"Twisters" discussion

[Ed Sweeney]

A recent local Pennsylvania “Twisters” event featured our own @Lou Ruh (see embedded video at the link below)

EDIT - And featuring @Ed Sweeney too! (Sorry Ed, I didn’t realize you were on ST, haven’t seen you for a while! )

Inside storm chasing as tornado chasers share real-life experiences

Storm chasers share up-close and personal experiences with tornadoes and storm chasing during meet and greet ahead of new film "Twisters" in Lehigh Valley.

www.fox29.com

No worries! I haven't posted in a while, but I still hop on to read the various threads.

 

[Andy Wehrle]

Finally saw it on Wednesday, wanted to do so before its theatrical run was over. I found it enjoyable; as others have said you really have to switch your real-life chaser brain off and just take the film for what it is. The plot and characters are a pretty blatant rehash of Twister '96, although I liked that the three main chasers' characterizations were at least somewhat more involved than "Jonas is the villain because he took corporate money and acts like kind of a toolbox, therefore he must die in a fireball after his vehicle is hurled by an F5 tornado."

The realism of the supercell/tornado-related visual effects is definitely several notches above the predecessor film, although as to be expected there are still Hollywood liberties taken with their behavior (most notably the "twins" scene, which if done better could have been identifiable as a nod to Pilger). The most egregious chasing-related fictionalization has to be, as has also been mentioned, Tyler's repeatedly driving into a tornado in a non-armored vehicle without getting obliterated by debris.

 

[Mike Dorame]

Storm chasing for about a decade has made me curious about how Hollywood portrays the hobby.

Overall a good movie, some cheesy/forced moments, but so many good scenes as well.

Things I think they got right:
1.There are science teams out there from Universities/NOAA.
2.Most chasers are a little crazy.
3.We like to customize our vehicles.
4.Chasers go off road sometimes.
5.We use radar to track storms. {U can 2; get Radarscope on yer phone so u can see your position & the warning polygon as well as reflectivity/velocity/cc. Just make sure u r on the right tilt/scan time.
6.Many chasers are enthralled/obsessed about wx, not just torns, also Lightning/Hail/Straight-line Wind.
7.We have our own lingo ex: Bear's Cage/Wedge/Ghost Train/Whale's Mouth/Setup/Main In The Rain.
8.It's dangerous, Tim S from "Storm Chasers" on Discovery was killed in the El Reno Tornado, Mike Bettis from TWC was almost killed when his truck was rolled by the same tornado system, & many other chasers have been hit by the outer circulation of tornadoes with injury/damage to their vehicles.
9.The vans are full of "Tornado Tourists" often from the UK & other nations that don't have as much severe wx, they come out to the plains for a week or 2 hoping to get a tornado.

What they got wrong: {IMHO}
1.They had tornadoes going on constantly, but chasing is 95% driving/waiting -- 5% terror.
2.RVs -- I have never seen someone chasing in an RV, it's not a good idea to bring a high profile vehicle out in high wind situations, I've seen trailers/big rigs taken down by ~70mph wind gusts.
3.Clear roads in Ok during a PDS. No they would be crowded all over and chaser convergence would be occurring. Dixie Ally chasing may alleviate this, but in okie u r in hekka TRAFFIC!
4.Having items, like the CB in the 4runner, just sitting on the dash would not work 4 chasing. Everything must be secure and screwed/bolted down, also we don't use CBs so much except for the wx radio function in conjunction w/SAT GPS in case cell service or radars are down. Chasers use Zello/Ham/Discord/maybe GMRS in a group.
5.I won't go on, they did a pretty good job at avoiding teaching people wrong ideas about tornadoes. The overpass thing can slide, since they didn't have anywhere else to go. Staying in the car would be bad too.

I saw one review on amazon say how people in OK would never need storm chasers to warn them to take cover; I have warned people on more than one chase to take cover, & u can find videos of cops telling people to take cover under warning all over you tube. The truth is a lot of folks don't bring up the SPC every week to see what the weather is doing, & many don't listen to the news, they turn off their WEA & have no way of knowing a tornado is on it's way. I've seen people jogging blissfully unaware they were close to getting killed by a storm on multiple chases. So that is accurate, some chasers even have PAs in their vehicles to tell folks they are in danger. It's always shocking to see unaware people driving into a tornado, but often times all they see is a "rain shaft" or "low lying cloud" but it's really a rain wrapped HP Tornado. I'm glad they portrayed chasers as caring, most do try to warn/help, some don't at all of course I've met those too.

