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* FootDraggingDivorcee: Bill Harding is only there in tornado-alley at the time because he came there to badger his wife Jo into finally signing the divorce papers. Subverted in that they [[ComedyOfRemarriage wind up back together]] and never do get the papers signed.
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* FootDraggingDivorcee: Bill Harding is only there in tornado-alley at the time because he came there to badger his wife Jo into finally signing the divorce papers. Subverted in that they [[ComedyOfRemarriage wind up back together]] and never do get the papers signed. (She ''did'' sign them...but only ''after'' Bill's new fiancee leaves him.)
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*** The most famous of these (at least in the Oklahoma City area) was KWTV chief meteorologist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_England Gary England]], a pioneer in television weather reporting, who also served as a technical consultant. England's weather reporting has labeled him as one of the most trusted people in Oklahoma.
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** An Oklahoma example. Several weathermen and news anchors actually have those in real life.
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* PlotHole: Jonas makes a sarcastic comment about Bill's job performance on a job Bill doesn't have yet.
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* CarFu: Bill and Jo do this to make sure the last Dorothy probe makes it into the tornado; setting the truck on cruise control and jumping out, looking on as it plows head-on into the F5 tornado.
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* RealPlaceBackground: Jo's aunt Meg lives in Wakita, an actual town in northern Oklahoma. Shooting took place in the actual town and several buildings were demolished to give the look of the community getting decimated by a tornado.
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* {{Drive-In Theater}}: The twister attacks one.
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* {{Drive-In Theater}}: The twister One of the twisters attacks one.
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* FacePlant: Bill slams face-first into the back window of the truck when Jo slams on the brakes while he's in the back prepping the Dorothy probe during the third chase.
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* HeyItsThatGuy: Led by Patron Saint [[{{Terminator}} B]][[Film/{{Aliens}} i]][[Film/TrueLies l]][[Film/{{Titanic}} l]] [[WeirdScience P]][[{{Tombstone}} a]][[{{Predator 2}} x]][[{{Apollo13}} t]][[BigLove o]][[Film/SpyKids n]]
to:
* HeyItsThatGuy: Led by Patron Saint [[{{Terminator}} B]][[Film/{{Aliens}} i]][[Film/TrueLies l]][[Film/{{Titanic}} l]] [[WeirdScience P]][[{{Tombstone}} a]][[{{Predator 2}} x]][[{{Apollo13}} x]][[Film/{{Apollo 13}} t]][[BigLove o]][[Film/SpyKids n]]
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* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Jonas' villainy is largely an Informed Trait. He does nothing legally wrong (unlike the heroes), and is only guilty of being a tremendous douche. Keep in mind, this was a [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece Mid-90's film]], and selling out to "The Man" was a mortal sin in 90's pop culture. No wonder he took a [[TheresNoKillLikeOverKill cell tower to the chest]].
to:
* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Jonas' villainy is largely an Informed Trait. He does nothing legally wrong (unlike the heroes), and is only guilty of being a tremendous douche. Keep in mind, mind though, this was a [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece Mid-90's mid-90's film]], and selling out to "The Man" was a mortal sin in 90's pop culture. No wonder he took a [[TheresNoKillLikeOverKill cell tower to the chest]].
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* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Jonas' villainy is largely an Informed Trait. He does nothing legally wrong (unlike the heroes), and is only guilty of being a tremendous douche.
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* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Jonas' villainy is largely an Informed Trait. He does nothing legally wrong (unlike the heroes), and is only guilty of being a tremendous douche. Keep in mind, this was a [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece Mid-90's film]], and selling out to "The Man" was a mortal sin in 90's pop culture. No wonder he took a [[TheresNoKillLikeOverKill cell tower to the chest]].
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* VillainyFreeVillain: Jonas, for daring to accept funding for his experiments and "copying" the design of a tracking device ''he helped develop in the first place''. Really, the only thing that makes him a villain is his rudeness. It becomes doubly silly when you realize that most storm chasers out there would ''kill'' to receive actual funding!
to:
* VillainyFreeVillain: Jonas, for daring to accept funding for his experiments and "copying" the design of a tracking device ''he helped develop in the first place''. Really, the only thing that makes him a villain is his rudeness. It becomes doubly silly when you realize that most storm chasers out there would ''kill'' to receive actual funding!funding, and that there's a corporation out there wealthy and interested enough in storm chasing to fully outfit a team of 20 people with state-of-the-art equipment!
