1996: Twister

0:01 These are the movies of nineteen ninety six. What's up, everybody. I'm Jeff Johnson from a Film By podcast. I'm hoping you're down for our latest dope new series. We've broken down the fresh films of nineteen eighty six, we examined the gritty cinemascape of nineteen seventy six, and now it's time to check out the hella good flicks of nineteen ninety six. We're talking about tornadoes. We're talking about Oklahoma, which means we're talking with a guest that keeps hearing that we're glad he's back. I am obviously talking about the extreme.

0:54 The extreme Jason Colvin of these, surely you can't be serious podcasts. Jason, Hello again, my friend Jeff. How I do Man? I am, I'm glad to be here. I'm doing great. I am loving that you are continuing You're a Film By residency for the nineteen ninety six series. I'm the Tom Hanks of the Film By podcast. You Are you Are? I think we got one more, which we'll get to at the end of this one. But yeah, great to have you back. Thanks for having me man. Yeah, Jason, you can't deny this so things go wrong. You can't explain it, you can't predict it. I think it's time we head into the suck zone for Twister. The critics are blown away, a one of a kind experience like Jaws and Jurassic Mark truly amazing. You get out of there. You have never seen anything like it before. Grandma Twister Gritted, pg. Thirteen. Now playing time is running out for two storm chasers on the brink of divorce, who find themselves working together once more to prove the advanced weather alert system they created, aptly named Dorothy actually works.

2:27 Doing so will put them in the path of several extremely violent tornadoes. Jason, this is a movie that I loved in nineteen ninety six, still love. This is a movie you kind of live though, right, I mean, yeah, yeah, So this is the deal with this movie. First of all, I was filmed in the town that I live in. Yep. I grew up. I went to college in the University of Oklahoma, which is in Norman, which is just south of Oklahoma City. This is where everybody stayed while they were filming Twister. They stayed in Norman.

3:07 All lots of parts of Oklahoma were shot, you know, in and around the Oklahoma City area for this movie. And then I myself have lived through at least two F five tornadoes that I know of, and tons of f two threes, fours. So you you just casually say F five without a whisper, without hesitation in your voice, like like the characters in this film. Yeah, you've lived it. I gotta imagine how I can't imagine how scary that is, though, I mean, you're this is for you. This is another day, another day at the office in Norman a little bit, a little bit. So I live just south of Norman, Oklahoma, and I live so Norman is just south of Moore, and it's just east of Bridge Creek and Newcastle. And I sent you the two F five tornadoes.

3:59 One is known as the More F five and one is known the Bridge Creek F five. And my house is about five miles from both of those. So if you're drawing a bullseye, my house would be in the center dock. That's that is that's fascinating to me. It's also frightening to me. You know, one of my good buddies is that close. You know, you're in the eye of it. Let's go back to nineteen eighty six, though, you know, this whole production comes to town. Like you said, everyone's staying here, they're shooting it all around you. Where were you at nineteen eighty six? Were you were you in town? Were you around this? Do you remember this coming to town? Well? I was aware that it was happening. I was in my last year of college.

4:45 So the fact that they were, you know, the production crew and the kind of the storm Chaser guys are from ou you know, guys about my age, that kind of took them in and around. So all that stuff was going on. I don't really remember the specifics. I do know where Helen Hunt stayed while she was in Norman, which is a couple of blocks away from my church, you know, so okay, not your dorm room, a couple couple blocks away, unfortunately, not my dorm room. Right. Well, let's let's talk about the nineties culture influence for this film, because the music is a big one, which I know we're gonna get to here in a minute, but I mean these giant cell phones that they're carrying, especially Jamie Gertz's character. The laptops, like those bulky, chunky laptops that we that were seeing, you know, in the in the nineties, and Jason, I gotta ask you, how bad did you want to install a CB radio in your truck after watching this movie? Because I still do.

5:46 Yeah, for sure. I had a buddy who had one. He had his own handle and everything, and I was always jealous of that. I think that would have been really cool. I wish I would have done it. Talking about the film's box office and what the critics thought. So this opens number one on May tenth, takes in a worldwide gross of four hundred ninety five million dollars after twelve week after a twelve week run, and you gotta keep in mind, this is a budget of ninety two million, I think, and I think that that ballooned to ninety two. Yeah, I know there was some reshoots and Yondubant was, you know, spending some money. He probably didn't have a little out of control is what I read on Yon Depac reckless, abandoned. But but look, I mean, you got to give the guy credit because this becomes the second highest grossing film of nineteen ninety six, directly behind Independence Day, which you and I talked about a couple weeks ago. We did that was fun too. This is a great summer popcorn movie, right. It is the epitome of summer popcorn blockbuster movies. It's just it's just a fun time. And uh, you know, you can't go wrong with a film like this in the summertime, at least I don't think so. This also, this becomes the most successful Warner Brothers release of all time, surpassing nineteen eight nine's Batman. WHOA Yeah, I mean, if anything was going to beat the back of a tornado,

7:18 yep, yep. The tornado blew the bats out of the Belfray, I guess. But you know it was short lived though, because two thousand and one, Harry Potter arrives and he, you know, he takes the crown from Twister. That's pretty. That's pretty. It's good company. I mean, Batman, Harry Potter, and Twister. I mean those are Twister's a big time. Yeah, Twister's in good company as far as I'm concerned. I had great company. Critics and audiences in ninety six mostly favorable. You know, I was looking. I saw a lot of a lot of phrases like high concept, blockbuster, exuberant roller coaster ride, visceral thrills. But the did you happen to see Roger Ebert's review? I have this one?

