The Olgoï-Khorkhoï

Broke into the wrong goddamned rec room

Sep 03, 2024

An artist’s rendering of the Olgoï-Khorkhoï, commonly known as the Mongolian Death Worm — Image Credit: Pieter0024/CC BY-SA 1.0

I was in 5th grade the first time I watched the 1990 B-movie classic that is Tremors. A film that gave Kevin Bacon waking nightmares and once caused him to break down, fall to his knees, and scream to a pregnant Kyra Sedgwick, quote, “‘I can’t believe I’m doing a movie about underground worms!’”

That underground worm movie would go on to establish itself in my young brain as one of the pinnacles of cinema alongside Ghostbusters and Guyver II. My friends and I used to play “Graboids” on the playground, that’s how much of a vice grip it had on my childhood.

Flashforward 26 years. I’m living in the LA area with my wife when I find out that, not only are we less than three hours from the location where Tremors was filmed, but also a museum that contains the last remaning scale-model Graboid puppet. A pilgrimage was in order. So we loaded in the car with our friend Brandon and drove about 150 miles to Lone Pine, CA. It was everything I wanted it to be.

That night, I was reading some “deep lore” about the franchise when I stumbled across a blog post that claimed the graboid was inspired by the legend of a real life monster: Olgoï-Khorkhoï, or, the Mongolian Death Worm. How had I, of all people, never heard this before? I knew about the death worm, of course. It’s not the most famous cryptid of all time, but it’s gained enough of a reputation to show up on Nat Geo. But I’d never heard anyone make this connection before. So, with the benefit of the long Labor Day weekend, I did a deep dive in search of the truth.

The Mongolian Death Worm

The first thing to know about the Olgoï-Khorkhoï is that its common name, Mongolian Death Worm, is a Western invention. The creature’s native name roughly translates to “large intestine worm”. At least according to most of the translations I found online. When I put the phrase through Google translate it comes out to “Brain Worm”. However, I believe Olgoï-Khorkhoï is itself translated from the original Mongolian dialect, which has strong Russian influences: олгой-хорхой. So things might literally be lost in translation here.

The creature is said to inhabit the Gobi desert where, like the Graboid, it stalks its prey beneath the sands. Unlike the Graboid, it’s only about 2-5 feet in length, and variously described as red, yellow, or brown depending on which accounts you read. In addition to its size and color, the worm is said to be capable of expelling a venom that can kill a full grown person within minutes. Other accounts claim that it’s toxic to the touch and stuns its prey by unleashing a jolt of electricity like an eel.

I mean, to be fair, the Gobi desert does bear a strong resemblance to Southern California — Image Credit: 摩游乐, CC BY-SA 3.0

There don’t seem to be any first-hand accounts of the Olgoï-Khorkhoï. Or even second-hand accounts. Though, like our friend The Oklahoma Octopus from last week, the worm did get its own episode of The Lost Tapes. Every “sighting” I’ve found is a vague reference to a researcher hearing a story from a local who knew someone who’s brother had seen the creature. It’s all a lot of “friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend” statements.

So, where did the stories of the death worm come from?

The real Indiana Jones

George Lucas would never admit it, but many people have long speculated that Indiana Jones (another childhood favorite of mine) was inspired by a real scientist/globetrotting adventurer: Roy Chapman Andrews.

Andrews, a paleontologist, shares a lot in common with Dr. Jones. Both did their best work in the ‘20s and ‘30s. Both were rugged, handsome men who sported fedoras. And both had a famous fear of snakes. Andrews, however, was very real. His exploits, while not as legendary, are well respected. It was Andrews who, after uncovering fossilized shells in the Gobi desert, proved that dinosaurs hatched from eggs. It was in that same desert he learned about the Olgoï-Khorkhoï. His writings contain the first mention (at least in Western literature) to the worm.

Roy Chapman Andrews on his horse in Mongolia, sometime in the 1920s — Image Credit: Across Mongolian Plains A Naturalist's Account of China's Great Northwest

In 1919, while finalizing the details of his work permits in the country, Andrews was meeting with officials in Mongolia’s capital when he received a peculiar request. His account of the conversation is below:

“Then the Premier asked that, if it were possible, I should capture for the Mongolian government a specimen of the allergorhai-horhai. I doubt whether any of my scientific readers can identify this animal. I could, because I had heard of it often. None of those present ever had seen the creature, but they all firmly believed in its existence and described it minutely. It is shaped like a sausage about two feet long, has no head nor legs and is so poisonous that merely to touch it means instant death. It lives in the most desolate parts of the Gobi Desert, whither we were going. To the Mongols it seems to be what the dragon is to the Chinese. The Premier said that, although he had never seen it himself, he knew a man who had and had lived to tell the tale. Then a Cabinet Minister stated that "the cousin of his late wife's sister" had also seen it. I promised to produce the allergorhai-horhai if we chanced to cross its path, and explained how it could be seized by means of long steel collecting forceps; moreover, I could wear dark glasses, so that the disastrous effects of even looking at so poisonous a creature would be neutralized. The meeting adjourned with the best of feeling; for we had a common interest in capturing the allergorhai-horhai. I was especially happy because now the doors of Outer Mongolia were open to the expedition.”

