r/MovieDetails 11d ago

⏱️ Continuity In Tremors (1990), the poles that Earl, Rhonda and Val use to polevault away from the Graboids were left behind from a fence Val & Earl didn't finish

As demonstrated by their fixing of the fence in the beginning of the movie. The boys aren't the best at completing their jobs. Which is fortunate later when their laziness leaves a pile of poles next to a boulder for a quick getaway.

2.0k Upvotes

112 comments sorted by

503

u/MacGyver_1138 11d ago

I absolutely love this movie. That said, they are building the shittiest fence I've ever seen at the beginning of the movie. That's actually probably on brand for them now that I think about it though, so no demerits.

159

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

They may be "handymen" but that does not necessarily mean they are good at their jobs. The bar for quality is pretty low out in Perfection.

18

u/Missterfortune 11d ago

As a handy person, I like to tell people there isn’t much I won’t attempt to do. However, there are professionals for a reason, if I don’t feel confident I will pass it on. Handymen are great for easy cheap quick fixes, but for the most part get a professional for anything serious.

36

u/that_baddest_dude 11d ago

Post so wobbly it's like it's being held by a PA under the camera

49

u/twec21 11d ago edited 11d ago

Him missing the hammer a thousand times is one of my favorite bits

And op cut it off smh I am a fool with a short attention span

30

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

I didn't cut it off. Finish the video 😘

16

u/twec21 11d ago

QUEEN

20

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

3

u/jarious 11d ago

I just noticed your username 🤣 I love it

21

u/glizzytwister 11d ago

His little hammer tippy taps.

8

u/Deadpoolgoesboop 11d ago

Just give it a little tappy

8

u/Mindless_Toe3139 11d ago

Lil tapa-roo

6

u/SomeCountryFriedBS 11d ago

Claw hammer for posts lol

3

u/Koopslovestogame 11d ago

I think he missed about 7 of those last hammer strikes before finally hitting it lol!

3

u/tomahawkfury13 10d ago

It took Val like 7 attempts to hit that Staple at the beginning of the movie lol

2

u/TacTurtle 10d ago

Also in character as mediocre handymen that Val misses the staple for the fence several times.

128

u/zripcordz 11d ago

The end of this clip is great...can't hit the staple for his life.

14

u/ComfyInDots 11d ago

I was getting frustrated watching that.

40

u/burnyourradio 11d ago

The way Fred looks at it after Kevin walks away is so funny

7

u/Rimbosity 11d ago

"Yep, good enough."

7

u/skeptical_skeletor 11d ago

Allegedly the moment was ad-lib by Bacon so his reaction is genuine.

213

u/jayboosh 11d ago

This movie is perfect. Literally perfect

88

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

One might say it's.....

Perfection.

29

u/Xanthus179 11d ago

Just watched it for the first time a couple months ago, which is slightly ridiculous since I was born in the 80s.

It really is fantastic. Excellent mix of comedy and horror.

11

u/magseven 11d ago

Fright Night 1 and 2, Gremlins 1 and 2, Monster Squad. Hopefully you haven't missed any of these.

A newer film that is like Tremors on meth is "Feast". It has some sequels that are completely bonkers but lower quality.

8

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

Feast is the only horror movie I've seen to have the balls to graphically kill a kid and I respect it. That movie is BONKERS.

9

u/deckard1980 11d ago

This town is one big smorgasbord and we have GOT to get out!

11

u/SomeCountryFriedBS 11d ago edited 11d ago

Have you seen IV? It is too, in the worst possible ways.

12

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago edited 11d ago

You mean Tremors 4: The Legend Begins? If so, I totally agree. It's the best Tremors movie.

3

u/SomeCountryFriedBS 11d ago

savagerous bastards

5

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

Well, you're lovelier than 5th Avenue in spring.

1

u/bristlybits 11d ago

the most amazing movie. it has everything 

3

u/Cupcakes_n_Hacksaws 11d ago

I wish the store owner lived, I liked him.

4

u/caniuserealname 9d ago

Legitimately my go to example of a perfectly constructed movie. 

Doesn't necessarily mean its everyone's favourite, doesn't mean it's the best movie ever, but just on a purely academic level there's so little wasted energy. Everything you need to understand what's happening is included in the movie ahead of time, without beating you over the head with it. 

43

u/TheTresStateArea 11d ago

Checkovs fence

26

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

When in doubt, assume every detail of Tremors comes back around eventually.

10

u/notmoffat 11d ago

The opening scene is exactly the same as the final scene.  STAMPEDE

4

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

Discovering that detail was my first foray into the world of Tremors.