8:05 So so Ebert gives it two and a half stars, and his quote is, you want loud, dumb, skillful, escapist entertainment. Twister works, you want to think think twice about seeing it. That's kind of like a backheaded compliment, right, like, yeah, I really think it is. I think that that he nailed it, right, he did. It's just fun. Put the accelerator down, We're gonna chase storms and yell look out how Yeah. Yeah, I mean there's there's one or two like like, okay, there's there's a couple of scenes that are genuinely they're outside that popcorn vibe. Like think about this, Like the beginning of this film is terrifying to me, you know, as an adult and and you know having like you know, we've we've had our share of Twisters come through Ohio. I've been on several crews where we did like tornado recovery, you know, going through towns, going through neighborhoods. The devastation is just it's catastrophic. And you know, watching this recently and seeing them, you know, like young Joe and her mom and dad, and they're running to the the tornado shelter.

9:22 I'm panicking, and I'm panicking for you because, you know, my first thought is why are these Why is the shelter like one hundred yards from the house, Like, who designed this? You know yours? I'm glad that. I'm happy that you're you know, you're right there in the garage, as I recall. But yes, yes, the film, it opens with a terrifying scene as far as I'm concerned. Quickly, little nugget about that opening scene. So number one, the shelter, the little cellar that they have is one hundred yard run through the hail and the rain. Yeah. Uh, they still have those type of shelters around here. So thankfully mine is in my garage. So I do have a storm shelter. I do. I mean it's necessary when you live here. Yeah, you have to, you right. But one little nugget. The newscaster that they're watching before they make a break for it, Yeah, that's actually an Oklahoma City newscaster. Like when he came on, I recognized him. Yeah that's a real Yeah, he's a real guy. Very cool, very authentic of de BoNT to do something they went back like to the seventies and got an old, an old clip of him. I like that. I absolutely like that.

10:35 It was a neat little nod to Oklahoma people. Well I think so, you know, and like like I said, like you know, I think you know and that kind of paraphrase it having fun with it when we open. But that moment with Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt when he's trying to get her to move on with her life, and you know, he even has like the you know that we get that big reveal, like you know, she's like, what do I have? He's like, you got me? And I know we're gonna get to Jamie Gertz here. You and I have had some had some you know, fun conversations leading up to this, but I genuinely my heart's breaking for in that moment where she's that's a good moment for Jamie Gertz because she is she is in the middle of a rainstorm and you can still see that she's crying and she's not sobbing. She's just you know, very very very sullen looking. I'm sad for it, but that's it's a great moment. I love the dialogue there I love the moment, you know, Bill grabbing Helen Hunt and her pushing him and you know kind of kind of fighting back, and you know, you've never seen it, miss this house and missed that house and hit you know, it's it's it's great. It's great dialogue. I think, Yeah, you know, missed an opportunity there to uh to somehow drop in the term game over.

11:46 You know, oh, how great would that been? Like, well, like when it choos up as his his brand new Dodge Dodge Ram that's you know, that's that's what he should have been, like game over? Man, what are we gonna do? What the are we gonna do? Well, you know, talk about the production history on this one, so we've got that great, We've got the good dialogue. That's that's Michael Crichton and Anne Marie Martin Jason. They were paid two million dollars at the time, which made this the most expensive screenplay ever purchased. You gotta think this is right after Jurassic Park. Yeah, Michael Crichton could walk into a studio and say, all right, boys, start breaking out the check book. He basically calls a shot, right, I've got a I've got a cool little nugget for you. I want to share with you. I'm hoping that you can go down this rabbit hole. Bring it, bringing on, what do you got? Okay? So Michael Crichton and Anne Marie Martin were married, helped him write this screenplay, all right, you know I mean Mike's wife team Okay again, Michael Crichton, you know May Martin, Hey, and my wife. She's helping me. You know, she's helped me with punctuation or whatever. So she was actually an actress. She actually starred and she didn't start, but she had roles in the movie prom Night and the Buggins.

13:15 Really, I mean, I'm a prom Nite guy. I now got to look her up. I gotta figure out who she played. So she's in prom Night. She actually had a cameo in Halloween two. What Okay? Her name she went by Edie Benton back then. If that rings a bell for you, Uh not really, but okay, I mean I love Halloween two. Also, this is now you really got me? That's two Jamie Lee Curtis movies she's in that's right. And get this. She auditioned for the role Princess Leah. Wow. Okay, Well, you're not gonna beat Fisher. But if it's if it's who I'm thinking it is from Halloween two, she's definitely she's definitely a looker, so I get it. But yeah, you know, we we mentioned Yon Debant. Jason, I know you're gonna appreciate this. He chose the only reason he chose to direct this film because this was kind of batted around for a couple of years. I know, Spielberg was in the conversation. John Carpenter at one point, was Roberts a mechis, Yeah, they were, they were. Everyone was kind of like, you know, the disaster film hadn't really come back just yet.

14:28 Sure, because you remember this is before this is before Independence Day, because this is a release. But he specifically wanted to do this because he felt it was an opportunity to create one last large scale practical effects film before CGI took over and changed everything. You know, you and I talked about that. You know, George Lucas, you know, hooded, cloaked George Lucas in The Shadow is waiting to you know, change change the game for and uh yeah, I mean Twister. It's fantastic for that. I mean, because we get some CGI obviously, you know you have to have it in this film. But I think this is a great, great example of like a good blend of practical and digital. So I definitely appreciate that Yon DuPont for his crazy, reckless production. He did have I think the right idea in filming it in Oklahoma in storm season. You know they talked about do you know stowns doing it on a sound stage or do it in British Columbia. You know, there's reasons for that, and they actually had to finish up in Iowa because of storm season. Oh wow. So the actual you know, the last scene where Bill and Joe are, you know, fighting it out, you know, against the storm, that was all filmed in Iowa. But they actually wanted to be here in Oklahoma during storm season.

