Twister and its sequel, Twisters, both feature a variety of different tornadoes that all showcase the terrifying range of destructive power present in these fearsome events of inclement weather. Upping the ante from the previous film, each new tornado introduced in Twisters is more catastrophic than the one before it, whether it be due to sheer force generated or other unique circumstances. From the gentle controlled tornadoes of both films’ early moments to the apocalyptic cyclones that ravage the American countryside in the climax of Twisters, there’s a lot of power to unpack in both films.
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In real life, tornadoes are measured on a chart called the Fujita scale, rating each twister from F0 at the least intense to F5 at the strongest. Considering how faithful to real life Twisters is, this scale is frequently mentioned by the cast of both movies. However, not every tornado shown off in Twister and Twisters is given a canonical Fujita scale rating, so a bit of detective work has to be done in determining the power of every individual funnel.
|
Fujita Scale |
Wind Speeds |
|---|---|
|
F0 |
40-72 mph |
|
F1 |
73-112 mph |
|
F2 |
113-157 mph |
|
F3 |
158-206 mph |
|
F4 |
207-260 mph |
|
F5 |
261-318 mph |
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13 Kate’s Tornado Demonstration
Twisters
Not every whirlwind featured in the Twister franchise necessarily has to be so destructive. By creating a model of a tornado, Kate is able to demonstrate the very real natural wonder and beauty that the events can irrefutably bring. Of course, it figures that this controlled exhibition of a purposefully-generated tornado is easily the tamest of the entire franchise.
By using a model, Kate is able to remind audiences how tornadoes form and are maintained in the 28 years since Twister was released. Within the confines of her miniature town, Kate’s old project is able to demonstrate the ethereal grace with which twisters can move, rendering a small-scale version of one in loving detail. Hardly qualifying as a real tornado at all, Kate’s model twister wouldn’t even register on the Fujita scale, generating only pitiful winds.
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12 The Waterspouts
Twister
One of the coolest things about the Twister duology is the way it explains real-life weather phenomena in stunning action sequences. At one point in Twister, the characters come across a twin system of swirling waterspouts, practically begging them to investigate with a closer look. In real life, waterspouts are a very real possibility; essentially normal tornadoes that form over bodies of water, causing liquid to be pulled upwards into a mesmerizing column of liquid.
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As dangerous as the twin waterspouts might’ve looked, they end up being one of the gentlest storms in the entire series. The crew is essentially unharmed after allowing the two cyclones to pass right over them – While their truck is indeed spun in a tight circle on its axis and pelted with water droplets, nothing is actually damaged by either vortex. The final result of the twin waterspouts was essentially an elaborate and slightly rougher-than-average car wash, except for the presence of Twister‘s infamous CGI flying cow that glides past the passengers.
11 The F1 Ditch Twister
Twister
Even the weakest tornadoes can still be a terrifying threat worth taking seriously. This is proven as much early on in Twister, as Jo and Bill encounter a small, but mighty F1 tornado. The first funnel that forms in the film’s present-day on-screen, the F1 tornado sets the stage for the devastation to come in later acts of the film. In doing so, Twister accurately represents the average tornado with a gripping storm chase.
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Swirling with wind tinged brown from its muddy surroundings in an unremarkable field, the F1 Ditch tornado’s damage starts off light, peeling some roofing here, knocking around some trees there, and being a general nuisance. However, before long, the cyclone is powerful enough to devastate a grain silo, further coloring its contents with valuable foodstuffs. This twister then goes on to claim the J-10 Honcho, the Dorothy I, a wooden bridge and a tractor-trailer, emphasizing the danger of even a small tornado that registers on the Fujita scale.
10 The Fireworks Show Tornado
Twisters
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An example of a tornado with more style than substance, the fireworks show tornado in Twisters changed the game in terms of how creative the series was willing to get with how its cyclones effect their environment. Easing back into her study of tornadoes after being traumatized in the film’s opening moments, Kate agrees to accompany Javi’s Storm Par team to a relatively tame F1 tornado. Soon, the twister sweeps through a fireworks display on standby, detonating a barrage of colorful explosions within its funnel walls as it glides across the countryside.
