20 facts you might not know about 'Twister'

Steven Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment got the concept for Twister from a writer named Jeffrey Hilton, who pitched it as Catch the Wind. Spielberg then got a couple of writers to turn it into a screenplay. That would be Michael Crichton and his wife Anne-Marie Martin. Crichton, as an author, wrote the books that Westworld and Jurassic Park were based on, and he also created the TV show ER.

For their efforts, Crichton and Martin were paid a reported $2.5 million. That is quite significant. At the time, it made this the most-expensive screenplay ever written. The husband-and-wife duo were the only credited screenwriters on the movie, but as we’ll get into, the script didn’t remain unchanged after they wrote it.

When the project was first announced, Spielberg was attached to direct. He would eventually leave that role, but he remained on as an executive producer. His good friend Robert Zemeckis was in the running for the film at that point, as were John Badham and James Cameron. Then, Speed director Jan de Bont got the gig after he left the Godzilla film due to creative differences.

Crichton and Martin may have been paid a hefty sum for their work, but there was more writing to be done. Joss Whedon, back in his days as one of Hollywood’s go-to script doctors, worked on a rewrite for a couple weeks, but then he contracted bronchitis. Steven Zallian, who had written Schindler’s List but also Clear and Present Danger, was then brought on for a bit. Whedon would return, but he left when production started to get married. During production, screenwriter Jeff Nathanson (who would go on to write Catch Me if You Can) was flown to set to serve as a script doctor until filming ended.

Helen Hunt would end up with the role of Joanne “Jo” Harding, but she wasn’t the only actress up for the role. Laura Dern, who had been in Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, was considered as well. Bridget Fonda and Kate Mulgrew were, too.

The movie was supposed to finish shooting in time for Hunt to return to film the fourth season of her hit sitcom Mad About You. For reasons we’ll get into, production ran long. Luckily for Hunt, and the film, Paul Reiser agreed to postpone shooting Mad About You for two-and-a-half weeks.

It’s almost easier to list the notable actors who weren’t considered for Bill Harding. The original choice was Tom Hanks, but he apparently didn’t feel quite right for the role. Instead, his Apollo 13 castmate Paxton ended up with the part.

Mira Sorvino was who the production wanted to play Melissa Reeves. However, they also wanted her to dye her hair brown, presumably to differentiate her from Hunt, who is blonde. She refused, and the brunette actress Jami Gertz got the role.

Cary Elwes ended up playing Jonas Miller, a storm-chasing rival of Jo and Bill. Fellow British actor Hugh Laurie was also considered for the role. Also, the decidedly not-British Alec Baldwin was in the running.

According to his former producing partner Lisa Sanderson’s lawsuit against him, Garth Brooks was offered the role of Dusty in Twister. However, he reportedly turned it down because the tornado was the star, not him. Philip Seymour Hoffman got the role instead.

A whopping three Oklahoma City-based meteorologists appear as themselves in Twister. That’s three more than in most films. They played with timelines a bit. During the flashback to 1969, meteorologist Gary England was working in New Orleans, not Oklahoma, but how many people watching the movie knew that?

The plan was to film Twister in the United Kingdom and California. De Bont didn’t want that to be the case, though. He insisted on shooting on location in Oklahoma, and they ended up filming all over the state.

While Twister was filming in Oklahoma, the Oklahoma City Bombing occurred. At this point, they decided to suspend production on the movie so that the cast and crew could head to Oklahoma City to help with recovery efforts.

As the seasons changed, Oklahoma no longer suited the needs of the filming. They had to move to Iowa, where they shot the climactic scenes involving the F5 tornado and the run through the cornfield.

Paxton and Hunt sacrificed their bodies for the movie. They were both temporarily blinded by lamps that were being used to make the sky seem ominous and stormy. The two also had to get hepatitis shots after filming in an unsanitary ditch. Hunt also hit her head on multiple occasions during the shoot, possibly picking up a concussion. De Bont characterized Hunt as “clumsy,” to which the actress replied, “The guy burned my retinas, but I’m clumsy.”

Apparently, de Bont was a bit of a terror on the shoot. Members of the crew felt that the director was “out of control,” and at one point, he reportedly angrily knocked a camera assistant who had missed a cue to the ground. At this point, cinematographer Don Burgess and the camera crew walked off the shoot. Jack N. Green and his crew took over, but then Green was hospitalized with an injury from an on-set accident. At that point, de Bont, a former cinematographer, took over as his own director of photography for the rest of the shoot.

In the end, Twister proved a huge success. It debuted with $41.1 million in the North America box office, making it the No. 1 movie of the week. Ultimately, it would make nearly $500 million worldwide. Only Independence Day made more in 1996.

In 1996, Twister was released on VHS, complete with a trailer for Space Jam. In October 1997, it was also released on DVD. This was notable because Twister is considered to be the first movie to be released on DVD for home viewing.

Apparently, the Academy loved that cow flying through the air — a remodeling of a CGI zebra from Jumanji, by the way. The movie was nominated for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects by the Oscars, but it did not win either award.

In 1998, “Twister…Ride it Out” opened at Universal Studios in Florida. It was less of a “ride” and more of an experience, as you would stand on a platform and experience an encounter with a tornado, complete with rain and fire. The attraction replaced the “Ghostbusters Spooktacular” and was around until 2015, when it was closed. In 2017, it was replaced by “Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon.”