16:00 I debon is just he's just you've we've said reckless that that is a reckless decision. Like I I don't know how this guy gets away with what he gets away with. Speaking of reckless, did you did you hear the did you read the story about his his uh suggestion that that led to a lot of surround surround sound speakers being destroyed in theaters worldwide. Oh no, tell me about this. Apparently the film the so the real show up personal suggestion from Debat turn it up. The problem. The problem with that is that because of the loud, bass, heavy surround channel that the film has, it blew speakers everywhere. Like it, it was destroying speakers everywhere across America, you know, theater theater owners little pissed at Yonda bought, I bet. Yeah, Well it's one of those movies Like I remember seeing this in the theater and it was one of those where you're sitting there and it just the sound just shook, It just vibrated you in the chair, you know. And I remember this is nineteen ninety six. We don't have the blush leather recliners and stadium seating that we that we have now. I mean that stuff was kind of just starting. Yep. So the sound of this movie just rattled you to the core, you know, in ninety six,

17:30 and rightly so. I mean, a real tornado sounds like a train going through the middle of your house. Terrifying, absolutely terrifying. Now, the sound of it. I read this and I immediately started laughing because I thought I thought about a specific sound effect. You and I You guys on, surely you can't be serious. Have this incredible, this incredibly fun? What went wrong that you've you've allowed me to be part of many times? Yes? You have? You want? Can you remind our for for our listeners that haven't maybe you haven't heard that some of these episodes yet. We we did a great one for Jawls the Revenge. Yeah, do you want to remind uh? Do you want to remind people or or or fill people in on on the noise used for for the Shark. The The noise used for the Shark was a a cartoon Jerry Mouse from the Tom and Jerry cartoon.

18:34 Yea where he got super mad at Tom and has this big bellowing r. Yeah, because because when you think shark, obviously you think roar. You know, a shark rar? Jason, I I saw that the the sound they the tornado sound that they use for Twister is actually a camel's moan that's been slowed down. Okay, so the next time, god for God forbid a Twister touches down to Norman again. But the next time, when if you could just keep a listen out and see if you hear like a camel mooning record it. Please just head for cover. But yeah, I gotta I gotta kick out of that slow yeah, slowed down Camel's moon. I got I got one more nugget for you about the film. Uh So, you know we we know the the early warning system that they have. They they've they've created Dorothy. That's actually an homage to a the real instrument pack used by real tornado researchers, only there's is called the Totable Tornado Observatory better known as TOTO. Yes, yes, I love it. That's really cool and apparently it worked about as well as Dorothy. Did you know? It's say what you will. It's it's a trash can full of gumball. You know, it's like a gumball sheet. So I was watching every time you

20:07 watch this, I'm like, it fell over again and they're picking up all the gumball things. So before I want to talk about the soundtrack, but before we get to that, like, can we just jump real quick the first time we see Dorothy in action, or that we're about to see her inaction Bill packs. Now keep in mind they're driving at the tornado and that's the right time when Bill Paxton has to climb through the middle window of Helen Hunt's pickup truck, and he is climbing all around it, and he's having to flip all these switches and turn these dials. Right, that's that's a lot of work to get this thing up and run, and at a very small, dangerous amount of time. I didn't understand that because like later, like for like Dorothy three, I think the third attempt, Helen Hunt just leans out the back and just hits one switch. So what what the what the heck happened with the Dorothy one is what I'm gonna ask. That's a good question, man. Yeah, did you I mean, did you?

21:07 Did you pick up on that? Like he is, he's worked over time to to get that thing ready. Well in the fact that they're racing to get in front of the tornado, and and uh yeah, there's a lot happening here, a lot of a lot of bells and whistles to get this thing working. Yeah. Not not the greatest uh, not the greatest design, I don't think, but uh, whoever designed this soundtrack? Jason, I'm gonna I'm gonna run. You know, we're gonna talk about this, but I'm gonna I'm just gonna run down the line up here. It's a it's a nineties murderers role right here, man, it is, it's and it's something for everybody here, Uh, Tory Amos, Eric Clapton, Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shania Twain, Lisa Loebe, Soul Asylum, The Goo Goo Dolls, Deep Purple, and last, but certainly not least, Van Halen. I gonna ask you how how excited were you uh when the film score segues into the Van Halen song Humans Being, because it's so subtle. You know, they're chasing, like I think it's like the Second Twister there. You get that that that panoramic shot overhead, all the all the vehicles, and the score just just slowly, softly goes. It's there, and all of a sudden you're like, wait a minute, what's what's happening? Yeah? I love it. I love it. The cool thing is, you know, the Van Halen Brothers, I think contributed three songs to this soundtrack. Well, so I told you

22:41 I had, I had I read something that kind of broke my heart a little bit. So there's two songs. So you get obviously you get humans being and then the the the instrumental at the end, the in credit sequence, that's Van Haelen. But uh, here's what here's what makes me sad. Remember in the eighties we had these these soundtrack these movies that were fueled by soundtracks from like one band, you know, like Queen. Queen gives us Highlander, a CDC gives us Maximum Overdrive. Yeah. So Van Halen was originally contracted to write five songs for the film Okay, and it was gonna be it was gonna be like a Van Halen soundtrack basically. But Alex and Eddie both and I tried to do some more digging on this, but I couldn't really find much more information. But Alex and Eddie both were recovering from injuries that they had sustained. Well, that's happening. Sammy says, Look, I'm heading to Hawaii. I'm gonna spend quality time with my family.

23:42 They're ready to record. Sammy's not ready to come back. But then he says, hey, I'm I'm on my way back. He purposely, you know, allegedly, he purposely misses, you know, a recording date. You know, he kind of no shows on them and this kind of this is allegedly this, this whole situation with the Twister soundtrack is what creates the initial arguments that lead to Sammy leaving the band. Yep, and that just breaks my heart, man, I mean yeah, So I read a little bit on this as well. So Sammy's wife was getting ready to have a baby, oh okay, and that changes things. And she was having it, I think naturally, so they had like a midwife kind of lined up and she didn't want to you know, they needed to hunt her down where they were living at the time, which was in Hawaii. And so Sammy's like, look, guys, can I record the vocals here? Okay?