As another F1 tornado, it’s safe to say that the fireworks show tornado was likely only slightly more powerful than the F1 Ditch twister in Twister. Apparently, it at least had strong enough winds to scoop up a whole show’s worth of celebratory explosives, somehow detonating through sheer wind shear alone. How scientifically accurate this image is might be up for debate, but it’s an unbelievably cool setpiece if nothing else.
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9 The F3 “Jumper” Tornado
Twister
Marking a significant increase in the severity and scope of destruction wrought by the tornadoes in the franchise, the F3 tornado is named for the “jump” in seriousness it represents. At an F3, wind speeds can easily reach the 200 mile-an-hour range, causing untold damage to human-built structures and natural features of the landscape alike. In the movie, this twister presents a serious challenge for even the film’s weathered storm-chasers.
As if its wind speeds weren’t enough, the “Jumper” tornado is accompanied by a rain of hail that batters the team, further demonstrating how tornadoes can interact with other weather events to devastating effect. Eventually, the unpredictable cyclone rips through a series of power lines, causing explosions that knock over poles, pinning the Dorothy II in place. This forces the crew to evacuate, much to the panic and alarm of Jo.
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8 The F3 Twins
Twisters
The only thing scarier than an F3 tornado (other than, obviously, higher-rated tornadoes) is an F3 tornado that can split itself in half. This is exactly what Kate and Javi’s team encounter at a pivotal moment in Twisters, following an F3 only to watch in horror as the single cyclone splits into a rotating system of two twisters. From here, Kate has to use her valuable weather expertise to correctly identify the stronger of the two to go after, splitting the party.
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Twin tornadoes, also commonly referred to as “sisters”, are a rare but very real possible phenomenon in real life, forming when two distinct twisters converge. Nature’s biblical wrath is quite alarming in this scene, which doesn’t shy away from the destruction caused by the disasters. Terrifying as they were, in the wake of the twin tornadoes, Kate is able to see that Javi really does care about the victims of the storms he so desperately chases.
7 The Sapulpa Tornado
Twisters
Moving into truly serious territory, the Sapulpa tornado is Twisters‘ representation of a truly frightening weather that poses a very real risk to everyday people. While bonding in their childhood hometown of Sapulpa, Kate and Tyler end up wrangling a tornado that forms in an empty field not too far away in order to test Kate’s theories on “taming” a twister. To conduct their research, Kate and Tyler releases hundreds of “beads” into the vortex walls, collecting data as they go.
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Sapulpa, Oklahoma is a real town that sees a frighteningly high number of tornado events that register as an F2 or higher on the Fujita scale, grounding this scene in reality. This particular passing twister doesn’t have much landscape to prove its mettle on, leaving the full extent of its power to be relatively hard to gauge. Still, its a graceful and sleek tornado that provides Kate with some valuable insight as to how to improve her theories.
6 The Wakita Tornado
Twister
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A scene that is truly awesome in the classical sense of the word in Twister features a devastating tornado that rolls through Wakita, causing wanton destruction. This scene alone proves why Twister is one of the best disaster movies of all time, with dazzling special effects that excellently convey the awe-inspiring unchecked power of a dangerous tornado. Against the backdrop of a gray sky streaked with lightning, the Wakita tornado is one of the scariest sights in the entire Twister duology.
At an F4 on the Fujita scale, the Wakita tornado’s wind speeds are easily over 200 miles per hour. The twister bears down on an unprepared drive-in movie screening, tearing through the projector and tossing aside cars like mere toys. Beyond its intensity, what makes the Wakita tornado so scary is how quickly it appears, totally taking the innocent moviegoers by surprise.
5 The Rodeo Tornado
Twisters
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Another F4 twister, the rodeo tornado is a fast-approaching storm that hits quite hard. Hoping to take her mind off her troubles, Tyler invites Kate to a local rodeo in Stillwater, Oklahoma, hoping to bond with her further. Terrifyingly, Kate just can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to tornadoes, with a devastating F4 twister interrupting the festivities by barreling through them. Before long, both Kate and Tyler are scrambling for shelter.
