Burt Gummer
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Burt Gummer is a fictional character, played by actor Michael Gross, from the Tremors film series and the short lived SciFi Channel TV program of the same name. Appearing in Tremors, Tremors 2: Aftershocks, Tremors 3: Back to Perfection, and several episodes of the TV series, Burt Gummer is a firearms enthusiast, and a paranoid survivalist. He and his former Wife Heather Gummer (played by Reba McEntire) were the first persons in the film series to directly kill a Graboid. He has an "overkill" approach to trouble and takes himself deadly seriously. Although he is only the central character in Tremors 3 and the TV series, his eccentric personality has made him a favourite among Tremors fans and the de facto star of the franchise, along with the vicious Graboids who oppose him. His ancestor, Hiram Gummer (also played by Gross), appears in Tremors 4: The Legend Begins.
[edit] Background
Although very little is known about Burt's past, it is widely hinted that he was involved in the military. In the Tremors TV Series, Burt went to Teluca in an episode to uncover a government conspiracy for the townsfolk to prove it was a Graboid problem, rather than an alien conspiracy that the government won't let them visit the "mothership", according to Rosie (The diner co-owner next to Red). Burt proceeded to go on about how he was all too familiar with cover-ups, which would lead one to believe he was involved, again, in the military. It's possible he was in a secret branch, and witnessed something he didn't like.
What is known, however, is that Burt settled in Perfection with his wife, Heather (Reba McEntire) sometime before the Tremors movie series. It was later revealed in Tremors 4 that his ancestor Hiram Gummer (again played by Gross), settled in Rejection (Perfection's previous name), and married the local town-mistress. Stampede Entertainment's official website states that Hiram and his wife left in 1902 for San Francisco after a disagreement with Nevada bureaucrats over the date of the town's founding, and never returned.
Burt has a strange affection with guns since middle-school, evidenced by him telling Desert Jack that he converted his BB gun to automatic by the eight-grade. One controversy is how he gets his weapons and ammo, despite all of his guns being legal (except a SMG he is seen to own), the bullets for the Grizzly Big Boar, and Barret .50 caliber BMG sniper-rifle are a topic that could be debated. Also how he got his hands on a minigun legally is also questionable. It's possible he gets them in illegally, but W.D. Twitchell, the Department of Interior representative after Tremors 3, has done nothing to stop Burt. It is also possible that he undertook the NFA process to purchase completely legal transferable title II weapons. Which would include any of an array of sub-machine guns or even the minigun.
Burt was at first paranoid about surviving World-War III, which was why he considered himself a survivalist. He spent all of his years preparing incase it would happen sooner or later, which hasn't happened (yet, in the Tremors Universe). After Tremors 1, Burt's focus on Graboids becomes greater as each movie goes on. After Tremors 2, Burt is very paranoid about Graboids and Shriekers, rather than the world coming to an end. His focus shifts on them, determined to survive at all costs against El Blanco.
Burt, however, is known to have the first "actual" Graboid kill by using his own hands (guns actually), instead of the Graboid killing itself by ramming into a cement wall.
[edit] Reception among Tremors fans
Burt began as a very popular character after the first Tremors movie, garnering enough popularity to be one of the only two original cast-characters to make a return in the movie, and the only character to make an appearance in every Tremors movie, as well as the TV-Series. Although, Burt himself wasn't in Tremors 4, Hiram, his grandfather, was a toned-down version of Burt, so it could be assumed among fans that it's just Burt. The similarities are there, just the look and different name separate the two.
He was known as the de-facto star of the franchise after Tremors 2, officially.
Another little favorite is his paranoia of the government, and his seriousness always being used as humor. And his hats, which are in each of his appearances. All of them are "Atlanta Hawks" hats, which changes appearances each movie and in the show.
[edit] External links
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