Twister (1996 film)
Twister is a 1996 American epic disaster film directed by Jan de Bont from a screenplay by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin. It was produced by Crichton, Kathleen Kennedy and Ian Bryce, with Steven Spielberg, Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, and Gerald R. Molen serving as executive producers. The film stars Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz, Cary Elwes, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as a group of amateur but spirited storm chasers trying to deploy a tornado research device during a severe outbreak in Oklahoma. "Twister" was officially released in theaters on May 10, 1996. It is  notable for being the first film to be released on DVD in the United States. "Twister" grossed $495 million worldwide and became the second-highest-grossing film of 1996; it sold an estimated 54.7 million tickets in the U.S. It received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, as some praised the visual effects and sound design, but others criticized the screenplay. The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound, but lost both to "Independence Day" and "The English Patient" respectively. Plot. On a rural Oklahoma farm in 1969, young Jo Thornton and her parents  learn that an F5 tornado is fast approaching their home. They make it to their storm cellar with the family dog; however, Jo's father is killed when the tornado tears off the shelter door while he attempts in vain to hold it shut. The next morning, the entire farm is revealed to be destroyed. Twenty-seven years later, Jo is a meteorologist obsessed with tornadoes and leader of a team of storm chasers. She is on the brink of divorce from retired storm chaser-turned-weatherman Bill Harding. Bill travels to rural Oklahoma to get Jo to sign their  divorce papers, also introducing his new fiancé, reproductive therapist Dr. Melissa Reeves. Though Bill has no intention of staying, he discovers that Jo has created "Dorothy", a capsule-like device filled with weather sensors that he conceptualized but never saw realized. Dorothy would be revolutionary for tornado research, but has to be dangerously deployed in the damage path of a tornado. Jo's team rushes off to chase a developing storm, while Bill and Melissa are forced to pursue them when Jo packs the unsigned papers. While getting a damaged tire replaced at a repair shop, he encounters Jonas Miller , a rival storm chaser, who has stolen his idea for a Dorothy-like device and plans to deploy his corporate-sponsored version first to receive sole credit. Enraged, Bill agrees to give Jo one day for her team to successfully deploy Dorothy. As the team pursues a developing F1 tornado, Bill accidentally gets Jo's vehicle stuck in a ditch, eventually crashing it into a small bridge. They seek shelter under the bridge as the tornado destroys the truck, along with one of the four Dorothy prototypes. With more storms developing, Bill uses his own truck as lead vehicle and  the team pursue an intensifying F2 tornado. Once again they encounter Jonas's team, but Bill uses his instinct to accurately predict a sudden change in the tornado's path. While driving, they encounter two waterspouts, which suddenly ambush their truck and thrash it about violently before dissipating. Bill and Jo are unscathed, but Melissa is badly shaken. The team talk Jo into visiting her aunt Meg's house in the nearby town of Wakita. Over steak and eggs, Bill explains Jo's childhood story to Melissa, while Meg infers Jo is still in love with Bill and advises her  to stay with him. The team learns of a developing F3 and they scramble to pursue it. Jo and Bill intercept the tornado just before it dissipates, but it quickly backbuilds and knocks over power lines, one of which destroys another Dorothy prototype. With the pack ruined and the truck damaged, Bill forces them to retreat. Jo loses her temper and berates Bill for not understanding that she became a storm chaser because of what happened to her father. Bill tells her to move on from her traumatic past and remember that she still has Bill—not realizing that their  entire conversation is overheard by Melissa through the CB radio. That night, the crew repair their vehicles in a shop next to a drive-in screening of "The Shining", where Jo finally signs the divorce papers to assuage Bill's conflicted feelings. However, the sudden appearance of an F4 tornado forces the team to seek shelter under the garage. The tornado obliterates the theater, destroys two of the team's vehicles, and injures a team member before proceeding directly towards Wakita. The team realizes that Meg is in grave danger and scramble to rescue her. Before they leave, Melissa gently  breaks up with Bill and assures him that Jo still needs him. Wakita, having no warning of the oncoming tornado, is left unrecognizable. Meg is rescued with minor injuries, and she encourages Jo to continue with her work so that future warnings will be more effective. With a record-breaking F5 tornado forecasted by the National Severe Storms Laboratory to form the next day, Bill and Jo are inspired by Meg's wind vanes to add aluminum "wings" to the last two Dorothy prototype sensors, making them more aerodynamic. The next day, the team pursue the correctly predicted, mile-wide  F5 tornado. Their first attempt to deploy the unanchored Dorothy is thwarted by the tornado's strong winds and erratic projectiles. Meanwhile, Jonas attempts to deploy his device, ignoring