You know Dean has a point. Jonas got the job done.
I certainly see the point of Dean and others that Jonas was demonized in the movie to an almost comical level, and that Jonas much more closely resembles modern severe storms research (and contemporaneously, the first VORTEX project). However, I saw the competition between the rag-tag Bill/Jo team with Jonas as an illustration that science and discovery can sometimes be advanced by great brain power and determination as much as by pouring money into a venture. Both approaches have valid points. Both approaches have fallibilities, too.
However, as the story went, Jonas
did not get the job done. His story draws parallels to the late Tim Samaras (except Tim was more of the rag-tag style chaser). Jonas never deployed DOT3 in a tornado and ultimately died unsafely pursuing a particularly violent tornado at much too close of range. Bill & Jo had their close calls, too, but they did manage to get an instrument pack into a tornado and got data back.
I think a modern tornado chasing story should include 1) the politics behind getting grant money to chase (Congressional lock-up leaving scraps for researchers to get money, especially in a future scenario where anthropogenic climate change happens to be causing a decadal surge in violent tornado outbreaks, especially if they occur along the Atlantic seaboard so that DC sees some personal events happening close to home); 2) interference in actual chases from hordes of regular chasers, locals, and storm chasing tourists clogging roads; 3) personal human toll from bad events (akin to Aunt Meg being hit in Wakita, except with a more brutal outcome); 4) less emphasis on the character vs. character struggle, more emphasis on character vs. nature.
A good story needs to have a good conflict and satisfying resolution. I learned about several types in school, but according to this website article, a few new types have arisen since then:
Types of Conflict in Literature | External & Internal Conflict
A similar silver screen storyline trend can be found by comparing the sometimes-annoyingly campy moments from many of the Brosnan Bond movies also of the 90s (minus Goldeneye...that was a great movie IMO) and the much darker and grittier Bond movies with Daniel Craig since 2006.
