How Realistic Is the Film ‘Twisters’? – Comparing 7 Scenes from the Movie with Real Tornado Footage

The original “Twister” movie was created using some innovative technology for its time. In 2024, a continuation of sorts, “Twisters,” was released with the same thrilling storyline and action. But, technology allowed its creators to be more innovative and realistic. Before tackling the new movie, let’s look back at the original film.

The first “Twister” movie came out in 1996 and was about two married storm chasers on the brink of divorce. Things became challenging for the pair when they had to work together. They found themselves needing to create an advanced weather alert system.

Creating it puts them in danger as they face extremely violent tornadoes. Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton play the estranged couple, Dr. Jo Harding and Bill Harding. In a July 2024 interview, the movie’s director, Jan de Bont, gave insight into how the film was made.

What Did ‘Twister’s’ Director Say about the Movie?

According to Oklahoma’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) website, researchers created the TOtable Tornado Observatory (TOTO). The device could collect weather data from inside a tornado. TOTO was named after Dorothy’s dog from “The Wizard of Oz.”

In the 1970s and 1980s, groups from the University of Oklahoma and the NSSL tried launching TOTO. But they failed to get a direct hit, leading to the device’s retirement in 1987. Luckily, it inspired “Twister’s” screenwriters to create a story around a similar device.

The movie’s director was asked how concerned he was about “Twister” being scientifically correct, especially since he wanted to “create a fun, escapist summer movie.” The 80-year-old de Bont started by confirming that the film was meant to be fun.

But, knowing viewers had seen what deadly tornadoes look like on television, he felt the need to make them look real. The director thought doing it another way would have distracted “from the reality of the terror that they create—if you don’t make them real, then you don’t believe the rest.”

To make things realistic, he and his team worked with the NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) and real-life storm chasers. They got many photographs and movies from different storm events.

The star ended up using a lot of the material he received. He figured, “If they happened for real, then they would be good for the movie.” The director went all out by having scientists on the set throughout filming.

They had two weather forecasters and the same number of storm chasers on set for the crew’s safety. De Bont recalled how nice it was to talk to the experts who became part of the crew. They knew the correct language to use when talking about storm chasing and the weather.

The star said he didn’t want to invent things but revealed that the flying cow in the movie was “halfway invented.” He explained how he saw a photo of a cow in a tree, thought it was fake, and then was told it was real. The director then insisted that it had to be in the film.

De Bont’s memorable scene came up when he wondered how great it would be to see a cow flying through the air. But, he felt the animal flying was meaningless, so he decided it would whiz past while seen from a car.

He believed that it would be funnier because people could react to it as having it be an abstract shot wouldn’t have been funny. The star explained that he didn’t want people feeling sorry for the cow, but for them to find it funny.

Having grown up in a place that didn’t have tornadoes, he finally saw them during the making of “Twister.” He recalled seeing some tornadoes in pre-production and described them as “scary.” The natural disasters were scarier than what the director thought they would be.

He said he always thought they looked pretty while they “move[d] through the landscape…” but upon closer inspection, they weren’t as beautiful. Instead, all he saw was the destruction they caused.

In July 2024, Warner Bros. Entertainment released a video of de Bont looking at tornado footage. He revealed that it took a while for them to get the different special effects right for the movie.

The people he worked with had to create the software to make the film look real because at that time nothing existed. Stefen Fangmeier, a visual effects supervisor, said the test they did was “so dynamic” that the studio wanted to use it for the movie’s trailer and as a marketing tool.

Casting was also a big focus for de Bont, who thought getting it wrong meant viewers weren’t going to believe it. After almost three decades since “Twister” came out, Hunt answered some questions about it.

Hunt Shares Insights into Shooting ‘Twister’

During a 2024 interview, Hunt shared some memories from the time she filmed “Twister.” When questioned about anything horrific that she recalled while working on set, the actress laughed.

She remembered how “pretty freaked out” she was on the set. Hunt said they spent five days being exposed to the hail machine. They threw actual bits of hail at her, and when shooting concluded, she thought it was over and the following day would be easier.

But, when she arrived on set the next day she had shards of fake and candy glass thrown at her on the floor of a garage. After processing that, Hunt then had to face the jet engine, hilariously stating, “I don’t remember the easy part of the shoot.”

