Tremors 5: Gummer Down Under! - What Do We Know?

It's been a bit over a week since we learned that Tremors 5 is more or less a go from Universal's side. But what exactly do we know about it? Besides the fact that it seems like director Don Michael Paul is heading down to Johannesburg in preparation for the film today.

The quest begins!!!! London to Johanessburg in search of the illusive silver nitrate dream!!!!
— Don Michael Paul (@donmichaelpaul) August 11, 2014

Stampede Entertainment has always done well at answering their fans' questions. Writer/director S.S. Wilson himself keep a page filled with frequently asked questions up to date on their website. On it they've had a separate section for Tremors 5 for as long as I've visited it. Let's do a quick rundown of the most important sounding answers:

- Firsts first, it will be as stand-alone as it can be without being a complete reboot. Burt Gummer will be back as a main character, which will most likely yet again be played by Michael Gross, but no one else from Perfection is meant to appear. That was at least not the intention at the most recent point.

- The subtitle as seen on the finished script is "Gummer Down Under!" Referring to the fact that the film will take place in Australia. However, "somewhere along the line", they started to refer to it as "Thunder Down Under" at Stampede. "Thunder Down Under" is the title I've most often seen referred, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was the one that made the cut. If the film is supposed to be as stand-alone as they say, it could prove wise to not title it after one of the pre-existing characters. I also, personally, think that title tings better.

- Assblasters (the third life stage of the films' monster (Graboid->Shrieker->Assblaster)) will make some kind of appearance. In Tremors 5 we'll learn that "[Assblasters] congregate in special geological areas, each laying a single egg". Sounds like a part of the film will be Gummer figuring out why exactly Graboids and the like only show up in the climates they do. We've previously seen them in Nevada, Mexico, Argentina, New Mexico, and Arizona, and we can add Australia onto that list after Tremors 5. Not exactly a subtle connection.

The fact that it is set in Australia is probably a carry-over from Tremors 2: Aftershocks when we learned the Graboids are amongst the oldest living species in the world, predating several super-continents. We've previously only seen them in the Americas, but when we get to see them in such a biologically isolated country as Australia, we will get closer to proving how old they are. I would think this film could be a lot about learning how the creatures live, and how they came to be. A more in-depth look than previous installments. Sure, it will be packed into a fun and entertaining and action-packed story ("Burt finally got the mini-gun I always wanted him to have"), but they've always managed to sneak in some new information about the primarily mysterious creatures.

Interesting side-note, unless they decided to really mix things up in this film, it will most likely be the first feature-length film without an introduction of a new creature/life stage. Tremors introduced the Graboids, Tremors 2: Aftershocks introduced the Shriekers, and Tremors 3: Back to Perfection introduced the Assblasters. Tremors 4: The Legend Begins could be said to not introduce anything new, but they did show Graboid eggs hatch and followed the babies until they grew to full size, something that hadn't been shown previously. The "dirt dragons" as they were called in the film has since obtained an honourary life-stage title by some of the fans.

That's it. That's some of the more important stuff that we know about Tremors 5: Gummer Down Under! If You want to know more about the series that you might not already know, head over to the official FAQ. It's still updated fairly frequently, the latest update being made this month about the buzz around Tremors 5.