Twister (1996)

[00:00:00] Before social media, before smartphones, and long before weather apps lived in our pockets, Twister made Storm Chasing the coolest job on Earth. Between Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, and the cows, this movie still blows us away. Let's rewind and see if it still has the same pull nearly 30 years later.

[00:00:33] Welcome to the No More Late Fees podcast. I'm Danielle. And I'm Jackie, and we're just two best friends and ex-Blockbuster employees re-watching some of the best and worst movies from the late 90s and early 2000s. This week, we're revisiting the 1996 disaster Blockbuster Twister. But before we dive in, let's get into some House Key. If you love the podcast and you want to support us, here's how you can.

[00:01:03] Need to dive in to some exclusive cinematic experiences, Bestie? Well, gain access to movie-themed content, stickers, live events, and our hand-picked Spotify playlist by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com slash nomorlatbees. Bring us back to 1996, Jackie. What is Twister about? Tornado expert Dr. Jo Harding convinces her soon-to-be ex-husband, Bill Harding, to put their divorce on hold for one last storm chase.

[00:01:34] What starts as a quick trip for a signature turns into a high-speed race across Oklahoma to deploy Dorothy, a groundbreaking tornado research device, before a rival team beats them to it. It stars Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Carrie Ells, Jamie Gertz, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. It was written by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin and directed by Jean Debon.

[00:02:03] Oh, sounds right. I don't know why I think Anne-Marie Martin is the lady who wrote The Babysitter's Club. To see, I was like, are they both authors? And she just goes, not the same, but I checked it. That would have been cool. Like, imagine Jesse just doing some parrots with a twister. Dawn just being like, I'm from California. I don't know what's happening.

[00:02:32] You can currently watch it on Peacock, but before we start, let's get into our ratings rewind. So, you know the drill. Before we get into the movie, we'll reveal the rating our Y2K versions of ourselves would give. Then at the end, we'll see if our current selves agree with our initial rating. Our scale consists of, would buy it, would buy it again. The best would play on repeat. Five-day rental. Would watch again. Two-day rental.

[00:03:00] It's okay, but nothing to write home about. And same-day rental. Like a tornado's devastation, it's trash. Aww. So, Danielle, what is your Y2K rating about Twister? I remember loving this movie, but I didn't own it. Which, sad. So, it's a five-day rental for me. How about you?

[00:03:24] I have a distinct memory of going to the Dead Mall in Coral Springs to see it. Ooh, yeah. And I was with my friend, and it was PG-13. And I remember she went up to buy her ticket first and tried to get a kid's ticket. And they're like, but it's PG-13, so if you're 12, you can't go see this movie. And I was just standing behind her like, dumb dog.

[00:03:54] Why was she trying to make it cheaper? Yeah. Oh. Yep. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Should have just waited for it at the Dollar Theater. Like most of us. So, that's the only thing I remember about seeing Twister. So, I'm guessing you didn't buy it. But our family owned it. Okay. So, it was a would buy. I do remember watching it a lot. Yeah. Couldn't tell you what it was like, what happened in it.

[00:04:22] It felt brand new to me when I rewatched it, but. Wow. Don't you remember at Universal going on the Twister ride? It was intense. Yeah, it was. Because you're just standing, for those of you who didn't have the pleasure of doing the Twister experience at Universal Orlando. I don't know if they had it in Hollywood. You would, like, they would corral you into this warehouse room. Mm-hmm. And you all just stood.

[00:04:51] And it was the drive-in scene. Yeah. And so, everything started getting really windy. And then, sure as shit, there was a real Twister that happened in the middle of the warehouse. And it was, like, coming at you. And there was fire. And things were, like, sparking. It was a lot. It was sensory overload. It really was. Okay. So, would buy it for Jackie. Fire day for me. Yes.

[00:05:22] It's looking up so far. It's looking up. All right. So, this movie came out May 10, 1996. It had a budget of $92 million. And it made $495 million. Look at that. That's wild. That's a lot of money. Go ahead, do those calculations and tell us how much that would be today, Jackie. Okay. You know you're dying to do it. But at the box office, it opened at number one.

[00:05:50] Coming in at number two was The Truth About Cats and Dogs. Number three was The Craft. Number four was Primal Fear. And number five was The Quest. I don't know what The Quest is. I feel like it's something sci-fi that I wouldn't be interested in. Probably. Like I said, it opened at number one. And it made a massive $41.1 million, making it the biggest opening weekend of 1996 at the time.

[00:06:17] It set the record for the largest May opening weekend, helping establish May as the launch pad for the modern summer blockbuster season. It dropped only about 10% in its second weekend. And it only had like a very small decline. That the record, I think it stood for about 15 years. That's wild. And guess what finally kicked it off its throne? Another Bill Paxton movie.

[00:06:47] Independence Day? Was Bill Paxton? No. That's not Bill Paxton. No. Bill Pullman. I get them confused. And then I also get confused because one I don't care for and one I really like. You don't like Bill Pullman? No. I like Bill Pullman. You don't like Bill Paxton? Not really. Interesting. Well, anywho, Independence Day knocked it off its pedestal. So it became the second highest grossing film in 96.

[00:07:17] And at the end of its theatrical run, it was ranked among the 10 highest grossing films ever released worldwide. And became Warner Brothers' highest grossing film to that point. And it lasted until our last movie. Well, one of our last movies, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, came out in 2001. Huh. So I think this movie was just a big win in general because it cemented the visual effects. Yes. Driven disaster movie.

