Back in 1996, a disaster movie came along that gave us a whole new appreciation – and fear – of extreme weather. Jan de Bont followed up his ‘bomb on a bus’ high-concept action movie Speed with Twister – which followed a rag-tag team of storm-chasers around the Midwest and Southern US states.
In a very cool video which Entertainment Tonight shared for Twister’s 25th anniversary in 2021, Bill Paxton gives viewers a tour of a ‘spinning’ house from a scene in which he and Helen Hunt drive through a farmhouse which has been blown into their path by a tornado. It’s great to see the practical set, with a very wonky staircase, floors which have become walls and so on.
During the set tour, Paxton says; “This movie’s going to do for tornadoes what Jaws did for sharks. It’s going to make people a little trepidatious – when they see some wall clouds or some dark clouds coming towards them.”
Just as Paxton did with Titanic, where he got to know the real-life story behind the movie well thanks to his buddy James Cameron, it’s clear that Paxton has a fascination with tornadoes. “That’s what is cool about this movie, so much about tornadoes is almost surrealistic. They can do things that defy the laws of physics. They can stick a feather through the side of a car, they can pick things up and carry them for hundreds of miles…”
A follow-up to Twister released in 2024. It included new Superman actor David Corenswet, Kiernan Shipka, Sasha Lane, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos, Glen Powell, Daryl McCormack, and Brandon Perea.
Check out our guide to the best adventure movies.