Graboid
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The Graboid (Caederus Americana) is a fictional species appearing in the Tremors series of films. It is the only creature to have appeared in all four entries, and also the 2003 TV series of the same name. They are the first stage of the life cycle of their species, followed by the Shrieker and Ass-Blaster. In the fourth movie, Tremors 4: The Legend Begins, which is a prequel taking place in 1889, thus before they got their current name, they are referred to as 'Dirt Dragons'. The name 'Graboid' was invented by shop owner Walter Chang (Victor Wong) in the first movie, who was subsequently eaten by one. El Blanco is a recurring Graboid in the TV series as it acts somewhat of a "sidekick" to Burt.
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[edit] Physiology
Graboids are subterranean monsters, superficially resembling gigantic worms or grubs, with long, serpentine bodies. When fully grown, a mature Graboid will measure up to 30 feet long (40 feet with tentacles fully extended), 6 feet across at their widest point, and weigh 10-20 tons. Graboids completely lack eyes; they don't need them, due to living underground. Their heads consist of a massive, black, armored beak, which is used to push aside the dirt whilst digging. The beak opens up like a grotesque flower; it consists of a wide upper jaw, a thinner lower jaw, and a pair of hooked mandibles on either side. Whether they possess a skeleton or not is unknown, though a faux scientific document written by the SciFi channel hypotheses they have a semi-rigid internal structure, similar to the internal shells of certain cephalopods.
Graboids have a trio of long, powerful, serpent-like tongues, which are prehensile and have a reach of at least ten feet. Normally kept retracted in the Graboid's throat, these tongues were initially mistaken for the actual creatures, causing the characters in the first Tremors film to underestimate their underground opponents. The Graboid's common name is derived from these prehensile tongues, which "grab" prey and suck it back down the Graboid's hungry gullet. At times, these tentacles appear to have minds of their own, hissing and writhing like snakes.
Graboid skin is extremely tough, thick and leathery, with a rough, pebbly texture, giving them a reptilian appearance, (though they are not reptiles). This makes them very hard to kill with anything short of saturation bombing. Graboids possess immense physical strength, able to tow along an object heavy as a pickup truck without slowing down. Encircling their bodies are short, stiff pegs or spikes, which all move in unison to push the Graboid through the dirt, similar to the hairs on an earthworm. With armored head and mobile spikes working together in unison, a Graboid can "swim" through the loose soil at high speed like a shark in the water, though they are incapable of tunneling through solid rock.
[edit] Hunting and intelligence
Graboids are ravenous carnivores, always looking for food. Indiscriminate eaters, their diet includes but is not limited to sheep, cattle, horses, burro, coyotes, and even humans. They are known to be cannibalistic as well; El Blanco consumed an Ass-Blaster in Tremors 3: Back to Perfection. Lacking eyes or a nose, they hunt by sensing seismic vibrations which are produced by sounds and movements (such as walking). Because they are unable to tell the difference between edible and inedible vibration sources they adopt a policy of 'eat first, ask questions later', simply swallowing whatever sets off their vibration sensors and regurgitating anything that does not taste good. Inedible objects can be spat out with amazing force, being propelled high into the air. Graboids are so sensitive to sound they are driven away by loud explosions, which cause them great pain.
Graboids generally chase down their prey, not relying on ambushes. They erupt from the ground and use their tentacles to ensnare prey, pulling them into their mouth (sometimes only the tentacles break the surface). The tentacles wrap around the prey, biting into its flesh like pit bulls or hooking the prey with their horn-like spikes. When the prey attempts to flee by climbing (for instance onto the roof of a house or car), Graboids will simply dig away the earth under the hiding place, undermining it until it collapses or sinks low enough to allow the Graboid to pluck off the hiding prey. When they are unable to break down the prey's hiding spot, the undaunted Graboids will continue circling it like sharks until it ceases making vibrations. Usually they wait so long the prey dies of dehydration or starvation, i.e. several days.
Graboids are highly intelligent, possessing memory and the ability to learn. For instance, in the first Tremors movie the characters successfully killed a Graboid by having it swallow homemade dynamite. The second Graboid (nicknamed "Stumpy" by Val) had apparently noticed this trap and simply regurgitated the dynamite. There are plenty of other examples, for instance when the characters escaped on a bulldozer which was too big to be toppled (weighing 30 tons) or undermined (it could drive away before the Graboids had a chance to dig away enough of the dirt under it), the creatures simply dug a trap in its path. There are several instances of Graboids traveling together, revealing a degree of socialization. They appear to act cooperatively for hunting, and may be able to communicate on some level.