 

[JamesCaruso]

Today I saw Twisters for a second time. I enjoyed it so much more this time.

Unlike the first time, I went in just to enjoy it: no cynical skepticism, no fear that it would be a ridiculous parody, no over-analysis of every bit of dialogue looking for mistakes, no cataloging of inaccuracies. I wanted to immerse myself in it and appreciate it as a “love letter to storm chasing,” as @Greg McLaughlin so eloquently called it. I’m embarrassed to say I felt a bit sentimental at lines like how chasing is “part science, part religion,” and “you don’t face your fears… you ride ‘em.” I loved the scene in which they cut back and forth between Kate and Tyler in their separate vehicles, explaining storms and mesocyclones but how we don’t know for sure what causes tornados. I saw myself in Dexter, when he’s watching the twin tornados and trying so hard to recall the technical term “Fujiwhara effect” and Lily had to remind him to “Just enjoy it!” When Kate’s mother said “The worse the weather, the happier the girl,” change the gender and that describes me - I’m happier even on a rainy or snowy day.

What could be better than a movie about something we love, that mostly honors and respects what we do? I hope anyone that only saw it once and was “meh” on it will see it again, and I hope those too cynical to even see it the first time will reconsider.

 

[John Farley]

I finally saw it (in a regular theater) last night. Late seeing it because when we were in Pagosa Springs it was in Santa Fe, then we went back to Santa Fe the day before it started in Pagosa. Glad I could still catch it in a real theater, as there was one showing last night in Santa Fe. Surprised that this much after the release, the theater was still mostly full. Liked the fast action and realistic-looking tornadoes; otherwise agree with most of what others have written, both positive and not so much.

Also, the only chaser convergence shown was in that initial scene at the gas station and one or two scenes at a hotel at night. The tailgating is not realistic either, and in the heat of the action the roads were always mysteriously free of other chasers.

These observations were striking to me, too, as I watched the movie. Never have seen a big chaser party like that in a motel parking lot, even on days I spent part of in massive chaser jams. Maybe I have been staying in the wrong motels? Or maybe it was there but I missed it because I was in my room looking at data, models, and forecast discussions to plan the next day's chase - something that was totally absent from this movie. Overall, enjoyed the movie, as long as you suspend any notion of it being anything similar to what chasing is usually like.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I haven't yet seen the movie. I've been busy with work but will have some free time hopefully next week. It appears it's no longer playing in Imax anywhere, only in regular format. For those of you who saw it on both formats, was there any appreciable difference?

 

[JamesCaruso]

I haven't yet seen the movie. I've been busy with work but will have some free time hopefully next week. It appears it's no longer playing in Imax anywhere, only in regular format. For those of you who saw it on both formats, was there any appreciable difference?

I saw it on IMAX the first time, and “regular” format the second. I don’t recall thinking it was in any way a lesser experience while watching it in regular format. In fact, if you sit closer to the screen in regular format it’s not that much different than sitting further back in an IMAX theater.

I liked the IMAX theater better mainly because they had a bar in the lobby and you could have a beer with your popcorn My family liked the regular theater better because it has reclining seats

 

[Elizabeth Andrews]

I saw it in "regular" format the first time, and in IMAX the second time. I don't recall there being a significant difference between the two formats, but both times were a thrill ride from beginning to end. When I saw the first trailer back during the Super Bowl, I got very excited. I saw the original Twister a little later in life (I was in my late teens - early 20s when I watched it in full for the first time during college, though I remember going and seeing Twister... Ride It Out at Universal Orlando when I was much younger), but it became an instant favorite alongside The Day After Tomorrow and Into the Storm. The same holds true for Twisters, and I can only equate the experience to when Top Gun: Maverick came out two years ago for the same reasons: I was already a fan of the original, and felt in my opinion that the sequel did the original justice in continuing the story within the same universe/franchise.

 

[JamesCaruso]

it became an instant favorite alongside The Day After Tomorrow and Into the Storm.

If you haven’t seen Supercell, check that out too, I think you may want to add it to your list!

I can only equate the experience to when Top Gun: Maverick came out two years ago for the same reasons: I was already a fan of the original, and felt in my opinion that the sequel did the original justice in continuing the story within the same universe/franchise.

I get the sentiment, but Top Gun: Maverick had continuity with the same characters etc. I don’t necessarily think of Twisters as being in the same universe as the original Twister. There are some nods to the original in the movie, but I saw those more as “Easter eggs” than any sort of continuity in the same universe.

