The movie Twister takes place in 1996 in Oklahoma. According to noaa.gov, the movie is actually based on the work of scientists at the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory. The researchers from the NOAA created TOTO which stands for the TOtable Tornado Observatory. This was created to study tornados by trying to collect weather data from inside a tornado. TOTO was what inspired the writers of Twister, Michael Crichton and Ann Marie Martin, to create a story that included a device very similar to this. In Twister, the device similar to TOTO was called Dorothy. There was also a device in the movie called D.O.T. 3. that was created by a different group of storm chasers. Although this movie is based on real technology and events, there are some major unrealistic meteorology aspects that take place throughout the movie.
There are actually a lot of problems with the movie when it comes to facts and dates. According to thevane.gawker.com, the first time that weather radar was used on television during a tornado outbreak wasn’t until 1973. In the very beginning of the movie it shows Gary England on television warning the people about a tornado with weather radar, which would not have been able to happen since the movie took place in 1996. Another thing that could not have happened in the movie was when the television was on it was saying the tornado could be a F5, and the Fujita Scale that determines the types of tornados was not developed until 1971. Also, the rating of a tornado is not determined until the damage is examined, they can’t just look at the radar and determine the tornadoes rating. These are just the unrealistic scenes in the move that have to do with the setting, there are many more.
A major unrealistic meteorology aspect I noticed in the movie was when debris and things like cows, cars, tractors, and houses were being flung into the outside of the tornado. In a real tornado debris is lifted into a tornado on the inside of it, there aren’t just huge objects circulating around it. No one is going to witness a flying cow spiraling on the outside of a tornado. Also, lightening is able to be seen by people before thunder can be heard due to the fact that light travels faster than sound. In the movie thunder and lightning is happening at the same time all throughout it. The tornadoes in this movie were also forming very intensely out of nowhere, which would not happen in real life. The formation of a tornado is a process and can be detected to form in advance. The tornados moved in an unrealistic way in the movie as well. They were very fast and went in any pattern they wanted, whereas in real life tornados follow a distinct pattern.
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In the movie, the cloud formations are also quite off. I was not able to identify any wall clouds which are the clouds that can cause a tornado to form. I would expect to see these clouds in the movie and be able to point them out. The weather in the movie is made to look extremely severe though. Another very unrealistic aspect of the movie was how close the storm chasers were to the tornados. I personally feel like there is no way they could get that close to the tornados and be alive. They put themselves in extremely dangerous situations and survived throughout the whole movie. This would not have happened in real life, and no one should be that excited to go chase an extremely dangerous tornado.
In Twister, the tornadoes lasted for a very large amount of time. Normally tornadoes do not last all day and night, that is actually very rare. Several tornados can occur throughout a day but the same tornado will not stay in formation all day. This was a big unrealistic aspect I noticed while the tornados were occurring. The places people would take shelter in the movie was also rather questionable. In the scene where people are at the drive-in movie they run into a large and very unstable building to take shelter. The building was made of very thin material, it was almost like a big storage shed with very little coverage to it. I think that the building was also made out of a tin or some type of metal, which is very unsafe during a storm. That part was very unrealistic to me because I would know just by looking at the building that I would not be protected under it.
Although the scenes from the movie are very well filmed and the weather is made to look very realistic, the film could have definitely improved by being portrayed as more of a real-life disaster by the audience, especially those who know a lot about meteorology. I feel that if this film would have improved in the way the people went about the severe weather situations in the movie and if the tornado formation and damages were more in depth and life like then it would have added a lot more seriousness to the movie. Despite the unrealistic meteorology aspects of the movie it was a great movie and was very interesting. I feel that there can be a lot learned from watching it, especially for what not to do during a tornado. It is a very fascinating movie since majority of people have never seen tornados in person.
