda's truck.
After returning to Perfection, they warn the remaining residents, and the creatures—which Walter Chang, the store owner, names "Graboids"—attack again and kill Walter, forcing the townspeople onto rooftops. Elsewhere, survivalist couple Burt and Heather Gummer kill one Graboid after it breaks into their basement armory. Back in town, the two remaining Graboids undermine buildings and kill town resident Nestor when his trailer collapses. The survivors attempt to escape to the nearby mountains using a track loader towing a trailer, but the Graboids trap the vehicle in a sinkhole. Taking refuge on boulders, the survivors follow Earl's plan to lure the creatures into swallowing homemade pipe bombs. One is killed, but the last spits a bomb back, destroying all but one of the remaining explosives. Val then uses the last bomb to drive the last Graboid over a cliff, killing it. The survivors return to town and contact the authorities, and Earl encourages Val to pursue a relationship with Rhonda.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock
- Cinematography: Alexander Gruszynski
- Edited by: O. Nicholas Brown
- Music: Ernest Troost
- Production design: Ivo Cristante
- Produced by: Brent Maddock, S.S. Wilson
Cast
- Kevin Bacon as Valentine McKee
- Fred Ward as Earl Bassett
- Finn Carter as Rhonda LeBeck
- Michael Gross as Burt Gummer
- Reba McEntire as Heather Gummer
- Victor Wong as Walter Chang
- Robert Jayne as Melvin Plug
- Ariana Richards as Mindy Sterngood
- Charlotte Stewart as Nancy Sterngood
- Tony Genaro as Miguel
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: No Frills Film, Wilson-Maddock Production
- Budget: $11,000,000
- Box office: $48,572,000
- Themes: small town, nevada, old town, stranded, rural area, creature, tentacle, graboids, seismologist, binoculars
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