Kelly Burget

ATMO-1010

04/26/17

How Accurate is The Movie Twister?

I have always loved the movie Twister. This movie came out in 1996 and was directed by

Jan De Bont. This movie, in case anyone has not seen it, is about two storm chasers and their

teams going after a powerful tornado to test an advanced storm alert system that the team had

developed. The system needs to be taken up by a tornado so the team can track the tornado from

the inside. This movie is about their crazy adventures tracking down storms and finally getting a

tornado to accept their storm testing system. The tornados keep this film moving in a fast and
interesting pace as the characters try and keep up and learn more along the way. I highly

recommend this movie to anyone who has not seen it yet.

Tornados do not form out of thin air. Tornados come from strong thunderstorms that

include hail, lightening, and high winds. The thunderstorm can form a tornado when strong

winds form into a column of air coming from a cumulonimbus cloud all the way to the ground.

The strong winds in the column are then a power tornado causing massive destruction over

everything it passes by.

As most of us know, we see some crazy storms in this movie. The tornados they

show are terrifying and very fascinating at the same time, at least they are while you

are safe in the comfort of your own home. Even though this movie is great and very

well done, there are a few things they did get wrong in this seemingly flawless movie.

The movie came out in 1996, but the story took place in 1969. This does not seem

like a big deal, but in the movie the tornado warnings the characters see on TV
classified the storm an F5. The problem with this is that the Fujita Scale that the F5 is

based off was not developed until 1971. There was no way they could have known

the storm was an F5 at the time this movie was set in. Another problem with this

movie is when the first tornado hit. The two main characters become stranded and

take cover under a bridge. This may seem fine, but that is one of the worst places to

take cover during a tornado. In reality, they would have been sucked up and gotten

several injurys, or mostly likely would not have survived. In this movie, there are

many references to how strong a tornado is. The characters seem to know a strength

of a tornado just by looking at it. According to The Vane written by Dennis Mersereau

We can't know the strength of a tornado by looking at it, nor can meteorologists

predict the strength of a tornado. Wind speeds are estimated based on the damage it

produces, or on very rare occasions, when Doppler radar or instruments on the ground

are able to directly measure it. There is no way the characters in this movie could

have known how powerful any of the tornados in this film until after they had

already passed.
This film does have some flaws that are not realistic, but this film did get some scenes correct in

the real world. The scene that shows multiple tornados may seem like it could never really

happen, but it can. According to AL.com written by Kelly Kazek That couldnt happen in real

life," critics said. Anyone who recalled the April 3, 1974, Super Tornado Outbreak that struck

Alabama knew otherwise. Not only was Alabama hit that day by a record three F5 tornadoes,

the strongest in intensity, Limestone County was hit twice within an hour by tornadoes

moving on the same path. While multiple tornados in one place is very rare, it can happen. It

is said that multiple tornados in one place happens about every 40 years. (Kazek)

Even though this movie had a few flaws in the science of tornados, they did a good job

overall. The few flaws they did have we mostly due to knowing what tornado warnings and

equipment they had access to during the time this movie was set in. Tornados are very scary, but

luckily with the help of scientists and storm chasers, we are getting better at predicting tornados
and increasing warning times. By expanding our knowledge on tornados and increasing warning

times, we will be able to save more and more people who live in tornado affected areas. This is a

great movie that did a very good job of showing what tornados are really like. Despite the few

flaws, watching this movie is how I imagine what surviving through a tornado would be like in

real life.

Works Cited

Mortillaro, Nicole. "The Science behind Tornadoes: What They Are and How They

Form."Global News. N.p., 11 Apr. 2016. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

Mersereau, Dennis. "Here's Everything They Got Wrong (and Right) in the

Movie Twister."Gawker. The Vane, 24 July 2014. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

Kkazek@al.com, Kelly Kazek |. "Real vs. Reel: How Much Is Fiction in Tornado Films 'Into

the Storm,' 'Twister?'" AL.com. N.p., 25 Apr. 2015. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

"Twister+movie+pictures." Google Search. Google, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.