FAQ

Monster hunter Burt Gummer (Michael Gross), who now has his own survival series, and his obnoxious new cameraman Travis Welker (Jamie Kennedy) travel to South Africa on the invitation of Erick Van Wyk (Daniel Janks) from the South African Wildlife Ministry. It seems that an ass-blaster has been sighted, and where there are ass-blasters, there are also man-eating graboids. And in Africa, everything is bigger.

Tremors 5: Bloodlines is the fifth movie in the Tremors series, preceded by Tremors (1990) (1990), Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996) (1996), Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001) (2001), and Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004) (2004). It is actually a sequel to Tremors 3 (Tremors 4 being a prequel to them all). The story and screenplay were written by William Truesmith, M.A. Deuce, John Whelpley, and C.J. Strebor.

Graboids are the giant underground creatures introduced in Tremors, variously referred to as "worms" or "slugs". They are blind and use sound vibrations to locate their prey. At some point in their development, they morph into "shriekers" (introduced in Tremors II), so named because of the shrieking sound they make. Shriekers have legs and can move around above ground. They locate their prey by detecting heat signatures through sensors that rise out of the tops of their heads. In this second stage, they are able to reproduce hermaphroditically after eating, giving birth to more shriekers. They undergo a third metamorphosis when they start turning into flying ass-blasters, so named because their bodies are filled with flammable gas that ignites when they pass it, using the blast to give them liftoff. It is the ass-blasters that lay the eggs that hatch into baby graboids, thus starting the cycle all over again.

In Tremors II, it is established that graboids are Precambrian life forms, meaning that they have been here for about 500 million years, and Tremors 4 shows that their eggs can lay dormant in the ground until disturbed. However, Precambian lifeforms were only one-celled organisms, so the possibility remains that they may have either come to Earth from space or evolved to their present size from one-celled organisms. Whatever the case, they made their first appearance in Nevada when four graboid eggs were washed out of a mine by a warm spring, and Burt's ancestor, mine-owner Hiram Gummer, arrived from Philadelphia to investigate the problem.

Nandi (Pearl Thusi) suggests that they use the lightning from the daily afternoon sun shower to electrify the ground, thus forcing the "queen bitch" to the surface (like Amahle (Nolitha Zulu) was doing with the worms at the beginning of the film). Travis uses a motocycle to lure the queen graboid away, while Nandi places the last remaining graboid egg on a pedestal next to a tall lightning rod. All goes as planned the storm erupts, lightning strikes the rod, the ground becomes electrified, and the queen is forced to the surface where Burt, Nandi, and Baruti (Rea Rangaka) stand waiting to kill it. Two more lightning strikes succeed in killing the graboid and destroying the egg. While the villagers celebrate by cooking and eating graboid meat, Burt and Travis say goodbye to each other...until Burt reminds his son of his promise to build the Gummer brand. "You don't need fixing, Pops," Travis replies. Under his breath, Burt mumbles, "Pops!"

A mid-credits scene shows that Travis and Burt now work together in a reality show where they kill monsters around the globe.