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* VillainyFreeVillain: Jonas, for daring to accept funding for his experiments and implementing a tracking device he helped develop in the first place. Really, the only thing that makes him a villain is his rudeness. It becomes doubly silly when you realize that most storm chasers out there would ''kill'' to receive actual funding!
to:
* VillainyFreeVillain: Jonas, for daring to accept funding for his experiments and implementing "copying" the design of a tracking device he ''he helped develop in the first place.place''. Really, the only thing that makes him a villain is his rudeness. It becomes doubly silly when you realize that most storm chasers out there would ''kill'' to receive actual funding!
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Crosswicking trope
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* SuperCellReception: The Jami Gertz character had a cell phone which was immune to atmospheric conditions, such as giant tornadoes.
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** The potential for ReviewIronicEcho wasn't entirely avoided, though, since they left in some lines describing "the Suck Zone," which [[SnarkBait several reviewers had fun with]].
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* TrailerParkTornadoMagnet: Notably averted here, of all movies. Although tornadoes devastate several farmhouses, two towns, a {{drive-in theater}} and a whole bunch of empty fields, they never once whack a trailer park.
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* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Jonas
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* DroppedABridgeOnHim: JonasJonas gets blown up by tornado debris for no real reason.
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* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Even though she and her dog have just been rescued from a house so badly damaged by an F4 tornado that the structure collapses shortly thereafter, and she herself has suffered numerous injuries related to same, Jo's aunt continues to insist that she can drive herself to the hospital right up until Rabbit informs her that her car is in a tree around the corner.
** Justified in that she is likely concussed, in shock, or both after having her house cave in on top of her. Also, after a loss like that, she may be desperate to control ''something'' in her life.
** Justified in that she is likely concussed, in shock, or both after having her house cave in on top of her. Also, after a loss like that, she may be desperate to control ''something'' in her life.
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* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Even though she and her dog have just been rescued from a house so badly damaged by an F4 tornado that the structure collapses shortly thereafter, and she herself has suffered numerous injuries related to same, Jo's aunt continues to insist that she can drive herself to the hospital right up until Rabbit informs her that her car is in a tree around the corner.
** Justified incorner. While this seems silly, it's also plausible that she is likely concussed, in shock, she's suffering from shock or both after having her house cave in on top of her. Also, after a loss like that, she may be desperate to control ''something'' in her life.concussion from the experience and thus isn't thinking logically.
** Justified in
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* ProductPlacement: At time the movies feels like a two hour Chrysler commercial.
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* ProductPlacement: At time times, the movies movie feels like a two hour Chrysler commercial.
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* RealityIsUnrealistic: The film received some flack from film critics for the number of tornadoes to appear in a short time frame. While this is unusual, the current record for tornadoes in a single 24 hour period is ''206''. This was in 2011. Before that, the record was 148 in 1974, which the movie, made in 1994, likely used for their reference point. While a large number of tornadoes at once is unusual, storms that spawn multiple tornadoes aren't uncommon either.
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* AnachronismStew: The first scene is set in 1969 and contains numerous errors of the time period.
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* AnachronismStew: The first scene is set in 1969 and contains numerous errors of the time period. Jo's father mentions the tornado bearing down on his home as possibly an F5, when the Fujita scale wasn't established until 1972.
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YMMV item
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* FoeYay: Jo and Jonas both have blond hair, and Jo can be a diminutive of Jonas. Let's face it, the fact Bill and Jo finally get back together after Jonas's death is no coincidence; he was more of a threat to their relationship than Melissa ever was. The only thing left to wonder is if the powers-that-be consciously realised what they were doing or not.
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Not to be confused with the [[BoardGame party game]] or the ''[[SimilarlyNamedWorks other]]'' [[SimilarlyNamedWorks film]] from 1989 with the same name, which happens to be a comedy.
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Tagline: Corrected to \"The Dark Side Of Nature\"
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* {{Tagline}}: Originally it was going to be [[IncrediblyLamePun "It Sucks"]], but the potential for [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin critical snark off the line]] made them change it to the less-catchy "The Fury Of Nature".
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* {{Tagline}}: Originally it was going to be [[IncrediblyLamePun "It Sucks"]], but the potential for [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin critical snark off the line]] made them change it to the less-catchy "The Fury Dark Side Of Nature".
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-->'''Dusty:''' Look on the bright side... Dorothy flew!
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-->'''Dusty:''' Look on the bright side... Dorothy flew!Well, there's some ''good'' news... I mean, it ''did'' fly...
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Removing wick to Did Not Do The Research per rename at TRS.