24:40 And the brothers are like no, right, They're like, no, you got to come back here. He's like, guys, I'm gonna have a baby. I mean, I'll do you know, I'll do it. I just need you guys need to flex a little bit. So they said, so he comes back. He finally says, okay, I'm come back, comes back. He records the vocals for humans being okay, anything else all right? Am I good? Okay, I'm going back Okay. So he leaves and when they after he leaves. They're like, wait, we need more stuff. He's like, screw you, guys, I'm not coming back. I told you here we have the sol and then that is the first. Then David Lee Roth comes back for about five years. So that's the end of this. Listen. I know you're a big Van Hanil fan like I am. That just bumps me out man to hear that. And I know we talked a little bit about you know them kind of great on each other's there's a's got another shout out. But you don't mind show you Keep Me Serious podcast. I got to do the OU eight one two s right episode with you guys. You guys had a great if I remember right, the showdown was eight one two versus Cinderella's Long Cold Winter, Right, yep, yeah, I love Yeah, it's a great album. Yeah, listeners, I have to believe you're already listening to surely you Keep the Serious podcast. But if you're not, you got some homework. Start with Start with OU A one two. That's an awesome episode that Jason and d let me get part of. And obviously the What the heck Happened series where we

26:12 just have a lot of fun taking bad movies and asking the question, what the heck happened here? That's right, Jeff is our resident, what the heck happened? Expert? Thank you, Thank you. Let's talk about this cast now. It's my understanding. You know, we don't have you around, and let's we get a Colvin cut of a film, or we get a Colvin cast like a recast. So I have to believe you've got a couple suggestions for us. I got some suggestions, man, I got some suggestions. All right, I'll tell you what. Let's let's uh, there's a couple of people I want to talk about. Let's uh when we when we cover them. Let's let's hear you the suggestion, because I know you're gonna have a good one for us. Okay, well, let's start with the principal roles. So Helen Hunt as Joe Harding now Laura Dern was initially considered, but when Yon shows up, he famously did not want any big name actors in the film because he believed they had a demanding behavior. He didn't want to work with divas, so he was always trying to go for like the B listers. You know, he fights for Helen Hunt, who at the time is known for TV sitcoms. The studio is like, why her, I don't think, we don't think, so hold auditions. And I love the fact that after they insist that he has, he holds auditions.

27:32 He later admits that this was a very embarrassing process for him because he opened every audition by telling the actress I already made my choice. You're not going to get it, but go ahead, could you? Could you imagine? You know, You're like, hey, I you know, got this Tornado movie and it could be my big break. And the director just says, it's not you, but go ahead. You know, we'll put it on tape, but you're not lash. That is not reckless right now, He's reckless with with people's feelings, right Uh does a great job. Man is awesome, Jason. This is peak Helen Hunt. This is this is Helen Hunt at at her best as far as I'm concerned. And I saw her. I saw her a couple of months ago. She was at a con that we went to a couple of months ago in spring. You would think she was filming Twister today. Really she incredible, She looks incredible, absolutely incredible. I'm kind of curious if you know, I know the story is under wraps, but you know, I'm wondering if we'll see her pop up in a cameo in the sequel, but which i'd be, I'd be, I'd be up for. But uh, I don't know, what do you think? I think she's really strong, She's a She's a very strong character. And I'm leading with Helen Hunt because I kind of feel like this is her film. Honestly, totally, totally. I think she does a

29:03 great job. I buy her, which for me is important. I buy her as an Oklahoma Right's midwestern. I feel like she's Midwestern. I buy it. She doesn't have the overly obnoxious, uh misplaced Alabama accent that we're going to talk about here in a second. Yeah, but she's Midwestern. I totally buy it. I would not recast her, but okay, but if but if I did, It's tough to rain myself in on these things because like, if I had my brothers, I'd have Steven Spielberg at the Helm and I'd have Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in the first two slots. Yeah, but I'm gonna be real for a second. Okay, Okay, that you got so I'm using native textan Sandra Bullock, and that's is that perfect? Well? I mean he'd worked with her on Speed where she knocked our socks off, right, She's the Rise in It girl, America's sweetheart.

30:11 YEP. I buy her as Midwestern. Obviously she's from this area. Yeah, okay, so I absolutely love that choice. With the condition that she does it doesn't work with her and Bill Paxton. I don't see I don't see that as a match. I don't see that working. However, I'm guessing that you're gonna have a have a have a recast a Colvin cast for Bill Paxton when we get to get to him. So let's let's get to Bill Paxton. He's playing Bill Harding. You mentioned Tom Hanks. You said I'd have Tom Hanks uh slotted for this. Tom Hanks, I'm sure you already know, originally was cast in the film. He dropped. He drops out during pre production. They've already liked the clothes that Bill Paxton is wearing. Tom Hanks's close like he had done the wardrobe fittings and everything.

31:03 Oh wow, that's great. But yeah, but he he drops out during pre production and it's during during filming. Of Apollo thirteen is where he helps Paxton take over the role for him, Hanks said. Of the role, Hanks said his reason for dropping out was quote, it needed an eccentric man with a Southern flare, and that's not me. Okay, I you okay, sure. I mean Tom Hanks can play anything he wants, and he can. I think he was just like, I mean, maybe you know, he's he's coming off a poll of thirteen. He's maybe he's talking to Steve and they're they're they're cooking up saving Private Ryan. So well, I think you know, at one point Spielberg was was slotted to direct. I think Mechus was slotted to direct, both of whom you know he'd had a relationship with MHM. When when Yon DuPont steps in, maybe Tom's like, yeah, maybe I step out. Maybe this is this is this is an amazing Bill Paxton role. Though like I love Bill Paxton, we we love Bill Paxson and everything right right, and and like you said, like you buy Helen Hunt as a Midwestern you got to buy Bill Paxton absolutely. I mean he's got he's got the southern flair that Tom Hanks's is lacking. Allegedly.

