Disaster movies are easily one of my favourite subgenres and when they’re done well, they can deliver some of the most intense, fully engrossing action sequences you can put on the screen. It’s been (and I have to sigh to myself as I do the quick math and realize how much time has passed) almost 30 years since Twister was released, and with its sequel Twisters on the horizon, what better way to celebrate the original than to give it the 4K treatment?
So all these years later, does Twister hold up? Well, first and foremost, when going to watch a disaster movie you’re always better off to turn your brain off at the door because even if they add scientific elements to bring a sense of realism to the threat, you’re still going to have a plethora of moments where your lead characters are surviving things that nobody should live through while almost everyone else is picked off along the way.
What’s shocking with Twister is that the main team of storm chasers is rather large at, I believe it’s 10 members, but there may be one or two more I’m missing. You’d think that they’d be there as tornado fodder, because that’s often what these movies need to keep the tension rising, but they’re actually rarely in danger. The majority of the time we’re alongside Dr. Jo Harding (Helen Hunt) and Bill Harding (Bill Paxton), who are right in the thick of it often telling the team to stay back while they go ahead.
The story is actually simple and fun, as Bill arrives in Oklahoma with his fiancée, Dr. Melissa Reeves (Jami Gertz), because his soon-to-be ex-wife Jo has yet to sign the divorce papers he sent her. As fate would have it, however, today is predicted to be one of the busiest weather days in recent memory for the state and Jo and her team have prepared four giant capsules called Dorothy-1, Dorothy-2, and so on, each filled with hundreds of weather sensors that are a bit smaller than a baseball. This was Bill’s idea and Jo has now brought it to life, which makes him light up like a kid in a candy store. The idea is that they’ll put one of these capsules in the path of a tornado and the tornado will pick it up and the weather sensors will disperse within it, all gathering vital information about tornados and how they work that would eventually lead to a new advanced warning system that would give vital extra time to get to safety.
Not long after Bill arrives there’s a tornado sighting and the team is off to chase it down. Melissa asks if Bill wants to go with them but he’s ready to leave that life behind…that is until she asks if Jo signed the papers. With no other choice Bill and Melissa give chase to the storm chasers and the craziest day of their lives begins. What works so well with Twister is how director Jan de Bont makes the tornadoes characters in the film. The film opens in 1969, when Jo is just a little girl, and an F5 tornado strikes down upon her house and it ends up killing her dad, which is why it’s so important to her to do what she’s doing as an adult. The F5 is the largest a tornado can be and de Bon even gives it a voice, as it growls and tears through their house and the land around it. It’s adds a terrifying layer to an already incredibly scary natural event and it creates a monster that haunts Jo into adulthood when a director with less vision would’ve been content with a massive tornado just being a massive tornado and leaving it at that.
de Bont also does an incredible job of putting the audience right in the middle of these events, and while Bill and Jo have plot armor that keeps them safe, that doesn’t make these moments any less intense. His desire back in 1996 to make the audience feel like they had to dodge debris while sitting safely in a theater carries over all these years later into our living rooms. And while I’ll talk about it more in depth later, the Dolby Atmos track that this 4K release was given makes it worth the purchase alone. This movie will shake your room to the point where you’ll wonder if an actual tornado is approaching. The mix is so good, so enveloping and so intense that it brings the movie to a level that it hasn’t reached since its theatrical release.
What’s also fun with this one is just how crazy the supporting cast is, as it’s like going back to old X-Files episodes and saying, “Hey, isn’t that Ryan Reynolds?” We’ve got Philip Seymour Hoffman, Cary Elwes, Alan Ruck, as well as a number of people you may not know by name but would very likely recognize in Sean Whalen, Joey Slotnick, Jeremy Davies, Zach Genier, Patrick Fischler and Lois Smith. Paxton and Hunt do a superb job of leading the pack, getting right in the thick of things for the stunts and action so that you can see their faces in the close-ups throughout. Tom Cruise was definitely proud.
