History Main / SandWorm

* "[[SpongebobSquarepants Alaskan BULL woooooorm!]]"

* ''{{Beetlejuice}}'' was taken out by one of another iconic Sandworm species. These had white-and-black stripes and one mouth inside another- compare the xenomorphs of the Aliens movies.

* The grossly CG sand worms from the sci fi channel movie Sand Serpents.

* Gears of War 2 features the Riftworm, a gigantic worm that the Locust use to sink cities, awakened by the detonation of the lightmass bomb in the first game.

** Twilight Princess sizes down the Sand Worms to a more reasonable size. The Wind Waker has both the aforementioned gargantuan Molgera, and its smaller offspring that it likes to summon during the fight.

* ''SonicTheHedgehog'' series has some robotic ones in ''Sonic 3 & Knuckles'' located in Sandopolis zone. Alien worms appeared in ''ShadowTheHedgehog''. More organic and fiery ones can be found in ''SonicTheHedgehog2006'' although the latter two seem to prefer any surface, not just sand.

Scaled-up versions of real-life worms, these beasties tunnel through sand and dirt [[SandIsWater as though it were water]], being halted only by rocky terrain or artificial ground, though often enough they can force their way through that as well. They generally have no eyes or ears, rather detecting vibrations through their bodies. Beyond these basic traits, even the most incidental similarity to real creatures ceases. Sandworms are big, typically ranging between man-sized and resembling something like a moving mountain. They seem to be carnivorous, since they tend to go out of their way to attack and eat anything trudging upon the surface, either leaping without warning to swallow the prey whole or approaching with a [[{{Wormsign}} telltale furrow of disturbed earth]], depending on whether the writers want to give the target a chance to run away. Arguably, they could just be really, really territorial. Aside from the worm-like shape, these monsters are also recognizable by their mouths: they're always either completely round or trifurcated, lined with rows of teeth, and with long tentacular tongues, the better to grab you by the feet and reel you in.

* Subverted in the third book of John Varley's ''Gaea'' trilogy. Yes, there is a giant sand worm; Gaea herself has created and placed it, no doubt directly inspired by Earth fiction. It's big, it's probably hungry (it has ''turned'' the original landscape into the desert it is now)...and it moves so slowly that it's basically just a living terrain feature. Some of the passing humans cut graffiti into its skin.

** With the release of the Cataclysm expansion, WoW now has sandworms that are made of sand worms that are made of [[Stargate]]s. Coolest monsters ever, in this troper's opinion.

* ''SonicTheHedgehog'' series has some robotic ones in ''Sonic 3 & Knuckles'' located in Sandopolis zone. More organic and fiery ones can be found in ''SonicTheHedgehog2006'' although they seem to prefer any surface, not just sand.

* The planet Belenjeel from ''[[DarkForcesSaga Jedi Academy]]'' is loaded with them. There's a reason why you only have to do 4 of 5 missions in each act.

* The Letter of Prester John describes a sea of sand containing "divers kinds of fish", [[OlderThanTheyThink making this...]]
** [[SandIsWater Not really.]]

* There is alledgedly a creatutre called the mongolian death worm that is 1.5m long, can spit sulphuric acid, strong enough to rapidly corrode metal and even electocute other animals to death. No-one has ever caught or documented a sighting of one, so this is probably another cryptozoological being, but they may exist somewhere in the forbidden zones along the Mogolian-Chinese border.

* ''[[StarWars The Empire Strikes Back]]'', where the Millennium Falcon lands ''inside'' one and barely escapes.
** Don't forget the Sarlacc, which resembles a sandworm at least in which parts of it we are able to see.
*** The Sarlacc is more of an [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever enormous antlion]] InSpace.

* According to WordOfGod, the Ohmus from ''NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'' are partly inspired by '''Dune'''s Sandworms, though they don't really burrow and look more like pillbugs. The name is actually a dual pun on both "King Bug" (''Oh-Mushi'') and the way Sandworm is pronounced in Japanese (''Sando Uohmu'').

* There is alledgedly a creatutre called the mongolian death worm that is 1.5m long, can spit sulphuric acid, strong enough to rapidly corrode metal and even electocute other animals to death.

* ''{{Overlord}}'' features giant indestructible sand worms in the later levels.
** Objection! They aren't indestructible (two bombs in the mouth and they're done), though giant and sand. And wormy.