Bill and Jo's warnings to stay away from the tornado. As a result, his driver Eddie is impaled by a projectile and their vehicle is picked up and then thrown to the ground where it explodes, killing them both. With the last remaining Dorothy affixed to the truck's bed, the two sacrifice Bill's truck by aiming it directly at the tornado, setting the cruise control, and jumping out . Dorothy is successfully deployed with immediate results. However, Jo and Bill are forced to outrun the tornado on foot after it shifts toward them. They hide in a nearby shed and, strapping themselves to deep pipes, they ride out the tornado—getting an incredible view of its core. After the tornado dissipates, they celebrate their success with the rest of the crew and rekindle their marriage. Cast. Three one-time Oklahoma City television meteorologists—Gary England, then-chief meteorologist at CBS-affiliated television station KWTV; Jeff Lazalier, then a weekend meteorologist at NBC-affiliated television station KFOR-TV; and Rick  Mitchell, then-chief meteorologist at ABC-affiliated television station KOCO-TV—all appear as themselves within the movie's local television news reports. The opening scene in which England appears via archival footage provided by KWTV, takes place in 1969, when England was an oceanographer for New Orleans-based A.H. Glenn and Associates; he would not be hired by KWTV until October 1972. Additionally, the weather radio operator heard toward the beginning of the movie was voiced by Andy Wallace, then-chief meteorologist at ABC-affiliated television station KSWO-TV in Lawton. Lisa Sanderson claims that Garth Brooks was offered  a role but turned it down as he didn’t want to be outshone by a tornado. Production. "Twister" was produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, with financial backing from Warner Bros. Pictures and Universal Pictures. In return, Warner Bros. was given the North American distribution rights, while Universal's joint venture distribution company United International Pictures (UIP) obtained international distribution rights. The original concept and 10-page tornado-chaser story were presented to Amblin Entertainment in 1992, written by Jeffrey Hilton under the title 'Catch the Wind'. Steven Spielberg was intrigued by the idea and presented the concept  to writer Michael Crichton. Crichton and his wife, Anne-Marie Martin, were paid a reported $2.5 million to write the screenplay, which made Twister the single most expensive screenplay ever written at that time. Spielberg himself was originally attached to direct the project, and directors such as James Cameron, John Badham, and Robert Zemeckis were also in talks to helm the film before Jan de Bont signed on to "Twister" after leaving "Godzilla" due to creative differences. The production was plagued with problems: Joss Whedon was brought in to rewrite through the early spring of 1995. When Whedon contracted  bronchitis, Steven Zaillian was brought in to work on script revisions. Whedon later returned and worked on revisions right through the start of shooting in May 1995, then left the project after he got married. Two weeks into production, Jeff Nathanson was flown to the set and worked on the script until principal photography ended. After the Oklahoma City bombing occurred on April 19, 1995, filming of "Twister" was suspended to help the crew and cast members come up with recovery efforts. Filming was to originally take place in the United Kingdom and California, but De Bont insisted the film  be shot on location in Oklahoma. Shooting commenced all over the state; several scenes, including the opening scene where the characters meet each other, as well as the first tornado chase in the Jeep pickup, were filmed in Fairfax and Ralston, Oklahoma. The scene at the automotive repair shop was filmed in Maysville and Norman. The waterspout scenes were filmed on Kaw Lake near Kaw City. The drive-in scene was filmed at a real drive-in theater in Guthrie, though some of the scene, such as Melissa's hotel room, was filmed in Stillwater near the Oklahoma State University  campus. The films played at the drive-in theater were "The Shining" and "Psycho" as part of the Night of Horrors combo. The real town of Wakita – serving as the hometown of Lois Smith's character, Meg, in the film – was used during filming, and a section of the older part of town was demolished for the scene showing the aftermath of the F4 tornado that devastates the town. Additional scenes and B-roll were filmed near Ponca City and Pauls Valley, among several other smaller farm towns across the state. However, due to changing seasons that massively transformed the  look of Oklahoma's topography, filming was moved to Iowa. The climactic scene with the F5 tornado was almost entirely shot around Eldora, Iowa, with the cornfield the characters run through located near Ames. The "twister hill" scene was shot on 130th Street near the small town of Pilot Mound. Some additional footage was shot north of Pilot Mound, near the town of Dayton. After primary filming had wrapped, additional pick-up shots and reshoots, which included the opening scene and additional footage of the drive-in tornado, took place in Bolton, Ontario and Schomberg, Ontario. Halfway through filming, both  Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt were temporarily blinded by bright electronic lamps used to make the sky behind the two actors look dark and stormy. Paxton remembers that "these things literally