Deleted line(s) 31,34 (click to see context) :
* DidNotDoTheResearch: One character says that the National Severe Storms Laboratory is ''predicting'' an F5. [[http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/f-scale.html Tornadoes are not given a rating until the damage (if any) has been studied.]] You'd think a professional storm chaser would know that, but noooooo...
** And this could have been avoided if they had included a comment saying that wind speeds associated with a certain category of tornado had been picked up in the various tornadoes that they mentioned the ranking of. While the wind speed isn't included as a factor in determining the tornado's classification, there are ranges of wind speed commonly associated with each category.
** Somewhat averted with the interior of the funnel. There exist some accounts of people managing to see that interior of a tornado. Only "somewhat" averted in that the interior has been described as having an eerie glow with intense lightning providing the illumination. The movie's depiction only has occasional flashes of lightning.
** The first scene in 1969 mentions that the storm might be a F5 which is amazing given that the Fujita Scale wasn't invented until 1971.
** And this could have been avoided if they had included a comment saying that wind speeds associated with a certain category of tornado had been picked up in the various tornadoes that they mentioned the ranking of. While the wind speed isn't included as a factor in determining the tornado's classification, there are ranges of wind speed commonly associated with each category.
** Somewhat averted with the interior of the funnel. There exist some accounts of people managing to see that interior of a tornado. Only "somewhat" averted in that the interior has been described as having an eerie glow with intense lightning providing the illumination. The movie's depiction only has occasional flashes of lightning.
** The first scene in 1969 mentions that the storm might be a F5 which is amazing given that the Fujita Scale wasn't invented until 1971.
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* [[ChekhovaGun Chekhov's Truck]]: Jo's truck in the first tornado chase sequence, that gets picked up and dropped onto the road, is a foreshadowing of how they'll eventually need to get their project "off the ground".
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* [[ChekhovaGun [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Truck]]: Jo's truck in the first tornado chase sequence, that gets picked up and dropped onto the road, is a foreshadowing of how they'll eventually need to get their project "off the ground".
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* [[ChekhovaGun Chekhov's Truck]]: Jo's truck in the first tornado chase sequence, that gets picked up and dropped onto the road, is a foreshadowing of how they'll eventually need to get their project "off the ground".
-->'''Dusty:''' Look on the bright side... Dorothy flew!
-->'''Dusty:''' Look on the bright side... Dorothy flew!
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* RagtagBandOfMisfits: The team run by Cary Elwes' character are corporate sponsored, and all drive matching black automobiles, uniforms, and act professional. The team run by Helen Hunt, on the other hand, drive [[TheAllegedCar their own cars]], dress in street clothes and act insane.
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* RagtagBandOfMisfits: The team run by Cary Elwes' character are corporate sponsored, and all drive matching black automobiles, uniforms, vans, wear uniforms and act professional. The team run by Helen Hunt, on the other hand, drive [[TheAllegedCar their own cars]], dress in street clothes and act insane.
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* RagtagBandOfMisfits: The team run by Cary Elwes' character are corporate sponsored, and all drive matching black automobiles, uniforms, and act professional. The team run by Helen Hunt, on the other hand, drive their own [[Alleged Car]]s, dress in street clothes and act insane.
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* RagtagBandOfMisfits: The team run by Cary Elwes' character are corporate sponsored, and all drive matching black automobiles, uniforms, and act professional. The team run by Helen Hunt, on the other hand, drive [[TheAllegedCar their own [[Alleged Car]]s, cars]], dress in street clothes and act insane.
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* RagtagBandOfMisfits: The team run by Cary Elwes' character are corporate sponsored, and all drive matching black automobiles, uniforms, and act professional. The team run by Helen Hunt, on the other hand, drive their own [[Alleged Car]]s, dress in street clothes and act insane.
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** Justified in that she is likely concussed, in shock, or both after having her house cave in on top of her.
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** Justified in that she is likely concussed, in shock, or both after having her house cave in on top of her. Also, after a loss like that, she may be desperate to control ''something'' in her life.
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* MajorInjuryUnderreaction:
* Even though she and her dog have just been rescued from a house so badly damaged by an F4 tornado that the structure collapses shortly thereafter, and she herself has suffered numerous injuries related to same, Jo's aunt continues to insist that she can drive herself to the hospital right up until Rabbit informs her that her car is in a tree around the corner.
* Even though she and her dog have just been rescued from a house so badly damaged by an F4 tornado that the structure collapses shortly thereafter, and she herself has suffered numerous injuries related to same, Jo's aunt continues to insist that she can drive herself to the hospital right up until Rabbit informs her that her car is in a tree around the corner.
