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Twister
Twister theatrical poster
Directed by	Jan de Bont
Written by	Michael Crichton Anne-Marie Martin
Produced by	Ian Bryce Michael Crichton Kathleen Kennedy
Starring	Helen Hunt Bill Paxton Jami Gertz Cary Elwes Philip Seymour Hoffman Alan Ruck
Cinematography	Jack N. Green
Edited by	Michael Kahn
Music by	Van Halen Flea Mark Mancina Anthony Kiedis (uncredited) Dave Navarro (uncredited) Chad Smith (uncredited) Gioacchino Rossini Ennio Morricone
Distributed by	Warner Bros. (USA) Universal Studios (non-USA)
Release dates	May 10, 1996
Running time	113 minutes
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	US$92,000,000 (estimated)

Twister is a 1996 disaster film starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as storm chasers researching tornadoes. It was directed by Jan de Bont. The film was based upon a script by Michael Crichton and his wife, former actress Anne-Marie Martin.

In the movie, a team of "storm chasers" try to perfect their new instrument, while competing with another team.

Twister also has a famous scene of a flying cow, a scene that was the subject of many parodies. The film also became the theme of a ride at Universal Orlando Resort called Twister... Ride it Out.

According to IMDb, Twister was the first movie commercially released on DVD.

Taglines:

• The Dark Side of Nature.
• Don't Breathe. Don't Look Back.
• Go for a ride you'll never forget!
• The Beautiful yet Destructive Side to Life.

Jo Harding: The leader of her storm team. When she was five, Jo's father was killed in an F5 tornado because of a less-than-perfect warning system. Ever since then, she's dedicated her life to creating the advanced warning system. During the film she is in the process of divorcing from Bill Harding, but because she still loves him, she is hesitant to do so. Jo is dedicated and persistent in what she does.

Bill Harding: Jo's husband. He quit storm chasing to become a weatherman and has also gotten engaged to Melissa- a therapist, despite his divorce not yet finalized. Bill has a short fuse and always must have things his way.

Melissa Reeves: Bill's soft-tempered and easily frightened fiance. The storm chasing makes her uneasy around Bill.

Jonas Miller: Jo and Bill's rival chaser. Unlike Jo, Jonas has corporate sponsors and tends to chase for the publicity and money. Jonas is cocky and enjoys taunting Bill. Jonas is a scientist with 'no survival instincts' as said by Bill.

Eddie: Jonas' reluctant assistant. Eddie is more reasonable than Jonas in several ways.

Aunt Meg: Jo's aunt. She is close to everyone in Jo's team and feeds them steak and eggs when they stop by. She is either a spinster or a widow, and she lives in Wakita with her dog, Moze.

Dustin 'Dusty' Davis: A member of Jo's chase team. The most extroverted and wise-cracking of the team, Dusty is the 'frat-boy' type. He drives a mini-bus called the "Barn Burner" and listens to loud music constantly.

Robert 'Rabbit' Nurick: A member of Jo's chase team. He acts as the navigator for when the group is chasing, and he is goofy but a little smart-alecky as well.

Beltzer: A member of Jo's chase team. Beltzer is a lot like Bill in the fact that he has a short-fuse.

Haynes: A member of Jo's chase team. Haynes is the only other female on the team besides Jo. She is calm and quiet, but does have a wild side.

Preacher: A member of Jo's chase team. Preacher is the oldest member of the team. It is not certain what his role in the group is.

Laurence: A member of Jo's chase team. Laurence is a nervous and quiet guy and is in charge of photographs and video when the group chases.

Joey: A member of Jo's chase team. He handles the Doppler and machinery.

The film starts in a rural farm, as a severe thunderstorm hits. (They did not feature any downpours of rain in the beginning, just lightning.) A man is watching a TV news report about a tornado warning. Seconds later, the "freight train" like type sound approaches the farm. His wife quickly awakens their daughter, Jo, and takes off for the storm cellar as the tornado hits the family farm. (Jan De Bont and Stefen Kramer didn't actually feature a tornado but made it look like the tornado was on camera.) His daughter screams that their dog Toby (a resemblance of Toto from The Wizard of Oz) is still outside, and the man opens the cellar door just in time for the dog to get in, and closes it. However, the tornado turns out to be too powerful, and after a struggle, the mighty tornado rips the door (and the man) off into the vortex. Daylight reveals that the tornado destroyed everything it touched.