[00:07:46] If you think after that, we started getting disaster movies every second. Inflation? Little over a billion dollars. That's crazy. Crazy. And then, since we were talking about the box office for 1996 as a whole, like we said, Independence Day was number one. Twister, number two. Mission Impossible, number three. The Rock, number four. And bringing up the rear, The Nutty Professor, number five.

[00:08:15] Oh, let's see what the critics had to say. Okay, so Janet Maslin of the New York Times praised the film's relentless pace and impressive visual effects, writing that it gave tornado chasing an unexpected sense of excitement and adventure, despite relying on familiar blockbuster storytelling. And, of course, our little Raj, little Raj, Roger Ebert from the Chicago Sun-Times gave this movie three out of four stars.

[00:08:43] He praised the film as spectacular popcorn entertainment while noting that the story existed mainly to connect the action sequences. He ain't wrong. He described it as loud, dumb, skillful, escapist entertainment that succeeds on spectacle more than drama. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with that. No. Speaking of popcorn entertainment, what were your snackies for watching this? Because this is a snack movie. It is.

[00:09:13] It is. I had sunflower seeds, which you know I love. And I was eating my last of my rotten gummies. Oh, no. I'm so sad. I need to get more. We need to get you out. Yeah, get you out. Yeah. Get my ass out to the store to go buy some. I think they're at Sprouts. Yes. Or Costco, so I definitely need them. But it was a very interesting combination.

[00:09:41] I didn't eat as many sunflower seeds because I like the sweet and the tartness. I was like, this is killer. Plus the salt. I was like, oh, no, this is too much. So I just continue with my rotten gummies. And if you guys don't know, you guys have to check them out. If you love the sour candies from when we were growing up, it's for you. For sure. What about you? What were your snacks? We were devouring a bag of mini M&Ms. They're my preferred M&M. Yeah.

[00:10:11] I do love them. I think I like them because I always loved McDonald's McFlurries. And I do think they use the minis. Yeah, I think they do. Well, I feel like. I don't know. I could be. They have a better candy shell to chocolate ratio for me personally. Yeah. And then you can eat a handful and it's a ton. And then you don't feel as bad. Yeah.

[00:10:38] I feel like they last a lot longer, too, because you can just grab a couple of nibbles at a time. Yeah. And not consume the entire container. Well, on that note, before we get into the cast and crew, make sure you listen out for this message from our pod pals. You've never seen anything like this before. I actually like this movie.

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[00:12:02] He read the lines with the cast, even chose the character's wardrobe, which did stay in this final film. But he dropped out of pre-production and said, It wasn't what I was trying to do with my career at the time. Called for an eccentric man with a southern flair, and that wasn't me. And while on the set of Apollo 13 from 1995, he felt co-star Bill Paxton was perfect for his part in this film and helped Paxton land the role.

[00:12:31] Oh, okay. I do think that was a better fit. Yes, I do too. And in the meantime, Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid, John Travolta, Richard Gere, John Cusack, Nicholas Cage, Bruce Willis, Val Kilmer, Kurt Russell, and Michael Keaton were other possible considerations. Really just the A-list in 95. I could have saw Michael Keaton doing this for sure.

[00:13:01] A hundred percent. Hmm. Nicholas Cage, it would have been real quirky. It would have been a different movie. I think it still would have been good. Yeah. It just would have been different. Val Kilmer would have done a really good job. Kurt Russell too. I think Kevin Costner as well. Yeah. I do like him. Yeah. He grows on me. Yeah. Well, the director, Jean de Bonpe,

[00:13:29] intentionally cast lesser known actors. So the tornadoes, not the stars, would be the focus of the film. And you know what? I really, really love that because my family and I went to go see The Odyssey. And it's not like it was a bad movie. But because there were so many big celebrities. It was like celebrity after celebrity after celebrity that it really kept taking me out of the movie. That makes sense.

[00:13:56] Because like, as good as an actor as you are, there's some point, especially I think period pieces or like, where you're just like, okay, Anne Hathaway. Okay. Well, back to Jean de Bonpe. Although the studio pushed for additional auditions because Helen Hunt was best known for television at the time, they won't insist that she was the perfect choice and ultimately got his way. And it was true.

[00:14:26] Like, this movie totally turned thing. Like, remember after this time, she was getting movie after movie for a while. And I think she got as good as it gets after this, not too long after this. And she, did she win an Academy Award? I think she was either nominated or she won. But good, good casting on his part. Because I think she did a really great job. Yeah, she did win Best Actress for as good as it gets. Yeah. So.

[00:14:52] And I love that she was the perfect blend of like, she had that hard edge. But then there were also like, moments of like, like trauma used to do like, like, this is why we worked together. You know? Yeah. I just think she did a phenomenal job. Yeah, me too. Mira Servino was considered to play Melissa Reeves, Bill's uptight fiance.

[00:15:22] But Danielle, the, the hair diversity. I was gonna say the same thing. The hair diversity would have never let the two blondes be the, the, the leads. But I also hate the wording of uptight, uptight fiance. Because like, she was never wrong. That woman did literally nothing. I never felt like she was uptight. Like if she was uptight, she had been out before we were chasing storms. Right.

