Twister (1996) / Entering the Suck Zone #1
We had to reshuffle some of our summer schedule, but in anticipation of the new Twisters film, we revisit the OG of 90s natural disaster films with the Bill Paxton & Helen Hunt vehicle, 'Twister'. Please excuse some of our audio in this episode as our hosts recorded this episode LIVE in studio and there were a few technical issues, but it doesn't detour from the great time we had talking about this film. Later that night the three of us headed out to our local IMAX theater for a screening of 'Twisters'. Tune in next week for our review on the that!
03:50 Weekly Question
09:40 Jan de Bont & Movie Facts
21:04 Bee's review
23:33 Sam's review
27:07 Nathan's review
58:34 The Fate of Twister: Save or PURGE!
Take our Poll - Help shape the future of our Podcast!
Sign up for new online newsletter, Frame Rate Monthly. Email backtotheframerate@gmail.com to subscribe.
Find all our episodes here on your preferred Podcast app:
https://backtotheframerate.com
Back to the Frame Rate is on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/backframerate/
Be sure to Follow us
https://www.facebook.com/backtotheframerate
https://www.instagram.com/backtotheframerate/
https://twitter.com/backframerate
https://www.tiktok.com/@backtotheframerate
Email us at backtotheframerate@gamil.com
Follow Back to the Frame Rate on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/Backframerate/
Follow Nathan on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/nathansuher/
Follow Bee on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/mambobumbles/
Copyright © Weston Media Center, Inc.
Transcript
The dying embers of human existence.
Opening:As the asteroid, a behemoth the size of Texas, hurtles relentlessly toward Earth,
Opening:the world braces for an apocalyptic end.
Opening:Deep beneath the bunker, a refuge plunges into the bowels of the Earth.
Opening:Here the chosen gather, their purpose clear, to preserve the
Opening:very soul of our civilization.
Opening:The 35 and 70 millimeter prints that encapsulate the magic, the emotion,
Opening:and the dreams of generations past.
Opening:These masterpieces, each frame a testament to the human spirit,
Opening:are carefully cataloged and cradled confines of the bunker.
Opening:Perhaps there was room for more.
Opening:For friends and family yearning for salvation, but sacrifices must be made.
Opening:The movie nerds stand united, the keepers of a flame, promising a future where the
Opening:art of storytelling endures, transcending the boundaries of time and space.
Opening:God help us all.
Bee:I can't hear anything.
Nathan:Can't hear anything?
Nathan:I
Nathan:close my eyes Only for a moment And the moment's gone
Sam:All
Sam:the years Pass before my
Sam:eyes A
Opening:curiosity
Sam:Dust
Sam:in the wind All the hours
Nathan:Welcome to Back to the Framerate, part of the Westin Media Podcast Network.
Nathan:Join us as we watch and discuss films on VOD and streaming platforms, deliberating
Nathan:on whether each one is worthy of salvation or destined for destruction in the face
Nathan:of the impending asteroid apocalypse.
Nathan:You can find more episodes of this podcast on backtotheframerate.
Nathan:com where you can subscribe and share.
Nathan:And find our shows on our socials at back to the frame rate.
Nathan:I am Nathan Shore and accompanying me are the extraordinary movie mavens,
Nathan:Brianna Butterworth and Sam Cole.
Nathan:Woo.
Nathan:Hello everyone.
Nathan:We have a special episode today.
Nathan:Cause if you're watching this, you can see that we're all in one room.
Nathan:And what is up with that?
Nathan:This is weird.
Nathan:This is so weird, like I can reach out and touch you guys.
Nathan:I'm so used to like
Sam:being in my little bubble and like pressing the mute button when I eat chips
Sam:and like doing all of my shenanigans.
Sam:Now I can't do that.
Sam:Well, we still have to do
Nathan:that because, V,
Sam:you brought the, the Popcorners?
Sam:I did, I brought
Nathan:chips.
Nathan:This episode is brought to you by Popcorners.
Nathan:Sweet chili, my favorite flavor of Popcorners.
Nathan:It's really
Nathan:good.
Nathan:We need them to now start sponsoring us.
Nathan:Mm hmm.
Sam:You're in for a treat, because we have decided to dedicate this entire
Sam:episode to saving the environment.
Sam:Just kidding.
Sam:Good
Sam:for
Nathan:us.
Nathan:So, I'm gonna finish munching my popcorn.
Nathan:And also you brought the, the albino strawberries.
Nathan:I
Bee:did.
Nathan:Those were fantastic.
Nathan:They're
Bee:pretty good.
Bee:I
Nathan:said before, I'm into any fruit that is a color that it should not be.
Bee:I like it.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:I
Bee:like that about you.
Bee:Where do you stand on just green versions of fruit, green apples,
Nathan:green grapes.
Nathan:Well, you know, green apples tend to be, are usually the Granny Smith
Nathan:apples that I find to be sour apples.
Nathan:And I don't like my apples super sour.
Nathan:Okay.
Nathan:I do like them to be tart, but not too sour.
Nathan:So I'm into like the Honeycrisp or Cortland or, you know.
Nathan:It's the
Bee:podcast about apples.
Bee:Yeah.
Bee:Love to
Nathan:start that.
Nathan:We are, have a movie we're going to talk about this week, but.
Nathan:I do have a question to ask both of you, and I'm so happy about this because
Nathan:I get to see the expression on your faces in real time as I ask you this.
Nathan:This is a serious one, but that's, you know, that's what I do here.
Nathan:I like, I like to get real with my co hosts.
Nathan:This is important.
Nathan:In an alternate reality, each of you separately are a rogue storm chaser
Nathan:that use advanced technology to manipulate Tornadoes for financial gain.
Nathan:You have discovered a way to subtly influence weather patterns, creating and
Nathan:directing tornadoes to specific locations.
Nathan:You target areas with valuable assets such as gold reserves, rare artifacts,
Nathan:and sensitive corporate data, and use the ensuing chaos to execute elaborate heists.
Nathan:But a protagonist in the story, we'll call him Bert has stumbled upon your
Nathan:scheme while investigating unusual storm behaviors, and he eventually
Nathan:thwarts your masterful plan.
Nathan:In the end, you have been convicted of crimes against nature, and a judge has
Nathan:decided you can choose your punishment.
Nathan:You must select one of these forms of punishment as your sentence.
Nathan:Do you select the Cone of Silence?
Nathan:The Finger of God?
Nathan:Or the suck zone.
Nathan:These are all medieval torture devices.
Bee:I've entered the suck zone.
Sam:I would say the cone of silence because it sounds
Sam:like the least painful one.
Sam:Like it's just quiet, like.
Bee:I think I deserve it.
Bee:I'm rough in this, in this future.
Sam:Finger of God is too close to being like raped, you know,
Sam:because I don't want that.
Sam:Okay.
Nathan:This is the terminology.
Nathan:This movie, by the way, if you hadn't guessed, we watched Twister
Nathan:this week, but the terminology in this movie is so erotic, I found it.
Sam:Has anybody ever seen an F5 figure of God?
Sam:I'm sorry,
Nathan:the suck zone, the finger of God, like, was anyone else turned on?
Nathan:Come on.
Bee:This is a horny movie.
Nathan:Oh yeah.
Nathan:Everyone's all wet and like, like snuggled up with each other.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:Anyways, it was a very roundabout way of introducing the phrases.
Nathan:I struggle with these people.
Nathan:Yeah, we watched Twister this week.
Nathan:The reason why we watched Twister this week is because, you
Nathan:know, we have been, um, getting ready for Twister's coming out.
Nathan:Actually come, came out like yesterday, I think, and we're tonight,
Nathan:we're going to the IMAX to see it.
Nathan:So we are, we're going to see it later tonight.
Nathan:So but how does the 1996 twister stack up?
Nathan:It doesn't hold up.
Nathan:We're going to find out.
Nathan:So I have, so as I said, we're here, we're here together to see the movie
Nathan:tonight, but that's why we're here in one room to record this podcast.
Nathan:And unfortunately, I don't know why you can't hear the.
Nathan:The the opening, and
Bee:I'll hear it when it comes out.
Bee:Oh, I didn't, I
Sam:I was, I was talking, I shouldn't have been talking during the opening,
Sam:but I didn't think it started.
Sam:I couldn't hear it, so,
Nathan:no, I, no, I, I guess I, the headphones.
Nathan:You, you can't hear the thing.
Nathan:Oh.
Nathan:Anyways, I guess you'll hear it and when the episode comes out, and
Nathan:then you'll, then you'll get off.
Nathan:Surprise.
Nathan:I worked so hard on that.
Nathan:Oh.
Nathan:And all our audience might laugh, but I'm not gonna tell you what
Nathan:I, what, what I did, so, okay.
Nathan:Oh, a new opening.
Nathan:All right.
Nathan:Special opening.
Nathan:Anyways, but, I have a plot synopsis in a trailer,
Sam:the info thing.
Sam:I forgot about that.
Nathan:That's okay.
Nathan:You know, we're, we're winging this one here today.
Nathan:People my aside of plot synopsis here and is during the approach of
Nathan:the most powerful storm in decades.
