When it comes to influential films in the world of climate research and weather reporting, few (if any) can hold a candle to “Twister,” Jan de Bont’s epic action movie that has spawned a sequel blowing through theaters this weekend.
When the film came out in 1996, Dr. Elizabeth Smith, then not quite 6 years old, went to the theater to see it with her parents “and I apparently lost my mind about it and became obsessed,” she told CNN in an email interview.
When it came out on VHS, she remembers “watching it over-and-over-and-over the way some kids watched things like ‘The Little Mermaid.’”
Smith, who keeps an enamel pin of the “Twister” VHS on the lanyard she wears at work, is now a research meteorologist at NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory – an organization that even gets a mention in the de Bont film.
“I also remember certain concepts really imprinting on me,” she told CNN of “Twister’s” impact. “Specifically in the early chase scenes, Jo and Bill (Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton) are in the truck, and they recognize mammatus clouds in the sky overhead. They indicate that this is an omen for bad things to come. I have very clear memories of plastering my face to the backseat window watching, just in case the mammatus appeared so I would be READY.”
Many took their interest in the subject one step further, with enrollment in undergraduate weather research and meteorology programs seeing a notable bump. Academic research articles on these trends sometimes refer to this as the “Twister Effect.”
“A few years after ‘Twister,’ enrollment numbers at (the University of Oklahoma’s) School of Meteorology – applications doubled,” Dr. Harold E. Brooks, an affiliate professor at the university and senior research scientist at NSSL, said.
Brooks – who served as a technical advisor on “Twister” – also pointed to the film’s impact felt outside of the US, in places like Finland that didn’t have research and data collection for extreme storms like tornadoes until the release of that movie.
CNN weather reporter Brandon Miller is also among those who got sucked into the meteorology field by “Twister.” He remembers seeing the movie as a child with his father, who was a weather-enthusiast.
“He loved the weather and he and I would always go outside and watch big storms together when I was a kid,” Miller said. “I was obsessed with weather and tornadoes were my favorite type of weather, and back then there wasn’t much of an opportunity to consume that type of content – so I just remember being in awe of the entire thing.”
For Smith, the legacy of the original “Twister” is a complicated one. Her line of work closely mirrors that of Hunt’s character Jo Harding in the first film and she will often find herself hauling scientific instruments in the bed of a pickup or a tow-behind trailer.
Noting that she is “unfortunately, one of very few women doing this professionally,” Smith described how “it is not uncommon for people, both colleagues and strangers at a truck stop, to jokingly call me ‘Jo’ while I’m working that way.”
“That brings up some complicated stuff,” she said. “Was it impressive that films like ‘Twister’ and ‘Jurassic Park’ (featuring Laura Dern as a paleobotanist) were showcasing women scientists almost 30 years ago? Yes! But in reality Jo’s storyline is still reduced to a he-gets-the-girl in the end plot – wet tank tops and all.”
Expectations are running high for “Twisters,” the Lee Isaac Chung-directed new installment which is coming out this week and stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell. To the generation of storm chasers who largely dedicated their lives to the science of weather because of the 1996 movie, the hope is that the new entry will get more than a few things right.
Safety and science matter
For starters, experts hope safety will be emphasized amid all the gasp-inducing (and very windy) set-pieces.
“Weather is fascinating and it is beautiful, but it is also dangerous, I really hope this movie can balance all of that,” Miller said.
When it comes to chasing storms, the danger is twofold: there’s the considerable risk posed by the extreme weather itself, as well as the dangers from too many chasers – formally trained meteorologists and otherwise – pursuing the same weather pattern, oftentimes on the same road.
“I am interested to see how they handle the concept of ‘chaser convergence’ and the explosion of popularity chasing has seen over recent years,” said Smith. “In the first film there were really just the two teams on the roads (and they still almost collided!).”
Smith added that she’s “nervous about the massive amount of attention this will certainly bring to chasing.”
“At the end of the day, chasing is hard to do well and even harder to do well, safely,” she said.
Rebecca Kopelman, chief meteorologist at Iowa’s News Now, echoed the sentiment.
“This could potentially create more dangerous conditions in the climate of storm chasing,” she said of the new movie. “Unfortunately some people have gotten hurt storm chasing and it’s become a more popular hobby with more and more people going out on especially on the more elevated severe risk days.”
Miller said the original movie “gave rise to a wave of ‘armchair’ storm chasers,” and mentioned how the new movie could do the same, but exponentially.
“The biggest difference is nowadays everything is much more accessible to the layperson. From the radar data on your phone, to hi-res cameras and YouTube and social influencers, it can be a deadly combination when you get untrained people in the field chasing the dangerous storms trying to get the closest, craziest footage,” he observed.
Kopelman, who is featured on Discovery’s new In the Eye of the Storm series covering derecho superstorms, added that she hopes “Twisters” highlights the scientific importance of storm chasing and not just doing it for the thrill.” (Discovery, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.)
“It’s still very much a need because we can’t confirm tornadoes solely based on radar all of the time,” she said.
Smith also hopes the movie gets people excited not only about the storms themselves, but the research and science behind them.
“I am very excited at the prospect for people of all ages to get excited about science. There is a new opportunity for future meteorologists to bud, but not just meteorologists and not just kids,” she said. “There is a chance for all sorts of people to recognize in new ways that the natural world around them is dynamic and engaging.”
She added: “Something like this can be a watershed moment for kids to choose science classes, people to get curious about museums, and more. That is something to be excited about no matter what is in the movie.”
“Twisters” premieres in theaters on July 19. It is presented by Warner Bros., which like CNN is a part of Warner Bros. Discovery.