[00:15:50] She was, she gave so much leeway. Yeah. So much leeway. She deserved so much better than what she got. And she was working on the road. Yeah. Yeah. She, she knew that she was, when she, when they ultimately break up and she was like, you know, the sad, the weird thing is like, I don't even, I don't even feel bad. Because she knew deep down. Like, you have to go with your dude to go get divorce papers signed from him and his ex, from

[00:16:18] Ain't, ain't gonna be me. There would have never been this movie. Cause I ain't going. You want me to do what? First and foremost, I will say, especially in this age range, I'm not dating a dude who's not divorced fully. I'm just not like, I'm not with the mess. Get your shit together. And if, if you're ready and I'm still available, then we'll talk. But nah, you want me to go where? To do what?

[00:16:46] And there's a potential for what? Yeah. A stock farm. Nah, not my black ass. Uh-uh. What state were they in? Oklahoma. The only time we ever go to Oklahoma is we drive, I think it's like the second mile marker over the border of Oklahoma from Texas. Yeah. And there's a Windstar Casino. And sometimes we'll take mom there. But that's as far as we venture into Oklahoma.

[00:17:16] Any states that have this weird little piece of like, if you see them mapped out and it's just like this weird square situation. Idaho. Kansas. Yeah. Nah. Ohio is kind of that. Like there's just this like extra piece. Like who the hell was mapping this out? Yeah. Well, Oklahoma's, I think, I don't know if it's Idaho or Oklahoma, but one of them having

[00:17:44] that extra piece has to do with racism, of course. But I mean, I can't recall the story. I would assume so. It has something to do with slavery. I think it is Oklahoma. I could be wrong. All right. What else? Garth Brooks, Mark Cuban, and Chris Farley turned down the role of Dustin Davis, who Philip Seymour Hoffman played. Wait a minute. Mark Cuban? Chris Farley makes sense.

[00:18:14] Garth Brooks? Was this when he was in his bag playing that like. Oh, that alter ego? Yeah. Chris something. Oh my God. That was so weird. Oh yeah. Mark Cuban auditioned for the 1996 drama Twister. That doesn't make any sense. Because like, I didn't even know who Mark Cuban was back then. That was first, first, alter ego.

[00:18:44] Chris Gaines. Christopher McDonald was considered for the role of Dr. Jonas Miller, played by Carrie Els. Always. I never know how to say his name. That's fine. But we, but was already committed to Happy Gilmore, which we'll be doing in a few weeks on the podcast. So sit tight for that. Alec Baldwin, Peter Green, and Hugh Laurie were also considered. Hugh Laurie would have been great in that role. So what have Alec Baldwin?

[00:19:14] He's very good at being an a-hole. Yeah. I think all of them would have been great, but Carrie just felt like a contemporary of them for some reason. I feel like Christopher McDonald would have been, felt like a little older. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. And I don't know. Alec Baldwin would have been too hot at the time. So there's this time period where like, yes, he, he plays assholes really well, but I do

[00:19:40] think like he was too handsome at this point in time that it would have just been like, why isn't she trying to go with him? That's what my mind would have been. Yeah. So. Alec Baldwin is one of those actors that I know is a terrible person, but like, can't, can't quit him? I think he does remind me a lot of my dad. And I think that's a huge part of it. Yeah. But also like everything he's in, he's just so good.

[00:20:08] And I'm like, why, why do you have to be who you are? Assholes can be good at their jobs. Yes. This is true. Two things can be true at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. All right. Let's, let's get into it. I feel like this, like you said, it's going to go kind of fast because it's a lot of action. And when we're retelling, it just, it's not like we got up and started twirling.

[00:20:37] And then the tornado did this and then it broke into two sisters and then they came back together and then there were cows flying. Yeah. Let's stick to just the, the main point lines. How disappointing. I know. And if you were just listening to this, highly recommend going and watching the action pack sequence that just occurred.

[00:21:03] The video is very animated to say the least. Well, the movie opens to a flashback of Helen Hunt's character, Joe, as a small child. There's a, a, a, a five tornado that's coming through her town. Her and her mom and her dad all run into the storm shelter. And then the dog is lagging behind.

[00:21:32] And so the dad has to reopen the door for the dog and the dog gets inside. What I don't get about this scene is that like, you know, you live in tornado alley. You have a storm shelter. Why are we using a bathroom stall lock to lock the giant ass door that's supposed to keep you and your family safe?

[00:21:59] It was just one of those like slide and peg locks, but like a little one, not like a bolty one. I don't have any. And like the door flips off, right? And Papa goes with it. Papa, can you hear me? Not anymore. He's going with the storm. But like the way the storm shelter is built is like it goes down and then it goes back. So the back part's like solidly underground, right?

[00:22:28] So if he knew the potential for the door to pop off, why not just go back with where the rest of your family is where you're not going to get sucked out? Yeah. I had questions. All great. In the minute two, I had questions. All great questions. I didn't think about it, but you're very accurate. Let's continue. So we have seen.

[00:22:56] So now this obviously traumatized Joe and instead of repelling, like, let me get as far the fuck away from Oklahoma as possible. She leans into it. Like, I have to understand these storms so that people are warned in time. And what happened to me and my family doesn't happen to others.

[00:23:21] I will say rewatching this movie, I was like, I'm like, I'm just going to get through this as fast as I can because I've seen it. But I actually just stopped and said, OK, let me just really lock in. And I cried watching this movie because I think when I was younger, it just felt like action packed.

[00:23:44] But now, like, after us living in Florida for so many years and just how scary it is to be hiding in a little closet or something when you have a tornado warning or tornadoes going by. And I can usually typically look at this kind of stuff and say that's why people shit like who the fuck's chasing a storm.