Nathan:University professor, Dr.
Nathan:Joe Harding, played by Helen Hunt, and an unfunded team of students
Nathan:repair the prototype Dorothy, a groundbreaking tornado data gathering
Nathan:device conceived by her estranged husband, Bill, played by Bill Paxton.
Nathan:When Harding tells Bill that Dorothy is ready for testing, he says, And
Nathan:that their privately funded rival, Dr.
Nathan:Jonas Miller has stolen the idea and built his own.
Nathan:Bill rejoins the team for one last mission.
Bee:Yeah, sure.
Bee:Doesn't do this movie justice.
Bee:A
Nathan:little bit more to it than that, but here is the
Nathan:trailer for 1996's Twister.
Trailer:There is a mystery,
Trailer:elusive, unpredictable, violent, it terrifies most scientists, but for a new
Trailer:breed, the challenge is saving lives.
Trailer:The research is deadly.
Trailer:The laboratory is nature itself.
Trailer:And potentially it could be a storm that has a wind in excess.
Nathan:All right.
Bee:Yeah.
Nathan:A lot of, a lot of wind and screaming.
Bee:Yeah.
Nathan:Yeah,
Bee:it sounds right.
Nathan:Yeah.
Bee:Just like the movie.
Nathan:So 1996 Twister, non debant.
Nathan:His second feature film.
Bee:Yeah, this is coming on the heels of Speed.
Nathan:Yeah.
Bee:Sick.
Nathan:That's pretty cool.
Nathan:He did quite a run.
Nathan:He also was a well known DP as well.
Nathan:I think, Sam, you're gonna bring us some facts.
Nathan:We can talk a little bit about it.
Nathan:I think there's a lot to say about Jan Daman, actually.
Nathan:But he was I think he DP'd Die Hard and a bunch of really well known movies.
Nathan:But we're gonna get into it.
Nathan:Black
Bee:Rain.
Nathan:Black Rain?
Nathan:Oh,
Bee:wow.
Bee:What
Nathan:movie did we talk about early this year that he DP'd?
Nathan:I was trying to remember.
Nathan:Black Rain.
Nathan:Black Rain, yeah.
Nathan:He
Sam:DP'd the third Lethal Weapon too, I think.
Sam:He was everywhere.
Sam:He was, he was the DP in the, in the 90s.
Sam:Yeah.
Sam:I remember that cause like Lethal Weapon 1 and 2 are all like night
Sam:shoots and like 3 is like sunset, daytime, daylight, afternoon.
Nathan:I'm gonna look it up right now cause, you know, we can't
Nathan:circle this and not talk about it.
Nathan:So y'all are divine.
Nathan:As a cinematographer, I got started in the early seventies, a lot of the
Nathan:stuff in the seventies, not much that I know of in the seventies, but by the
Nathan:eighties, all the right moves Jewel of the Nile, Ruthless People, Leonard Part
Nathan:VI, maybe not his crowning achievement, but then he did Die Hard, Black Rain,
Nathan:Hunt for Red October, Lethal Weapon 3, Basic Instinct and then he was on
Nathan:his way to directing his own films.
Nathan:So I think
Bee:I heard an interview with him and he's like directing is where he had wanted
Bee:to be and Dping was just sort of the means to the end for a while for him But
Bee:this the onset stories of him are crazy.
Bee:I don't know if either of you heard though there We'll get into it even in
Nathan:this movie.
Nathan:There's some
Sam:craziness going on.
Sam:So yeah, I Met Philip Seymour Hoffman briefly in the year 2000.
Sam:He was doing a play called True West in New York.
Sam:And after he came out of the theater, I walked up and talked to him and
Sam:I was like 19 and I was like, Mr.
Sam:Hoffman, like you've done a lot of really good character driven movies, like Boogie
Sam:Nights, and you've worked with Paul.
Sam:Thomas Anderson.
Sam:Was it fun making Twister?
Sam:Was it fun making working with Jan de Bont?
Sam:And he was like, no, not, he was like, he was like, not as much.
Sam:Like he kind of yelled a lot.
Sam:Like the other movies were way better, man.
Sam:And that was like the extent of my conversation.
Sam:That's
Bee:the impression I got listening to some behind the scenes.
Sam:But he was very like talking.
Sam:He wasn't like, who is this?
Sam:Like, he was very like approachable.
Sam:Like he was like, you could talk to him.
Sam:It was cool.
Sam:That's cool.
Sam:Yeah, it's notable for being the first film to be released
Sam:on DVD in the United States.
Sam:One of the
Nathan:first.
Nathan:Yep.
Nathan:It was the first commercially released film.
Nathan:I actually wrote the date, like May of 1997, I think I saw here.
Sam:We should
Nathan:mark that in our calendars.
Nathan:This was
Sam:definitely a lot, like, budget.
Sam:March 25th,
Nathan:March 25th, 1997, yeah.
Sam:Budget 19 92 million box office, 495 million.
Sam:And this is in 1996.
Sam:Like it was the second biggest hit of the year, but yeah, worldwide.
Sam:Yeah.
Nathan:May 10th, 1996 was the release date.
Nathan:That's what
Sam:I vividly, for some reason, I don't remember a lot of.
Sam:I'll, like, sort of remember it going to some movies, but like, Twister, I remember
Sam:clearly seeing that in the theater.
Sam:Like, I remember, like, where my friends were sitting.
Sam:I remember, like, when I had to go to the bathroom and come back.
Sam:Like, it's very clear for some reason in my head.
Sam:I don't know why.
Bee:I'm so jealous.
Bee:So, Sam knows.
Bee:Mayna, I don't know if you know.
Bee:I saw Twister for the first time, like, three months ago.
Bee:Oh, wow.
Bee:Yeah.
Bee:This is only my second time.
Bee:I thought
Nathan:you were, like, a long time.
Nathan:I know.
Nathan:Like, you know.
Nathan:That's so cool
Sam:that you liked it though.
Sam:Like I was surprised, I was thrilled you liked it.
Sam:I had no idea that you would like it that much.
Sam:Yeah, it's a
Bee:great movie.
Nathan:Any other
Sam:Oh yeah.
Sam:It's edited by Michael Kahn, Steven Spielberg's go to editor
Sam:cinematography by Jack N.
Sam:Green, starring Helen Hunt, Bill Paxson, Jamie Girtz, Carrie Elwes, the late
Sam:great Philip Seymour Hoffman, obviously the late great Bill Paxson Todd and I
Sam:want to give a shout out to Alan Ruck.
Sam:Oh yeah.
Sam:Succession.
Sam:Succession and Ferris.
Sam:Bueller.
Sam:Cameron.
Sam:Cameron.
Sam:Yeah.
Sam:I I always go, I always go.
Sam:It all goes back to Cameron.
Sam:Yeah.
Sam:Yeah.
Sam:But he has a lot of great random lines in this movie, including,
Sam:he was like, what road are we on?
Sam:He's like, it's probably Bob's Road.
Sam:I was like,
Sam:That's great.
Sam:So yeah, twisters gross, 495 million worldwide.
Sam:Became the second highest grossing film of 1996.
Sam:It received generally positive reviews from critics and received
Sam:an Academy Award nomination for best visual effects and best sound.
Sam:I don't know.
Sam:It, I know it didn't win best visual effects.
Sam:That was independent to say, I don't know if it won best sound and lost
Nathan:to the English patient.
Sam:Oh, interesting.
Sam:I can see that.
Sam:That makes, I mean, that's, that's the best
Nathan:visual effects and also one, a golden raspberry.
Nathan:For worst written film grossing over 100 million.
Nathan:Oh,
Sam:wow.
Sam:I just, I didn't know that Spielberg himself was originally attached to
Sam:direct the project and directors.
Nathan:This movie's got Spielberg's DNA all over it.
Bee:It's an Amlin movie, right?
Bee:It is.
Bee:Directors
Sam:such as James Cameron, John Badham, Tim Burton, and Robert Zemeckis
Sam:were also in talks to helm before Yonner Vaughn signed on to direct it.
Sam:Twister after leaving Godzilla to create a difference.
Sam:So thank God, screw
Sam:Godzilla, man.
Sam:Roman Emmerich is like, I
Nathan:will
Sam:sweep right in and like, I feel so that, that movie, there
Sam:was a, like this really brief non sequitur, but like Godzilla
Sam:underperformed in the summer of 98.
Sam:And then the New York times had this big,
Nathan:No, Godzilla actually.
Nathan:It got panned by critics and audiences,
Sam:but it was a huge hit.
Sam:It didn't do well.
Sam:I mean, in the U.
Sam:S.
Sam:it didn't do as like, it didn't do well.
Sam:Like it only, it barely like made over a hundred million like domestic
Sam:and there was a big cartoon.
Sam:Godzilla, like looking sad and scared, like with his like hand his pause
Sam:on his head and all the executives were standing around him in a circle
Sam:like, why aren't you making us money?
Sam:Stupid lizard.
Sam:And that was like the funniest cartoon Godzilla.
Sam:It didn't bomb.
Sam:It just was not like they marketed as the biggest hit ever.
