Twister
Twister is about people who chase dangerous tornadoes. One of the first disaster movies to use the kind of super-realistic special effects that we see in movies today, Twister used a combination of 3-D modeling and computer animation. The main characters, William and Jo, are shown standing within inches of powerful twisters. At the end of the movie, they actually stand inside a churning twister. It sure looks real, but could that really happen? Are there really people who do this?
Yes, there are people who chase violent storms in their spare time. Storm chasers study the causes and conditions of tornadoes, predict where and when they will show up, and take long car trips to try to see them in person. Some are professional meteorologists, but many are just interested in weather as a hobby. Unlike in Twister, real storm chasers aren't lucky enough to see tornadoes all of the time. Most of a storm chaser's time is taken up just driving around trying to be in the right place at the right time. Usually, they're lucky to see one or two tornadoes up close every season.
A real storm chaser's goal is to be near enough to study and experience the excitement of the storm without putting himself or herself at risk of harm. Real storms are unpredictable and tremendously violent. The objects flying around in a tornado's path reach speeds of higher than 100 miles per hour. Even soft objects can become deadly at that speed. The most powerful tornadoes can pick up entire houses and hurl them through the air. At the end of the movie Twister, William and Jo manage to stand inside the funnel cloud of a tornado. Real storm chasers are not dumb enough to try something like this. If anyone did that in real life they would be seriously wounded or killed in a matter of seconds.
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