32:27 Definitely. I mean I think he was born in in the in the Dallas area, so he's from this area. He's already played in Oklahoma and in Near Dark, where he's ye chewing up the scenery and chewing up other things. Absolutely, Bill Paxon is great. I would not recast him, but but if I did, okay, And once again, I'm going for that that southern flair. Need somebody. Patrick Swayze whoa Swayze and Bullock in Twister. We think I think it's I think it's a It's another perfect choice, I mean to Texans. And let's talk about Patrick swayzey for a second.

33:20 We've seen him look great in the rain in Dirty Dancing. We've seen him look great in the rain in Point Break. I'll watch him for ninety minutes in the rain and hail and cows and tornadoes. Yeah, I'll tell you. I'll say this. The last time you were here, when we did Independence Day, your most controversial recasting. Probably the listeners responded, They're like, well, hold on, I took it off on that one, man. Yeah, you took a beating on that one. But so far, I think you're bat in a thousand so let's move on. Let's move on to the supporting players. And to do this, Jason before, I want to talk about your expert opinion on the Oklahoma accents. And uh so let's let's let's let's go ahead and get to it. Jamie Gertz, who we've always loved, you know, eighty six, she's the Queen of eight nineteen eighty six as far as I'm concerned. Yes, she's playing Bill Paxton's fiance, doctor Melissa Reeves, who's fish out of water, a little little whiny, a little, a little too much, little overbearing. Yeah, we almost didn't get Jamie Gertz this. Uh it was. It was supposed to be Mirror Sorvino. So let that sink in for a second. I

34:50 got her, you go with that her, Yeah, Mirror would not go with it because they told her she had to dye her hair brown for whatever reason. If she won of the roles, she had to have brown hair. And Serviana said, nope, I'm passing. So interesting. Okay, Well Jamie Gertz, this this accent, Okay, So I'm Jamie Gertz. If you need beautiful socialite less than zero, she's your girl. If you need seductress, vampire, Runway Murder, runaway star from the Lost Boys, she's your girl, right if you need New York, you know, like Brooklyn, you know, just off the streets, a little too pretty for her own good, big silver, she's your girl. Yep, she's not your Oklahoma doctor. No, let's not forget crossroads like she she excels at the from the streets, a little too pretty to be from the streets, but you know, can take care of herself to a degree. All her roles do that. Yeah, I love your h I love your missmash of all those movies. By the way, thank you, thank you very much.

36:07 The Jamie gertzty that was a popular one on our nineteen eighty six series. But she's doing something here that just it doesn't work, man, like the nineties, the nineties pantsuit and the hair. The hair is ridiculous. What's going on? Like she she's sporting like a can I speak to the manager? Haircut twenty twenty years before we're ready for that. It's a it's a question of whether the hair is worse than the accent. It's hard to tell. I don't know where to go on that one, but it's a shame because she is. She's a talented actress, she's she's great at most things that she does, but not in this one. Who do you got?

36:53 Because Mirror Serveno's out and we maybe need to look at someone else other Thanjimmie Gertz. Who you Okay? All right, So I'm gonna change the tone just a little bit. I'm going away from the princess, you know, scared of spiders, have no idea what what happens when a thunderstorm, you know, happens. Uh huh. So I'm I'm going more confident. I'm going more toe to toe with your lead character of Sandra Bullock, and I'm going with somebody who's played in OK Clumbing before. Okay, all right, I am going with the beautiful and talented Diane Lane and your hitch Street continues. Man, do I do we even need to mention it or talk about why that's perfect? That? That's another one? Man, You're you're on fire today with the reach she played Cherry Vallance and the Outsiders. You need somebody who's who's a little too pretty for their own good. She can't be more than a generation or two away from the trailer you know what I mean exactly. That is it if you're Patrick Swayze, now you you're you're engaged to Diane Lane and but but you got a history with Sondra Bullock.

38:04 That's a tough choice. That is a very tough choice. Yeah, I'm loving, I'm loving I'm loving the uh, the the alternate universe uh copy of Twister with with his cast sover Man. It's it's fantastic. I can see Dayton Johnson typing furiously at this moment. He's he's yeah, he might not be happy. But another uh, another guy doing an accent, questionable accent, but but better than uh than Jimmy Gertz. Uh Carrie Elwis, who's playing we gotta have a we gotta have someone to play a little bit of a villain. And that's that's that's him doing Jonas Miller, the smarmy we went to we all went to school together. But I'm I stole your design and I'm got my high tech team with with all our our Dodge Vans, caravans. And right, how's his accent? Terrible? It's terrible, but it's better than Gertz. It's better than Gerts. The problem with Kerry elways is. He has such a beautiful voice, and when he speaks with his English accent, you know, he sounds brilliant and you know, smart, and you know he's the dread pirate Roberts and that's who we love, right. Yeah, when he tries to slow it down a little bit and come in, no, it didn't work at it And his his American accent, it's not bad. Like you know, if you think about his character in the Saul franchise. You know, we just played doctor Gordon. He sounds like a normal American guy. But here I'm always doing But I knew

39:35 it wasn't right because, like I'm watching this recently, I'm like, you know, I talked to Jason all the time, I talked to d They don't they don't sound like this. What's he doing? Who is he? Who? Who's he supposed to be? Yeah? Yeah, all of these people, Oklahomans have a little bit of a draw. Yeah, but they don't have the Southern mail thing, you know, I mean that el Wes was doing. They went a little overboard, I think with the accent. Yeah, this is my favorite pick, by the way, My my my recasting of Carrie Okay, aside from it, well before you before you recast him, uh expertly. Uh as far as his role, Like one thing, I will say this to Michael Crichton, I don't think I cared enough about him. So when he did get you know, sucked up into the twister and destroyed, yeah, see you later, you know. Yeah, I didn't really care enough about him, Like it would have been nice to have a little more interaction between him and Bill Paxton, just to see the rivalry. I think. But uh, but who do you got for for for Carrie? Okay, So like you, I didn't really care that he got killed. It really didn't bother me. I mean, oh too bad, you know whatever. Exactly. So I'm ramping up the douchiness, I'm ramping up the obnoxiousness, and I'm going full bore with adversarial, you know, bad blood between these two guys. Okay, I'm also pill forering the The Outsiders cast one more time, one more time you got, And I'm