Sam:And like arm Armageddon, like crushed it in other films.
Sam:I mean it, it
Nathan:made 379 million at the box.
Sam:Worldwide, but in the U S like it did not, it did
Nathan:not make like Armageddon money.
Nathan:It was supposed to
Sam:be like the big, it was supposed to be like independence day in 1998.
Sam:And it was just like,
Nathan:it
Sam:whimpered.
Nathan:Okay.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:It was not like number one that summer or anything like that, but yeah, it was
Nathan:a, it was a disappointment all around.
Sam:Yeah.
Sam:I didn't know John Badham wanted to, that would have been interesting.
Nathan:I have a couple notes as well, I'll throw in there.
Nathan:Cinematographer Jack N.
Nathan:Green, he did a ton of work with Leastwood back in the 80s.
Nathan:I thought his movie looked really good.
Nathan:He did tons of, Heartbreak Ridge, Deadpool, Pink Cadillac,
Nathan:The Rookie, Unforgiven, Perfect World, Bridges of Madison County.
Nathan:We also did two other non demonic ones, Twister, oh, this
Nathan:Twister, Twister and Speed 2.
Nathan:So, we had a lot of allegiance to these directors.
Nathan:Composer, Mark Mancina.
Nathan:Speed, Bad Boys, Money Train, Train Day, Con Air, and Moana, actually.
Nathan:So, we went on to do a lot of things.
Nathan:Are
Bee:we excited for Moana 2?
Bee:No.
Bee:Not at all.
Bee:No, no, no, no, no.
Bee:No.
Bee:Oh.
Bee:The trailer doesn't excite me.
Sam:Helen Hunt was DuPont's first choice to play Jo Thornton Harding, and
Sam:while the studio was reluctant because of her lack of big roles, he insisted,
Sam:considering her a good actress that could deliver the physical demands of the role.
Sam:Hunt initially was uninterested declaring that I just don't know what I could
Sam:really contribute acting wise, but changed her mind after having lunch with
Sam:Devont and Spielberg at Amblin's offices.
Opening:Who wouldn't
Sam:change their mind after having lunch with Spielberg?
Sam:He's got to be in this movie, but okay.
Nathan:The original tagline for this movie was it sucks.
Nathan:I was reading, which I love that.
Nathan:I think that the marketing team They probably thought like that probably is
Nathan:not the best way of selling this movie.
Sam:This has, the movie has the best the best MPA rating comment
Sam:ever in the history of cinema.
Sam:It's rated PG 13 and I quote it for depictions of very intense weather.
Sam:I don't
Nathan:see how this movie was rated PG 13.
Nathan:Was there any, like, on screen violence or vulgarity in this movie at
Sam:all?
Sam:You know, like, a little bit.
Sam:There's some blood.
Sam:There's some blood.
Sam:The guy gets
Sam:impaled with the spike.
Sam:It's like PG 13.
Sam:It's not PG 13, like, bloody, but it's like PG 13 intensity level.
Sam:Storms and cars and, you know.
Sam:The auto club.
Bee:Aunt Meg, you know,
Nathan:she survived.
Nathan:I mean, that was the ultimate like Spielberg paintbrush
Nathan:move where Meg survives.
Nathan:Like if this was a real serious movie that I would have taken her out in a heartbeat.
Nathan:She needed to go anyways two other casting notes.
Nathan:Tom Hanks was this close to being in the role of Bill.
Nathan:Interesting.
Nathan:And Garth Brooks was considered for the role of Jonas.
Sam:Interesting.
Nathan:The Kerry Owens role.
Nathan:Weird.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:And one other thing with Yondamont his original camera crew walked
Nathan:off the set because of I guess internal conflicts with him.
Nathan:He did not get along with his original camera crew.
Nathan:And then Jack and Green.
Nathan:Was brought on and then he got injured.
Nathan:I think it was part of the house, the house that was rolling on that
Nathan:part of the shoot, he got injured, couldn't complete the movie.
Nathan:So Jan de Bont says like, he wrote up this, he's like, well, I can direct and,
Nathan:and be the cinematographer for this as, you know, he seems like he might be a
Nathan:little bit of an egomaniac and he took over both roles to complete the movie.
Sam:Jan de Bonten?
Sam:Yes.
Sam:Wow.
Sam:I know that he was very, he had a comment about the new twisters.
Sam:He's like.
Sam:Back then I combined a lot of like reality with CG and he's like they can't
Sam:do anymore But he was basically like Helen Hunt and and and Bill Paxton got
Sam:blinded During like one lightning thing and like they like had ice thrown at
Sam:them Like it was very like brutal like when I spoke to Philip Seymour often for
Sam:like a second his eyes were Like I could see him recounting the memory of it.
Sam:And he was like, Oh, that's like, Hey, just, you could just see it.
Sam:You know what I mean?
Sam:Like he was like, he
Nathan:wanted to do this movie because he, he's quote saying,
Nathan:this is going to be one of the last opportunities to do a movie like this.
Nathan:So much of it is done practically the sun work.
Nathan:So that, that's what attracted him to this.
Sam:I, I love that.
Sam:I also, I didn't know this filming was originally to take place in the
Sam:United Kingdom and California, which sounds like a terrible idea, but
Sam:debaunt insisted the film be shot on location in Oklahoma because he felt the
Sam:twister could be the last great action movie, not shot on a soundstage, man.
Sam:I am glad they shot in Oklahoma.
Sam:Like that movie needed to be in the heartland open fields.
Sam:Like I can't imagine them.
Sam:location to try to be Oklahoma.
Sam:That was a good call right there.
Nathan:All right.
Nathan:I think we've done a lot of trivia facts about this.
Nathan:Why don't we get into my thoughts in this film?
Nathan:Sam, I think no, Pete, sure.
Nathan:You do the short straw.
Nathan:You're going to lead us into this.
Bee:That's okay.
Bee:I love this movie.
Bee:I thought this was so great.
Bee:Again.
Bee:I didn't see it as a kid.
Bee:I'm coming to it as an adult, but I, I love it.
Bee:You know, I, I see the Amblin paintbrush over it 100%.
Bee:I get why people think this might be overly saccharine.
Bee:I understand, you know, maybe wanting more action.
Bee:I don't know.
Bee:I think this movie hits all of the beats that I want it to hit.
Bee:There it's so rich and textured.
Bee:There's so many characters that you're introduced to right away.
Bee:I was sort of thinking earlier, you know, what are some great other
Bee:natural disaster movies where the disaster plays the antagonist.
Bee:But really, you could also look at this as another great assemble the team.
Bee:It's the first time I've seen this movie, and I love that intro where you
Bee:meet you meet Helen Hunt's team, and they're this super colorful cast of
Bee:characters, and you know who each of them are by looking at them right away.
Bee:You just immediately, you get them, you get that character,
Bee:and that's so interesting to me.
Bee:I also love, there's something nostalgic for me about just seeing everyone's
Bee:faces, like the people who were cast in this just look like people,
Bee:they look like student scientists.
Bee:And I think.
Bee:It's hard and I'm a little cautiously optimistic, but nervous about seeing.
Bee:Twisters tonight where there's kind of movie star stink all over everything.
Bee:And this is just cast so well.
Bee:I believe Helen Hunt in the Midwest.
Bee:I believe Bill Paxton in the Midwest.
Bee:A hundred percent.
Bee:I think, I just think it's a really interesting movie.
Bee:I think the love triangle works.
Bee:I really like Carrie Elwes in this movie.
Bee:Although I do go back and forth on do we need two antagonists.
Bee:But I think it works.
Bee:Yeah, there's a lot of beats and choices in this movie that I,
Bee:that end up just working for me.
Bee:I really like the tone.
Bee:And I'm a huge, you guys know proponent of practical effects.
Bee:And it doesn't sound like it was fun to work in this environment,
Bee:but it paid off in spades.
Bee:I mean, it's, it's beautiful to look at.
Bee:It holds up.
Bee:All right.
Sam:Good take.
Sam:How many stars?
Bee:Four and a half.
Bee:Yeah.
Bee:You're
Sam:a
Bee:fan.
Bee:Yeah.
Bee:True fan.
Bee:True fan.
Bee:Listen, I don't face my fears.
Bee:Okay.
Nathan:You go face your fears.
Nathan:I hide under glow.
Nathan:Alright.
Nathan:Sam?
Sam:So, I, I, it's, I, I enjoy the movie.
Sam:Like, it's intertwined with nostalgia of seeing it because at that time,
Sam:those special the visual effects of the tornado were like it sounds like a
Sam:stereotypical thing to say but literally at that time, I'd never seen anything
Sam:like it and the audience was was just like enamored and wowed by the visual effects.
Sam:I especially love the scene when they're like watching the shining at the Outdoor
Sam:drive in and they hew the huge like F5 rolls in and they're like trapped in that
Sam:garage, and like a hose is flying around.
Sam:Like, I don't know, just, I also really like I think it's Mark Mancini's music,
Sam:the opening of that movie when it's like starts and there's like this, I don't know
Sam:what the instrument is, but it's like, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Sam:Like, it sounds like a windy afternoon, and you're just like, So I'm off.
