Twister

Twister is a 1996 American disaster film directed by Jan de Bont from a screenplay by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin. It was produced by Crichton, Kathleen Kennedy, and Ian Bryce, with Steven Spielberg, Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, and Gerald R. Molen serving as executive producers. The film stars an ensemble cast that includes Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz, Cary Elwes, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alan Ruck, Todd Field, and Jeremy Davies as a group of amateur but spirited storm chasers trying to deploy a tornado research device during a severe outbreak in Oklahoma. Twister was released in theaters on May 10, 1996. It is notable for being the first film to be released on DVD in the United States. Twister grossed $495 million worldwide and became the second-highest-grossing film of 1996; it sold an estimated 54.7 million tickets in the United States. It received generally positive reviews from critics and received Academy Award nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound. A sequel, Twisters, is scheduled for a July 2024 release. Plot On an Oklahoma farm in 1969, young Jo, her parents, and their dog, take shelter from an F5 tornado that ultimately destroys their farm and kills Jo's father. Twenty-seven years later, Jo is a tornado-obsessed meteorologist who leads a rag-tag team of storm chasers. Jo's estranged husband, Bill Harding, an ex-storm chaser turned TV weatherman, travels to Oklahoma with his fiancée, Melissa Reeves, a therapist, to ensure that Jo signs their divorce papers. Jo had used the papers to lure Bill back and show him the realized "Dorothy", a capsule-like device containing hundreds of small weather sensors that he conceptualized. Dorothy could revolutionize tornado research and potentially provide an earlier storm-warning system, but the device must be deployed dangerously close to a tornado to work. Jo's team rushes off to chase a developing storm, failing to sign the divorce papers and forcing an intrigued Bill, with Melissa along for the ride, to follow them into the gathering storms. Along the way, Bill encounters Jonas Miller, a rival storm chaser and former colleague with corporate funding who stole Bill's idea for a Dorothy-like device. Jonas plans to deploy his version first to receive sole credit. Enraged, Bill agrees to accompany Jo and the team for one day to successfully launch Dorothy. As the team pursues a developing rope tornado, Jo's truck runs into a ditch.