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In the upcoming Twisters movie, the director, Lee Isaac Chung, got honest about filming on a stormy location during Oklahoma's tornado season.
The director discussed what he did to ensure audiences felt like they were witnessing a real storm in the anticipated film. Empire reports that he set out to make the weather as accurate as ever –using real weather and other devices that could make you deaf.
“This is an elemental story, so I wanted us to go as practical as possible,” Chung said. “We really tore things up. We had jet engines blowing. We had fans so massive you'd lose your hearing without earplugs. We were pelting our cast with everything — dirt, wind, ice.”
Beyond that, he took things where the action was. Oklahoma is part of Tornado Alley — a part of the U.S. that gets behemoth tornados regularly. So, what better way to bring authenticity to the movie than by shooting on location? However, with that choice, they had to contend with actual bad weather.
What it was like for Twisters filming on location
“It was tough,” the filmmaker said. “The unpredictability of the weather caused a lot of issues and delays. It was my choice to do this in tornado season, but honestly, I still can't believe we actually did it.”
Because of the decision to go on location, some spectacular shots of tornados didn't require any special effects.
“They were flying drones really close to tornados, ” Glen Powell, the actor who stars as Tyler Owens in the film, said. “Audiences won't have seen anything like this.”
“We knocked this movie out of the park!” Powell adds. “I remember when we were breaking Top Gun: Maverick, we went back to the original to figure out: ‘What do audiences want from a Top Gun movie? What are the set pieces and characters that feel wholly Top Gun?' It was the same on Twisters. Our film honors the first one but stands on its own merits.”
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He's referring to 1996's Twister, which starred Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt.
Powell talked about the original movie with Vogue, saying, “I don't think anyone has brought up this movie forever, but talking to people, they're like, ‘That was one of my favorite movies growing up. That movie terrified me.'”
“Humans-versus-weather is a very universal idea,” the star added. “How powerless we really are in the face of these cataclysmic forces.”
Entertainment Weekly interviewed the director, who said, “When the first Twister was released, I remember just being blown away by the trailer. I remember feeling how realistic that tornado looked. I'd never seen anything like that. I still remember that trailer, and I know that with this one, we need to try to top it.”
Hopefully, all the difficulties of bad weather and actual wind will pay off and Twisters will blow audiences away. Catch it when it hits theaters on July 19.