Sam:And it shows those still shots of just like quiet Oklahoma
Sam:and like lightning strikes.
Sam:It just gets the atmosphere really good.
Sam:I know Michael Crichton wrote it with his wife.
Sam:At the time and forgive me, who's, who's the actress that plays Bill
Sam:Paxton's, not Helen Hunt, but the woman that he's going to marry?
Sam:Mimi Gertz?
Sam:Herp, I thought her performance is excellent in that movie because she
Sam:could, in another movie, she could come across as like really like dumb
Sam:and mean and like, oh, he's got to get away from her and get with Helen Hunt.
Sam:And even though that is the plot, she's still like, a three
Sam:dimensional human while she
Nathan:nominated for a golden raspberry.
Nathan:Jamie goes first.
Sam:Oh, no way.
Sam:Well,
Bee:people have been wrong before.
Bee:Yeah, I'm not, I'm not defending that.
Bee:I
Sam:hate golden raspberries.
Sam:But but yeah, she, she, like tornadoes are not her thing and it's like not
Sam:her world, but I like, I really like the scene where When, when they break
Sam:up and she's like, I'm not that upset.
Sam:Like, what does that say?
Sam:And he's like, neither am I.
Sam:And she's like, I'll find my way home.
Sam:I just like
Nathan:unrealistic breakup in the history of cinema.
Nathan:Like, you know what?
Nathan:I'm okay with it.
Nathan:We'll just, just part in.
Nathan:But that's the thing.
Nathan:I
Bee:don't think we should put anything, put any realism expectations on this.
Bee:I mean, how many tournaments do they have in a day?
Sam:I just like her like performance, like she just was very, she just grounded
Sam:and just like adds a little bit of like.
Sam:Depth to that, like love triangle, like the way that she performs it.
Sam:But yeah, great action, good special effects.
Sam:And I love like staying out things like Philip Seymour
Sam:Hoffman or Alan Ruck really good.
Sam:And it just was a lot of fun.
Sam:Like the structure of the movie is so loose.
Sam:Jan de Bont said he wanted to make it feel like a docu, a docudrama, like
Sam:a documentary action, and it just, it feels like, when you're watching
Sam:that movie, anything can happen, twisters can appear anywhere, like,
Sam:it was so wildly entertaining, as a popcorn, like, thriller, that it
Sam:was, it's just a lot of fun to watch the movie, so, I mean, I enjoyed it.
Sam:I would give it like three and a half.
Bee:I think something to that documentary field too is him not
Bee:filming on the dolly the whole time, like that camera's on his shoulder.
Bee:And I think you can feel that.
Sam:Yeah.
Sam:Yeah.
Bee:Okay.
Sam:And all the individual characters and like the, when they're all playing
Sam:like different music in their car, as they're approaching the Twister at
Sam:the beginning, like that's hilarious.
Sam:The, I love the bad guy and like how all, like all the, the good guys are
Sam:all like colorful, like the rebels in Star Wars, and the bad guys are
Sam:all like black and white SUV club.
Sam:It's like the Darth Vader of like twister science, but like
Sam:I just, it's, it's the movie.
Sam:It's so simple, but like the movie's undeniably fun.
Sam:Yeah.
Nathan:All right.
Nathan:What do you So you gave it a three and a half.
Nathan:All right.
Nathan:So,
Nathan:I know this is the kind of movie to check your brain, but I'm going
Nathan:to get a little real about Twister.
Nathan:Stop.
Nathan:Okay?
Nathan:Okay?
Nathan:Stop.
Nathan:There's a lot of love in the room.
Nathan:But I'm not someone that's just going to go to the mat blindly for this movie.
Nathan:This is, this is, I believe my third time watching this movie.
Nathan:All right.
Nathan:And I probably enjoyed this this week about the same as I did
Nathan:the last two times I saw it.
Nathan:I saw this, I didn't see this in the theater.
Nathan:I saw this when it came to probably VHS or home video in late, I
Nathan:don't know, 97 or whatever came.
Nathan:And then I saw it probably again, mid 2000s or so.
Nathan:And then this past week.
Nathan:This is what I like to call a Bud Light movie.
Nathan:It's a Bud Light movie.
Nathan:So,
Bee:it
Nathan:goes down easy, low in carbs.
Nathan:But, you know, it's just that.
Nathan:I'm going to reach
Bee:across this table, Nathan.
Bee:How?
Bee:Oh my
Nathan:God.
Nathan:But you don't have to think too hard about the intricacies
Nathan:of the micro growing process.
Nathan:You know, by the way, I, I do, I do not like Bud Light and I
Nathan:much prefer a good micro brew, you know, an IPA or a wheat beer.
Nathan:Anyways, this movie is not about micro brews.
Nathan:Anyways, so I hadn't seen this in like 20 years probably, and I think the
Nathan:effects in this movie really hold up.
Bee:Amazing.
Bee:They
Nathan:are.
Nathan:They really are amazing.
Nathan:They look really good.
Nathan:And for 1996, 1996, especially, you know, you look at other movies from this year,
Nathan:from this time, like Anaconda or, you know, you know, the effects, not that
Nathan:good, but you know, the movie doesn't have to do much to look, look good.
Nathan:I mean, it's really just the tornadoes that they have to make look great.
Nathan:And they really do look awesome.
Nathan:So this movie is fun though.
Nathan:I think what makes this movie work really well, though, is the pacing.
Nathan:Is,
Nathan:is the strength of this, of this film, like clockwork, I think it's
Nathan:like every problems with your mic there.
Nathan:It's like every 15 or 20 minutes, there is another action sequence, another tornado.
Nathan:There are always.
Nathan:Yeah, being up the action, like on the Fajita scale, I
Nathan:don't know what they call it.
Nathan:I call it the Fajita scale.
Nathan:I don't know either.
Nathan:There's F1 to F2, all the way up to F5.
Nathan:It's perfectly paced.
Nathan:Mistakes are escalated.
Nathan:And I think that is, A brilliant way of formula for this movie
Bee:and for like building for getting the audience to understand what's at
Bee:stake in the movie, starting six year
Nathan:old can watch this movie and get everything that's going
Nathan:on here in the six year old
Bee:should maybe things would be different.
Bee:So
Nathan:I have no problem to that.
Nathan:And I think, and I think Helen Hunt is fantastic in this movie.
Nathan:Now the rest of the cast I do have some opinions on.
Nathan:We'll talk about Bill, Bill Paxton in a little bit, because I think
Nathan:it warrants a discussion about his leading man qualifications,
Nathan:but my real gripe with this movie is the rest of the cast.
Nathan:Now you're probably wondering, you know, what am I talking about?
Nathan:We have an Academy award winning, Actor in this movie and we got to gaggle some
Nathan:of the greatest, you know, ensembles like character actors of the nineties,
Nathan:but you know, let's see here with this like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, there's like,
Nathan:there's like 9 members of Joe's band of storm chasing misfits, like too many.
Nathan:Too many!
Nathan:I, they're, they're great.
Nathan:And we get to see a little bit of them, like when they're, they all have their
Nathan:individual music, when they're chasing after, when they're doing When you go
Bee:to the cantina scene in Star Wars, are you like mad about it?
Nathan:No, but I don't care, we're just, but we don't follow those characters.
Nathan:I would, I don't either.
Nathan:I want to know more about them, or I don't need them.
Nathan:This movie could have worked with Jo and her right hand man.
Nathan:Keep, keep, Phil Beat, Seymour Hoffman, Dusty, and throw in Alan Ruck, because
Nathan:Alan Ruck needs to be in every movie.
Nathan:But I don't need anybody else.
Nathan:I don't care about Joey Slotnick, you know, he's a great
Nathan:actor, great character actors.
Nathan:Like Patrick Fleischer, all these guys that have like one line and like a funny
Nathan:look and every now they're great little quirky people, but like, I don't mean the
Nathan:band of misfits, they just have nothing.
Nathan:I disagree.
Bee:I think they're great set dressing.
Bee:I don't think you get the awesome kitchen scene if you don't have all
Bee:these people in that Meg's house.
Bee:That's like the.
Nathan:But I'm going to get to the reason why, because we do spend a little
Nathan:bit of time with him where I think that time could have been spent on some
Nathan:better character development for our lead actor, Bill Paxton, because I don't
Nathan:think I know anything about him still.
Nathan:All I know is that he was a former storm chaser.
Nathan:He's gone off to be a weatherman and he's come back.
Bee:That's all you need to know.
Nathan:That's all I need to know.
Nathan:Now granted, that's probably all we need to know, but I wouldn't
Nathan:have minded a little bit more.
Nathan:I wouldn't mind a little bit more.
Nathan:But it's, it's, and we know nothing about Jonas Miller.
Nathan:He is an evil.
Bee:That's a very 90s thing.
Bee:He's just a bad guy.
Bee:We talked about this before Sam where like in the 90s that like fake faceless
Bee:corporate entities seem to be like.
Bee:He's bad because
Nathan:he does it for the money.
Nathan:Right.
Nathan:He's a corporate bad guy.
Nathan:Sponsorship.
Nathan:He drives an SUV that has a nice paint job.
