Living in the state of Kansas, you have to get used to the fact that you live in Tornado Alley. Unlike most alleys, this one doesn’t contain the drugged citizens of a particular town, hookers, or back alley plastic surgeons. If a twister did strike say Independence, MO, then it would be drug alley, cause they have a lot of meth houses there. Just saying. No our alley is one that mother nature decides to hammer every so often with spring tornadoes because why the fuck not. It sucks and that occasional, often times horrifying Tornado alarm sound heralds the possibility of a twister coming our way. It’s a reality we must deal with here in the Midwest, so thankfully Twister came along to give people on the coasts even more of a reason to never come here. COW!
Jo Harding (Hunt) became a storm chaser (a meteorologist who photographs and scientifically studies tornadoes in the field) after a large twister sucked her hapless daddy into oblivion when she was a girl. Bill (Paxton) was a storm chaser too, but left to become a successful weatherman. His change of profession ruined his marriage to Jo. Before separating, the Hardings invented DOROTHY, a gizmo designed to release thousands of tiny sensors when a tornado passes over it. The Hardings hope the information transmitted by the sensors will provide insight into the nature of the whirling windstorms. Backed by a large corporation, the villainous Dr. Jonas Miller (Elwes) has created a similar machine. Neither gadget has been field tested and both groups of storm chasers are anxious to find tornadoes. At the peak of the worst twister season in decades, Bill shows up at Jo’s truck with his prissy fiancee Melissa (Jami Gertz) so Jo can sign divorce papers. Suddenly a twister is spotted. With little hesitation, Bill rejoins the mad rush to reach it in time to activate DOROTHY. Jonas and his team are right behind them. Throughout the day the storms become worse and the rivalrous race becomes more intense. As they continue facing incredible dangers together Jo and Bill find renewed love while poor Melissa finds only an intense desire to get away from these storm-obsessed lunatics. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
Twister holds a special place in my heart, not because I am from the Midwest and tornadoes are fairly common, and not because Bill Paxton was in the movie, but rather the pure, raw destruction that the movie ends up presenting to the audience. This movie is a pure rush of adrenaline and excitement, which is due to the incredible effects of the movie’s tornadoes and the destruction that ensues. The best parts of this movie are the scenes with the tornadoes on the ground, churning around as a dark menace of mother nature, blowing over cars, ripping up houses and even throwing around cows for fucks sake. In fact the most memorable thing about the movie is the cow blowing by the car. If you are going to go down in history for one thing, then that is a good one to have.
I don’t think you can honestly talk about anything other than the twister in this movie. I guess you could say something about the actors and characters that they are playing, but the characters are such one-dimensional broad strokes of people who could be interesting. You got Bill Paxton who plays retired former storm chaser Bill Harding, he has come back to serve divorce papers to Helen Hunt’s character Jo Harding, who was his partner in crime in tracking down tornadoes. Bill left the wild ways of being a reckless storm chaser only to get swept up in it when their creation “Dorthy” is almost ready to fly. Jo has a sordid past as her father was killed by a tornado, almost like a Jaws-esque scenario where she must study them more to prevent the next death. They are in it for the science of it all, never really growing as characters instead of just being stuck in their archetypes. Then you get the evil, rival scientist in the form of Cary Elwes, who you know is bad cause his whole storm chasing team is dressed in black and look like corporate stooges. YAWN! I don’t care about them, I just care about the tornadoes they are chasing.
These are not your average tornadoes folks. No that would be a boring movie to watch and director Jan de Bont wants to make you truly fear these destructive entities. The tornadoes in this movie are like fucking ninjas in that they lie in waiting for the storm chasers. They appear and then disappear, luring them in the eye of storm, only to reappear again! I am not certain that that is the case with tornadoes, but damn if they didn’t get the jump on them. They are the silent, not so silent killers of mother nature. Plus Helen Hunt’s character firmly believe that mother nature took her father deliberately and is out to get her or something. I don’t remember that, but I just love watching pure destruction happening on screen. Tires, cows, houses, trees, fence posts, radio towers, another COW and more gets thrown at the hapless storm chasers.
This is a thrilling ride, one that they actually made into a ride at Universal Studios, but more to the point, this is pure excitement at its best. The digital effects were and still are impressive for the amount of detail and debris that is being thrown around. You can’t beat a movie like this in terms of enjoyment and it is firmly one of my favorite movies out there. You don’t get something like this in a long time, unless of course you consider this movie on the level as all those sy-fy made for tv movies like space tornado and sharkando. Speaking of which I got to watch that sometime.