41:07 going with the little billy bastard Emilio Estevez. Oh laugh, the the Turney the Turny Nests. Has a Melio ever played a villain or a guy we don't like? Though? I'm trying to think. So I've always I've always enjoyed a million like he's always he's always the fun guy, like you're you want you want a Millio the turn? Huh, Yeah, it would be fun to see It would be fun to see him play a bad guy, you know what. I'm I'm with you still, I could I could get I can get on board with that one. Uh do you know since we use the word turd, do you know who was supposed to play this role before carry Eus No, I don't. Christopher McDonald and uh he had to back out because he was contracted, uh contractually obligated to h Happy Gilmore to play shoot McGavin. So well, I tell you he breakfast, there's your turn. You know. Yeah, that would have been good. You know that's a great kind of Yeah, he's got to be formidable. You gotta kind of dislike him. He's got to have a little bit of authority.

42:22 He's gotta Yeah, So, Emilio is hard to dislike. He is, but he could be obnoxious, I believe. So I feel like a Milio could be dislike. I could dislike him in the way I disliked Don Johnson in Tin Cup where he's still cool, he's still he's still the guy. Yeah, but we we see it. We're okay, he's the bag, he's the villain. We know we're not supposed to like, Okay, I'm with you on that. I got three I got three three names here to give you cameos and or before they were famous. We always like to talk about the heart of the movie. Phillip Seymour Hoffman playing Dusty Jason. This is one year you know, he had, he had done, he had done a couple of movies, but this is this He's in Twister, one year before Boogie Knights. Wow. And I think that's where he kind of launches into the stratosphere because you know, he's got Boogie Knights, the Big Lebowski almost famous, and then he he's Phillip Seymour Hoffman, right right, right, So I love I love his character and this he's He's the guy I want to hang out with. If if you know, this is the guy that you work with, this is the guy used to see on the weekends. You're gonna have a good time with Dusty. He's just fun, right. I feel like this is the character that most people in the audience kind of identify with. He's just having a great time being involved in this.

43:46 We're chasing tornadoes. It's a roller coast ride. We're having fun. He's the one that I I hang and you know, I see I die with. I think. I think one of the flaws from a from a writing perspective, one of the flaws is that we're supposed to be following along with Jimmie Gertz because she's the outsider who doesn't understand the beauty and the destructive nature of these of these storms. She doesn't understand the passion that they have, and and that's us. We don't We're not storm chaser. So we're supposed to be along for the ride with her. But to your point, I don't want to be her, you know, it's Dusty like I want to be like you know, I want to I want to be there for Bill and helping him out. You know, I'm happy that Bill's back, like like Dusty is, and he's just he's he's he's just he's just fun.

44:37 You know, he's lovable. Even when they go visit a aunt Meg's you know, I buy like with the whole the whole thing where she's like packing him extra take and he's like, thank you, sweetheart and gets another cheek like I I feel like that's just very authentic, Like I would have believed that he has known that woman for the past twenty years, ever since he's been chasing storms with with Hellen Hunt. Honestly, Yeah, I'm with you, come with you. That's that really is one of the great sort of slow down, let's have a moment of character development. It's almost like the locker room before the football game. You get to know the players, but they're sitting around talking about the gravy and and they're just kind of having a great time. Yeah, at at Meg's house in Wikita, Oklahoma.

45:22 Well, yeah, now, I know, Dusty, I know you're you're proud of this. He's wearing a no you hat throughout the whole film, Yes, he is. Do you know why he's wearing that hat? Why? So, initially they went to the university and they wanted the OU logo on Dorothy. University said no. So they said, yeah, I don't talk to your alma mater. Man, I don't know what's going on with Wow. Okay, so you know what they said, You know, they said, that's fine, We're still going to see the logo I'll just wear, you know. So they had him wear a ball cap throughout the whole thing, which but again, you know, whether it's you know, I know that it as a goof on the university, but it it makes the film more believable. We know we're in Oklahoma. We would assume that these guys are from the university, right, yeah, I mean they they talk about that. You know, their grant money's running out, so it has to be ou right. I think it does, no doubt about it.

46:16 That's where the National Weather Service is, you know, the people the headquarters where they study tornadoes is about six miles from where I'm sitting right now, So that's right there. So now we're gonna you know, we're gonna get a little more before they were famous. I can't even tell you his name, the name of his character, but he's part of Helen Hunt's crew. This is a very young Jeremy Davies that we're seeing a right among the cadri This is two years before saving Private Ryan, when he really launches, you know, becomes becomes a big star. Doesn't do a whole lot in this movie. But I mean the crew here of Tornado science nerds. It's a who's who of you know, we got we got cam run from Ferris Bueler, Alan Ruck he's there, the guy from Fast Times, the originally High and you know, police Academy. I can't remember the apologies that I don't remember. He's one of them, you know everyone that one's showing up.

47:10 But Jeremy Davies is uh is there in the background hanging out. So and then lastly, I was not prepared for that one. I just I'm like, oh, that's the guy from Lost and you know, yeah, yeah, well and this last one is a blink and you'll miss it. But uh, looking on Jonas the side that Jonas with his like his lab, his mobile crew. Yes, Jake Busey is in there. Oh really, he's one of the lab techs. Uh. Now this is this is kind of the year where he starts to blow up because this is the same year that he's in The Frighteners playing the playing the main killer, and it's one year before Contact and Starship Troopers. But yep, there you go go back and watch watch Twyster. Every time Jonas calls back to the lab and they're they're in there running their analysis. See there he is Gary Busey of Oklahoma.