[00:24:02] But I really commend those people for it's not like for a thrill per se, but really wanting to help people because it is it's just to see the aftermath of these tornadoes and what these communities are going through. It just forms so quickly. And there's typically no warning. And even if there is warning to gather all your people and get them into a safe space.

[00:24:30] So I live in Austin and we are at the very bottom of Tornado Alley. So sometimes we do get really bad weather. Usually it's just hail. But like the color behind you, that color green is legit. The color of the sky turns when it's like tornado weather. Like it's so eerie and so scary. And I have quite a few times like had to hide in a closet in the middle of my house with the dogs.

[00:25:00] Yeah. And wait it out and just have my laptop open with the weather channel and just hope that like. It's it's such a scary thing to go through storms. It really is. And I really my heart goes out to the people. And now it's because of climate change. It's not just the Midwest anymore. Like it's everywhere. I think no one is safe at all from this weather. Yeah. The heat waves, everything.

[00:25:28] And so I think that also was what was making me cry was that because of this movie, because of media, it was able to make real change in people's lives because of the technology and the things that they were. I think they donated money. Mm hmm. Just the people like kids that were inspired by this movie to go and pursue degrees in meteorology and studying tornadoes and help progress. Yeah.

[00:25:57] Those early warning detectors. I will say there was one time that I did the white girl in a horror movie thing where. It got real quiet, which is supposed to be like the worst time to like. Right. To go do anything. So I walked outside to look to see what it was looking like. And my house was at the opposite end of like a loop.

[00:26:23] And if you looked one way, you could see the water tower for our development. Mm hmm. When it's green and gross outside, that water tower looks like a fucking tornado and scared the shit out of me. Good. Go for your ass. Lesson learned. I don't leave my hidey hole anymore. Right. You, you know, when we were talking about if Anne-Marie Martin was, if this was the same writer from Babysitter's Club.

[00:26:53] Apparently she is the, she was the wife of Michael Crichton. So they wrote it together. I'm stuck. Because I was like, oh, Michael Crichton. That's really interesting. Like he wrote Jurassic Park and he wrote all of these really andromedic thing and drama to strain. He wrote a lot of really interesting conceptual books. Right. Like this movie was not, or this screenplay was not a novel that he wrote.

[00:27:21] They wrote it as a screenplay. Mm hmm. But then I did a deep dive about Michael Crichton because I had, I. Hyper fixated. It's fine. Yep. Like he has like, I don't know if it's a doctorate. Like he studied like science. Yeah. He's really, really smart. Yeah. Yeah. I think he even wrote ER. Like, or what was ER was based on. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:27:44] He wrote a book and that eventually became the premise for ER and it was, oh, he was going to medical school. And so he wrote a book based on five patients that he saw during his rounds at the hospital. Oh, wow. Eventually parlayed into ER. I'm like, look at all these things that Michael Crichton said that I had no clue about. Yeah. I. So now years have passed.

[00:28:12] We are in the present day and we see. Dr. Drew Harding with her team and here comes Bill Harding and his very big red truck. With his fiance, Dr. Melissa Reeves. What kind of truck was it? Do you know? Dodge Ram. Because Ken said. Yeah. After this movie. Sales for Rams really increased.

[00:28:42] So that was the fact we got from Ken. One of the things that makes me so upset is that I saw the Twisters movie. It was really good. Yes. But I was really hoping, as with some of the cast of this movie, they were going to be in it. And Helen Hunt kind of insinuated that there was another script that was written and it was more inclusive.

[00:29:12] There were like. Cameos to be had. Not just inclusive. And there were more people of color. Just more inclusive. And the studio kind of rejected it. And so she didn't end up being in it. And they got what they got. This one wasn't bad. At all. But I just feel like it would have been really cool to like connect them. Yeah. Even if it wasn't like. Yes, I would have loved to see Helen Hunt.

[00:29:42] Right. But even a mention of like. Bill Paxton. Being dead. The aunt. Whatever the aunt's name is. Like some thread. Like Great Aunt Meg. Right. You know, like as a like through thread that it's connected in some way. Right. Exactly. It was just I think a really missed opportunity because there were so many. Like even just one of the people and side characters would have been really, really cool.

[00:30:12] You know, and we lost so many people from that movie. Yeah. You know, and that could have all been explained from the storms. Yeah. Yeah. So we see he pulls up with his like you said, his new fiance played by Jamie Gertz. Yeah. Like she's like one of the most one of the richest women in the world. Why? She well, she married a wealthy guy, but then they like invested their money together.

[00:30:40] And a lot of things that panned out for them. So she's worth like billions of dollars. Hmm. Yeah. Good for her. I love it. Oh, I found forms forming and all of this stuff. And they're like, it's a perfect scenario because they've been working on this prototype that Joe and Bill came up with together. Yeah. Yeah. That they call Dorothy. And essentially it's to send transmitters, like have them get sucked up in the tornado.

[00:31:09] And then it feeds data about the tornado back to them. Right. Because in the center of the storm, there's just so much stuff that they don't understand. They don't understand what gets it started, what makes it stop, like all that kind of stuff. Yeah. I love the fact that like essentially the movie starts and it's starting off kind of like chill. And then it just like amplifies and just gets insane, more insane as it continues, almost like a storm. Yes.