Indoor scenes weren’t any better because it would be 110 degrees hot in temperature. She called the experience “rigorous” and noted that there is a reason de Bont’s films “look so cool.” Stormy skies had to be shot in other parts of the country because Oklahoma had the sunniest skies when they made “Twister.”

To get the sky to be dark, actors had to face lots of light shown on them. When the image got brought down, Hunt and Paxton were visible on the truck. She recalled how 16,000 watts of light, comprising four 16k bulbs, were tied to the camera truck’s back so the actors could be filmed.

Having sensitive and “very squinty” eyes, Hunt recalled being barely capable of keeping them open. After shooting a scene like that all day, the next day Paxton went to her makeup trailer. He asked her if she could see, and she said, “Not really.”

She found the experience incredibly weird but ultimately it wasn’t a big deal. Hunt and her co-stars wore dark glasses and “walked around like the mice in ‘Cinderella’ for a while.” Yet, she felt relieved that Bill Paxton was the one who confessed to being unable to see.

Luckily, the condition went away, with her figuring that the crew had fried their “corneas off and then they grow back.” Now, here is some important knowledge about tornadoes according to experts.

Turning Green Is a Sign That a Tornado Is on the Way

In 2008, Scott Bachmeier, a research meteorologist, gave some insight into tornadoes. The meteorologist worked at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at UW–Madison. He explained how air particles scatter light.

According to him, during the day, more blue and violet light is scattered by particles. But, because our eyes are more sensitive to blue light, the sky appears to be blue. Bachmeier said thunderstorms, which can house tornadoes, usually occur later in the day, “when the sun is approaching the horizon.”

The research meteorologist noted how this creates a “reddish tinge in the sky.” But he also stated that “light under a 12-mile high thundercloud is primarily blue,” because of water droplets scattering within the cloud.

Bachmeier mentioned that when red light illuminates blue objects, they look green. The color is significant but isn’t proof that there’s a tornado coming. He said green clouds only happen if they are very deep and generally occur in thunderstorm clouds.

“Those are the kind of storms that may produce hail and tornadoes,” he added. According to the expert, the color green indicates that a cloud “is extremely tall.” Seeing as “thunderclouds are the tallest clouds, green is a warning sign that large hail or a tornado may be present.”

Giving an alternative explanation for the color change, Bachmeier said: “that tornadoes sucked frogs and grasshoppers into the sky.” In July 2024, “Twisters” was released. Here’s a look at the things that were real or fake in the movie.

Fact or Fiction

1. The Wind Turbine Scene

Days after “Twisters” came out in theaters, Reed Timmer, a meteorologist, took to his YouTube channel to share his expert opinion on what scenes were fake or real in the film. In one scene, the wind turbines’ blades broke off and got lodged in the ground in front of the moving vehicle.

Timmer revealed this was a factual scene because, in real life, the whole wind turbine broke in a tornado. The meteorologist said the turbine crashed into the ground and was “shredded like cardboard” inside a violent tornado.

The blades were the first to go, but in the footage shown, the tornado had the “fastest wind speeds ever recorded on Earth.” The next scene he looked at involved twin tornadoes.

2. The Twin Tornado Scene

Timmer described twin tornadoes as “two separate occlusions, two separate sub-vortices of a mesocyclone.” An example he mentioned was the tornadoes of 2014 in Pilger, Nebraska. That year, the tornadoes were a half-mile apart. Yet, in the movie, the sub-vortices were close together.

The meteorologist added that they looked like they were “part of the same parent tornado” and are called twin tornadoes. But, the film had them looking like a “singular tornado vortex with sub-vortices inside a classic multiple vortex tornado.”

In “Twisters,” the two tornadoes moved in opposite directions, which is a bit of a stretch scientifically. Timmer said when two vortices appear that close together in one tornado, they can’t go in different directions, meaning the scene was fictitious. The next scene analyzed was the one where the actors sheltered under an underpass.

3. Finding Shelter under an Overpass

In the opening scenes of the movie, the characters drive away from an EF-5 tornado, controversially heading to an underpass. Timmer recalled hiding from a tornado under an overpass in the early stages of his career.

During that 1999 incident, the expert faced an F-5 tornado. He and his crew abandoned a soft-top geo tracker and ran to an overpass. Only later did research prove that it can be more dangerous to shelter under an overpass.

He explained that due to the “Bernoulli effect,” an overpass accelerates the wind under it, leading to a more dangerous and damaging situation. Timmer suggested staying informed about any severe weather forecasts to avoid finding yourself in such a predicament.