sunburned our eyeballs. I got back to my room, I couldn't see". To solve the problem, a Plexiglas filter was placed in front of the beams. The actors took eye drops and wore special glasses for a few days to recuperate. After filming in a particularly unsanitary ditch (for the first tornado chase scene, in which Bill and Jo are forced to shelter from an approaching F1 tornado  under a short bridge), Hunt and Paxton needed hepatitis shots. During the same sequence, Hunt repeatedly hit her head on a low wooden bridge, so exhausted from the demanding shoot that she stood up so quickly her head struck a beam. During one stunt in which Hunt opened the door of a vehicle speeding through a cornfield, she momentarily let go of the door and it struck her on the side of the head. Some sources claim she received a concussion in the incident. De Bont said, "I love Helen to death, but you know, she can be also a  little bit clumsy". She responded, "Clumsy? The guy burned my retinas, but I'm clumsy ... I thought I was a good sport. I don't know ultimately if Jan chalks me up as that or not, but one would hope so". Some crew members, feeling that De Bont was "out of control", left the production five weeks into filming. The camera crew led by Don Burgess claimed De Bont "didn't know what he wanted till he saw it. He would shoot one direction, with all the equipment behind the view of the camera, and then he'd want to  shoot in the other direction right away and we'd have to move [everything] and he'd get angry that we took too long ... and it was always everybody else's fault, never his". De Bont claims that they had to schedule at least three scenes every day because the weather changed so often, and "Don had trouble adjusting to that". When De Bont knocked over a camera assistant in a fit of rage who missed a cue, Burgess and his crew walked off the set, much to the shock of the cast. They remained in place for one more  week until Jack N. Green's crew agreed to replace them. Two days before principal filming ended, Green was injured when a hydraulic house set (used in the scene in which Jo and Bill rescue Meg and her dog, Mose, from her tornado-destroyed home in Wakita), designed to collapse on cue, was mistakenly activated with him inside it. A rigged ceiling hit him in the head and injured his back, requiring him to be hospitalized. De Bont took over as his own director of photography for the remaining shots. Because overcast skies were not always available, De Bont had  to shoot many of the film's tornado-chasing scenes in bright sunlight, requiring Industrial Light & Magic to more than double its original plan for 150 "digital sky-replacement" shots. Principal photography was originally given a deadline to allow Hunt to return to film the fourth season of her NBC sitcom "Mad About You", but when shooting ran over schedule, series creator and actor Paul Reiser agreed to delay the show's production for two-and-a-half weeks so "Twister" could finish filming. De Bont insisted on using multiple cameras, which led to the exposure of of film, compared  to the usual maximum of . The tornadoes in the film were not real, but were instead computer-animated. The flying cow was perhaps the most famous scene throughout the film. The CGI cow was originally a CGI zebra from the 1995 film "Jumanji". During the hailstorm scene after locating a particularly juicy storm cell on the radar, Beltzer says "That's no moon, it's a space station!", which is a reference to Obi-Wan Kenobi's quote from the first "Star Wars" movie, "A New Hope". Plus, the gasoline truck seen flying around the F5 tornado has the "Benthic  Petroleum" label, bearing the same name of the company from "The Abyss", James Cameron's 1989 20th Century Fox film. De Bont claims that "Twister" cost close to $70 million, of which $2–3 million went to the director. It was speculated that last-minute re-shoots in March and April 1996 (to clarify a scene about Jo as a child) and overtime requirements in post-production and at ILM, raised the budget to $90 million. The film was set to be released on May 17. Warner Bros. eventually made the decision to push forward "Twister"s release date  to May 10 in order to avoid audience cannibalization with the release of Paramount's "" two weekends later. The premiere took place at the AMC Penn Square 10, then known as General Cinema Theatres at Penn Square Mall in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma a day prior. Jan de Bont, Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt were at the mall for interviews. Prints of "Twister" came with a note from De Bont, suggesting that exhibitors play the film at a higher volume than normal for full effect. Soundtrack. "Twister" featured both a traditional orchestral film score by Mark Mancina, and a soundtrack of  rock music singles, many of which were exclusive releases for the film. Both the soundtrack and the orchestral score featured an instrumental theme song ("Respect the Wind") composed and performed for the film by Van Halen. The film's music was released on compact disc and cassette tape formats. Twister: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack. There is also some other music, such as Deep Purple's "Child in Time" (heard when the team takes the road at the beginning and the assistant maximises the volume in his truck). It's later in the scene mixed and beat synced with  William Tell Overture. The song queued up on a TV in Dusty's van is Eric Clapton's "Motherless Child". Twister: Motion Picture Score. There are some orchestrated tracks that were in the movie but were not released on the orchestral score, most notably the orchestrated intro to "Humans Being" from when Jo's team left Wakita to chase the Hailstorm Hill tornado. Other, lesser-known tracks omitted include an extended version of "Going Green" (when we first meet Jonas) and a short track from when the first tornado is initially spotted. Twister: Expanded Archival Collection. In January 2017, La -La Land Records released a limited edition remastered and expanded album containing Mark Mancina's entire score plus four additional tracks. Reception. Box office. "Twister" opened on May 10, 1996, earning $41.1 million from 2,414 total theaters during its opening weekend, and ranked in the number #1 spot at the North American box office, taking the spot off of "The Craft". Upon its release, it topped "The Birdcage" to have the biggest 1996 opening. At that time, it had the sixth largest opening weekend of any movie, behind "The Lion King", "Batman", "Batman Returns", "Jurassic Park" and "Batman Forever . Moreover, the film had the largest May opening weekend, dethroning Lethal Weapon 3" and "The Flintstones". During its second weekend, it managed to dominate "Flipper" with an additional $38.5 million. By May 21, it reached the $100 million mark. Not too long after, the number #1 spot was taken by "", putting "Twister" into second place. Like its predecessor, the film would also have the largest May opening weekend. It would go on to hold this record until 1997 when it was taken by "". As for "Twister", it would continue to stay in second place while beating out "Dragonheart . When The Rock" was released that June, the film was put into third place. It would then approach $200 million by June 19. "Twister" plunged into fifth place shortly after the releases of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "Eraser". After "Independence Day" was released in July, the film crossed over "Ghostbusters" to become the thirteenth-highest domestic grossing film of all time. It would continue to dominate the box office, especially during the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. After twelve weeks of release, the film earned $231.3 worldwide. By this point, it had become twelfth-highest domestic  grosser, surpassing "The Empire Strikes Back". During its theatrical run, "Twister" went on to earn a total of $241.7 million at the North American box office, and a worldwide total of $494.5 million. It became the second-highest-grossing film of 1996, behind "Independence Day", and was the tenth-highest-grossing film in history at the time of its release, making it Warner Bros.' most successful film release at that time. Its A-level disaster movie right before Hollywood went all-in for a few years to offer the likes of "Independence Day", "Dante's Peak", "Volcano", "Deep  Impact" and "Armageddon". In 2001, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" took "Twister"s record for becoming the highest-grossing Warner Bros. film of all time. As of 2020, "Twister" ranks at #76 among the highest-grossing North American movie releases of all-time; worldwide, it places #105 on the all-time earners list, not adjusted for inflation. Critical response. Even though "Twister" received mixed-to-positive reviews, many critics praised the jaw-dropping special effects that brought the storms to life. On Rotten Tomatoes the film had an approval rating of 61% “Fresh” based on 66 reviews, and an  average rating of 6/10. The site's critics consensus read: "A high-concept blockbuster that emphasizes special effects over three-dimensional characters, "Twister"s visceral thrills are often offset by the film's generic plot." On Metacritic the film had a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "You want loud, dumb, skillful, escapist entertainment? "Twister" works. You want  to think? Think twice about seeing it". In her review for "The New York Times", Janet Maslin wrote, "Somehow "Twister" stays as uptempo and exuberant as a roller-coaster ride, neatly avoiding the idea of real danger". "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a "B" rating and Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote, "Yet the images that linger longest in my memory are those of windswept livestock. And that, in a teacup, sums up everything that's right, and wrong, about this appealingly noisy but ultimately flyaway first blockbuster of summer". In his review for the "Los Angeles Times", Kenneth Turan wrote, "But the  ringmaster of this circus, the man without whom nothing would be possible, is director De Bont, who now must be considered Hollywood's top action specialist. An expert in making audiences squirm and twist, at making us feel the rush of experience right along with the actors, De Bont choreographs action and suspense so beautifully he makes it seem like a snap." "Time" magazine's Richard Schickel wrote, "when action is never shown to have deadly or pitiable consequences, it tends toward abstraction. Pretty soon you're not tornado watching, you're special-effects watching". In his review for the  Washington Post Desson Howe wrote, "it's a triumph of technology over storytelling and the actors' craft. Characters exist merely to tell a couple of jokes, cower in fear of downdrafts and otherwise kill time between tornadoes". Release. Home media. "Twister" was released on LaserDisc and VHS by Warner Home Video on October 1, 1996. The VHS release contains