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* MajorInjuryUnderreaction:
*MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Even though she and her dog have just been rescued from a house so badly damaged by an F4 tornado that the structure collapses shortly thereafter, and she herself has suffered numerous injuries related to same, Jo's aunt continues to insist that she can drive herself to the hospital right up until Rabbit informs her that her car is in a tree around the corner.
*
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Changed line(s) 67 (click to see context) from:
* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Even though she and her dog have just been rescued from a house so badly damaged by an F4 tornado that the structure collapses shortly thereafter, and she herself has suffered numerous injuries related to same, Jo's aunt continues to insist that she can drive herself to the hospital right up until Rabbit informs her that her car is in a tree around the corner.
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* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Even MajorInjuryUnderreaction:
*Even though she and her dog have just been rescued from a house so badly damaged by an F4 tornado that the structure collapses shortly thereafter, and she herself has suffered numerous injuries related to same, Jo's aunt continues to insist that she can drive herself to the hospital right up until Rabbit informs her that her car is in a tree around thecorner.corner.
** Justified in that she is likely concussed, in shock, or both after having her house cave in on top of her.
*Even though she and her dog have just been rescued from a house so badly damaged by an F4 tornado that the structure collapses shortly thereafter, and she herself has suffered numerous injuries related to same, Jo's aunt continues to insist that she can drive herself to the hospital right up until Rabbit informs her that her car is in a tree around the
** Justified in that she is likely concussed, in shock, or both after having her house cave in on top of her.
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[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/twister.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Don't breathe. Don't look back. The tornado's vision is based on movement.]]
An iconic film of 1996, at the height of the DisasterMovie revival. ''Twister'' tells the story of a RagTagBunchOfMisfits who chase tornadoes for a living. The main duo are scientist Dr. Jo Harding (Helen Hunt) and her former husband Bill Harding (Bill Paxton). Among the many others is Dr. Melissa Reeves (Jami Gertz), Harding's current fiancée, providing a LoveTriangle of sorts. Also a tale of ''vengeance'' against the tornadoes that deprived a little girl of her father. Also a villainous ''evil'' team of tornado chasers that seek to beat Our Heroes to the punch at a scientific breakthrough.
''Twister'' was popular not because of its groundbreaking or interesting plot. The love-story is hackneyed and loaded with instant characterization and tornadoes ''do not work that way''. The real draw of ''Twister'' was its ground-breaking special effects featuring some of the most realistic and thrilling images of tornadoes ever created for film. This isn't ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' (though the film does feature a "Dorothy" in it...)
The film went on to become the number-two top grossing film of 1996 and its special effects won it numerous awards. While remembered these days with less fondness due to the lack of an interesting plot, it is credited for spawning a whole new generation of tornado chasers. ''Twister'' was also the first film ever released on DVD ''AND'' the last film put out on HD DVD in the U.S. (though the very last HD DVD worldwide was a German release of ''DeathProof'').
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!!Tropes:
* AnachronismStew: The first scene is set in 1969 and contains numerous errors of the time period.
* [[BlackHelicopter Black Van]]: The corporate storm-chasers drive a fleet of black vehicles, presumably to show they're the bad guys.
* BlondGuysAreEvil: Jonas.
* ButtMonkey: Melissa
* CarMeetsHouse: In the final tornado chase sequence, Bill and Jo drive their truck ''through'' a house that had been torn off its foundations and ''rolled'' onto the road in front of them.
-->'''Bill:''' ''[as the house rolls in front of them with no time for them to evade]:'' I think we're going in!
-->'''Bill:''' ''[afterwards]:'' Maybe we should get off this road.
** A tornado does this with a station wagon into the side of a a service center garage the protagonists are taking cover in.
* CasualDangerDialog
-->'''Jo:''' Can I drive?
-->'''Bill:''' No!
-->'''Jo:''' Then would ''you''?
-->'''Bill''' ''[noticing truck has drifted off the road and is about to run into a parked combine harvester]:'' Whoa!
** And of course, "We've got cows!"
* ComedyOfRemarriage: The main drama of the film is about how long it will take before Bill and Jo get back together - Bill arrives at the start of the film to collect the signed divorce papers from Jo and brings his fiance with him.
* CoolOldLady: Jo's Aunt Meg. Artist, inspiration to Jo, awesome cook, beef farmer, and has just enough BadAss in her that she insists she'll drive herself to the hospital after a twister completely devastates her house and puts her car in a tree.
* DanBrowned: [[http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wtmovie.htm Tornadoes do not work that way!]]
* TheDanza: Bill Paxton as Bill Harding.