[edit] Life Cycle
Graboids are hatched from eggs laid by Ass-Blasters (the final stage in the life cycle), as indicated in Tremors 3. These eggs split open diagonally. Carbon dating has shown that the eggs can lay dormant for at least 300 years, explaining why Graboid sightings are rare and random. As shown in Tremors 4, the hatching of the eggs is prompted by warmth- in Tremors 4 hatched eggs were found in a hot spring.
Baby Graboids are 4 feet (1.20 m) long and not very worm-like in appearance. They are much shorter and compact in comparison to the adults, but already have the typical set of jaws and mandibles. Like adults, they have large spikes used for digging; extra large rows of spikes sprout from the sides of their body. Being smaller than the adults, baby Graboids are able to hurl themselves out of the dirt to tackle prey, like "some kind of demonic trout!", according to Hiram Gummer. Their tentacles, not fully developed yet, don't seem to be very important at this stage.
Upon maturing, Graboids will ravenously eat anything they can find. After that, they will seek a secluded spot where they will metamorphose. Three to six Shriekers will emerge from their body where they have been growing in large sacks, killing the Graboid. Judging from the state of the 'hatched' Graboid seen in Tremors 2, the Shriekers eat from the Graboid's flesh to gain strength. Since they seem to leave quickly after hatching (and the hypothetical eating), it can be presumed that they eat while still inside the Graboid. It's very likely that 'ripe' Graboids seek secluded spots by avoiding vibrations which could indicate potential threats for the newborn Shriekers.
[edit] El Blanco
In Tremors 3 and the following TV series, an albino Graboid named El Blanco was featured. El Blanco was believed to be sterile; he was unable to produce Shriekers. The lifespan of El Blanco (and other sterile Graboids) is unknown, but the time between Tremors 3 (2001) and the TV series (2003) indicates at least two years.
While El Blanco was initially believed to have a soft spot for Graboid hunter Burt Gummer, it was later discovered that this was only because of Burt's new watch (which utilized high pitched frequencies). El Blanco has been sighted numerous times outside Burt's compound in Perfection without bothering to attack, and Gummer has also been known to tease the Graboid with a remote control truck with watches strapped to it. El Blanco was first spotted and discovered by Burt outside his compound during the incursion of 2001.
El Blanco actually saved Burt's life by eating an Ass-Blaster that was carrying his watch. In the movie, El Blanco never ate any people, though he did corner real estate agent Melvin Plug on a boulder at the end of the film. In the TV series, any villains that appeared ended up being either consumed or arrested. It also proved that even when restrained, his tentacles were long enough to capture prey at certain distances.
El Blanco is also notably one of the few Graboids that has ever survived a meeting with Burt Gummer. This is because that with El Blanco tunneling around, the Endangered Species Act protects the valley from development by Melvin Plug, who attempted to kill him but failed. El Blanco seems to be Perfection's mascot as he attracts many tourist; in addition, the population doesn't seem to mind the creature lurking their ground often as they treat it as a daily routine.
[edit] Origins
The Graboid's evolutionary origins are unknown; they share many traits with reptiles, insects, mollusks and other unrelated groups. In Tremors 3 the United States Department of the Interior calls them "desert reptilians", while an elaborate write-up on the SciFi channel's Tremors: The Series homepage (written in the style of a report by the DOI) classified them as cephalopods based on their intelligence and tentacles. In Tremors 2 a fossil Graboid spike was discovered to have been from the Precambrian, making it at least 600 million years old. Strangely, no prey large enough for Graboids to eat had evolved yet at the time; in fact there was no life on the land at all. The SciFi channel write-up explained this by saying the fossil was incorrectly dated and actually from the Devonian period. In that time, prey big enough for Graboids had evolved (amphibians).
[edit] Trivia
- While the term Graboid was certainly derived from "to grab", it also makes sense in German language, as graben means "to dig", and Grab is a "grave". As a result of the name of the film series, "Tremors", many fans would colloquially (and incorrectly) refer to the Graboid beasts as "Tremors". The result of this was that on-screen in Tremors 3: Back to Perfection, a tourist erroneously refers to one as a "Tremor" and Jack snaps that "They're called "Graboids!"".
- Early designs for the Graboids featured a fleshy, retractable membrane which covered the head. Jokingly referred to as a "foreskin" by the production crew, the membrane was removed and replaced with the hard beak present on the final design to make it appear less phallic.
