The 1990's were filled with big blockbuster action movies that were big on special effects, but short on plot and dialogue: Independence Day, True Lies, and a number of Nicholas Cage movies come to mind, but the best of these was Twister. I went and saw this movie 4 times in the theater, and I'm not someone who usually goes to the theater to see movies. When you think of Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, blockbuster action film isn't usually your first thought, but in breaking down the film, you'll see why this movie is so bad it's great.
1. Bill Paxton
Bill Paxton's character, Bill Harding, is a former storm chaser turned soon to be TV Weatherman. Usually, he's a supporting character, whether it be in Aliens, Terminator, Titanic, etc., but he's cast as the leading man in this 1996 storm chasing epic and this is probably the best role he's ever had. His character in the film starts out as a bad boy gone good, but the thrill of the chase and science draw him back into the world of tornado tracking, and you see just how EXTREME he really is.
2. The Dialogue
This movie has more quotable lines in it than one would initially think. The first time you watch this the lines seem cheesy (because they are), but upon repeated viewings the viewer gets to experience some absolutely unintended comedic gold. Bill Paxton and a young Philip Seymore Hoffman have some of the best lines which are listed below.
Bill: You stole my design, you son of a bitch.
Dr. Jonas Miller: The hell are you talking about?
Bill: Dorothy. You took her, you damn thief.
Bill: IT'S ALREADY HERE!
Bill: I THINK WE'RE GOIN IN!
Dusty: IT'S THE WONDER OF NATURE BABY!
Dusty: He's gonna rue the day he came up against The Extreme, baby. Bill, I'm talkin' imminent rueage.
Bill: Honey, this is a tissue of lies. You see there was another Bill, an evil Bill, and I killed him.
3. Cary Elwes Playing "The Bad Storm Chaser"
This movie puts two rival storm chasing groups against each other: The corporate-backed team with their black SUVs led by Cary Elwes and the rag-tag team of make shift chasers led by Bill "THE EXTREME" Paxton and Helen Hunt.
The interesting issue the movie never explains is, how are either of these groups bad? Aren't they both trying to gather information to learn more about tornadoes and make people safer?
Cary Elwes does a great job coming across as the most unlikable storm chaser in history, with an even worse accent. His "Well let me enlighten you people" speech starts off as the ramblings of a Southern demagogue and finishes with such esoteric scientific terminology that no one outside of probably 10 people know what he's talking about.
4. The Most Predictable Plot in Movie History
Twister's plot is so amazingly simplistic, that it's glorious. Bill Paxton shows up with divorce papers for his soon to be ex-wife to sign and he's ready to go off to his career as a TV Weatherman. He then gets drawn back into chasing storms and eventually leaves his current girlfriend for his wife as he realizes chasing twisters is in his blood, after all he's the human barometer. In addition to that, the progression of the storms throughout the film from a F1 - F5 is evident once the F2 appears. The viewer knows that the movie is going to end with Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt surviving an F5 tornado, and then going off to continue their tornado adventures, but it doesn't make it any less compelling to watch, because you're not watching this movie for a dynamic plot and character development.
5. Dusty
Philip Seymore Hoffman got a lot more dramatic roles as his career went on, but this role is one of his best as the extreme adventure loving Dusty. There are so many great moments and lines from this comedic genius, that it's hard to name them all. From "FFFFFOOOD" to "It's the Suck Zone" sprinkled in with a little "Cause Billy is The Extreme," these quotes make the movie. Every single time the camera pans to Dusty, you know something good is coming. RIP Dusty.
Whenever this movie comes on TBS or TNT do yourself a favor and watch it. It's a piece of American cinema that shows how important it was in the 90's to be extreme and radical, and how corporations stood for greed and corruption, and not how they were trying to fund scientific research to make people safer from natural disasters.
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