[00:31:39] You know, and there's like low moments and then it starts up again. So I don't know if that was on purpose, but I really appreciated that. And then leaves the devastation of a failed engagement behind. Behind. This week. Yeah, pretty much. So they're like, she's like, I don't have time for this. Like really, because as they're walking, as Bill's walking up to her. Yeah.

[00:32:05] She takes her wedding ring that she's still wearing on her wedding finger off and switches it to the other hand. Yeah. Yeah. She's trying really hard to like not show that she cares. Yeah. So, and she's like, now's not the time. We got to find storms. We got to go. It is the time. I don't care about your damn storms. How long does it take to scratch out three signatures? Like, Joe, we know what you're up to.

[00:32:34] And he forces her and she does sign it. And then he's like, wait a minute, you missed the spot. This girl is not like, if you, if you want to be together, just say it. Like, what is this? Well, I think in her mind, she's like, he's already moved on. Right.

[00:32:50] And, and the, the cool thing is that unlike other examples of the disposable fiance in this movie, I will say that like, there's never any beef between the women. Nobody's mean to each other. And he, I mean, I don't know if he's emotionally cheating per se, but he starts to get back into the rhythm of it really quickly. Yeah. And it doesn't take much.

[00:33:20] Yeah. By the time they're wrapped up, roped up to some barn piece of wood, I was like, it's wraps, girl. Wrap it up. They are eye banging each other in the middle of a tornado. Yeah. Even the tornado. They're both getting off on this. Yeah. The tornado can't even rip between these two. No. So the divorce papers were null and void.

[00:33:43] Well, I think from the time they go into that diner and like, they have the little conversation. Um, Joe and the fiance. Melissa. Yeah. Melissa. Like, I think Melissa knew the writing was on the wall from that conversation because of how well Joe knew Bill and like knew he was going to, he couldn't say no to this. Yeah. He couldn't quit it. I can't quit. I can't quit you.

[00:34:12] I will. What I love is that Bill appreciates a smart woman because to put respect on their names, it's Dr. Melissa Reeves and it's Dr. Joe Harding. Yes. But Bill has no doctor. Which I'm surprised because Jonas is Dr. Jonas Miller as well. So, and I, I don't know why I thought they knew each other from school, but I don't think that's the case. I feel like at least Joe and Jonas did.

[00:34:40] And then probably by proxy Bill. Yeah. Because that's how Jonas knew the tech was because he, I don't know if he worked on it with Joe or he saw Joe, what Joe's like theory was, you know? And that's where we get that rivalry is like they used to be colleagues in some fashion. We used to be friends a long time ago.

[00:35:07] But I haven't heard from you lately at all. Yeah. So essentially Dr. Jonas Miller has a commercialized team. Like he's bought and paid for by his company. So he has access to all the funding and has essentially stole, stolen Joe's idea for these sensors. Yeah.

[00:35:37] But the whole thing. So they have four Dorothy units, but the whole thing is like, they don't know. So number one, how to get the Dorothy container to like stay on the ground long enough so that the tornado only picks up the sensors is the first issue. And then the second issue is that they run into later is that the sensors are not being picked up. Like as high as they need to go.

[00:36:06] And so those are like the two issues that they're working through and they only have essentially four chances. The first chance is foiled immediately because this shit just falls over. Right. And so, so we go, we start chasing, chasing rainbows. Yeah. And there's something about, there's something about Bill. I don't know why I wouldn't get Bill. He's playing Bill. He actually can chase the storm pretty well.

[00:36:36] Like he knows where the storm's going. Yeah. He has like a sixth sense about the storm. Like he just has that read of the weather and the wind change and all of that. And that happens in the Twisters movie too with the lead, the girl. It's kind of like, actually the Twisters movie is actually if you took Bill, you combine Bill and Joe together to make the girl.

[00:37:04] And then Dr. Jonas as the guy version. And then that's it. Yeah. Except you put a cowboy hat on him and he needs hotter and he has a scene in the water and the rain with a white shirt. So we start chasing storms and that's the one thing Joe was kind of missing was like Bill's intuition. She had all the tech.

[00:37:31] She had all of, she had the team to help her and everything, but she couldn't do it without Bill. I don't think. No, I don't think she wanted to do it without Bill. Yeah. Because this was their, their project together. So Bill is with Joe and Melissa. He leaves Melissa to drive the car by the truck by herself at some point. And I'm like, we're already done. What?

[00:38:00] And his, his truck is brand new, but he's in Joe's truck and they, they hit up the storm. Like you said, the, the Dorothy falls over and all this other stuff and her truck gets taken away and they get wrapped. They have to wrap themselves in some rope. I don't know. I could be combining different scenes at this point because it just was a lot, but they are tied together while the storm is passing. And it's interesting.

[00:38:25] Joe does a lot of, she does not want to give up and he has to beg her, plead with her to like, no, we cannot go. Like it is going to kill us. Let's go. Yeah. So she does have a lot of moments where she puts herself into harm's way, trying to get this done. And the team is just fun. Like watching Dusty, I don't know what his skill set is per se, but he's there for vibes. Yeah.

[00:38:55] And I love that Ellen Rook is in this movie. Yeah. Alan's, and then Sean Whalen plays another Alan. Just so many different characters. Yeah. Like if you look at them, you're like, oh my God. They're just like a rat tag group of storm chasers. Yeah. It gets to a point where, yes, Dr. Melissa realizes, because you see her at some point, she's having conversations with her clients.