* DevelopingDoomedCharacters: While the film opens with a tornado destroying a farm, much of the film is filler with the "kooky" team and the relationship drama instead of tornadoes destroying things. Hey, they only have so much money to spend on the effects.
* DidNotDoTheResearch: One character says that the National Severe Storms Laboratory is ''predicting'' an F5. [[http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/f-scale.html Tornadoes are not given a rating until the damage (if any) has been studied.]] You'd think a professional storm chaser would know that, but noooooo...
** And this could have been avoided if they had included a comment saying that wind speeds associated with a certain category of tornado had been picked up in the various tornadoes that they mentioned the ranking of. While the wind speed isn't included as a factor in determining the tornado's classification, there are ranges of wind speed commonly associated with each category.
** Somewhat averted with the interior of the funnel. There exist some accounts of people managing to see that interior of a tornado. Only "somewhat" averted in that the interior has been described as having an eerie glow with intense lightning providing the illumination. The movie's depiction only has occasional flashes of lightning.
** The first scene in 1969 mentions that the storm might be a F5 which is amazing given that the Fujita Scale wasn't invented until 1971.
* DisposableFiance: Melissa.
* DoNotTouchTheFunnelCloud: One of the most notorious offenders.
** Though there are descriptions of the inflow jets, using layman's terms. The depictions, however, are still lacking.
** Jonas' truck does get picked up, circles, and then gets hurled without ever actually touching the funnel cloud itself.
* {{Drive-In Theater}}: The twister attacks one.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Jonas
* EverythingsBetterWithCows: The iconic scene was so popular that the real-world [=NOAA=] named their cafeteria the Flying Cow Cafe after the film.
* EvilTwin: Used as a joke when Bill's buddies are telling embarrassing stories to his fiance. He blames the stories on Evil Bill, who he killed.
* FakeAmerican: The very British Cary Elwes as the very southern Jonas, though he's ''supposed'' to be from the Midwest and his accent is hard to place.
* FoeYay: Jo and Jonas both have blond hair, and Jo can be a diminutive of Jonas. Let's face it, the fact Bill and Jo finally get back together after Jonas's death is no coincidence; he was more of a threat to their relationship than Melissa ever was. The only thing left to wonder is if the powers-that-be consciously realised what they were doing or not.
* FootDraggingDivorcee: Bill Harding is only there in tornado-alley at the time because he came there to badger his wife Jo into finally signing the divorce papers. Subverted in that they [[ComedyOfRemarriage wind up back together]] and never do get the papers signed.
* GilliganCut:
** After one of the team points out to Jo they're near her Aunt Meg's house.
--->'''The team:''' We crave sustenance. Food. Food. Fooood! [chanting]
--->'''Jo:''' No. We are absolutely not going.
--->[next shot has them pulling up in front of Aunt Meg's house]
** After Jo's truck ends up totalled on its roof after the first chase.
--->'''Jo:''' It's a very pretty truck [about Bill's brand-spanking-new Dodge Ram]
--->'''Melissa:''' [oblivious] Thankyou!
--->'''Bill:''' Don't even think about it. [nods] No way.
---> [cut to Bill's truck with Dorothy installed in the back]
* HateSink: You can't really boo a series of tornadoes, so that's what Jonas is there for, the smug idea-stealing corporate-funded bastard.
** Jo ''tries'', though. She feels that she's seen tornadoes "miss this house, and miss that house, and come after [people]!"
* HeyItsThatGuy: Led by Patron Saint [[{{Terminator}} B]][[Film/{{Aliens}} i]][[Film/TrueLies l]][[Film/{{Titanic}} l]] [[WeirdScience P]][[{{Tombstone}} a]][[{{Predator 2}} x]][[{{Apollo13}} t]][[BigLove o]][[Film/SpyKids n]]
** [[Series/{{Lost}} Faraday, Phil and Frogurt]]
** [[Film/ThePrincessBride Westley/The Dread Pirate Roberts]] is Jonas.
*** And [[{{Rent}} Mark Cohen]] is one of his assistants!
*** [[FightClub The Narrator's Boss]] is his driver!
** [[Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff Cameron Fry]] is Rabbit!
** [[BoogieNights Philip]] [[TheBigLebowski Seymour]] [[{{Capote}} Hoffman]] at his goofy finest.
** [[NipTuck Bobolit]]!
** [[MadAboutYou Jamie Buchman]]
* LargeHam: Cary Elwes hams up pretty much every scene he's in.
* LoveCannotOvercome: Melissa breaks up with Bill before he goes chasing after the final tornado because, in her words, "I can't compete with this."
* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Even though she and her dog have just been rescued from a house so badly damaged by an F4 tornado that the structure collapses shortly thereafter, and she herself has suffered numerous injuries related to same, Jo's aunt continues to insist that she can drive herself to the hospital right up until Rabbit informs her that her car is in a tree around the corner.
* MissingTrailerScene: The tractor tire flying at a windshield.
* NaiveNewcomer: Bill's current fiance, Dr. Melissa Reeves, acts in part as an excuse for explanations of general tornado knowledge.
* PlotInducedStupidity: The father in the opening scene. The winds are coming close to ripping the door off the storm cellar so instead of going with his wife and child to the obvious safety in the back of the underground storm cellar he tries to hold the door back, [[YouKilledMyFather thus getting ripped away to his death and setting up Jo's backstory]].
* ProductPlacement: At time the movies feels like a two hour Chrysler commercial.
** Dodge Ram -- when you absolutely, positively have to drive into a tornado.
** Plus, when they give the Dorothy probes wings by using every aluminum can they can find, all of the cans are Pepsi.
* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Jonas' villainy is largely an Informed Trait. He does nothing legally wrong (unlike the heroes), and is only guilty of being a tremendous douche.
* RelationshipSalvagingDisaster: Chasing storms brings Bill and Jo back together.
* RunningGag: The device that the group came up with getting knocked over and its sensor bulbs getting spilled everywhere whenever they try to use it near a tornado.
* SeriousBusiness: Storm chasing, apparently.
* ShoutOut: [[Series/GetSmart "It's the cone of silence!"]]
** [[StarWars "That's no moon, it's a space station!!"]]
** The tornado device is called [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Dorothy]]. Of course, real scientists also do this kind of thing. Case in point, Dorothy is based on a real tornado device called [[http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/toto.htm TOTO]]
** The flying cows that twist in distress as they're blown around may be a ShoutOut to a silly shot in ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', in which a cow floats past that's just standing placidly in mid-air.
* SmugSnake: Jonas.
* {{Tagline}}: Originally it was going to be [[IncrediblyLamePun "It Sucks"]], but the potential for [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin critical snark off the line]] made them change it to the less-catchy "The Fury Of Nature".
* TheRedStapler: Sales of red Dodge Ram pickup trucks increased notably after this film's release.
* TooDumbToLive: Jonas, who pointedly ignores Jo and Bill's warning about his vehicle and the placement of the oncoming Twister just because they don't like each other. He even ignores his own driver who expresses the same concern and has even less motivation to see them both die a windy death.
** Don't forget Jo's father at the start of the movie. You're safe in storm shelter, but you look at the door and see it rattling. What do you do? If you answered with stay the frell away, congratulations! You're smarter than he was. His wife and daughter do exactly this and live.
* VillainyFreeVillain: Jonas, for daring to accept funding for his experiments and implementing a tracking device he helped develop in the first place. Really, the only thing that makes him a villain is his rudeness. It becomes doubly silly when you realize that most storm chasers out there would ''kill'' to receive actual funding!
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[[caption-width-right:300:Don't breathe. Don't look back. The tornado's vision is based on movement.]]
An iconic film of 1996, at the height of the DisasterMovie revival. ''Twister'' tells the story of a RagTagBunchOfMisfits who chase tornadoes for a living. The main duo are scientist Dr. Jo Harding (Helen Hunt) and her former husband Bill Harding (Bill Paxton). Among the many others is Dr. Melissa Reeves (Jami Gertz), Harding's current fiancée, providing a LoveTriangle of sorts. Also a tale of ''vengeance'' against the tornadoes that deprived a little girl of her father. Also a villainous ''evil'' team of tornado chasers that seek to beat Our Heroes to the punch at a scientific breakthrough.
''Twister'' was popular not because of its groundbreaking or interesting plot. The love-story is hackneyed and loaded with instant characterization and tornadoes ''do not work that way''. The real draw of ''Twister'' was its ground-breaking special effects featuring some of the most realistic and thrilling images of tornadoes ever created for film. This isn't ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' (though the film does feature a "Dorothy" in it...)
The film went on to become the number-two top grossing film of 1996 and its special effects won it numerous awards. While remembered these days with less fondness due to the lack of an interesting plot, it is credited for spawning a whole new generation of tornado chasers. ''Twister'' was also the first film ever released on DVD ''AND'' the last film put out on HD DVD in the U.S. (though the very last HD DVD worldwide was a German release of ''DeathProof'').
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!!Tropes:
* AnachronismStew: The first scene is set in 1969 and contains numerous errors of the time period.