Nathan:What does it mean that he does?
Nathan:What this movie needed was a scene between Bill Paxton and Jones were at the bar.
Nathan:Like so, you know, you're a weatherman, like just something.
Nathan:Give me a little backstory.
Nathan:Why do they have a rivalry?
Bee:My question was like, do we need?
Bee:The, that rivalry at all, or could the natural disaster be its own?
Bee:It could have been, but if you're going to
Nathan:introduce this other guy, like maybe there's something there that
Nathan:forced him to leave storm chasing.
Nathan:And Jonas has something to do with it.
Nathan:I don't care what it was.
Nathan:Something that just flushed it out.
Nathan:Like why the library
Bee:idea for Dorothy?
Bee:Right.
Bee:Did
Nathan:he?
Nathan:I mean, he stole their design, dirty thief or whatever.
Nathan:He stole the whole thing.
Nathan:He raided like.
Nathan:Like tirade I've ever seen.
Nathan:He stole
Sam:his whole design and had like corporate financing.
Sam:And so they basically ripped them off.
Sam:You know what I mean?
Sam:I have
Nathan:no issues with Joe's Miller.
Nathan:He's just a working guy.
Nathan:Just got.
Nathan:Why are you
Bee:always advocating for the bad guy?
Bee:He's not a bad
Nathan:guy.
Nathan:He's a
Bee:bad guy.
Bee:What did
Nathan:he do that?
Nathan:What does he do that's so bad?
Bee:Rip them off.
Nathan:How
Bee:so?
Bee:Did you watch
Nathan:the
Sam:movie?
Sam:But he is the bad guy though.
Sam:He's like, he's incompetent.
Sam:He does.
Sam:He's not like hip to the science.
Sam:He just like spends money like
Nathan:movie versus like, like it's, it's, it's the, it's the hippies
Nathan:versus like the straight laced people.
Nathan:And that's what this movie is.
Nathan:You want
Bee:to be on there?
Bee:I'm just saying, but like, I don't, I
Nathan:I
Sam:don't know.
Sam:I think he's just a bad, like, he's just the antagonist of
Sam:the movie and they had, they
Nathan:just had to paint somebody bad.
Nathan:And
Nathan:anyway, so
Sam:I do really like, I feel like of all Philip Seymour Hoffman's movies, this
Sam:one's like the most quotable, like, I love him in this as, as the sidekick, like,
Sam:it's like the launch of Philip Seymour Hoffman before Boogie Nights and after Or
Sam:just around the same time as Heartache, but he had a really small part in that.
Bee:Before Ripley, yeah.
Sam:Yeah.
Nathan:Yeah, he was had a small role in Scent of a Woman also, I remember.
Nathan:Yeah, he was like around, yeah.
Nathan:Anyways yeah, I, you know, those are my grievances, pretty, pretty much.
Nathan:Anyway, so this, I have a hard time reading this though, because this movie
Nathan:is a lot of fun and it does a lot of things really well, but but what I want
Nathan:to do though is before I really, I'm going to give this movie a reading, but I, I
Nathan:need to put it in the context of kind of like other movies at the time, you know,
Nathan:there's this kind of introduced to it.
Nathan:Reintroduce like the disaster movie.
Nathan:Cause before this, there wasn't much in the night after this came like
Nathan:independence day and then the year after that we had like hard rain.
Nathan:Daylight came out after this.
Nathan:Then we had deep impact and all those.
Nathan:It depends.
Nathan:It was
Sam:the same summer.
Sam:Yeah,
Nathan:it was.
Nathan:And, but the, but the disaster film was huge in the seventies as well.
Nathan:It's how we're inferno airport, all those movies, like that earthquake.
Nathan:So this kind of was the one of the first ones also, I kind of need to revisit these
Nathan:other ones from the late nineties as well.
Nathan:I get the sense though, that if I were to watch all these over again,
Nathan:this one may still hold up better than all of them because it's
Nathan:not so, you know, effects laden.
Nathan:It's not so relying on that and on
Nathan:maybe such a complicated story as well.
Nathan:So I'm giving this, I'm still giving this a three and a half
Nathan:because it does, knows what this, it knows what it is, this movie.
Nathan:It's not trying to be some really stupid thing.
Nathan:With the signing with
Sam:Jonas thing, you're just doing that thing though that you
Sam:did with the Revenant where like you signed with Tom Hardy, you're
Sam:like, yeah, he's not a bad guy.
Sam:Like, they're both terrible people, you know, like,
Nathan:So yeah, I'm giving it, I'm giving it a three and a half because it is a fun
Nathan:action movie that has some major problems with what it wants to do with this cast.
Bee:Okay, well, I will be buying whatever promotional popcorn they give us.
Nathan:And I'm hoping that this next movie fixes some of those problems.
Nathan:Like, it's not going to be a cast of 15 people.
Nathan:I'm optimistic of that.
Bee:I'm a little worried about it looking.
Bee:We'll get to that.
Bee:Yeah.
Bee:We'll see.
Bee:Alright.
Bee:So.
Bee:So, this movie takes place over like a couple days.
Bee:One day.
Bee:One day.
Bee:One day.
Bee:24 hours.
Bee:Right.
Bee:So, there's four, five tornadoes?
Bee:Yes.
Bee:In this movie.
Bee:I love the way they escalate from small scale to big scale.
Bee:This is some of the most fun set pieces I've seen in a film.
Bee:I mean, I was watching a behind the scenes video of it.
Bee:Did anyone see the tractor trailer that they blew up?
Bee:Twice.
Bee:They did that with a thousand gallons of gasoline.
Bee:Oh wow.
Sam:Now I know that.
Sam:That's what I love.
Sam:I thought that looked real.
Sam:Yeah.
Bee:Like yeah, if you can get away with it and the the
Bee:house that they drove through
Sam:That was I saw some of the behind the scenes.
Sam:I love that.
Sam:That's so
Bee:incredible how they did that.
Bee:That was awesome So, I just thought it was really I
Sam:like the climax too when they when they like I thought it was clever when
Sam:they like tie themselves to the pipes.
Sam:Yes Yeah, and it was cool seeing the inside that like it was a fitting
Sam:climax for that movie and then like the family at the farmhouse wasn't
Sam:hit and it was like You A call back to the family at the beginning.
Sam:Like it's like the
Nathan:whole farm's destroyed and they're like, yeah,
Sam:you know, it's kind of like, and the, and the Joe's
Bee:maybe their cows came back in
Sam:a good way.
Sam:The movie's kind of like a video game where it's like, they beat, that's like
Sam:level one and level two, level three.
Sam:And it's like the last level is the big it
Nathan:is, it is have a video game structure to where it's like the
Nathan:next boss, you know they, they.
Nathan:Well, but it is, you talked about like how I think that the set pieces,
Nathan:which would be like the tornadoes are great because they keep escalating.
Nathan:Although I will, I do feel like that the threat of the tornadoes, even though
Nathan:they're the, you go from F1 up to F5, the danger level of these, I don't,
Nathan:I don't know if they always felt like they were always escalating in danger.
Nathan:There is a scene that's in the middle of this movie.
Nathan:Where Joe and Bill are chasing some tornadoes, and they actually
Nathan:have Bill's fiancée in the back, played by Jamie Girtz.
Nathan:And it's the oddest scene where they're driving, they're chasing this, and
Nathan:there's like these sister tornadoes.
Nathan:And they drive out, like, on this, like, strip of land that's
Nathan:out on this body of water.
Nathan:And they, and then these tornadoes are like circling them.
Nathan:And they're like, And then, and then it stops and the truck is spinning
Nathan:around them and they jump out like high fiving each other, like, it
Nathan:seems like the stakes of this seem to kind of like fluctuate a little bit.
Nathan:And it's, and like, I don't really.
Nathan:Well, they high five each
Sam:other because they're like tornado.
Sam:Like they're like tornado junkies.
Sam:Like they like the thrill.
Sam:And so for them, when it escalates, they're like really into it.
Sam:Like that's their role.
Sam:Like anything
Bee:as
Nathan:much as they like tornadoes.
Nathan:It's like they just got off of like the rollercoaster has six flags.
Nathan:And like, wasn't this just like almost like killed by this thing?
Nathan:But
Bee:that's why Jamie Girtz doesn't get out like that.
Bee:She's like, she's stressed.
Bee:Oh, by the way,
Sam:they're built.
Sam:They like that.
Sam:Like the whole team is obsessed with adrenaline.
Sam:Yeah.
Nathan:But, but one time they're like scared to death because things like flying
Nathan:over the next time they're like, okay, but
Sam:the next time the tornado dissipated, like, yeah,
Nathan:you know, the other, okay.
Nathan:I I'm going to pile on it every once in a while, but like tornadoes.
Nathan:All right.
Nathan:One of the things that this movie does that just doesn't make it reality.
Nathan:There is gotta be, tornadoes are, you know, they make it seem like the
Nathan:biggest threat of these tornadoes is the actual physical, like funnel cloud.
Nathan:You just, as long as you don't, that thing doesn't like touch you.
Nathan:You're fine in reality.
