'Twisters Storms into Theaters

No one expected a movie about the weather to be a big hit in 1996, but Twister surprised everyone by being just that. It took nearly 30 years for Hollywood to revisit the movie's success, but this weekend, an updated version of the movie called, creatively enough, Twisters will try to recapture box-office lightning. Read on for details.

Via The New York Times.

Sean Waugh holds a laptop with green, red and yellow weather radar looping as his driver rumbles down an Oklahoma highway in their government-issued truck. The vehicle holds 50 gallons of fuel, so they can chase storms all day. A rectangular cage with metal mesh covers the truck in an attempt to protect the team from hail. Hanging off the front of the hail cage are weather instruments that look like the horn of a rhinoceros charging into a storm.

The truck, called Probe One, points in one direction, and a companion, Probe Two, points in another. Tall grass flows like ocean waves, and the stop sign at a crossroads wobbles. The sky is dark gray with a hint of green. Lightning flashes on all sides.

The radio cracks. “Probe One, you want us to go?”

“Yes, go now,” says Dr. Waugh, a researcher with the National Severe Storms Laboratory.

As they disappear into the mist, another storm chaser emerges: Reed Timmer, who has a large social media following, pulls in front in one of his tank-like trucks, called the Dominator.

It’s just the scientist, the YouTube star and a lonely farmhouse.

Dr. Waugh breaks the silence, “Tornado, tornado right in front of us. See it?”

There it is, a faint gray swirl, like a twirling ballerina, emerging from the curtain of rain for a few fleeting seconds. The Dominator’s roar can be heard over the thunder as it takes off down a muddy dirt road. A satellite tornado — one that forms outside the central circulation — is 100 yards away.

With a little dramatization and some special effects, it could be a scene in the new film “Twisters.” The movie is a follow-up to “Twister,” which holds a special spot in Dr. Waugh’s heart — as it does for many who study tornadoes. The release of “Twister” in 1996 spawned a new era of storm chasing, turning what used to be a lonely scientific pursuit into something occasionally resembling a circus, drawing not just researchers but also livestreamers, storm spotters, tour vans and anyone who buys a $10 radar app to take them where the action is.

For all its impact, though, “Twister” was riddled with scientific missteps, something Dr. Waugh and his fellow scientists were determined to help “Twisters” avoid.

Kevin Kelleher, a semiretired researcher who was a part-time consultant on the original and spent two years consulting on “Twisters,” said the filmmakers, including the executive producers Steven Spielberg and Ashley Jay Sandberg and the director Lee Isaac Chung “were all very interested in having basic science correct.”

Have they succeeded?

Get the rest of the story at The New York Times.