* [[BlackHelicopter Black Van]]: The corporate storm-chasers drive a fleet of black vehicles, presumably to show they're the bad guys.
* BlondGuysAreEvil: Jonas.
* ButtMonkey: Melissa
* CarMeetsHouse: In the final tornado chase sequence, Bill and Jo drive their truck ''through'' a house that had been torn off its foundations and ''rolled'' onto the road in front of them.
-->'''Bill:''' ''[as the house rolls in front of them with no time for them to evade]:'' I think we're going in!
-->'''Bill:''' ''[afterwards]:'' Maybe we should get off this road.
** A tornado does this with a station wagon into the side of a a service center garage the protagonists are taking cover in.
* CasualDangerDialog
-->'''Jo:''' Can I drive?
-->'''Bill:''' No!
-->'''Jo:''' Then would ''you''?
-->'''Bill''' ''[noticing truck has drifted off the road and is about to run into a parked combine harvester]:'' Whoa!
** And of course, "We've got cows!"
* ComedyOfRemarriage: The main drama of the film is about how long it will take before Bill and Jo get back together - Bill arrives at the start of the film to collect the signed divorce papers from Jo and brings his fiance with him.
* CoolOldLady: Jo's Aunt Meg. Artist, inspiration to Jo, awesome cook, beef farmer, and has just enough BadAss in her that she insists she'll drive herself to the hospital after a twister completely devastates her house and puts her car in a tree.
* DanBrowned: [[http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wtmovie.htm Tornadoes do not work that way!]]
* TheDanza: Bill Paxton as Bill Harding.
* DevelopingDoomedCharacters: While the film opens with a tornado destroying a farm, much of the film is filler with the "kooky" team and the relationship drama instead of tornadoes destroying things. Hey, they only have so much money to spend on the effects.
* DidNotDoTheResearch: One character says that the National Severe Storms Laboratory is ''predicting'' an F5. [[http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/f-scale.html Tornadoes are not given a rating until the damage (if any) has been studied.]] You'd think a professional storm chaser would know that, but noooooo...
** And this could have been avoided if they had included a comment saying that wind speeds associated with a certain category of tornado had been picked up in the various tornadoes that they mentioned the ranking of. While the wind speed isn't included as a factor in determining the tornado's classification, there are ranges of wind speed commonly associated with each category.
** Somewhat averted with the interior of the funnel. There exist some accounts of people managing to see that interior of a tornado. Only "somewhat" averted in that the interior has been described as having an eerie glow with intense lightning providing the illumination. The movie's depiction only has occasional flashes of lightning.
** The first scene in 1969 mentions that the storm might be a F5 which is amazing given that the Fujita Scale wasn't invented until 1971.
* DisposableFiance: Melissa.
* DoNotTouchTheFunnelCloud: One of the most notorious offenders.
** Though there are descriptions of the inflow jets, using layman's terms. The depictions, however, are still lacking.
** Jonas' truck does get picked up, circles, and then gets hurled without ever actually touching the funnel cloud itself.
* {{Drive-In Theater}}: The twister attacks one.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Jonas
* EverythingsBetterWithCows: The iconic scene was so popular that the real-world [=NOAA=] named their cafeteria the Flying Cow Cafe after the film.
* EvilTwin: Used as a joke when Bill's buddies are telling embarrassing stories to his fiance. He blames the stories on Evil Bill, who he killed.
* FakeAmerican: The very British Cary Elwes as the very southern Jonas, though he's ''supposed'' to be from the Midwest and his accent is hard to place.
* FoeYay: Jo and Jonas both have blond hair, and Jo can be a diminutive of Jonas. Let's face it, the fact Bill and Jo finally get back together after Jonas's death is no coincidence; he was more of a threat to their relationship than Melissa ever was. The only thing left to wonder is if the powers-that-be consciously realised what they were doing or not.
* FootDraggingDivorcee: Bill Harding is only there in tornado-alley at the time because he came there to badger his wife Jo into finally signing the divorce papers. Subverted in that they [[ComedyOfRemarriage wind up back together]] and never do get the papers signed.
* GilliganCut:
** After one of the team points out to Jo they're near her Aunt Meg's house.
--->'''The team:''' We crave sustenance. Food. Food. Fooood! [chanting]
--->'''Jo:''' No. We are absolutely not going.
--->[next shot has them pulling up in front of Aunt Meg's house]
** After Jo's truck ends up totalled on its roof after the first chase.
--->'''Jo:''' It's a very pretty truck [about Bill's brand-spanking-new Dodge Ram]
--->'''Melissa:''' [oblivious] Thankyou!