48:04 You know. So there, Yeah, well you got to you gotta have Abusy if you're gonna do something with Oklahoma, you know, give me Abusy in there, right. That's it. That's it, Jason. Let's take a let's take a quick break, and then when we come back, it'll be time for keeping it real. Welcome back, Jason Colvin. Been chasing tornadoes with me on this one. We've been talking about Twister from nineteen ninety six, and it's time for keeping it real. Three questions, Jason, we you know love answering these. Love love asking these because I love hearing your answers. Let's start with with the first one. One of our favorite actors, Billy Zopka. He's dominating Dojo's high school cafeterias and college swimming pools and some of the best movies in the eighties, and then he's notably absent from Hollywood for most of the nineties. The question is what about zob Jason replaced one actor from this film with williams Zopka. This is easy for me. I put williams Zobka in the dusty role. Whoa, He's Wow, I didn't see that coming. I drop him right in there. The easy choice would be to put him as Jonas, because we all know that williams Zob has played the bully his entire career. Let's make him likable, let's make him crazy, Let's make him a goofball, slap the ou had on him, and let him run around and be the tour guide through the

49:34 roller coaster. All right, I'm with you on that. You might I think you might have won me over because uh, I took the obvious road. I you know, I got him as Jonas, taking taking carry all what's out of the you know, because I'm gonna believe he's into a better accent obviously. Yep. And in nineteen eighty six, while he was on the diving team and back to school, he probably majored in meteorology. So well, there you go. I had it. I had him as as my Jonas. But I like what you're doing with Dusty there. You know, maybe Dusty isn't the clown, the goofy clown, so much as he's just the fun loving guy that you know. Maybe, uh, maybe Helen Hunt was was okay chasing storms with when Bill paston wasn't around, So I like that. I don't know. I think I think the easy choice is Jonas and so I don't thought at all for that. I think that's a great choice as well. All Right, we know he could be that guy.

50:30 He can't be that guy this one. I don't know how much we can talk about this one. But sequel, prequel, remake. You know, if you control this ip, what would be your pitch to the studio to revive it? Obviously, Twisters is in theaters this weekend. It's it's out today, So I mean, we got our sequel. My question, you know, unless unless you've got a hit, you know, a hit thing here for a sequel, for a prequel, or a remake. My question to you is does this franchise have potential to become a trilogy? Yes? Okay? Now sub question do we stay in Oklahoma or is it time to move somewhere else in the US or in the world for the third one?

51:14 Wait? Wait, what's your what's your thoughts on that? I mean, I think you stay here. I think that Oklahoma is a character in this movie. It is, you know, I think maybe you change your mission. I don't think you're trying to put the gumball the gumballs out of the machine into the twitter. But I think there's a chance to I mean, listen, every first week of May, there is drama happening at home here because what are we gonna do? Everybody bunker down, everybody ready for this. Oh my gosh, the sky is green. Everybody below ground. There's plenty of drama to be had. Okay, all right, we'll look for We'll look for the trilogy there. I'm assuming this one's gonna make a ton of money. I think and Glen are anxious to go back. Yeah, is Glenn Powell, like when you have a legacy sequel from the from the eighties or nineties, Is Glenn Palell just the guy that's gonna do it for you because he's top Gun Maverick, He's Hangman and now he's now he's the Tornado Twister or the Tornado Wrangler, you know. And this new one, Yeah, I think he was following. Hey, he's awesome in this one. I think he I think he looks good. I'll tell you he did. He did say something today that really made me like him even more.

52:29 What's that? So if you know even just a little bit about him. He's a big Texas longhorn guy, right, okay, And during the U text the OU Texas football game this year, he and McConaughey and all those guys are you know, they're holding the horns up and really didn't care for him a whole lot on that day, you know, I guess not right. But he was asked at the premiere, which was in Oklahoma City last night, and they're like, hey, you spent a lot of time in the state. Have you warmed up to, you know, being a Sooner fan? Uh huh? And he's like, listen, that's my favorite day of the year. I look forward to it more than Christmas and my own birthday. He goes, I am not going to be a Sooner fan because I'm a long arm fan, and he goes and I think, I use fans appreciate that, so ready to get it on in October or whatever, And that just made me feel a lot better about him. Yeah, because you know, yeah, I appreciate that he's just because of where he's at, he's not gonna play the honest Oh yeah, I'm a super franzy, you know, because then you think, oh, come on, you're you're not real, right, it's not real. Yeah, I shifted inside.

53:35 No, but yes, I can see him continuing the franchise. Okay, all right, interesting, one more question for you DVD extras, Jason. This was the first movie ever to be released on DVD. Twister was the first what yep, nineteen ninety six the DVD format, you know it comes out. This was the first one by the and in the end of the year they were they were manufacturing it. Wow, I didn't not know that. Yeah, so you know the simplicity of the compact disc. We love it. You know, it's high definition, it's wowing us. We're tossing our VHS tapes away. But you know, the centophiles like like like us, we want those those exclusive special features. So the problem is in ninety six we got the bare bones, no frills packages of a scene selection, French Spanish subtitles. Maybe you got a trailer. So let's uh, let's add something to that DVD. Jason. Here's your choices for your extra on the DVD. Would you want an end character audio commentary? So pick one of the characters from Twister and like that that actor or actress will play that role. And clearly the best choice is Dusty Phillips, Philip Baker or Phillips Seymore Hoffmann playing Dusty giving you a audio commentary. You can have that, or you can have a making of documentary, which, let's be honest,

55:06 like some of your some of the stuff you guys put out on YouTube, like where you're you're on the scene, you know you're on location, some of the some of these movie things that you guys have have captured. Yeah, I mean, if we're if we're gonna have a making of documentary about Twister, I would hope that it's Jason Colevin directing and producing story, thank you, thank you. Or lastly, you can have the Amber Lewis Actors round table, or we can get two or three of these these actors just to sit around the out with the round table, talk about the movie, talk about their experience. Which one do you want? All right? So I love this question, and I love that you saved the best for last, because I'm I'm picking team Amber almost every time. It's every time with you. I know, I know I love Amber. Uh the voice of the reason, She's insightful. Yes. So here's the thing, though, I'm gonna put a little little twist on on what Amber is talking about.

