By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff
Disaster movies have been with us almost since the beginning of film — with the 1933 earthquake-and-tsunami “adventure in speculation” Deluge generally regarded as the first. Since then, the “disaster movie” has become its own genre, and among the most iconic offerings of the type in the 1990s was Twister.
As the title suggests, it’s about a tornado — but not just any tornado, an “F5” mega storm that churns over a mile-wide swath of Oklahoma countryside, gobbling up everything in its wake.
There are flying tractors, flying bits of wood that act like bullets, flying cars and trucks, and — most famously — a flying cow.
Audiences were thrilled with Twister when it came to theaters in 1996, shelling out $495 million at the box office and making it the second-highest-grossing film worldwide that year. According to Forbes, that’s a cash haul equivalent to just more than $988 million in 2024 dollars (which would put it below only Inside Out 2 and Deadpool and Wolverine at the current box office).
What drew filmgoers to Twister in the ’90s wasn’t necessarily the pissed off air, it was performances by Helen Hunt as the university professor who treats big tornados like they’re Moby Dick and she’s Captain Ahab; Bill Paxton as her husband, a former storm chaser and current TV weatherman who’s seeking a divorce; and Cary Elwes as the conniving ex-friend and colleague who tries to the steal the glory for a new technology to analyze, track and predict tornados.
Romantic drama and marital heartbreak mingle with childhood trauma, corporate espionage and high technology (plus the flying cow) to raise Twister above most disaster movie fare.
Of course, Hollywood being Hollywood, there’s a sequel called Twisters currently in theaters. However, the Panida Theater invites audiences to see the original on the big screen as part of its $5 film series.
The film starts at 7 p.m. with doors at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 23. Get tickets at panida.org or at the door (300 N. First Ave.).
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