--->'''Bill:''' Don't even think about it. [nods] No way.
---> [cut to Bill's truck with Dorothy installed in the back]
* HateSink: You can't really boo a series of tornadoes, so that's what Jonas is there for, the smug idea-stealing corporate-funded bastard.
** Jo ''tries'', though. She feels that she's seen tornadoes "miss this house, and miss that house, and come after [people]!"
* HeyItsThatGuy: Led by Patron Saint [[{{Terminator}} B]][[Film/{{Aliens}} i]][[Film/TrueLies l]][[Film/{{Titanic}} l]] [[WeirdScience P]][[{{Tombstone}} a]][[{{Predator 2}} x]][[{{Apollo13}} t]][[BigLove o]][[Film/SpyKids n]]
** [[Series/{{Lost}} Faraday, Phil and Frogurt]]
** [[Film/ThePrincessBride Westley/The Dread Pirate Roberts]] is Jonas.
*** And [[{{Rent}} Mark Cohen]] is one of his assistants!
*** [[FightClub The Narrator's Boss]] is his driver!
** [[Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff Cameron Fry]] is Rabbit!
** [[BoogieNights Philip]] [[TheBigLebowski Seymour]] [[{{Capote}} Hoffman]] at his goofy finest.
** [[NipTuck Bobolit]]!
** [[MadAboutYou Jamie Buchman]]
* LargeHam: Cary Elwes hams up pretty much every scene he's in.
* LoveCannotOvercome: Melissa breaks up with Bill before he goes chasing after the final tornado because, in her words, "I can't compete with this."
* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Even though she and her dog have just been rescued from a house so badly damaged by an F4 tornado that the structure collapses shortly thereafter, and she herself has suffered numerous injuries related to same, Jo's aunt continues to insist that she can drive herself to the hospital right up until Rabbit informs her that her car is in a tree around the corner.
* MissingTrailerScene: The tractor tire flying at a windshield.
* NaiveNewcomer: Bill's current fiance, Dr. Melissa Reeves, acts in part as an excuse for explanations of general tornado knowledge.
* PlotInducedStupidity: The father in the opening scene. The winds are coming close to ripping the door off the storm cellar so instead of going with his wife and child to the obvious safety in the back of the underground storm cellar he tries to hold the door back, [[YouKilledMyFather thus getting ripped away to his death and setting up Jo's backstory]].
* ProductPlacement: At time the movies feels like a two hour Chrysler commercial.
** Dodge Ram -- when you absolutely, positively have to drive into a tornado.
** Plus, when they give the Dorothy probes wings by using every aluminum can they can find, all of the cans are Pepsi.
* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Jonas' villainy is largely an Informed Trait. He does nothing legally wrong (unlike the heroes), and is only guilty of being a tremendous douche.
* RelationshipSalvagingDisaster: Chasing storms brings Bill and Jo back together.
* RunningGag: The device that the group came up with getting knocked over and its sensor bulbs getting spilled everywhere whenever they try to use it near a tornado.
* SeriousBusiness: Storm chasing, apparently.
* ShoutOut: [[Series/GetSmart "It's the cone of silence!"]]
** [[StarWars "That's no moon, it's a space station!!"]]
** The tornado device is called [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Dorothy]]. Of course, real scientists also do this kind of thing. Case in point, Dorothy is based on a real tornado device called [[http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/toto.htm TOTO]]
** The flying cows that twist in distress as they're blown around may be a ShoutOut to a silly shot in ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', in which a cow floats past that's just standing placidly in mid-air.
* SmugSnake: Jonas.
* {{Tagline}}: Originally it was going to be [[IncrediblyLamePun "It Sucks"]], but the potential for [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin critical snark off the line]] made them change it to the less-catchy "The Fury Of Nature".
* TheRedStapler: Sales of red Dodge Ram pickup trucks increased notably after this film's release.
* TooDumbToLive: Jonas, who pointedly ignores Jo and Bill's warning about his vehicle and the placement of the oncoming Twister just because they don't like each other. He even ignores his own driver who expresses the same concern and has even less motivation to see them both die a windy death.
** Don't forget Jo's father at the start of the movie. You're safe in storm shelter, but you look at the door and see it rattling. What do you do? If you answered with stay the frell away, congratulations! You're smarter than he was. His wife and daughter do exactly this and live.
* VillainyFreeVillain: Jonas, for daring to accept funding for his experiments and implementing a tracking device he helped develop in the first place. Really, the only thing that makes him a villain is his rudeness. It becomes doubly silly when you realize that most storm chasers out there would ''kill'' to receive actual funding!
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