34

u/NikoOo1204 11d ago

I have to watch Tremors

16

u/SomeCountryFriedBS 11d ago

Again or for the first time?

21

u/NikoOo1204 11d ago

First time, I heard so much good about it.

commented here so I do not forget to watch it this weekend

21

u/SomeCountryFriedBS 11d ago

I'm so happy for you. Crank that sound and enjoy.

6

u/NikoOo1204 11d ago

Thanks!! Will make sure to watch it properly !

6

u/Yosho2k 11d ago

You are one of today's lucky 10,000.

9

u/Samwise-42 11d ago

Tremors is arguably a perfect movie. So many details set up early on pay off later. So many seemingly casual lines of dialogue inspire later plans and ideas. You're in for a treat. Most of the sequels aren't terribly great, but I enjoy the second and fourth, myself.

2

u/Local-Sandwich6864 10d ago

I'm gonna have to watch the third again. I remember enjoying it but being disappointed with the terrible CGI.

1

u/Icy_Error2709 6d ago

Watched if for the first time today...going for the 2nd one now

1

u/NikoOo1204 6d ago

Watched it this weekend with a friend.

Awesome 90s monster movie! It has no right being that good!!

6

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

You really do.

6

u/RichCorinthian 11d ago

It's a great "horror for people who don't like horror" movie. Also a good genre intro for kids who aren't averse to some swears.

3

u/BirdLawyer50 10d ago

We have two more

Repeat two more mother humpers

2

u/RichCorinthian 10d ago

I really want to see the version where they didn’t tone down the f-bombs.

3

u/trytrymyguy 11d ago

I literally had the same thought seeing this

3

u/qawsedrf12 10d ago

Available on Prime, Apple, Fandango

And probably FMHY

3

u/-sharkbot- 11d ago

If you like Tremors you would like Nope, they end up having the same kind of vibe, but instead of ground creature, it’s sky creature.

27

u/magseven 11d ago

You broke into the wrong Goddamn rec room didn't you, you bastard!

43

u/HeidelCraft 11d ago

They are building a wire fence though

16

u/Alive_Ice7937 11d ago

They could be using the wire to patch a gap in the pole fence caused by recent activities

17

u/bullwinkle8088 11d ago

Sometimes a crude gate is made in fences using two fixed poles, but the barbed wire is attached to a third pole that is typically held closed using a fixed loop of barbed wire at the bottom of the fixed pole on one side that the pole is slid into and a movable loop of regular wire which is pulled down over the top of the movable pole.

It's quick and easy to build, fitting their characters.

9

u/thorn_sphincter 11d ago

And that beer can is 30 years old

2

u/TacTurtle 10d ago

It is not uncommon to use pole fencing near gates and roads to prevent unauthorized access by cutting the barbed wire, then use cheaper barbed wire away from the gates.

Pole fencing is also used where it changes direction frequently like near gullies or ridges as barbed wire posts need bracing when they change directions (otherwise tensioning the wire tends to pull over the ends).

My family cabin just up the road near Bishop is fenced like this.

-4

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

The wire fence demonstrates that they have precedent of working on fences in the film. Else the question would be "Who built the pole fence?". If we see them working on one fence, it can be assumed the unfinished fence is also their handiwork.

14

u/thorn_sphincter 11d ago

That's not how it works
Other people can build fences

6

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

There are a total of 16 people living in the whole valley. 2 of them children, 1 a drunk, an old shepherd and a doctor and wife that had just moved there. The odds Val and Earl had a hand in the pole fence are high.

8

u/thorn_sphincter 11d ago

If the fence looked fresh, I'd grant it. But it looks so old amlnd weathered...
This could've been settlers of Perfection a hundred years ago.

The bits you call leftovers, that looks like storm damage. You call the fence unfinished, it looks like it was ruined, not unfinished. The same storm that blew that scatter around. And the beer can looks like it's 30 years old.
I like the theory, I love the trio down memory lane, but I can't agree with you. I think you're wrong. Sorry

2

u/TacTurtle 10d ago

Untreated wood in the desert bleaches and dries like that pretty quickly, like 5 years or less.

Citation: my family has a cabin up near Bishop, just up the road from where this was filmed.

1

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

I can be wrong. The point of creating the post is to address the "plot hole" that the poles came out of nowhere. Whether or not V & E were building the fence, someone was and they left their materials behind.

9

u/GrandpasSoggyGooch 11d ago edited 11d ago

Just when I think i know every detail about this movie, another cool one is found. Thanks for this! At the end clip thats a genuine reaction from Fred ward from him missing the nail all those times. He wasn't supposed to miss it but they liked his reaction so they kept it in.

