A friend pointed out a major weak spot to me
-
luiz_f_alves — 21 years ago(February 10, 2005 11:31 AM)
I agree with this explanation, I figured out myself while watching it for the first time. I noticed that the encaged creature simply wasn't in "mood" to break the bars. But he could, if he could see some food out there. And remember, he was been fed. Burt says to Grady that he was feeding him too much. So, there was no need for the creature to break out.
And about the warehouse, the same thing. They couldn't see the people out there, and they had candy inside.
I believe the script really did mean this. -
temptresstrista — 20 years ago(August 11, 2005 06:18 AM)
This is a very interesting debate, but the only explination I can agree with is that they can only sense heat, so why bite things like the cage or the walls of the warehouse thing? As Burt says in the movie, "Basically they bite anything that's warm" and Grady says "They've been acting so smart because they're so stupid?" I think that about covers it.
-
cookscourt — 20 years ago(August 26, 2005 11:57 AM)
I agree this is an interesting debate. Part of the explanation, IMHO, involves development of the Graboid creatures as the movies and the series progressed through time.
I'm willing to grant them a little lee way here, since this is a phenomenon common to most movie/tv series. Facts are never quite the same as things move forward, and many debates brew about a given series in it's nth season vs the original season or movie.
In the case of the Tremors saga, by the time the series came out, there was an ep called, "Night of the Shriekers," in which some shriekers were in similar cages, (specially made by the military and probably even stronger), and the shriekers had electronic controller chips in their collars which kept them dossile. An electrical storm fries the electronics, away goes the control, and the shriekers rip out of their cages like they were made of chewing gum and kill everyone at the camp.
You could argue that, in this case, the shriekers had been forced to be dossile for so long that they had a lot of pent up rage and hunger, (they were only fed enough to keep them functional for the experiment but not enougy to reproduce, and certainly not the ravagingly large amount they were used to devouring), and it was for this reason that they escaped so quickly.
Other eps in the series had Burt telling people how they could rip through sheet metal, etc.
My two cents at tieing continuity together from Aftershocks and the series: Remember that pretty soon after they had the shrieker in the cage and it reproduced in Aftershocks, he!! pretty much broke loose when one of many shriekers that had eaten Burt's "super food" broke a window and Earl drove it away with a hammer chisel and they all had to get out of the area fast and deal with the whole horde that had grown.
So, bottom line: The shrieker on Aftershocks wasn't caged that long, was fed a little to keep it happy, was almost about to give birth anyway, and was understandably preoccupied with that, and would have probably broken out pretty soon, (and almost certainly did so to join the others).
Kinda like the shriekers in the shed as everyone runs for the ditch with the explosion about to go off. They were pushing against the sheet metal walls, and perhaps after everyone got in the ditch, may have even started biting though the sheet metal and escaping, but to late and too close to the explosion to survive.
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! :^) -
Dutch90 — 20 years ago(October 11, 2005 10:46 AM)
As Burt says in the movie, "Basically they bite anything that's warm"
I wouldn't take that too literally; Burt's not a professional zoologist. He probably just meant that they
attack
anything that's warm, since they're attracted to body heat. As I said before, surely the Shrieker was aware of the bars' presence- it bumped into them when lunging at Burt. If it wanted to get out, it would certainly bite them.
One thing I've been thinking of is that maybe the Shrieker just couldn't get a good grip on the bars. It could try to hook its upper jaws onto them and then to twist and pull, but that wouldn't have too much effect, I think.
Help! I lost some weight and I can't find it anymore! -
kyrix — 17 years ago(December 01, 2008 01:55 PM)
Ok, here you go people.
When the Shriekers attacked the cars and radio equipment, they thought they were eating food. The natural response to food is bite it and eat it.
The cage on the other hand, was not food. The response to 'not food' is pretty much to ignore it.
Yes, these are intelligent animals, with a high learning curb, but when first presented with new situations, it takes awhile to figure things out. If they'd stayed in that room for a week or more, you can be certain that thing would've eventually ripped its way free of the cage. But as was said earlier, it wasn't in there long, and it had a ready supply of food available. There just wasn't a strong enough hunger urge to force it to figure out a way to escape confinement.
Now, if you look at all the other times Shriekers have come up with ingenius strategies to get their prey, keep in mind, these were unfed, hungry animals, who's brains were telling them "get the prey, by any means neccessary" -
-
lordrosemount — 15 years ago(May 29, 2010 02:12 AM)
I'd say the real reason why they couldn't bite through the corrugated walls was that they were the wrong shape. Think about it: with the bonnet of a truck, there are angles for it to get its jaws around, and chew; with a wall, even a corrugated one, it's basically flat, so there's nothing for its jaw to latch on to - hence the reason why the only way they were able to try and break out towards the end was by trying to ram it straight on. As for the bars of the cage, it's not a huge stretch to imagine those being a lot stronger than the outer bodywork of a motor vehicle.
-
mam13143 — 13 years ago(February 24, 2013 06:24 PM)
Actually there is no problem at all.
When they capture the shrieker remember they test its senses when they get in in the cage and determine it sees heat. Earl and the woman go on to say that is why they attacked the cars, and even the tower had all the electronic gear that gives off heat. The only other thing it goes after is food. So they did think that one out. And they say it in the movie. Check it out. -
TheSonomaDude_Returns — 10 years ago(March 19, 2016 04:50 PM)
The steel bars are not emitting heat, they're just cold steel cage bars. Shriekers only see things that produce heat, and since the steel bars are cold, they are practically invisible to them. And while the shriekers did have the ability to bite through them like a kid biting a cookie, the cage did not even register to the shrieker at all. It's really a pointless pet peeve to have.