The film as a whole is solid, entertaining fun. This is a PG level disaster flick that keeps it at a level where it’s a great introductory disaster flick for younger audiences who may want to test out something a bit more intense than they’re used to, while at the same time still being thoroughly enjoyable for anyone at any age. Of course it has its cheesy moments, and you’ll have to pretend that Bill and Jo have some sort of genetic makeup that allows them to run away from one of the biggest tornadoes to ever exist without being sucked up even though its only 10 feet behind them, but if you can do that then even three decades later, Twister is still an enjoyable popcorn flick that’ll pull you in and not let go until the storm is over.
4K Blu-ray Video and Audio Review:
The video side of things look fantastic as well, with a great 2160p/HDR10 transfer that really helps bring the film to the modern day. There are a few moments early on with technology that don’t stand the test of time, such as a pretty terrible CGI space satellite shot that got a chuckle out of us while watching. I’m completely forgiving to the times and limitations, but with how mind-blowing the tornadoes look, this satellite deserves a little snicker. Still, outside of that I’d say everything holds up quite well – flying cow included! The tornadoes look terrifying, the special effects were often practical, so those also continue to work, and the details that are elevated by the 4K transfer shine through quite nicely.
One major thing of note that de Bont talks about in the new special feature made for this release is the colour correcting that was done for parts of the film. Specifically earlier on when Bill is looking out at the sky, trying to read it and figure out where the next tornado will touch down, they talk about the sky going green before a tornado hits but de Bont says they were never able to do the colouring the way he wanted back when the film was released. Here they coat the scene in a green hue that gets his vision across exactly the way he always dreamed it, much to his excitement. It looks wonderful too, and if you weren’t told about it and were watching the film for the first time you wouldn’t second guess it.
The audio was briefly touched on in the review portion and I’ll go into it some more here. The Dolby Atmos track is worth the price of admission by itself. This is a flawless transition that will put your speaker system to the test. Heck, even if you like it loud and like being surrounded by sound in these films you may still turn it down at notch. It’s just a fantastic experience that surrounds you exactly how you’d hope to be surrounded in a film where mother nature is coming at you and it feels like there’s nowhere to go. Absolutely breathtaking work done on this one.
Special Features:
***NEW*** The Legacy of Twister: Taken by the Wind – This is a new retrospective made for this release and it’s the exact type I wish that every older film being updated would get. I know it’s all about schedules and timing and such, but it’s a quick 16-minute talk with director Jan de Bont and he talks about what it was like working on the film, looks back on the special effects, working with the studio, Paxton’s work ethic, and finally getting to colour grade the film the way he’d always envisioned.
It’s a must watch for fans of the film, and I really hope more films get retrospectives like this. Even if certain parts are covered in the commentary tracks and such, it’s always nice to hear from the main people involved and how they feel looking back all these years later.
Legacy Features:
Audio Commentary – Here we have de Bont and his VFX supervisor Stefen Fangmeier talk about the film. A fun listen, as you can see how passionate de Bont is about the film, and Fangmeier offers some great insight into bringing the film to life visually.
Chasing the Storm: Twister Revisited – This feature is almost 30-minutes in length and it’s from the 2008 Blu-ray release, so 12 years after the film’s initial release. We do get to hear de Bont talk about working on the film and casting here as well, but it’s still great to get that updated thought process 20 years later, especially since he got to upgrade the colours for this 4K release and not for the original Blu-ray.
HBO First Look: The Making of Twister – This is a 14-minute behind-the-scenes look, with more cast and crew interviews and clips from the movie. It has a promotional feel, but is still interesting to hear from everyone.
Anatomy of a Twister – This featurette is just under 9-minutes in length and is fairly self-explanatory in what it’s about.
“Humans Being” Music Video – This is the Van Halen music video if you’re interested in checking it out.
Disclaimer: A review copy of this Blu-ray was sent to me to cover in honest and truthful fashion.
Warner Bros. Pictures Presents Twister. Directed by: Jan de Bont. Written by: Michael Crichton, Anne-Marie Martin. Starring: Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Cary Elwes, Alan Ruck, Sean Whalen, Joey Slotnick, Jeremy Davies, Zach Genier, Patrick Fischler, Lois Smith. Running time: 113 Minutes. Rating: PG. Released on 4K Blu-ray: July 09, 2024.
