Twister is an American disaster film released in 1996 about storm chasers that was directed by Jan de Bont from a screenplay by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin. Its executive producers were Steven Spielberg, Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald and Gerald R. Molen. The movie stars actors and actresses Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt, Jami Gertz and Cary Elwes.
Plot[]
On an Oklahoma farm in 1969, young Jo, her parents, and their dog, take shelter from an F5 tornado that ultimately destroys their farm and kills Jo's father. Twenty-seven years later, Jo is a tornado-obsessed meteorologist who leads a rag-tag team of storm chasers. Jo's estranged husband, Bill Harding, an ex-storm chaser turned TV weatherman, travels to Oklahoma with his fiancée, Melissa Reeves, a therapist, to ensure that Jo signs their divorce papers. Jo had used the papers to lure Bill back and show him the realized "Dorothy", a capsule-like device containing hundreds of small weather sensors that he conceptualized. Dorothy could revolutionize tornado research and potentially provide an earlier storm-warning system, but the device must be deployed dangerously close to a tornado to work. Jo's team rushes off to chase a developing storm, failing to sign the divorce papers and forcing an intrigued Bill, with Melissa along for the ride, to follow them into the gathering storms.
Along the way, Bill encounters Jonas Miller, a rival storm chaser and former colleague with corporate funding who stole Bill's idea for a Dorothy-like device. Jonas plans to deploy his version first to receive sole credit. Enraged, Bill agrees to accompany Jo and the team for one day to successfully launch Dorothy. As the team pursues a developing rope tornado, Jo's truck runs into a ditch. Jo and Bill hide under a bridge as the tornado destroys the vehicle, a tractor, a small footbridge, and one of the four Dorothy prototypes. With more storms developing, Bill leads the team in his truck, chasing an intensifying F2 tornado in the countryside. They encounter Jonas's team just as Bill accurately predicts a sudden change in the tornado's path and diverts their course. While driving through water-filled fields, two waterspouts form, with one of them splitting into two, and violently thrash the vehicle before dissipating. Bill and Jo are unscathed, though Melissa is traumatized.
The team visits Jo's Aunt Meg in nearby Wakita to eat. While there, Bill tells Melissa about Jo's childhood trauma. Meanwhile, Meg implies to her niece that Bill and Jo still love each other. The team then scrambles to chase a developing twister. Jo and Bill intercept a violent F3 tornado with highly unpredictable movements. It knocks over powerlines that crush Dorothy II. With the truck damaged, Bill forces them to retreat, but Jo undergoes an emotional breakdown over the failure, and argues about her motivations, her past, and her father's death. Bill admits his feelings for Jo, unaware that Melissa is overhearing their entire conversation through the CB radio.
The team overnights in a small town to repair their vehicles. While there, Jo signs the divorce papers to assuage Bill's conflicted feelings. The surprise appearance of a night-time F4 wedge tornado forces the team and many other people into a garage for protection. The tornado obliterates a drive-in theater, destroys two team vehicles, and injures several people before proceeding directly toward Wakita and Aunt Meg. Before the team rush to Wakita, Melissa amicably ends her and Bill's relationship, encouraging him to reunite with Jo.
The tornado sirens provided little warning time, leaving Wakita in ruins and flattening Meg's house. The team rescues the slightly injured Meg, who urges Jo to continue her research to improve warning systems. The National Severe Storms Laboratory forecasts a potentially record-breaking tornado will form the next day. Inspired by Meg's large wind-vane sculptures, Bill and Jo add aluminum "wings" to the last two Dorothy prototype sensors, making them more aerodynamic.
True to the forecast, a massive, mile wide F5 tornado forms the next day, and the team pursues it. Bill and Jo attempt to place Dorothy III in its path; however, the device is knocked over and destroyed by an airborne tree. Meanwhile, Jonas attempts to deploy his own weather-reading device, ignoring Bill and Jo's warnings that the tornado is changing direction and headed straight at them. As a result of his negligence, Jonas's truck is swept away in the tornado's winds and thrown back to the ground, killing him and his assistant. With the last remaining Dorothy affixed to the truck bed, Bill and Jo drive directly at the tornado, then jump out, sacrificing Bill's truck to ensure Dorothy IV can properly release its probes into the wedge. The gamble is successful, as Dorothy IV's probes provide immediate scientific data, but without their truck, Jo and Bill are forced to run on foot as the tornado shifts toward them. Inside a nearby pumphouse, they strap themselves to deep pipes, getting a close view as the building rips away and the F5's core passes over them. After the tornado dissipates, the team celebrate their success and Jo and Bill reconcile.
Cast[]
- Helen Hunt as Dr. Joanne "Jo" Harding
- Alexa Vega as Young Jo Thornton
- Bill Paxton as William "Bill/The Extreme" Harding
- Jami Gertz as Dr. Melissa Reeves
- Cary Elwes as Dr. Jonas Miller
- Philip Seymour Hoffman as Dustin "Dusty" Davis
- Alan Ruck as Robert "Rabbit" Nurick
- Sean Whalen as Allan Sanders
- Jeremy Davies as Brian Laurence
- Joey Slotnick as Joey
- Todd Field as Tim "Beltzer" Lewis
- Scott Thomson as Jason "Preacher" Rowe
- Wendle Josepher as Patty Haynes
- Lois Smith as Aunt Megan "Meg" Greene
- Zach Grenier as Edward "Eddie"
- Richard Lineback as Mr. Thornton
- Rusty Schwimmer as Mrs. Thornton
- Jake Busey as Mobile Lab Technician
- Abraham Benrubi as Bubba, the Mobile Lab DrivervGary England, Jeff Lazalier, and Rick Mitchell appear as themselves on local television news reports.
Release[]
Home media[]
The film was released on VHS, DVD, and LaserDisc in December 1996 and sold 1,000 copies. Then on March 24, 1997, the film was rereleased on VHS & DVD. The DVD was the first one to be digitally mastered by THX for superior sound and picture quality and released as a double sided single disc.