Nathan:The most dangerous part of the tornado isn't necessarily that funnel.
Nathan:It's these things pick up debris and stuff.
Nathan:It moves around and
Bee:people get hurt by things that are
Nathan:jumping around.
Nathan:These people don't get a scratch on them.
Nathan:This entire movie.
Nathan:Helen Hunk I hit in the
Bee:head with the door.
Bee:She thought she was concussed.
Nathan:No, the characters, these characters.
Nathan:Don't get the least bit injured by standing within 50
Nathan:yards of the like, F3, right?
Nathan:There's a, there is a F5 tornado that passes right over them.
Nathan:180 mile per hour winds.
Nathan:Right.
Nathan:That just went through the barn from the Sawyers, from
Nathan:Texas, the Taser Massacre, whippin around like knives and pitchforks.
Nathan:And they, and they come out without a scratch.
Nathan:They would be dead or severely injured.
Nathan:Yeah, but that's not really the point.
Nathan:And not even blind, because Ellen opens her eyes, looks at them.
Nathan:There's so much debris, it would go into your eyes, like,
Sam:The point of that scene, that's like complaining about gremlins getting wet.
Sam:It's like, it's looking down the road and there's a lot, there's plenty of debris,
Nathan:but the
Sam:point of that scene was like, they both need to face the tornado.
Sam:So it's more about they're like.
Sam:But there is lots of debris and other things.
Sam:They were also deeper into the pipes, like they're in like a depression, you know.
Sam:I
Bee:felt like I was so tense.
Bee:During those scenes.
Bee:It did its job.
Bee:Yeah, like making me feel like it was high risk.
Bee:They almost got blown up by a
Nathan:truck.
Nathan:I was with you in those moments, but then after, like, you know, Three days
Nathan:later, I'm like, okay, so, really?
Nathan:You know, when you get to sit with these movies, After the
Nathan:thrill is over, I'm like, really?
Nathan:No,
Sam:well, it depends on if you, if you
Nathan:like, I mean,
Sam:like all movies, you know, people outrun explosion.
Sam:Basically every action movie ever made is unrealistic.
Sam:So you could down that, down that road, but it's not really
Sam:the kind of the point, but
Bee:yeah, yeah.
Bee:Absolutely insane takes Nathan.
Bee:To
Nathan:look at these things and realize the ridiculousness
Nathan:of some of these things.
Nathan:If
Sam:it took away from my enjoyment of the movie, then I would have, but
Sam:like, it didn't like it, it doesn't like, I see movies to try to enjoy them.
Sam:That's just me.
Sam:But if it took away from my enjoyment, like if it was like, if there
Sam:was a glaring like error, but it didn't really have that problem.
Nathan:None of these things I talked about take away from my
Nathan:pleasure of watching these movies.
Nathan:I, I can't not look at these and, and laugh at the, the absurdity of them.
Nathan:There's a lot of storm
Sam:chaser footage on YouTube where they're like, go close to things
Sam:and they don't get, it's the same.
Sam:Like tornadoes are strange beasts, you know, like.
Bee:I think one of the most unrealistic parts of this movie is
Bee:that Jamie Girtz made it through four tornadoes before she called it quits.
Nathan:Oh, a hundred percent.
Nathan:After that first one, when that jeep rams like five feet from her, it'd
Nathan:be like, oh, And Bill Pax is like, yeah, we're going to go off to the
Nathan:next, I'm like, no, this is it, bye.
Nathan:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sam:But it's a different personality.
Sam:She's like a psychiatrist, but he's like a chaser that's like,
Sam:Right.
Sam:They're all thrill, they're all thrill adrenaline junkies.
Sam:Yeah.
Sam:You know, it's like point break for tornadoes basically.
Bee:I'm just surprised she stayed as long as she did.
Bee:You know, like, that's all.
Sam:Yeah.
Bee:But I thought she, I thought she played her part well.
Sam:I liked that there was a human element.
Sam:Like she wasn't just like shrill screaming.
Sam:Like she was a person and like their relationship didn't work out, but I
Sam:wasn't like, I hate this one to me.
Sam:I was, I felt empathy for her.
Sam:Like,
Bee:I really liked that.
Bee:She took clients phone calls just readily available as a therapist.
Bee:And I think that's, she
Sam:did that role.
Sam:Well, in the context of that, of that type of movie, like it, it just, it, it helped.
Sam:It would have been worse if she was just one note screaming, like, you
Sam:know, then, then, like, I just like the fact that, like, that they had that
Sam:conversation because, like, I didn't want to see her walking off, like, broken or,
Sam:like, in tears or upset, like, I love that it's like an amicable split up.
Bee:Or just having it be all about Bill Paxton.
Sam:Right, exactly, yeah.
Sam:You know,
Bee:it got to be about her thing, too.
Bee:And I loved Aunt Meg.
Bee:I thought Aunt Meg was so great.
Nathan:I, I, I did like her.
Nathan:I feel like, I mentioned this before, there was a lot of characters in
Nathan:here with Aunt Meg and all the cast.
Nathan:Do you think this movie might have had a more impactful ending if one of the
Nathan:cast members or Aunt Meg had Had died.
Nathan:If the tornado did have some, did take out somebody in their team because nobody,
Nathan:there's no consequences to anything.
Sam:I'm glad the bad guys got me.
Sam:There was like, I'm glad that they died.
Sam:Like, but I'm glad that Did they deserve
Bee:to die?
Sam:Oh yeah!
Sam:Yes!
Bee:And I'm like, sorry, I don't want to stop by and say I'm
Sam:glad you're here.
Sam:No, no, no, no.
Sam:I mean, they, they, they're definitely deserved to
Nathan:die.
Nathan:All the people that did die, Jonas Miller and his sidekick, the
Bee:guy that watched Norton punch himself
Nathan:in Fight Club would never say less.
Nathan:But they
Sam:stole like, they stole Bill Paxton's design and profited off it.
Sam:And they use their corporate money to like, they, they, they're
Sam:like, there is consequence.
Sam:They die.
Sam:I'm glad the team doesn't die.
Sam:Cause the team is like, it would be a downer if like one
Sam:of them, You know what I mean?
Sam:It would like, dampen the spirit.
Bee:The consequence is the catalyst for the movie.
Bee:It's like the antagonist creates a consequence, which is Joe's dad died.
Bee:Helen Hunt's father dies in the beginning of the movie and then
Bee:the whole movie is about the hope.
Nathan:Joe's dad, like, he kind of deserved it, right?
Nathan:He was the idiot.
Nathan:He's like holding that thing, like, just go save your family.
Nathan:Stop holding that, like, rickety door.
Nathan:He had to
Sam:hold the door, otherwise they all would have gotten fucked up.
Sam:I totally disagree.
Sam:I thought he was a hero that was trying to protect his family.
Sam:I
Bee:think, like, that's the, that's the, I think the whole movie is about the hope.
Bee:I think it's about rooting for these guys, like it, it definitely plays like
Bee:a Western where it whole, you know, the good guys ride away on horses, the bad
Bee:guys wear black, they pass away, like
Sam:it's, it does like, like other nineties disastrous film like that.
Sam:And Dante's Peak does a similar thing where a tragedy happens to the character.
Sam:Then they get a second chance to relive the tragedy.
Sam:But have it come out with a positive ending.
Sam:So the movie's like therapy for those characters.
Sam:Like that happens in a lot of 90s disaster movies.
Sam:It's like first incident.
Sam:Then the second incident is much bigger and worse, but the
Sam:character like gets through it.
Sam:And like, luckily comes out when Dante's peak with like a family on
Sam:the other end, or like Bill Paxton, like reunites with Helen Hunt.
Sam:It's like a circle thing.
Sam:Yeah.
Sam:And
Bee:Spielberg's all about the family aspect.
Bee:Yes, Spielberg wouldn't want
Sam:to kill, like, Ant Man.
Sam:It'd
Nathan:be terrible.
Nathan:When that, like, TV's hanging off
Sam:the, when the TV's hanging off the, like, it just lands
Sam:on her head and smashes it.
Sam:If she dies, it'd be terrible.
Bee:I, so, I actually thought that scene where they go to get
Bee:some food is so well executed.
Bee:It's doing so much.
Bee:It's setting up Extreme Bill and, like, Bill Paxton and all
Bee:the, sort of, legend around him.
Bee:It sets up Helen Hunt with the tragedy and her character gives Jimmy Girt's
Bee:backstory to why they're like this.
Bee:The Carrie Elwes characters on the TV doing that.
Bee:It sets up a med, you have to beat her before they have to save her.
Bee:So it sets her up.
Bee:I mean, this scene is doing a lot of work.
Sam:It is.
Sam:Yeah.
Sam:I like the anticipation, like the buildup before tornadoes when
Sam:he's just standing outside and the sky's green and like Philip
Sam:Seymour Hoffman is like going green.
Sam:It's like, you're like, Oh, we got another one coming.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:Wow.
Nathan:Any other parts of this?
Nathan:This movie is
Bee:so good.
Bee:I feel like I could talk about it for a really long time.
Nathan:How about the soundtrack?