3

u/GrandpasSoggyGooch 11d ago

Actually now that I've looked at your username and account I see you're a fellow super fan of the franchise and probably already know this! Nice to see another in the wild!

3

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

You may have even learnt that detail from one of my previous lives. 🤓

3

u/GrandpasSoggyGooch 11d ago

Fair play. I bend my knee! Subscribing to your yt!

9

u/ok1092 11d ago

Okay… fine, you’ve twisted my arm.. I’ll watch tremors again this weekend.

9

u/Hern_Berferd 11d ago

This movie is a masterclass in setups and payoffs. A true gem.

7

u/Gloomy-Sir-9860 11d ago

I cut the trailer for the original 'Tremors.'

3

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

The real details are allways in the comments!

7

u/Cartoonlad 11d ago

Everything in this movie is in service to something else in the movie. It's a perfect script. It's a perfect movie.

6

u/altasking 11d ago

This film’s script is fucking tight. No loose ends.

1

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

That'll happen when you write and rewrite and write something over 5 years as you shop it around Hollywood.

17

u/j_hawker27 11d ago

Sorry, I'm just not seeing what you're talking about. Could you add some more hand-pointing emojis to the clip?

4

u/SelmonTheDriver 11d ago

I remember never missing a telecast of this film as a kid.

This was one of those Hollywood Films that just had the American feel to it

4

u/Caedo14 11d ago

Dune without all the politics

4

u/web_goddess 11d ago

Sent this to my Dad, who believes he is one of the world’s foremost Tremors experts. He said:

“The detail about the fence is wrong, they were stapling barb wire to posts that were already in the ground, the ones they used to pole vault were round and really long. The pics show a fence made with the long poles they used going between posts with no barb wire.”

Perhaps a continuity error rather than a plot hole then?

3

u/typicalguy95 11d ago

One of the best movies of the 90s directed by Ron Underwood who also directed City Slickers and Heart & Souls and The Adventures of Pluto Nash and my personal favorite Mighty Joe Young

3

u/ChristopherPizza 9d ago

That's some awful hammering.

4

u/OGCelaris 11d ago

It just looks like an old poll fence that was falling apart due to disrepair and time to me.

2

u/benzotryptamine 11d ago

interesting why they would be hammering in metal wire at the top but the director forgot it in the last scene

2

u/Jmun09tx 11d ago

Damnit valentine, you never plan ahead!

2

u/marcus_autisticus 11d ago

Fun fact: I watched this movie back when I was a kid (and way too young for even comedic horror movies). For several days after seeing it, I refused to step outside the house, except on tarmac, concrete and rock. Because the Graboids can't get to you there. Still love the movie though.

2

u/CreepyFun9860 11d ago

Fucking amazing underrated movie.

2

u/After-Session 11d ago

Best film of all time!!!

2

u/kacperp 11d ago

I am dumb because for a second i thought this post is about polish people after i saw Alexander Gruszynski's name on screen

1

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

Wrong kind of poles 😆

2

u/jenbamin245 11d ago

Is that John Bernthals dad?

3

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

If I get my way, it will be.

2

u/qawsedrf12 10d ago

Excellent Chekov's Gun!

2

u/jefftickels 10d ago

When I was a kid my brother convinced me tremors were real and every now and then would come running by me when we were playing in the forest screaming "the tremors are coming, the tremors are coming."

Today I learned they're actually called graboids? My childhood was a lie!

2

u/BVits-Lover 9d ago

I've seen this movie like fifty times and I never even realized that. Damn God I love this movie. TV show was pretty fucking banger too -- don't @ me about that, I love that tv show and the fact it's only one season is a crime

2

u/SuccessPastaTime 8d ago

Was this music from the movie? It reminds me of the music from Midnight Run. Lol.

3

u/DJGrawlix 11d ago

The clip cuts off too soon. Kevin Bacon hopelessly swinging at that staple and neither of them commenting on it really set the mood for the whole film.

7

u/GraboidGirl 11d ago

Finish the whole video 😘

2

u/GloriaToo 11d ago

They're building a barbed wire fence.

1

u/AlexTheKid82 11d ago

All time favorite movie, just perfect!

0

u/JunglePygmy 10d ago

That 100 year old beer can next to the rock is definitely not their beer can.. look at the thing, that’s just old desert junk. Also, the fence at the beginning is pretty clearly not a pole-fence? They’re winding barbed wire around a square fence post…