[00:39:20] And eventually when that point where he tells her to go get some iced tea and then they're like, oh, we're out of here. And then he's like, oh, you drive the car. And then he's like, oh, you go with Dusty. Yeah. And then they end up going to Aunt Meg's house because she's close enough and she will make really good food. She makes fresh steaks because she was like, you don't see the cows in the front no more, do you? She's slaughtering her own beef.

[00:39:49] And so again, Melissa's watching this. She's watching the camaraderie. They're found family together. How they interact with each other. They literally are finishing each other's. It's beyond just sentences. It's like they know how each other's brains work. And so by the time we get after we leave Aunt Meg's house and he is in full gear, ready to chase this shit. And he's like, you go back to the hotel. And she's like, I'm out. Yeah. I'm sorry. This isn't working. And he doesn't feel bad about it either.

[00:40:19] He's like, all right. Write me a postcard. She didn't sign the papers anyway. We're good. Right. We're still married. Yeah. Oh my God. So yeah, we're chasing tornadoes that at one point it's the twin sister tornadoes. And that's what Jonas's team is lacking is that intuition of like where the tornadoes are going to spawn.

[00:40:45] So they're trying to follow Joe and Bill and their team. Right. To go to find these tornadoes. And so not only are we chasing fucking tornadoes, we're also having to like bob and weave so that Jonas doesn't follow us to. Right. To where we're going. Yeah. I've said this on the podcast before and I'm going to say it again.

[00:41:17] We as human species need to get our shit together because everyone keeps thinking we're killing the earth. We're not. We're not killing the earth. The earth will always be fine. It will kill us. We're not killing the earth. Resetting the shit that we fucked up in the process. I always liken it back to during COVID where everyone had to stay inside. Right.

[00:41:44] And like air quality immediately went back to normal. The dolphins were seen again. The whales were seen again. Yeah. Like, I'm like, that took like six months. Yes.

[00:42:00] I have a friend who she's just like, you know, at some point the ice caps are going to melt enough where some long dormant bacteria is going to be released and the earth will just cleanse itself. I'm hoping it's dragons. Oh, dragons is fine. Well, so storms chasing things, trying to get Dorothy up.

[00:42:27] They can't figure out how to get lift on the little sensors. And then Aunt Meg has all of these art installations in her front yard that are warnings. So wind powered. Yeah. So she uses them as like a warning system. But that's when Joe and Bill get the idea of like, hey, we need to put little. Spirals. Wingies on them so that they they have like snitches.

[00:42:55] Like they're literally snitches before snitches. Yes. And they I think they were using soda cans to do it. Yes. Do you know what type of soda? Pepsi. Yes. Huge product placement in this movie from Pepsi. Pepsi. In the whole town, no one drank anything other than Pepsi in that giant ass container of cans that they cut up for the wings. Honestly, if they had gone back to your house back in the day would have been the same thing with a few speckles of Coca-Cola from you. That's true.

[00:43:28] Sorry. Sorry. So now we are. We've left Aunt Meg's house. We're down the road a couple of hours, I think. And we're settling in for the night because nothing's supposed to happen. Like nothing's on the radar. And so they're at this hotel room that's right next to a drive-in theater. Everyone's watching The Shining in 1996 at a drive-in movie theater. Yeah. Eh.

[00:43:56] And Bill, like, starts sniffing the air and is like, wait a minute. It's time to go. It's coming. And good old Melissa's in the hotel room, like, I think just thinking about how she's going to break up with Bill. And he's like, we got to get to shelter because shit's coming.

[00:44:16] And this is kind of like the most intense, well, one of the most intense scenes and memorable scenes of the movie is the tornado ripping through the drive-in movie theater screen. And they're all bunkered down in like a, I think it was like a Kwanzaa hut. And just kind of trying to stay out of the trajectory of the tornado. And it's like utter devastation. Yeah.

[00:44:42] But it, it like, it's not like it missed them, but like it actually went and hit somewhere else worse. Right. And so they're going to kind of help that town. And then that's when they get work. No. No, they find out afterwards. They, they hear that. I think it's when the paramedics and people were like, yeah, it actually went wherever. And they found out it's the town that aunt Meg lives in. Yes.

[00:45:09] So we see aunt Meg start to hear all of her little wind machines make noise, but she's upstairs, which I was like, girl, if you knew there is this huge cell of tornadoes. Like, obviously you lived in this house your whole life. Right. Just about. Like, why wouldn't you at least sleep on the bottom floor so you'd be that much closer to the storm shelter? You know, agreed.

[00:45:36] But to an extent, when you live like here, like when you, when people are like, oh, there's a hurricane coming. I'm like, call me when it's a fire. You know, like, I hate to be so flippant, but like if we were to like lose our mind every time. I just think like everyone was acting like this cell of storms was so different. Yeah. Yeah. That like just a little bit more highlight. Like if your niece shows up with her ex-husband.

[00:46:07] Husband. Current husband. Husband. And his fiance to like chase the, this set of storms. And you know how like cuckoo bananas they are about being storm chasers. I would have just proceeded with a little more caution. Yeah, you're right. Well, Aunt Meg got herself in some trouble. So all of a sudden, Dr. Joe and Bill are in their truck. Skik, skik. Across the highway.

[00:46:36] Trying to get to Aunt Meg. And when they get there, Aunt Meg's house is hanging on by a thread. Jesus, take the wheel. Is not doing good. And so then they have to try to get her. She's under some rubble. And she reminded me of the like, help, I've fallen and I can't get up, lady. It was so bad. Bill has to climb up from the top and try to get to her. At the same time, we are holding on with Baited Breath as the audience.

