Tremors | Tremors 2: Aftershocks | Tremors 3: Back to Perfection | Tremors 4: The Legend Begins | Tremors 5: Bloodlines | Tremors 6: A Cold Day in Hell
open/close all folders
Grady Hoover
Played By: Chris Gartin
A fanboy of Val and Earl for their exploits in discovering and then killing the Graboids, he somehow knows an important member of a Mexican oil company. When Graboids begin stalking the oilfields the company draws from, he suggests that they approach Val and Earl to kill them. Whilst Val turns them down flat, he is able to convince Earl to take the job, becoming his temporary assistant. He has plans of using his share of the wealth to start a Graboid themepark, "Monster World", and is implied to do so with Earl as his partner after the film is over.
- Ascended Fanboy: Of Val, Earl and Graboids. He's just thrilled to get to actually hunt Graboids alongside Earl and Burt themselves.
- Fun Personified: Loves the idea of a Graboid themepark and thinks others will like it too.
- Hero-Worshipper: Big fan of Val and Earl's Graboid fighting exploits.
- Keet: Tended to get a little overly excited by just about anything Graboid related. Which he actually retains throughout the entire film.
- The Load: He tries really hard, but he's not got Val and Earl's ability to think on their feet, or Burt's Combat Pragmatist tendencies, so ends up being this most of the time. But, in his defense, he doesn't overly screw up, or cost anyone their life.
- Perpetual Smiler: Mostly in the presence of Earl, or a Graboid.
- Put on a Bus: Said in the third movie to have opened a theme park with Earl.
- Too Dumb to Live: Narrowly averted.
Kate Reilly
Played By: Helen Shaver
A paleontologist in the employ of the Mexican oil company that ends up hiring Earl, Grady and Burt to deal with their Graboid infestation. She and Earl hook up after the infestation is dealt with.
- Covert Pervert: Takes a look at Earl's butt.
- I Was Quite the Looker: Not that there's anything wrong with how she looks when she meets Earl, but she was October '74.
- Lovable Nerd: Gets totally exited when she learns just how old the Graboids species must be.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Originally took the oil companies' offer because she was intrigued by the Graboids.
Julio
Played By: Marco Hernandez
Kate's assistant.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Julio is torn apart and eaten by Shriekers over nearly half a minute.
- Innocently Insensitive: He talks to Earl about how a friend of his invested in the graboid video game and how much money Burt must have made from it, unaware that he was screwed out of the royalties.
- Nice Guy: Julio is polite to Earl and Grady, concerned for their safety, and willing to venture into the hills to look for the others after they disappear under frightening circumstances.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: He is a bespectacled geologist.
- Mauve Shirt: He survives for a while, but only because the shriekers take a while to find the refinery. When they do he dies fast, and without having been too developed.
Carlos Ortega
- Played By: Marcelo Tubert
- Benevolent Boss: When Graboids start eating his workers, Ortega shuts down the oil field until they can be dealt with and hires the most experienced person he can find to handle the job. While this could be mere Enlightened Self-Interest, he also has a friendly conversation with the lowest-ranking employee of the skeleton crew watching the refinery. Based on a line from the third movie, he also pays Earl, Grady, and Burt their promised wages even though they inadvertently destroy the refinery in the process.
- Big Good: Ortega serves this role for the second movie, as he's the one recruiting the Graboid hunters and supplying them with the appropriate weaponry.
- Put on a Bus: Ortega departs the refinery after setting Earl and Grady up there, before the hunting commences, and thus avoids the ensuing danger and hijinks.
Pedro
- Played By: Jose Ramon Rosario
- Bilingual Bonus: Pedro only speaks un-subtitled Spanish, and the other characters don't translate what he says.
- Nice Guy: Pedro is constantly smiling encouragingly and is quick to make himself helpful during his limited screen time.
- Sacrificial Lamb: He contributes almost nothing to the overall plot before being killed within five minutes of the Shriekers showing up. His death does however help reiterate the seriousness of a new, unknown threat prowling around.
Shriekers
The second stage of the Graboid life cycle. More fragile than the Graboids that spawn them, but also far more prolific in reproducing, thanks to their asexual means of multiplying.
- Death by Childbirth: The first shriekers in a given swarm gestate inside the bodies of any Graboid that isn't killed by something else before a set period of time. The first-generation shriekers then eat their way out of the Graboid parent. Averted with the shriekers' own mode of reproduction.
- Explosive Breeder: Shriekers are the part of the life cycle that actually reproduce in anything approaching conventional terms. They gorge themselves on food and vomit up new Shriekers whenever they manage to eat enough, meaning a single Shrieker can spawn dozens, maybe hundreds, if it can get enough food.
- Extreme Omnivore: They'll eat anything that radiates heat, from people to car engines to radio towers.
- Glass Cannon: They can chew through sheet metal like paper, but are much squisher than Graboids.
- It Can Think: Zig-Zagged; they don't seem nearly as smart as Graboids, even appearing to lack object persistence (if they stop seeing something, they immediately lose track of it and forget about it). However, they can learn from their mistakes (after plenty of casualties) and figure out ways to trap their prey. They initially appear much smarter than they look because their insane persistence to attack anything that they perceive as food means that they target things like generators, vehicles and communications equipment (because they give off heat), which makes survival increasingly harder. Later, they prove capable of forming a living wall to get to Earl, Grady and Kate on the cooling tower, implying they have some problem-solving ability.Grady: You mean they've been acting so smart because they're so stupid?
- Instant Kill: Unlike graboids, shriekers are easy to kill with one gunshot. Although, to be fair, said one shot comes mostly from Burt's provided, high caliber "Elephant" guns.
- Metamorphosis: Become ass-blasters after a few days.
- Sense-Impaired Monster: They're totally blind and deaf, but compensate with heat-sensing organs on their heads that allow them to detect the body heat of their prey. They scream to communicate with one another, even though they can't hear anything, because the screaming gives off heat signals. This does lead them to accidentally attack inedible objects like a hot car engine or a power box just because they give off heat. The shriekers also have long tongues which they use to taste objects they think might be food, but don't give off heat.
- Species Loyalty: Unlike the other life cycle stages, Shriekers are explicitly pack animals, which compensates for how easy it is to kill one. When they scream in the presence of prey, they're emitting heat designed to alert others in the pack to potential food. After losing track of the remaining protagonists in the second movie for a long while, they refrain from eating each other and simply continue hunting.
- Super-Scream: Shriekers get their name for their tendency to make loud shrill cries. In the 7th film Shrieker Island they become genetically altered and develop a shriek so powerful it incapacitates those that hear it.
- Too Powerful to Live: Although the government has Endangered Species concerns about Graboids, they never hesitate to have Burt, Tyler, or someone else go kill Shriekers. According to All There in the Manual, Shriekers are explicitly denied any and all protections, due to their breeding capabilities.
- Zerg Rush: They use their huge numbers, courtesy of their rapid reproduction system, to overwhelm their victims.