Nathan:Was anybody around at this time that had the Twister soundtrack?
Nathan:You probably were not, but this was gigantic.
Nathan:I love
Sam:the Van Halen, like what's that song?
Sam:Human Being?
Sam:Yeah, Human's Being.
Sam:Human's Being is an awesome song.
Sam:Aye!
Nathan:Aye!
Sam:They like go off road.
Sam:It's like dad, dad, dad.
Sam:I'm like, girl, I'm watching Twista's or Twista.
Nathan:I'm a big Van Halen fan.
Nathan:I'm not as big as the Van Hagar era, but I do like the era, but I
Nathan:do not like the song human's being, I think it's one of the worst.
Sam:Yeah.
Nathan:But
Bee:I've only heard it in the context of Twitter.
Bee:When, whenever I drive,
Sam:whenever I come back into Rhode Island from like driving
Sam:cross country, I blast that song.
Sam:It's like my hometown music.
Sam:I love
Nathan:that song.
Nathan:That song is, is not good.
Sam:Oh, I, I really like it.
Sam:The soundtrack, I totally disagree.
Sam:Really like that song.
Sam:I really like that song Soundtrack A
Nathan:gigantic.
Nathan:And this I did have the soundtrack.
Nathan:It was a, a murderous row of popup artists from the mid nineties.
Nathan:We had Tory Amos and Belly Google Dolls red out Chili peppers.
Nathan:This was the heyday.
Nathan:of movie soundtracks where record companies, they just stack like all
Nathan:these popular artists on there and some of the songs, we didn't even have
Nathan:anything to do with the movie at all.
Nathan:They were just packed.
Nathan:And humans
Sam:being is so good when they play it at the end, when like they're
Sam:just there and like, you see the team approaching, you can like hear it on
Sam:one of their car radios, like I love
Nathan:that.
Nathan:I know I have this CD boxed away somewhere.
Nathan:And all my CDs are probably, That fan Halen
Bee:song, that's playing during the hail.
Bee:Is that right?
Nathan:Where is
Sam:it?
Sam:I, and that for some reason, in the hail I'm just remember Mark
Sam:Mancina like Doo, doo, doo, doo,
Bee:doo, doo, doo,
Sam:doo, doo, doo,
Bee:doo.
Bee:So they use real ice in the hail scene.
Bee:They were using an ice chipper and they were getting messed up.
Bee:So there's just the story of Yon DeBond filming, wearing a helmet,
Bee:just being like, I'm getting hit
Nathan:too,
Bee:so I'm just picturing Van Halen in the background.
Nathan:Question.
Nathan:So I want to ask you guys this question about the plan for
Nathan:Dorothy and how it worked.
Bee:That's crazy.
Bee:Does
Nathan:it make sense at all?
Nathan:Would it make more sense to just fly a plane like over the tornado
Nathan:to drop these things in from above?
Bee:Maybe there's a reason you can't, I don't know.
Bee:Like, I
Nathan:feel like
Bee:you have to just buy into the conceit of that because I
Bee:don't want to poke holes in this.
Bee:So insane.
Bee:No, the whole thing with Dorothy's.
Bee:But like, I just feel like that's when you have to like, okay, suspend disbelief.
Sam:I mean, there's a hurricane hunters that fly into hurricanes,
Sam:but I don't know if you could fly into the concentration of a tornado.
Sam:I feel like that would really
Nathan:like They can fly above a hurricane.
Sam:Right.
Nathan:I don't know what the winds are, what the weather pattern is,
Nathan:necessarily above a tornado, but it seems like I wouldn't necessarily
Nathan:do it with a helicopter, but I think you could do it with certain types of
Nathan:planes now and drop plenty of devices or be able to get readings from above
Nathan:a tornado, you know, they want to get
Sam:in the funnel like it gets sucked up from
Nathan:that much more practical way than the way these guys are doing it.
Nathan:You should tell the weather channel that
Bee:if you know the way, you know, lifting things out.
Bee:Right.
Bee:So if you're starting from the top, would anything sink down into it?
Nathan:If it's heavy enough, I feel like they figure out the proper, there's smart
Nathan:people that can figure these things out.
Nathan:Smarter than Joe and Bill's team.
Nathan:You
Bee:leave them alone.
Bee:They're beautiful.
Bee:Oh, I do want to circle back on Paxton as a leading man.
Bee:So here's the thing.
Bee:Up until now, up until this point, 1996, Bill Paxton has been just elevating
Bee:characters, like, background characters.
Bee:He has been the thing that like, if you put him as the third
Bee:chair in a movie, it gets better.
Bee:Yes.
Bee:If you put him in the first chair, I don't know that he has, it sings as much.
Bee:I don't know that the role, super requires it because it's so much of
Bee:an ensemble piece and I think maybe that's why we haven't seen a lot
Bee:of leading Bill Paxton roles since.
Bee:But yeah, but you know, like before that,
Sam:it was a long
Bee:time after this.
Bee:The
Sam:exact story, but after he died, like Storm Chasers
Sam:spelled his name or something.
Sam:That was cool.
Sam:Yeah.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:I a hundred percent agree B.
Nathan:I mean, I, I also think it's more than that.
Nathan:I mean, he's, he made a career out of really, I feel like two versions of.
Nathan:What he's he does best and one is his character Hudson from Aliens.
Nathan:Yeah, that version kind of the over the top.
Nathan:It's game over, man.
Nathan:He's really good at that and versions of that.
Nathan:And he's really good at what I call is what subdued thinker like Morgan Earp from
Nathan:Tombstone, you know, where he's just kind of like, like that kind of confused and
Sam:Sleazy and like true lies.
Sam:Yeah, that's like also
Nathan:very good, but, but it's, it's the very kind of polar
Nathan:opposite type of things as well.
Nathan:And I being that leading man, he doesn't really play that straight
Nathan:down the middle type role.
Nathan:I don't think exceptionally well.
Bee:Thank God it's in the Midwest.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:It's really fun.
Nathan:I find his acting to be very constipated.
Nathan:You know, that's the best way I put it.
Nathan:He's stuck and he's pulled off.
Nathan:He doesn't, he does, he does unhinged well.
Nathan:He kind of, or kind of a little too stuck up a little bit.
Nathan:He just doesn't really, I, I, he, but in this movie, perfectly fine.
Nathan:I think, I think this movie was fine because Even though he was the lead
Nathan:in this, there was a story, I think, that he, he wanted to, I'm like,
Nathan:I'm, I'm the star of this movie.
Nathan:No, everyone, the Tornadoes are the star of this movie, you know, and
Nathan:that's really the case, you know, even on the poster of this, he is
Nathan:not like, I'm the big face on this.
Nathan:The Tornado is the star of this movie.
Nathan:I'll make even argue that Helen Hawking It's hard for me to
Sam:picture anyone else in the role.
Sam:Like, it'd be really strange if it was Tom Hanks.
Sam:Yeah, I wouldn't want that.
Sam:Like that.
Sam:I,
Nathan:I do.
Nathan:I wanted to ask you guys, actually, I made a note on here.
Nathan:If this movie were to be recast, you know, with somebody from this era, like mid
Nathan:nineties, you know, who could that be?
Nathan:I actually did think of a couple.
Nathan:Well, I would say, but you still have to be paired with Helen Hunt.
Nathan:Because I can't recast, so it has to be somebody, I
Nathan:think,
Nathan:I thought of a couple, not too many, but I don't know
Nathan:if these are good picks or not.
Nathan:I still
Bee:think, I think Samuel could do Hell No.
Nathan:Samuel, but He
Bee:might overpower
Nathan:her.
Nathan:He's British, and that's why I did it.
Nathan:I want It doesn't
Nathan:have to
Nathan:be.
Nathan:It doesn't have to be, but I My, my thought was, I want somebody that still
Nathan:kind of reeks of America's heartland.
Nathan:Okay.
Nathan:Cause Yeah.
Nathan:And has a blue collar, good old boy thing.
Nathan:So I, there's two that I went with, still a little young, still could
Nathan:work would be Matthew McConaughey
Nathan:at this time.
Nathan:That's around this time.
Nathan:That's coming right
Nathan:off of Lone Star Contact around this time.
Nathan:He could work.
Nathan:Patrick Slazin also could
Bee:work.
Bee:Yes.
Bee:I can see Patrick.
Bee:I think Helen's a little too smarmy for McConaughey.
Bee:Maybe.
Bee:I think a little too like, you know, fast, dark, and broad for McConaughey.
Bee:Maybe.
Nathan:Maybe.
Nathan:And and also, but she's also kind of fast talking for a little Paxton as well.
Nathan:I mean, she's, she's hard to keep up with
Nathan:Woody Harrelson is another person I thought of, you know, kind of a good
Nathan:old boy, Texas, that kind of guy.
Sam:Yeah.
Nathan:I mean, they considered Tom Hanks for this.
Nathan:I can't picture Tom Hanks, but
Sam:No, it doesn't feel like the right fit.
Sam:I mean, honestly,
Nathan:the actor that should be in this movie that wasn't, because he does like an
Nathan:action movie like around this time every couple years, would have been Tom Cruise.