55:54 Okay, so the actor roundtable is what I what I really want, Okay, But what I really want to do is invite the big four, right, Ellen Hunt, Bill Paxton while he was alive, Jamie Gertz and carry Always, and let's go storm Chase come down the first week in May. Let's storm Chase for real, and then let's talk roundtable about their experiences in the movie. And really storm Chasing. That's the hell of a thing. I definitely would have wanted that, absolutely of it. Absolutely, man, absolutely, all right, let's talk about the film's legacy a little bit here. When you think about this one aging over time, Jason, is it a classic, a cult classic, or just a product of its time.

56:45 I'm gonna say it's a classic. I agree, absolutely agree. Is it a strong representation of nineties culture? I don't think the movie is, but I think the soundtrack is. Yeah, I kind of I feel like it's slightly strong, you know, because the music is pure nineties. But we also, you know, some of the tech that we see in the movie, Like we said, the cell phones, the laptops, and then you gotta remember the the the quote unquote extreme culture, you know, you know, doing crazy dangerous things for thrills or in this case science. You know, it's on full display in this movie. These you know, even Jimmy Gertz is like, you know, pounting her fists on Dusty like you guys are crazy, you know, because he's loving the fact that the tornado is just destroyed everything around them. But I think it's I think there's a case there for it to be a good representation of nineties culture. But I do want to talk about how this film impacted pop culture. So oddly enough, meteorological majors increased ten percent after this movie came out. Your your school there, Jason, Oh you they went from two hundred and if I remember right, it was like two hundred and forty majors to like they doubled it.

58:05 It was like four four four eighty or something like that. After Twister. Okay, you know, yep, this one, I'm gonna this one's a bitter pill. I'm gonna I'm gonna bring it up though the film was the basis for Universal Studios Attraction Twister, Ride it Out, And you and I have talked about Universal Studios. We you know, we've talked about the Jaws ride. We talked about uh actually on on Beverly On what the heck happened? And when we did Beverly Hills Cop three, we talked about that that alien that that that goofy Alien h ride, that actual folly is you know, that was the Earthquake ride. That's right. So here's the deal. The Twister ride. Twister Ride it Out. It actually had a filmed introduction by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt like they were like as their characters, you know. And this is Universal Studios where you ride the movies. Huh.

58:57 Sadly it closed in twenty fifteen's which they gotta be kicking themselves because now you've got Twisters coming out right right, but especially should be kicking themselves because do you know what replaced Twister Ride it Out? Oh? What a new attraction called Race through New York with Jimmy Fallon? What exactly? Come on exactly? You're gonna get rid of Twister for for a Jimmy Fallon ride? That's yeah? No, thanks. Lastly, I I gotta tell you, you know, if there's one thing about this, this film's legacy. I don't think anyone ever drives past a dairy farm or through a heavy rainstorm without saying the phrase we've got cows. It just it happened, you know.

59:45 You're how many times have you heard that in a car in one of those two situations? Definitely? And yeah, and it's because of Twister. That's that's never gonna go away, you know. And I don't know what what they're gonna throw at the the windshield in this new one, but whatever it is, I'm sure we'll be paraphrasing that for the next twenty thirty years. So I'm looking forward to it, trying to see it this weekend. Man. Yeah, listen, I tell you what I think. I think, Dave and I are gonna go see this one. Try and get some you know, we you know, if you indeed get out there and see this, we might want to get our heads together on this one. Give us maybe give the listeners, the Shirley listeners and the film by listeners a little Twisters review. Maybe I'd be fun, man, I'd love to do that.

1:00:29 Let's see if we can't get that done. Yeah, all right? Cool? Well, Jason. As always, man, I always love when you when you have time to talk movies with us, I will say the show You Can't Be Serious podcast is the first thing I listened to every single Tuesday morning. So what do you and d have spinning this way next week? What's coming up on on Shirley? Okay, Jeff, So I'm excited about this. We are diving deep. Continue our dive deep on nineteen eighty nine. We're doing we're asking the question, what is the best sequel of nineteen eighty nine? Is it Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade or is it Lethal Weapon Too? How am I supposed to answer that that? I don't know how you guys answered these questions like, yeah, you're putting Indie up against Rigs, Indian Riggs. Wow, that's that's gonna be a tough one.

1:01:23 Man. I am excited to hear what you guys are gonna have to say about that one. But a good luck to you. I don't you know. I can only imagine the I can only imagine the the night's gonna be like one he might he chose poorly, or or or where you look at that night, and just to be you know, just say diplomatic immunity. I don't know it. I don't know you're gonna do. But I look forward to hearing it. Man. Thanks man and listeners. We want to thank all of you for listening to today's nineteen ninety six episode. We're about halfway through this limited series now, and if we haven't covered your favorite from nineteen eighty six, there's still time to hit us up on social media or email and you can, you know, share your requests. It has happened, you know. I've had a couple people be like, well, wait, what about this one? Fuck? You know what, let's cover that one, you know, and uh, we'll see what we can do.

1:02:16 But you can do that. Get ahold of us at www dot afilmbypodcast dot com or hit us up on social media. You'll find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. We got a bounce. But next time on nineteen eighty six, Jason's still gonna be with us, and we're heading to San Francisco, talk about another big blockbuster full of VX gas, nineties Nick Cage and a James Bond theory that that'll make you spill your martini. It can only be the rock, right, Jason can't wait for that one. Man can't wait. We'll see you then. Peace out. A