[00:47:04] Because there is a motherfucking TV. Hold it on! To its plug. And it's about to pop off like in a second. So there's like so much danger happening. But they're able to get Aunt Meg out. But just in white people fashion. What about the dummy? You got it! And so Bill is going out for the dog. And he does save him.

[00:47:32] Because there's no way a white person would let a dog die in this movie. A black person, yes. But not a white, not a white people's dog. Not, not at all. There would be a revolt if the dog died. Of course. Well, the golden retriever was, was saved. He saved? Praise! Praise! And poor Aunt Meg's house is gone. Girl, it's... Gone, gone, gone. It's not doing good. Good thing they ate those cows.

[00:47:58] Because they would have just been swirling around in the tornado. So after this, I think they go after one more storm. To try to use the new creation they've made. Yeah, we have one more chance. We have one more Dorothy left. It has all of the little snitch wingies on it. And Melissa has gracefully bowed out of this situation. She's hopefully on the next flight back to Jersey.

[00:48:26] Oh, Sam. And now here's the biggest tornado. We've saved the best for last. And we're driving by this farmhouse that has a barn. And so they're like, okay, let's go in there. The tornado's approaching them. And then there's a tinker in the road. The tinker's flipped over. Oh no, now the tinker has exploded.

[00:48:55] And now we just have to drive through the explosion and see if we can get through it. Because the tornado's right on our ass. And then we just have to go through cornfields. And then we run inside the barn. All the animals are not happy. And then the barn starts coming apart. And so then we have to run into like the sump house. And that's where we find the pipe that's like buried 12 feet into the ground.

[00:49:25] So he's like, this is good. We just strap ourselves to this pipe and we'll be fine. Yeah. And Joe's like, bet. Hey. If there's a dream, there's a way. I don't know. And Bill wasn't wrong? Question mark? But again, I feel like they would have been full of twister shrapnel. So they're able to park the truck.

[00:49:53] We see all of the little Dorothy pieces fly up as expected. The team is immediately like, we're already getting data. Wahoo. And then Bill and Joe were like, we should fuck. And then the family from the farmhouse just wanders out. And it looks like the munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. Like after, you know, like they're just like walking down, like looking at the sky and like bewildered.

[00:50:23] And Joe and Bill are just strapped to a pipe. Well, everybody's got their kink. That's all I got to say. Okay. You'll never find them with a white picket fence and everything's normal. They will be in their 80s trying to chase a storm. And then I think it ends pretty soon thereafter that. Like there isn't really a like resolution. One year later or anything like that.

[00:50:53] It's just kind of like, okay, we did it. We have data. We did it, Bill. We did it, Bill. And that is Twister. Lonely. Let's get into it. There's a lot of facts that we didn't get into. This was primarily filmed in Oklahoma. And some additional filming was in Iowa and Canada. And the filming in Oklahoma was briefly delayed due to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murray. Murray.

[00:51:23] Federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. Many of the crew went to the site to help with recovery efforts. Do you remember other fun facts? This film used a combination of practical effects, miniatures, and computer generated imagery to create the tornadoes. This was some of the very earliest CGI for film.

[00:51:49] And Industrial Light and Magic created the tornado visual effects. It was Steven Spielberg's idea to kill off the father in the opening scene. Originally, he would have survived, but it was decided his death would establish how dangerous tornadoes can be and the reason for Joe's obsession with them later in life. A jet engine from a Boeing 707 was used to generate wind in some scenes.

[00:52:15] Which John Daybolt said he regretted thinking of the hail sequence because it took so long to do and was very difficult. Also, the crew couldn't find ice blocks big enough in Oklahoma for the hail-making machine. They ended up having to find them in other states, and some were obtained from the Burlington Ice Company in Iowa. The ice blocks were made special by pouring milk in with the water, so the hail would show up better on film. Damn. That sounds stinky. It does.

[00:52:45] The flying debris included lightweight foam versions of objects such as fences, tree limbs, and farm equipment. So you know how you were talking about it was PG-13 and you were trying to get in. Well, it was originally shot as a rated R film that featured profanity and grislier wound details. The film was edited down to PG-13 in post-production,

[00:53:08] which caused additional scenes with Carrie Elves and Philip Seymour Hoffman to be left on the cutting room floor due to the content alone. Other profanities throughout the film were muted or replaced to secure the PG-13 rating. I actually think it was good without it. You can see as Bill walks up for the first time, Joe clearly says, fuck, but it's just muted. Okay.

[00:53:34] Jamie Gertz's role as Melissa Reeves doubles not only as a love interest for Paxton's character, but also as a vessel for exposition. With her character being the only one with no knowledge of tornadoes or meteorology, exposition is disguised as her simply being curious while feeding the audience important information about the science behind tornadoes. I think that's a brilliant way to do that. Yes. I would have just preferred she wasn't, like if it was his sister or friend or something, you know, like the disposable.

[00:54:04] Or like a coworker and like they're just like on a, like, or someone visiting town and it's like, oh shit, well, you have to come with us because we can't leave you at the house for fear of a tornado hitting it, you know? Right. What I love about this movie is that it helped launch the DVD format because it became one of the first feature films released on DVD in the United States. Oh, and it had extras. What a great time.

[00:54:33] So as I mentioned before, widely credited with raising audience expectations for large scale CGI effects. And it was one of the defining block summer blockbusters of the 1990s. Several real storms interrupted the filming. So it forced the crew to pause production on multiple occasions. Yeah, that would have been annoying. Not annoying, but like insane. Yes. Very meta.

