Twister (1996)

“The movie, of course, is preposterous. But Twister is also irresistible — absurdly exciting and entertaining — and though I didn’t believe a single thing in it…I had a great time.” — David Denby, New York Magazine

SYNOPSIS

The forecast calls for flying cows, airborne farm equipment, and some of the most exhilarating disaster-movie spectacle of the 1990s in Jan de Bont’s breathless ode to extreme weather. Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton star as Jo and Bill Harding, estranged storm chasers whose impending divorce is temporarily put on hold when a historic outbreak of tornadoes sends their ragtag research team racing across Oklahoma in pursuit of the perfect storm. Conceived from an original screenplay by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin, Twister combines Crichton’s fascination with science run spectacularly amok with the muscular visual sensibility de Bont brought to Speed. Arriving at a pivotal moment in Hollywood’s transition toward digital effects, it remains one of the great tactile spectacles of the 1990s: computer-generated tornadoes collide with practical destruction, roaring wind, torrential rain, hurtling debris, location photography, and enormous physical sets, all marshaled toward selling the audience a convincing illusion rather than showcasing the machinery behind it. The result is blockbuster filmmaking at its most elemental, transforming wind, water, landscape, and sheer physical destruction into a cinematic experience whose illusion remains remarkably convincing.