Many years after, the story revolves around two married storm chasers, Dr. Jo Harding (Hunt), now an adult, and her soon to be ex-husband Bill Harding (Paxton). As the film begins, Bill has gone into the fields of Oklahoma to find Jo and her team of storm chasers. Bill is a former weather researcher and storm chaser who has taken a job as a weather reporter and is about to marry his new girlfriend, Dr. Melissa Reeves (Jami Gertz), a Reproductive Therapist. Bill is seeking Jo’s signature for the final divorce papers.

When they meet, Bill discovers that Jo has built DOROTHY, a device that Bill invented. DOROTHY is designed to release hundreds of sensors into the center of a tornado. He also meets up with Dr. Jonas Miller (Cary Elwes), a smug fellow meteorologist and storm chaser. Miller is a savvy fund raiser but has little instinct for field work and has questionable professional scruples. When Bill discovers that Jonas has “invented” a device almost identical to DOROTHY called D.O.T. 3, Bill is enraged and vows to deploy DOROTHY before Miller can claim credit for his idea.

He joins Jo and her eccentric team of storm chasers which includes Dustin 'Dusty' Davis (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Robert 'Rabbit' Nurick (Alan Ruck). Jo's team enjoys the thrill of the chase but to Jo, it's personal. She had been the girl in the beginning of the story whose father was blown away. If successful, DOROTHY will help increase warning times and save lives.

Tensions rise between Jo and Bill as they have several close calls with dangerous tornadoes as they try to implement the new device. Through these ordeals, it becomes obvious to everyone but them that they still have strong feelings for one another.

Jo's team stops in what is said (by a news anchor after the town was hit), Canton, Oklahoma for the night. An F4 hits the town shortly while they are in a drive-in movie theater (the movie playing is The Shining). The squad doesn't have time to prepare for it so they seek refuge in a car garage near the drive-in. Melissa is too frightened by it, and decides to leave Bill, since she does not want to go through this. The powerful F4 tornado next moves on to the town of Wakita, Oklahoma, where Jo's Aunt Meg (Lois Smith) lives, injuring her and many others.

The team then attacks their goal with even more fervor, wanting to succeed to prevent more injuries and deaths. They modify the sensors with an idea inspired by the windmill sculptures that Aunt Meg had in her front yard to create a sort of wing on each sensor so the tornado will pick them up more effectively. Soon hot on the trail of another tornado, they next witness Jonas and his driver Eddie (Zach Grenier) drive right next to an F5 tornado. Jo and Bill try to warn Jonas that the tornado might shift its track and come at them, but Jonas won't listen. Sure enough, Bill's prediction proves to be true as the tornado changes course. A section of a radio tower antenna from the tornado flies right through the truck's windshield, and impales Eddie and the twister sucks the truck up. After a few moments of hovering in the air, the truck crashes back into the ground and explodes, killing both men.

Jo and Bill decide that they will have to come dangerously close to the tornado in order to successfully release the sensors. They successfully release the sensors into the tornado, but to avoid DOROTHY being blown away too early, they leave it strapped to the back of the truck to increase the weight and they jump out, leaving the truck on cruise control. The idea works, but they lose their truck in the process. Suddenly the tornado comes in their direction, and while running they take cover from the tornado in a farm pumphouse, tied to a water pipe by leather drive belts. After the tornado passes, the team begins to get the results they were hoping for, proving that DOROTHY was a success.

Twister... Ride It Out is an attraction located at Universal Studios Florida. It is based on the 1996 blockbuster film staring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. The attraction takes guests to a small mock-up of the Oklahoma town of Wakita. Video monitors show home movies of tornadoes shot, and signs carry information about the Fujita Scale.

As guests walk into the "Twister filming center", Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt talk about filming the movie. As soon as they are done, guests walk into a new room which is a square model of Aunt Meg's house after the twister. When guests walk into the kitchen, televisions are stuck into the wall, supposedly by force. Bill and Helen appear on the TV and talk about what is ahead. The moment they finish, guests walk into a scene, resembling the Drive-In scene in the movie. Suddenly, sirens go off, scenes from The Shining (which is being shown at the drive-in in the movie) appear on the screen, and then winds in the room get stronger. All of a sudden, a tornado drops from the sky, sprinklers turn on and a tree is split in half by lightning. Guests suddenly notice handlebars and grab on. Soon, the tornado wrecks the Screen, the food station, the car, and makes a thrilling effect with fire. As the storm dies, the stage drops, giving guests a final scare to remember the tornado's fury. There is a giftshop at the end named Aftermath.

