The town of Perfection, Nevada, is pretty much just that. Not a lot happens, only a dozen or so locals, the ideal life…as long as you don’t mind the graboids. Seems they like the ground under the town and the people above that populate it.
Let’s take a look at a great popcorn movie: Tremors.
Valentine and Earl (Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward) are tired of making small money as handymen in Perfection. Both dream of bigger money and decide to leave town. On the way back, they encounter Seismology major Rhonda (Finn Carter) who tells them about some of the strange readings she’s been getting. After packing, they head out, only to find the dehydrated body of town drunk Edgar sitting atop a power line. As they return to town with the body they discover Farmer Fred’s ranch decimated and a road crew soon meets the same fate.
With phone lines down and the only road out of town blocked by rockfall, the locals gather at Chang’s market where conspiracy theorist and survivalist Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) and his wife Heather (the ALWAYS incredibly hot Reba McEntire) check out a piece of the creature attached to the axle. Meanwhile, the frightening attacks continue and a plan is formed.
Val and Earl take horses to ride for help, but are soon attacked. Rhonda arrives moments after they manage to kill the monster and tells them her readings indicate at least three more, one of which arrives to chase them onto the rocks, trapping them there overnight. The next morning, they go for Rhonda’s truck and haul it back to town with Graboids in pursuit. They find no safety there and are forced onto the roofs by the remaining creatures. Sensing the vibrations from the Gummers’ house, the Graboids head for their house, but like any good survivalist couple, Gummer and Heather are armed to the teeth and take out the one who crashes through their rec room wall.
“Broke into the wrong rec room, didn’t you, you bastard!!”
They head for their roof and fire a few shots at another creature lurking just below the surface, leading to one of my favorite movie lines ever: “You didn’t get penetration even with the elephant gun.” Coming out of Reba’s mouth with that Oklahoma twang makes the line all the funnier and gives me images best left for my shrink. Anyway, they devise a plan to get them all to the safety of the mountains and with some ingenuity take out a third Graboid, but the creatures learn quickly, and the last one isn’t so easily fooled. Finally disposing of the last one, they return to the tranquility of Perfection.
What’s not to like about this movie? Lots of action, funny as hell, with cool looking monsters and the incredibly hot Reba McEntire. I just turned it off and I already feel like watching it again.
So as you watch and enjoy– I’ll make some popcorn.
“Sounds like a plan.”