But, he advised that if your car is disabled and you’re outside, if there’s a well-built overpass, run to it. The biggest concern for him isn’t the tornado itself, but what flies inside it. Now, we look at how realistic the movie’s tornadoes were.

4. The Tornado’s Formation

On the YouTube channel, HIGH RISK Chris, the creator shared a clip of a tornado forming. He revealed that the footage of it, from “Twisters,” looked exactly like the tornado he recorded earlier in the year. That means the formation in the movie is factual. Chris also looked at tornadoes catching fire.

5. A Tornado Catching Fire

In “Twisters,” a tornado hits an oil rig and lights up, but according to the YouTuber, this isn’t something that happens in real life. He explained that “tornadoes don’t catch fire and power up like Mario eating a mushroom.” The natural disaster is made of water vapor, which is the literal opposite of fire. Next, we look at the frequency of tornadoes.

6. Tornadoes Aren’t Guaranteed

In his clip, Chris noted how in some scenes, the characters just drive up to any thunderstorm and miraculously, there’s a tornado. But, this isn’t true because 99% of storm chasing is driving around on the highways quietly.

Even on days with a high possibility of large tornadoes happening, they aren’t guaranteed. Storms were also not guaranteed, as Chris had days where he drove all day to get to a storm only to have it die. In 2020, there was a whole season where he didn’t see tornadoes.

Mocking the 1996 film, he noted how the main characters landed inside three different tornadoes within two days. He figured the standalone sequel was going to take the same direction. Chris felt these kinds of movies make it seem as if storm chasers’ only goal is to get inside a tornado.

Instead, the goal of storm chasers is to get “quality close footage” and to exit safely. The last scene analyzed had a lot to do with the film’s characters trying to stop a tornado unusually.

7. Exploding a Tornado

In “Twisters,” they tried to stop a tornado by exploding its center. Chris said this wasn’t a smart technique as it would “never work.” He revealed that supercells are large and release so much energy that the only bomb big enough to stop a tornado is nuclear.

But, if a nuclear bomb detonates in a populated area, it will cause more problems than any tornado, think Hiroshima. Here are some interesting facts about tornadoes according to an expert.

Interesting Facts about Tornadoes and What Worked on ‘Twisters’

According to Michael Seger unlike in “Twister” and “Twisters” people aren’t able to sense tornadoes. The chief meteorologist for 2News Oklahoma KJRH revealed that he knew this because he also partook in storm chasing.

While one can’t sense them, Seger said “there is an art to it.” Yet, they still don’t know why one storm will create a tornado and another won’t. Things they looked at include the type of environment and whether other nearby storms can interfere.

When asked if a truck can be screwed into the ground to prevent it being blown away like the character Tyler did, Seger said he thought they got the idea elsewhere. He believed the truck is based on the same premise as the Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV), which Sean Casey created.

Casey made “Tornado Alley” but the TIV in it was a highly armored tank that had spikes that drove into the ground. It was made to drop so that the airflow underneath it is limited. The meteorologist said a normal car would be destroyed.

Things would fly in through the windows and while screwing it down could help keep the car on the ground, the debris would be most damaging. Seger also acknowledged that there are moments when a pattern will set up with tornadoes.

During that time, severe weather would be seen on multiple days so it is possible to have many tornadoes happening in a week like in “Twisters.” But, he clarified that it isn’t something that happens often.

One thing that impressed Seger about the movie is the computer graphics. He felt they modeled the tornadoes well. When they drove through storms, they looked close enough to the real thing.

He believed it was obvious that the team worked with meteorologists and storm chasers. For those who haven’t watched “Twisters,” here’s a brief breakdown of what you need to know about it.

Some Facts about ‘Twisters’

“Twisters” is a two-hour and two-minute long movie with a PG13 rating. The plot is about a retired tornado chaser and meteorologist who are convinced to return to Oklahoma. There, they are asked to work with a new team and technologies.

Lee Isaac Chung directed it, while some of its stars include Glen Powell (Tyler), Daisy Edgar-Jones (Kate), and Anthony Ramos (Javi). When released on July 19, 2024, the film had a box office domestic opening of $80.5 million in North America.

The record domestic opening was already higher than the $74.6 million estimate for July 20, 2024. Michael Crichton revised his role as one of the screenwriters of the new movie.