Scientist Bill Harding (Bill Paxton) goes into the heart of Tornado Alley to retrieve his divorce papers from Jo (Helen Hunt). Their professional dream seems to be coming true, though, as Jo has created the tornado-monitoring system Bill invented. They get a chance to test this as tornadoes swiftly appear and threaten their lives and the lives of their friends throughout the following day and night.

CRITIQUE

The disaster film is a unique sub-genre of the action movie. It has it’s own trademarks and its own effect on the audience. When one is done well, the audience can get a lot of entertainment even with imperfections. Twister has the exciting action the title implies, but also appealing actors and effects that have aged surprisingly well.

A pleasing aspect of a film like this is that, as a whole, it is very upfront about what the audience can expect -- this film will feature people running from tornadoes, plain and simple. When the people behind a film like this take the time to go even further with it, whether in story or direction, it only improves the film. Author Michael Crichton was co-writer of the script so the lack of freshness for the plot is made up for with a sense of fun with a lot of the characters and a nice pace for the escalation of the drama throughout the day.

The science of the storm-chasing, with the teams racing to put a monitoring system into the funnel of a tornado, works pretty well, too. Though the addition of a “bad guy” who is a fellow scientist trying to do the same thing can be a bit melodramatic, I do like that there is a moment where the importance of what they are all trying to accomplish overrides everything else. Plus, seeing Cary Elwes is always good.

This leads me to the cast here. De Bont seems to have a nose for this aspect of directing, as he gathered a lot of talented actors together. Hunt and Paxton are amazing separately and form a nice groove together. Aside from Elwes, the supporting cast is a coup too. Alan Ruck and Jamie Gertz are particularly great. Best of all, though, is future Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his earliest roles. His Dusty is hilarious and one of the most memorable parts of the film.

Another is the tornadoes themselves. Stunning special effects fill this movie and it is quite surprising how they’ve stood the test of 12 years time so well. The use of CGI is so commonplace now that we have to remember how new is still actually was even three years after Jurassic Park. Each cyclone really does seem real and an effort was clearly made to make each one seem unique. Exciting action enhanced by stellar special effects is only the most conspicuous part of the fun of Twister, which includes the talented cast.

THE VIDEO

The widescreen format here is perfect, both in transfer and for this film. There are no color or picture glitches and the action of this film takes on the right scope in widescreen.

THE AUDIO

The English track is in Dolby Digital surround 5.1, which is reliably excellent, but the French language track is also in the format. This is rarer and a nice feature. There are also subtitles offered for both languages.

THE EXTRAS

Audio Commentary: Director De Bont and visual effects supervisor Stefan Fangmeier join for a track, and it is a fairly good listen. The accents of the two men may be a roadblock for some listeners, but most will have no problem discerning all the info they discuss. There are the usual comments about how and when certain shots were achieved and praise for the actors. We learn how much digital paint work went into simply the stormy skies we see in the film, not just the tornadoes. Best of all may be that De Bont reveals he bought the metal sculpture seen in the film.

Chasing the Storm: This half-hour behind-the-scenes doc is new and full of great information. Notably absent from the interviews is Hunt, but the on-set photos and new discussions from director De Bont, lead actor Paxton, and effects leader Fangmeier make up an excellent extra. We learn a LOT about how the twister effects were accomplished then, in the early days of CGI. The amount of effects done practically is impressive, like the fact that the tanker truck that was made out of light weight aluminum and rubber was moved with a crane to get most of what we see in that memorable sequence.

Nature Tech: The History Channel aired this excellent documentary on the science of tornadoes. The in-depth discussion of the technology used to track storms and try to predict which will turn into tornadoes is truly exhaustive and its fascinating to get a look at what the future of tornado-monitoring might look like. It’s amazing to see the very first photo and film recording made of a tornado as well.

Anatomy of a Twister: This is an 8-minute featurette created upon the film’s release with interviews from De Bont, Fangmeier, and producer Kathleen Kennedy, as well as on-set interviews with Paxton, Cary Elwes, and Jamie Gertz. A bit dated now, but it’s nice to see the actors who aren’t in the new featurette above.

HBO First Look: This aired when the film was released, so again it’s dated but this is the only extra to have an interview with lead actress Hunt. Other interviews keep this entertaining, though most of the info is covered in the other extras, especially the new featurette.

Music Video: Van Halen’s “Humans Being” is the song here and it’s a good one from the film. The video is the usual clips/performance by band mix.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Twister has the promised exciting action wrapped up in slick effects which have held up well, but also a terrific cast. De Bont’s direction lacks no polish either. The extra features on this 2-disc “Special Edition” could have been more recent but the new documentary is nice, so this is the version to buy. Especially if you don’t already own Twister on DVD.