Nathan:You know, I'm kind of surprised, you know, this did not float across his desk.
Nathan:I'm
Nathan:so glad
Nathan:he wasn't.
Nathan:But this is right up his alley around this time, I'm sure.
Nathan:Everyone in this movie is sort of playing
Bee:Yeah, everyone in this movie sort of playing an everyman, I think is a little
Bee:bit of its magic because it's such a big scale movie, but it's not, I don't know.
Bee:It's not that movie star paintbrush.
Nathan:No, this movie did not need like, it didn't need star power.
Nathan:No,
Sam:The shots are so impressive.
Sam:Like when you first see Bill Paxton and his wife arguing, but the camera
Sam:like flies across a field then like a crop dusting plane, like
Sam:perfectly timed flies by the truck.
Sam:Then it goes up to the truck's window as you're like, oh my God.
Sam:The coordination of that shot.
Sam:Yeah.
Sam:That was like a whole day for one shot.
Sam:You know, like
Sam:Mm-Hmm.
Bee:all.
Bee:Yeah.
Bee:They put a lot of time in this movie.
Bee:Yeah.
Bee:You can see it.
Bee:You can see it
Sam:structurally.
Sam:The, the, it's impressive.
Bee:Mm-Hmm.
Bee:. Nathan: Alright.
Bee:We about good here.
Bee:Yeah, Twister, go see it.
Bee:I have one question
Nathan:I want to ask you before we get to our gold picks here, alright?
Nathan:What piece of memorabilia would you want to keep from this movie?
Bee:Cow stress toy.
Bee:Stress ball.
Sam:I like
Nathan:that.
Nathan:I
Sam:like that.
Sam:If they can find it in the wreckage, Jonas teeth.
Sam:That is, that is dark.
Sam:What about
Bee:you, Nate?
Nathan:I want to make steaks.
Bee:Yeah.
Bee:My cow.
Sam:It's hard though, because that pole hit him in the face, so he'd have to like.
Sam:Oh my God.
Sam:Or the
Nathan:Shining on 35mm.
Nathan:I'll also probably take that.
Nathan:That's
Sam:strong.
Sam:I
Sam:can find that somewhere.
Sam:It'd be
Nathan:nice to
Sam:have a vehicle, like a, you know, but then it's like, it's 1996, all
Sam:the cars are old and shitty now, but.
Bee:I have a 94, I love it.
Bee:That's true.
Bee:Do it again.
Sam:All right.
Bee:That's about all my money.
Bee:I'll take, I'll just
Sam:take the profits from the movie.
Sam:Yeah.
Sam:It wasn't in the movie.
Nathan:All right.
Nathan:Vault.
Nathan:Vault.
Bee:Vault.
Nathan:Yeah, let me just say yeah, we'll just do a vault and then I'll
Nathan:do, I'll wrap in my other housekeeping into the closing, because what I do
Nathan:say at the top of this is that we are doing kind of an abbreviated episode.
Nathan:So vault pick, vault, vault, what are we doing here?
Nathan:Oh, let me do the other, not doing it here.
Nathan:All right, yeah, vaults.
Nathan:It
Bee:was such a hard yes for this and I don't, I, you guys
Bee:probably will say no, that's fine.
Bee:But I'm, I'm writing hard for Twister as a monument to practical effects and
Bee:stories being uncomplicated and brief.
Nathan:Sam, Sam has not, not said yes to the movie in like know, and that's
Nathan:the thing, like, I really want to put
Sam:this in the vault, but it's time for me to become meaner.
Sam:So I want to put it in the vault.
Sam:I really want to, but no, I can't.
Nathan:Did I just peer pressure you into that?
Sam:Yeah, I can't.
Sam:Movie sucks.
Sam:Fuck it.
Sam:Kick it out.
Sam:Yeah.
Nathan:No, he's kidding, right?
Sam:No, I would put it in the vault, but because I've been so kind it got it got
Sam:to grow up someday Nope, can't come in.
Sam:Sorry.
Sam:I enjoy you, but you can't come in
Nathan:I
Nathan:know this has never really come down to me
Nathan:Like I said, this movie's a ton of fun, but, Ah, screw it.
Nathan:I'll put it in the vault.
Nathan:I can't not
Bee:put it in the
Nathan:vault.
Bee:You
Nathan:put
Bee:it in the vault.
Bee:I should go all over tourney with that one.
Bee:You knew what
Sam:I was about to do, Sid.
Sam:Yeah, I can't, I can't, I can't be mean.
Sam:I'll be mean soon enough, though.
Sam:There'll be an episode where I crush something that you care about.
Sam:I think
Bee:it's great that you like movies.
Sam:Yeah.
Bee:We need to
Nathan:change the rules here so that like there's like a limited amount of space or
Sam:something.
Sam:Don't worry, folks.
Sam:I'll get vicious.
Sam:In fact, I'll start right now by talking about CrowdStrike, the
Sam:company that lost all the money.
Sam:I just want to say that you lost 10 percent of your, 11 percent
Sam:of your shares this weekend.
Sam:You realize companies are supposed to make money, not lose them.
Sam:Right?
Sam:John Gertz, or whatever your name is.
Sam:Good job there, buddy.
Sam:The world hates you.
Nathan:So
Sam:Josh Gertz, John Gertz.
Sam:What is it?
Nathan:Just so you know, I had no, not involved.
Nathan:So I'm not changing my mind here.
Nathan:It was about to knock on the ball.
Nathan:Now it is going to the ball because Sam is wishy washy and it is going in.
Nathan:So yeah, I was going to say.
Nathan:You can see why people in Congress
Sam:like do this because it's never about the actual decision.
Sam:It's about controlling the power of the decision.
Sam:And I realized I was about to give up my power and I was
Sam:like, no, no, Can't do that.
Sam:That's what it's all about.
Sam:Power and money.
Nathan:I don't dislike this movie.
Nathan:It does a lot of things well, but there are other 90s action movies.
Nathan:I like, I like more and I am being cutthroat and ruthless,
Nathan:but it's in the vault.
Nathan:Well, it doesn't matter what you think.
Nathan:George Kurtz
Sam:or Kurtz, I apologize.
Sam:And you're having a tough weekend.
Sam:You'll, you'll, you'll, your company will, will find its place.
Nathan:All right.
Nathan:Well, whenever we review.
Nathan:Armageddon and our Deep Impact, we'll have to really rethink that.
Nathan:One of these apocalyptic movies, you know.
Bee:Armageddon made it into the Criterion channel.
Bee:Yeah.
Bee:I like that every year they're like one for the normal people.
Nathan:Criterion was doing like a whole like Golden Raspberry, like, like.
Nathan:I would definitely not, I would not put Armageddon
Sam:in the vault.
Sam:I would definitely not put Armageddon in the vault if we reviewed that one.
Sam:I would put Deep Impact in, but That's another spiel.
Sam:Did anyone watch
Bee:Under Paris on Netflix?
Bee:Shark movie?
Nathan:No.
Nathan:It's bad.
Nathan:I passed.
Nathan:It's bad.
Nathan:I passed.
Nathan:Okay.
Nathan:Well we will see everyone next week when we drop our review for Twisters.
Nathan:Woo!
Nathan:Which I'm excited about.
Nathan:We're going to see it tonight.
Nathan:Yeah, we are.
Nathan:Province IMAX.
Nathan:Maybe we'll see some fans there.
Nathan:Who knows?
Nathan:Who
Sam:will?
Nathan:Maybe.
Nathan:We should take a picture.
Sam:Maybe there'll be a twister on the way to the theater.
Nathan:Alright, well I think I'll do my closing here, and How do I do this now?
Nathan:Because I didn't do my little housekeeper, but I'll figure it out.
Nathan:Anyway, who cares?
Nathan:We're just going to wrap it up.
Nathan:That is our show this week.
Nathan:Back to the Framerate is part of the Weston Media Podcast Network.
Nathan:We also wish to thank Brian Ellsworth for our show opening.
Nathan:On behalf of all of us, we bid you farewell from the fall shelter.
Nathan:Your presence in our underground sanctuary is truly appreciated.
Nathan:We are truly sorry you cannot join us, but we want to express
Nathan:our gratitude for your company.
Nathan:If you're finding solace in our discussions, we kindly ask that you
Nathan:please subscribe, and leave a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Or whichever
Nathan:portal connects you to our broadcast.
Nathan:There you can find more episodes of our podcast, and also on our
Nathan:website, backtotheframerate.
Nathan:com.
Nathan:And on Facebook, Instagram where else YouTube, Threads, all those
Nathan:places, at backtotheframerate.
Nathan:Your support is the beacon of light that brightens our confined space.
Nathan:Until we emerge from the fallout, stay with us, keep local live,
Nathan:and keep those reviews coming.
Nathan:And chase your
Bee:fears!
Nathan:Yes!
Nathan:This is the end of our transmission.
Nathan:Back to the framerate, signing off.
Nathan:So I need to find the button.
Nathan:It's not here.
Nathan:There it is.
Nathan:Bye bye.
Nathan:Bye.
Opening:I want you to know it's over.
Opening:Well,
Opening:bye.