'Twister,' 'Twisters' and the actual practice of storm chasing
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 21 July 2024
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
It's a standalone sequel to the 1996 film Twister, a box-office hit in its day which also spurred a lot of real-life research into severe storms.
We've since learned a lot about how tornadoes behave, and the technology of storm chasing has improved dramatically.
But behind these summer blockbusters is a mystery that scientists are still trying to solve: why do tornadoes form at all?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There is a mystery, elusive, unpredictable. It terrifies most scientists. |
| 0:15.0 | You could not find a happier seven-year-old boy in May 1996 than me, because my parents in their |
| 0:22.3 | utter wisdom decided to take me because my parents in their utter wisdom decided to take me and my sister to the |
| 0:25.7 | movies to see Twister. |
| 0:28.8 | Everybody underground now! |
| 0:31.8 | Come on! Get the Grand Take cover right now! In it, Helen Hunt's |
| 0:33.0 | in it, Helen Hunt leads a ragtag group of storm chasers |
| 0:39.2 | trying to launch a data gathering probe |
| 0:41.6 | into a tornado for science. |
| 0:45.0 | Bill Paxson placed her estranged husband and former Storm Chaser showing up to get her to |
| 0:50.4 | officially sign the divorce papers. |
| 0:52.1 | Whoa, whoa, you missed the page. |
| 0:55.0 | What? |
| 0:56.0 | Right here. |
| 0:57.0 | Christ, would you just sign it so we can get out of here, please? |
| 1:02.0 | Gee, she's here? |
| 1:04.0 | Yes, she's here. |
| 1:06.0 | And while that plotline lingers, a rival storm chaser, who, according to the movie, |
| 1:11.0 | is only in it for the money, |
| 1:13.7 | is trying to launch his own data probe into a tornado, |
| 1:17.4 | just as a line of powerful and dangerous storms |
| 1:20.3 | approaches Oklahoma. I'm All right, maybe Twister wasn't the most realistic depiction of a storm disaster with its airborne |
... |
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