Unfortunately, Andrews never found the worm. Years later, recounting his time in the Gobi, he briefly mentioned the creature again. I’m including the excerpt from his book below.

From “The new conquest of central Asia : a narrative of the explorations of the Central Asiatic expeditions in Mongolia and China, 1921-1930” — Image Credit: The Internet Archive

But the question remains, how did this story make it out of the marginalia of scientific studies and into the realm of cryptozoology?

Stranger than fiction

Enter Ivan Efremov: a geologist and science fiction writer, he explored the Gobi desert alongside other Soviet scientists in the 1940s. In his recollection of those years, The Road of Winds: Notes from Gobi, he published several accounts from locals describing the Olgoï-Khorkhoï. Efermov was struck by the creature’s descriptions, and later he also wrote a short story called Olgoï-Khorkhoï, published in his collection Stories. The plot revolves around a party of geologists who are attacked by a group of death worms.

Efermov is often considered one of the pioneers of Soviet Science Fiction, a genre that, oddly enough, influenced another popular George Lucas franchise, Star Wars. In fact, in my research I uncovered this article that claims Efermov created the inspirations for Darth Vader and C3PO. Do with that what you will.

From there, the story of the death worm was picked up by author and cryptozoology enthusiast, Ivan Mackerle (a fan of Efermov’s). Following in the footsteps of both Andrews and Efermov, he and some companions traveled to the Gobi desert in search of the Olgoï-Khorkhoï. Inspired by yet another science fiction franchise (Frank Herbert’s DUNE) they build concussive thumpers that beat the desert sands in a bid to draw the creature out. Mackerle was the first person to use the phrase “Mongolian Death Worm” when he wrote about the creature in the 90s.

A story from the Prague Post (published in 2007, just six years before his death) revealed the origins of his belief in the creature.

“I thought it was only science fiction,” Mackerle said. “But when I was in university, we had a Mongolian student in our class. I asked him, ‘Do you know what this is, the Allghoi khorkhoi?’ I was waiting for him to start laughing, to say ‘that’s nothing.’ But he leaned in, like he had a secret, and said, ‘I know it. It is a very strange creature.’”

In the same article, Mackerle admits that, in his old age, he had grown “skeptical of everything.” But still, he held out hope.

“I have had strange experiences that are hard to explain. So I’m open-minded, even if I’m not as enthusiastic after all I’ve seen,” he said.

The truth about Tremors

Mackerle’s first published article about the death worm didn’t come out until two years after the first Tremors movie hit theaters. So there’s no chance the creators were inspired by his stories. But were the creators, like Mackerle and Lucas, fans of Efremov or Andrews? I mean, it’s possible, sure. But it seems unlikely. And, in fact, the origins of the film — and its monster — are well documented. One of the writers of the original film, S.S. Wilson, explains:

“I had a job working as an editor at a navy base in the middle of the Mojave Desert. On weekends, when they weren’t shooting at the gunnery ranges, I was allowed to go hiking out there. One day when climbing over large boulders exactly like those in Tremors, off of which the people pole vault, I had a thought. “What if something was under the ground and I couldn’t get off this rock?” I wrote that thought down on a scrap of note paper and filed it away. That scrap of paper sat in a file folder for a number of years and was resurrected after Brent and I sold Short Circuit. Nancy Roberts, then our agent, told us “Now for the fun part. Get out all those old ideas”, So we did. And one of the ones she liked the best was this note that eventually became Tremors.”

But what about the actual Graboids? Wilson debunks any similarity there, too.

“From time to time fans point out similarities between the Tremors monsters and other monsters they’ve seen in the fantasy-SF universe. Such coincidences are inevitable, but we did not work from any pre-existing ideas or artwork in creating the monsters. For Tremors, the Graboids were roughly described in the script. Brent Maddock and I felt that anything moving through the ground would have to have a streamlined shape. I had a desire that the mouth be really unusual and “open like a flower.” Since earthworms move in part by bracing themselves with stiff backward-facing hairs, we added the concept of the spikes on the sides of the creatures. From those sketchy descriptions, Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis created the initial concepts which became the Graboids.”

So there you have it, straight from the Graboid’s mouth - er - mouths. Tremors didn’t take any inspiration from the Mongolian Death Worm. We can bury that rumor.

Do I believe

Before I was pretending to be Burt Gummer on the playground, I spent a lot of time worrying about the potential for real-life Graboids. In some ways, Tremors was my Jaws. As a kid in landlocked Oklahoma, I didn’t have to worry about sharks. But there sure was a lot of dirt around. So to find out, years later, that the working name for Graboids was “land sharks” feels vindicating.

As for the Olgoï-Khorkhoï? I think Andrews said it best: “Were not the belief in its existence so firm and general, I would dismiss it as a myth.” Truly a man after my own heart.

Me in absolute awe at the Tremors exhibit in Lone Pine, CA.

Have you seen Tremors? If not, what are you waiting for?! If you have, throw your favorite quotes in the comments!