FAQ

After wiping out a herd of shriekers in Argentina, Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) returns to his hometown of Perfection, Nevada, 11 years after the town was almost decimated by graboids, to find that, like China with its pandas and Australia with its koalas, Perfection has its graboids—at least, for the tourists. There are comic books ("Graboids", "Shriekers", and "Graboids vs Shriekers"), puppets, t-shirts, mugs, and an adventurer named Desert Jack Sawyer (Shawn Christian) who takes tourists on phony graboid safaris...until his partner Buford (Billy Rieck) gets eaten by a real graboid. The graboids are back, and Jack and Burt are forced to team up together for another round of graboid hunting. This time, however, they face a new challenge when the shriekers metamorph into flying "ass blasters".

Tremors 3: Return to Perfection is the third movie in the Tremors series, preceded by Tremors (1990) (1990) and Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996) (1996), both of which were based on a screenplay developed by American screenwriters S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, and Ron Underwood. The screenplay for Tremors 3 was written by John Whelpley. It was followed by Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004) (2004), which is actually a prequel to the first three movies, and Tremors 5: Bloodlines (2015) (2015).

Tremors 3 focuses on Burt Gummer and his return to Perfection. Still around are Nancy Sterngood (Charlotte Stewart), her daughter Mindy (Ariana Richards) (now 22 years old), cattle rancher Miquel (Tony Genaro), and obnoxious (but no longer a teenager) Melvin Plug (Bobby Jacoby), all from the first movie. Jodi Chang (Susan Chuang), the daughter of Walter Chang (Victor Wong), has taken over Chang's Market. Mentioned are (1) Earl Bassett (Fred Ward) and Val McKee (Kevin Bacon) when Jodi tells Burt that their theme park has become a success, (2) Rhonda LeBeck (Finn Carter) as the author of several books about graboids, (3) Old Fred (Michael Dan Wagner) during one of Desert Jack's safari spiels, and (4) Nestor's (Richard Marcus) trailer shows up in a junkyard, and Burt knows just where to find a bottle of moonshine he needs for a "potato gun" he is making. Other than Burt, no characters from Tremors 2 reappear.

"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 2), 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 movie, the shriekers 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 it to give them liftoff.

After wiping out what Burt, Jack, and Jodi think is the last ass blaster, they are attacked by the albino graboid that Burt calls "El Blanco." Burt wonders how El Blanco always seems to know where he is and realizes that the graboid is homing in on his ultrasonic watch. El Blanco knocks Burt out of the trailer in which they have taken refuge, and he becomes snagged on a mattress coil. While Jodi attempts to cut Burt free, Jack grabs the watch and runs away with it in an attempt to lure El Blanco away. Suddenly, another ass blaster starts heading for them. Jodi struggles frantically to cut Burt loose as Jack tosses the watch at the ass blaster. The watch hits its mark, and El Blanco rises out of the ground to eat the ass blaster. The final scenes take place sometime later in Perfection. Nancy is negotiating the sale of her captive ass blaster and ends up selling it to big cat tamers Siegfried and Roy. On his way to Bixby to take a job in a car wash, Jack asks Jodi to go for a ride with him in order to see the clouds, while Mindy jealously watches. Out in the desert, Burt is attempting to lure El Blanco with a radio-controlled toy car when Melvin drives up. El Blanco pops up to eat the toy car but, against Melvin's cries to kill it, Burt lets El Blanco go, stating, "As long as these reptilians are alive, this whole area is deemed protected," insuring that Melvin cannot put up his housing development. Burt then drives off, leaving Melvin standing on a rock, uttering curses.