[00:54:59] So the fictional tornado research device Dorothy was inspired by the real world TOTO, Totable Tornado Observatory, a portable weather instrument used by storm chasers. Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton performed many of their own stunts and scenes inside the moving vehicles.

[00:55:21] And after Bill Paxton died in 2017, the Spotter Network choreographed 200 storm chasers to spell out BP with their GPS tracker blips on a radar display to honor him. This kind of tribute had only been done five times before and it was the first time it had been done for someone who wasn't a storm chaser. Oh, that's so sweet. That really is. Spotter Network. Now I have to Google it.

[00:55:49] With a very loud and bass heavy surround channel, this film was notorious for destroying surround speakers in theaters worldwide. That's crazy. I didn't know that. I know. When I read that, I was like, oh God. I love that a recording of a camel's moan was slowed down and used as the sound of the tornado. And I read this fact before I rewatched the movie and I was like, God damn it, that is a game.

[00:56:20] The town of Wakita, which was Aunt Meg's town, they actually created the Twister Museum because they wanted to celebrate and pay tribute to the movie. They have memorabilia, including photos, movie posters, and a replica of a Dorothy machine. That's pretty cool. Could add that to our road trip list. Yes. The explosion of the oil tinker was originally mistimed and was not caught on film. Whoopsie.

[00:56:51] The boat decided not to tell the studio immediately and the stunt was reset and filmed again, costing a rumored $500,000. Luckily, that movie made back so much money. Yeah. I bet the studio was like, the fuck you do? Right. Now they're like, eh, it's okay. Get this, Jackie. Oh my God. In an early scene when Philip Seymour Hoffman is sitting on a lawn chair, he lifts his leg in the air while laughing.

[00:57:19] His genitals were fully visible for a split second. It was edited out of the DVD and VHS releases, but it was leaked from VHS screeners sent to industry professionals. Damn. Now I have to look up Philip Seymour Hoffman's Twister lawn chair. Yeah. And both Joss Whedon and Stephen Zalian were brought in as script doctors at a fee of $100,000 a week.

[00:57:49] Jesus, I want to know what they were fixing. Yeah. Well, that tanker that pushes Bill's pickup off the tree is Benthic Petroleum, which is the same oil company that Ed Harris' crew worked for in The Abyss. Interesting. Helen Hunt turned down Matilda in favor of this movie. Helen Hunt was going to be Miss Honey? Me? I said that's the only role that makes sense.

[00:58:19] I've never seen Matilda, so I couldn't tell you. Okay. Well, I don't even know what to say. I can't wait for us to watch it. Did you watch it when it came out or did you watch it because you had Serena? I watched it because I think, you know, like I've always watched it in clips. I've never sat down and just like watched the whole thing. But it was just like on TBS or something and I watched it. I never saw it in the theater.

[00:58:49] All right. Let's talk about some injuries because a lot of them got it. Oh boy. Helen Hunt temporarily suffered damage to her hearing after spending extended time near the powerful wind machines used during production. My God. That would have scared me so much. Yeah. Like protect your talent.

[00:59:12] She was also injured while filming the scene where the truck drives through the corn when the door was forced back into her head. For later shots, the door was wedged open. You couldn't do that to begin with? Right. Bill Paxson was temporarily blinded after bright set lighting reflected directly into his eyes while filming the drive through the F5 tornado.

[00:59:39] You know, learning stuff about like them getting hurt and then what we know about Brandon Fraser. The Power Rangers. Like Brandon Fraser from The Mummy. Like I don't even know what to say. They really were flying by the seat of their pants back then. The safety was not safetying at all. Oh my God. And days with sunshine posed a problem because they did not make the background skies look suitably stormy.

[01:00:09] So in order to fix this and prevent delays, several scenes such as the truck cab sequences had to be flooded with high intensity Klieg lights for better contrast. As a result, Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton suffered minor retinal burns through much of the filming. Oh my God. Don't worry. They were minor. Okay.

[01:00:32] Well, they suffered through the effects and the sound, but they got Academy Awards nominations for it. So I guess it makes up for it. I don't know. And they were only nominated. They didn't even win. Well, before we get into our present day ratings, just want to remind you to hit us up at NoMoreLateFeeds on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube threads, all the places.

[01:01:00] To share your reviews, what you think of this movie. If you have any comments about this episode, we love to hear from you. And Jackie, what is your present day rating? What is your present day rating of Twister? So as I was watching this, I'm like, I'm pretty sure I like the new one better. Oh, okay. So I'll give it a five day. I mean, like, I'm never going to turn down, like sitting down and watching Twister. Right. Same. Same. I'm staying at five day rental.

[01:01:29] And I really did like the second one. And people were talking about in the second one that they didn't kiss at the end. And I kind of liked that because it didn't change anything. No. You know? Well, if you have opinions about Twister or any other movie that we've done, and we need some of your recommendations because coming up this November, Danielle and I are doing

[01:01:54] No-vember, meaning that we are doing movies that both of us have never seen before. Yeah. So if you have a favorite movie that we haven't done yet and want to kind of throw it into the ring, I can't guarantee we haven't both seen it, but we do need suggestions. Yeah. I think a shout out we missed saying happy birthday to my dear friend Atiba, one of our Patreon members. Happy birthday.

[01:02:21] Well, as always, be kind and rewind.