This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (June 2007)

• The DOROTHY instrument in the film is loosely based on a real-life experiment that NOAA attempted in the 1980s with an instrument called the TOtable Tornado Observatory, or TOTO. It was designed to be placed in the path of an oncoming tornado where various measurements could be taken. However, TOTO was ultimately unsuccessful and it was retired in 1987.^{[citation needed]}
• A very young Alexa Vega , co-star of the Spy Kids films, plays Helen Hunt's character when she was little in the prologue. (The establishing caption at the start of the prologue reads 'JUNE 1969', and young Jo is confirmed as being '5 years old' in the closing credits.)
• Working titles for the film were Catch The Wind and Wind Devils.^{[citation needed]}

• This movie features an instrumental by Eddie Van Halen and Alex Van Halen called Humans Being and Respect the Wind. It is the only song throughout his entire career on which the elder of the two brothers, Alex, has worked on something without the band Van Halen (The song was credited to Eddie and Alex Van Halen).^{[citation needed]}
• A joint production between Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures, which is why the movies on the drive-in marquee are The Shining, a Warner Bros. release, and Psycho, a Universal release.
• The original tagline for the movie was "It Sucks", but the producers ultimately decided to go in a different direction, thinking that this tagline would provide critics with ammunition if they didn't like the movie. The tagline that was eventually agreed upon was "The Dark Side of Nature".^{[citation needed]}
• The movie received a PG-13 rating for "intense depiction of very bad weather".
• Many references were made incorrectly to the Fujita scale. For instance, the weatherman in the beginning of the movie (a flashback scene that is supposed to be to 1969 – see later errors) made reference to an F5 tornado. This is a mistake; the Fujita scale was not introduced until 1971.
• In several occasions during the movie, the storm chasers estimate a tornado's intensity while it is occurring. In reality, a tornado's intensity was only able to be measured by the damage it left behind, generally after ground and aerial surveys were conducted by the National Weather Service, which used to take weeks to complete. While meteorologists now are able to more accurately predict tornados' intensities as they are occurring, in 1996 this was not feasible. A tornado's intensity could be determined by considering its size, speed, and debris cloud, but such predictions were just ballpark guesses.
• The sound of the tornado was produced by recording a camel's moan and slowing it down.[2]
• Several actual television meteorologists from Oklahoma are featured throughout the movie. In the film's prologue, Gary England of KWTV-9 Oklahoma City can be seen on a small television in actual footage from the early 1970s. He can also be heard later in the movie reporting over the radio, and even delivering his (locally) famous closing tagline, "Stay with News 9; we'll keep you advised." Gary also served as a technical advisor on the film. Former KFOR-4 Oklahoma City (and later KJRH-2 Tulsa) meteorologist Jeff Lazalier is seen on television interviewing Cary Elwes's character, Jonas Miller, during the meal scene at Aunt Meg's. Soon after, Rick Mitchell, Chief Meteorologist at KOCO-5 Oklahoma City can also be heard giving a weather report over the radio. (On a related note: in the film's prologue the year is given as 1969, however, Gary England did not actually work as a meteorologist until 1972.)^{[citation needed]} Mike Morgan also of KFOR was also briefly seen.
• Sega Pinball released a pinball machine based on this movie. [3]
• On May 21st, 1996, a tornado destroyed a Drive-in theater in St. Catharine's, Ontario which was scheduled to show the movie "Twister". An Associated Press article titled "TORNADO DESTROYS 'TWISTER" THEATER' was published in the Boston Globe on May 22nd, 1996. Snopes.com reports that the facts of this incident were exaggerated into an urban legend that the theatre was actually playing "Twister" during the tornado. Comedian Bob Saget claims he was on his way to see the movie at this St. Catharines drive-in when the real thing hit.^[1]
• The Twister in the first destruction scene was a replica made of the one used to suck up Dorothy in the Wizard of OZ. On the Wide Screen DVD release of the film you can see her house being pulled up into the sky by the Twister.
• The movie Star Wars is referenced when a character exclaims, "That's no moon, it's a space station!" in regards to a tornado confirmation.
• While Chasing the "sister" tornado the scene is supposed to take place on a muddy land bridge. However through the window of the truck you can clearly see that they are on a highway and can even see oncoming traffic pass.
• During the chase after the confrontation between Bill and Jonas, the beginning of the guitar solo portion of the song Child in Time by Deep Purple is played as Dusty screams "The power of nature baby!".

• Official site for the film
• Twister at IMDb
• Twister Museum Wakita, Oklahoma
• Tornado Destroys 'Twister' Theater - Boston Globe/Associated Press - May 22nd, 1996