 

[Elizabeth Andrews]

If you haven’t seen Supercell, check that out too, I think you may want to add it to your list!



I get the sentiment, but Top Gun: Maverick had continuity with the same characters etc. I don’t necessarily think of Twisters as being in the same universe as the original Twister. There are some nods to the original in the movie, but I saw those more as “Easter eggs” than any sort of continuity in the same universe.

I actually have Supercell on DVD but haven't had the chance to watch it yet - it's moved to the top of my watch-list for this coming weekend. I've read some of the reviews online (avoiding spoilers, of course) and think it might be a pretty good movie.

What I was going for with the comment about Top Gun: Maverick had more to do with the excitement I had felt about the fact that a sequel was being made so many years after the original film and wondering if it could 'live up to' the original film, whether it was one that continued with the same characters like Top Gun: Maverick or if it was a completely standalone film with new characters like Twisters.

 

[William Monfredo]

I thought Into the Storm was a better movie than Twister or Twisters, although I know there's dissenters.
It seemed to capture various slices of life, like a time capsule if you will, in a way that had me believing it was more true.
Pretty wild to think about how much of that 2014 film got shot in Detroit; the location crew was able to find "empty space" to do it.

 

[Jeff Duda]

Now that it has been a few months since Twisters was released, which offers time for the sample size of viewers to build up and the ratings to stabilize, I thought I'd research the ratings values of some of these storm chasing movies from the popular sites.

(All lists will be in descending order of rating as of the morning of Thursday 19 September 2024...ratings do change with time)

First, IMDB (out of 10):
Twisters (6.6)
Twister (6.5)
Into the Storm (5.8)
Night of the Twisters (5.7)
13 Minutes (4.7)
Tornado! (4.7)
Supercell (4.4)

Next, RottenTomatoes (out of 100, two scores: critics score/audience score):
Twisters (75/91)
Twister (66/58)
Supercell (50/75)
13 Minutes (27/61)
Into the Storm (21/42)
Night of the Twisters (-/67)
Tornado! (-/27)

Finally, MetaCritic (critics score out of 100/user score out of 10):
Numerous films have not been rated on this one and are not shown
Twister (68/6.9)
Twisters (65/7.5)
Into the Storm (44/5.2)
13 Minutes (40/5.8)
Supercell (not enough ratings/5.5)

It appears there is a decent consensus among these three sites that Twister and Twisters are the two "top"/best rated films and are very close to each other in total rating. There also seems to be a consensus that Supercell is not among the better films, nor is 13 Minutes. Into the Storm seems to be reliably in the middle of the rankings.

 

[JamesCaruso]

I was just reading a Wall Street Journal article about the HBO series “Industry” (which I do not watch) and how people in the investment banking world react to its inaccuracies relative to their real-world experiences. It reminded me of how many of us reacted to “Twisters.” Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“…the plot holes are the subject of debate on social-media sites including X and Reddit. Still, bankers say they love “Industry” for how it captures the dynamism of working on Wall Street, no matter the flubs. ‘As the story built out, we decided that we were actually making a drama for HBO, not a documentary for PBS,’ Konrad Kay, one of the show’s two creators and a former salesman for Morgan Stanley in London, said in an interview. The show ‘feels truthful to us in a way that’s far more interesting to us than the reality of whether it would happen or not.’”

Just goes to show that it’s just the way it is and always will be with fictional shows and movies, and that people “in the know” with real world experience in the area will always feel dissatisfied. But I think the key is the above quote that “Industry” “captures the dynamism” of working on Wall Street, as I think “Twisters” does for chasing.

 

[Jeff Duda]

Just goes to show that it’s just the way it is and always will be with fictional shows and movies, and that people “in the know” with real world experience in the area will always feel dissatisfied. But I think the key is the above quote that “Industry” “captures the dynamism” of working on Wall Street, as I think “Twisters” does for chasing.

Likewise, if only those "in the know" made the TV show or movie, it would likely not be well received by a general audience. Movie makers know how to make a show entertaining in a way the subject matter experts do not. That's what makes them professional movie makers.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I still haven't seen the movie. No reason other than my procrastination - I've only been to the theater to see a movie 3 times in the past 15 years. I understand it's out on DVD now? It seems like the impact of this film was short-lived - I haven't really seen it being discussed or referenced much anywhere in the past month or so. Does anyone else get the impression it's not going to have the enduring appeal that the original had?