a "Space Jam" trailer, as well as a "Looney Tunes" cartoon with Bugs Bunny and Taz. As soon as the film finishes, there is a message by Federal Emergency Management Agency with James Lee Witt. By November 1996, it topped the  number #1 spot in "Billboard"s top sales. However, that spot was soon taken by "Toy Story", which put "Twister" into third place. The film was released on DVD on March 26, 1997. It is considered to be the first home release of a movie to use this now widely-used optical media technology. This is also one of the first THX certified DVD releases. The viewer is given the option of viewing the film in widescreen on one side of the disc and pan and scan full screen on the other side. The DVD release occurred eleven days before "Twister  made its pay-cable debut on HBO on April 5, deviating from the then-standard film release window" that normally placed a four- to six-month gap between a movie's initial home video release—which typically overlapped with its pay-per-view availability period—and premium cable distribution window. "Twister" was then released on VHS by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment through CIC Video in the UK on March 10, 1997 and July 14, 1997. The film was released on DVD once again on June 6, 2000. Eight years later on May 6, 2008, a two-disc special edition DVD  and Blu-ray were released. An HD-DVD was then released on May 27, becoming one of the last HD-DVDs to be ever released. Legacy. On May 24, 1996, a tornado destroyed Screen No. 3 at the Can-View Drive-In, a drive-in theater in Thorold, Ontario, which was scheduled to show "Twister" later that evening, in a real-life parallel to a scene in the film in which a tornado destroys a drive-in during a showing of the film "The Shining". The facts of this incident were exaggerated into an urban legend that the theater was  actually playing "Twister" during the tornado. On May 10, 2010, a tornado struck Fairfax, Oklahoma, destroying the farmhouse where numerous scenes in "Twister" were shot. J. Berry Harrison, the owner of the home and a former Oklahoma state senator, commented that the tornado appeared eerily similar to the fictitious one in the film. He had lived in the home since 1978. Bill Paxton would later narrate storm chaser Sean Casey's 2011 documentary "Tornado Alley". After the death of Paxton in February 2017, hundreds of storm chasers and users of the Spotter Network used their markers to spell out his  initials across the states of Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma in tribute to the actor. A "Twister" museum located in Wakita, Oklahoma, where much of the particularly destructive scenes of the movie were shot, contains various memorabilia and artifacts related to the film. On May 15, 2021, a 25th anniversary party was held in Wakita. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, visitors were required to wear facial coverings in the museum and other indoor places as a safety precaution. Many events included a car show, a "look like a star" contest and several kids games. The lunch break included walking tacos at  the Citizens by Community Health Center, sloppy joe sandwiches at Wakita Foodland and hamburgers at the Gazebo. There were several other snacks, such as beef jerky, cinnamon rolls, ice cream, popcorn and snow cones. A week later, the Rodeo Cinema in Oklahoma City played "Twister" on May 22 during the evening. In other media. Pinball. On April 3, 1996, Sega Pinball released Twister, a pinball machine themed to the same name of the film. It features modes including Canister Multiball, Chase Multiball and more. Theme park attraction. The film was used as the basis for the attraction "Twister...Ride It  Out" at Universal Studios Florida, which features filmed introductions by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt. The attraction opened on May 4, 1998 and closed on November 1, 2015 to make way for "Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon". In the windows of the New York facade lies a tribute to Twister...Ride it Out with references to the film and Bill Paxton. Book tie-in. The original screenplay, written by Crichton and then-wife Anne Marie Martin, was released as a mass-market paperback in conjunction with the film. Video games. The story of Bill's drunken encounter with  a tornado is referenced in "" downloadable content when asking the bartender of the Retching Netch in Raven Rock, Geldis Sadri, about how the inn got its name. He explains about a Dark Elf (Dunmer) that was one of his regular customers and very drunk, and naked, offering his drink to a , before tossing the bottle at the . The apparently caught and swallowed some of the alcohol as the bottle never hit the ground, but this caused the to become intoxicated itself, floating crookedly, and this resulted in it throwing up due to the drink making it very sick, releasing a  very foul stench from its maw. Reboot and potential sequel. In June 2020, a reboot was announced to be in development from the original film's international distributor Universal Pictures, with Joseph Kosinski in early negotiations to serve as director. Frank Marshall and Sara Scott will serve as producers on the project. Around the time when the reboot for the film was announced, Helen Hunt pitched the idea for the sequel. She wanted to make a film with a multiracial cast for storm chasers in acting. The studio rejected Hunt's plans for writing and directing it, due to her  character being killed off for the sequel.