Tearing through crowds of people and animals alike, the rodeo tornado is one of the most alarming in the series. By the time Kate, Tyler, and the random mother and child they’re able to help emerge from the relative safety of a drained swimming pool, the tornado had already wrought devastation upon the entire town, leaving no other survivors. Because of the sheer toll of casualties it inflicted, it’s safe to say that the rodeo tornado was on the higher side of an F4 rating.
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4 The 1969 Tornado
Twister
From here on out, the tornadoes of the Twister series go from relatively localized, but still devastating acts of destruction to epic cataclysms indicative of nature’s fearsome power. Kicking off the duology’s F5 tornadoes is the very first storm in the series, the 1969 Oklahoma tornado that killed Jo’s father. In real life, a deadly F5 tornado really did sweep through Olkahoma in 1969, implied to be the very same storm. While trying to hold down the cellar door acting as his family’s shelter, Jo’s dad is sadly killed by the unfathomable bludgeoning power of the dangerous F5 cyclone.
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At an F5, tornadoes feature wind speeds that exceed 260 miles per hour, easily heaving objects as heavy as cars over 100 yards. It’s a tough call to make, but the 1969 tornado seems to be the weakest of the F5s featured in the series simply due to the limited view of it the audience gets through the eyes of a child Jo. With a confirmed kill count of only one, the devastation left in the wake of this maddeningly powerful twister still pales in comparison to the duology’s stronger spouts.
3 The Opening F5
Twisters
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Keeping up the tradition, Twisters also opens with a destructive F5 that claims the lives of a main character’s loved ones, sparking an adversarial relationship with tornadoes. Desperate to secure a grant for funding, Kate and her old team foolishly delve into the belly of the beast, chasing a local tornado. Their excitement soon turns to panic when the storm suddenly upgrades to an F5, with escalating winds that end up cruelly taking the lives of everyone but Kate, leaving her traumatized.
This harrowing opening sequence demonstrates just how callous tornadoes can be in their indiscriminate wrath. This stark opening scene helps solidify the connection between Twister and Twisters while reminding returning viewers just how horrifying these disasters can be. As for its strength, this tornado was able to turn simple debris into deadly projectiles, not to mention pull a grown man into its eye from a considerable distance.
2 The Final F5
Twister
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Coming full circle to its opening, Twister ends with a climactic final showdown against a near hurricane-level tornado. The weather makes good on its promise in the final moments of the film, delivering a predicted F5 tornado with a staggering mile-wide radius. The massive roiling cloud of fury consumes nearly the entire horizon, making for a tremendously powerful threat. With its incredibly strong winds, the monster tornado launches a tree at the Dorothy III that renders it inoperable.
The power of this tornado speaks for itself as it ravages the countryside, killing Jonas and his truck’s driver in a deadly blow. The twister manages to peel apart buildings without even passing over them, sucking up more and more debris into its core through the sheer power of its squalls. Even the ground itself is stable enough against the titanic tornado, which chews up a massive plume of dirt as it plots a dangerous course right for Jo and Bill.
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1 The El Reno F5
Twisters
It’s only fitting that Twisters ends with an action setpiece that manages to outdo its predecessor, with a more powerful tornado than ever before depicted on screen. In the film’s climax, Kate and her team give chase to a gargantuan F5 twister of epic proportions headed straight for the defenseless town of El Reno. Swelling in size, the cyclone only gets bigger and stronger as it grows closer to its target, giving the series its single most destructive tornado yet.
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Instantly destroying buildings and sucking innocent bystanders high into the sky, the El Reno F5 is easily the strongest tornado of the entire duology in terms of raw power. As if it weren’t menacing enough, the vortex at one point rolls over an oil refinery, resulting in a trail of deadly flame plumes that add fiery whirls of additional devastation. Thankfully, Kate is able to finally get her tornado “taming” method to work at just the right moment, ending the biggest threat in the Twisters series.