ComingSoon spoke to Twister director Jan de Bont to celebrate the iconic disaster movie coming out on 4K Ultra HD Disc and Digital for the first time on July 9. De Bont discussed the film’s opening, working with Philip Seymour Hoffman, and more.
“Don’t breathe! Don’t look back! Just run for your life when a destructive force of nature comes howling straight toward you, destroying everything in its path – when you’re running from a Twister. Academy Award winner Helen Hunt stars as Dr. Jo Thornton-Harding, who as a small girl watched her father sucked to his death from her family’s storm cellar by a massive tornado. Now a storm chaser, a scientist who risks her life to study the dark side of nature by taking her data-transmitting instruments directly into the path of a deadly storm, Jo chases the largest tornado ever to strike Oklahoma as her marriage implodes and rival scientists will stop at nothing to steal her breakthrough,” reads the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Twister has really stood the test of time. It’s such an incredible film that I take away something different each time I revisit it. I watched it this morning and it really just stood out how great a young Philip Seymour Hoffman was. Every single small scene he was in as Dusty, he just lit up the screen. He was so much fun. What really stood out about working with him? Even though he doesn’t have a huge role, he still shines.
Jan de Bont: He absolutely shines and he’s one of the best things in the movie, I think. Because he’s so real. So this sloppiness, the way he glorifies it almost, as sloppiness [and] the way he communicates with the other team members, he makes everything like a little bit of a spectacle, but in a fun way. He can make a theme work even though there was not much into it. He can make it work for you, and he can make it really special and unique, and it’s so fantastic.
[Philip Seymour Hoffman] was the last actor I hired. He was dressed in really sloppy clothing when he came in the room, and [with] wild hair, I said, “That’s it. He’s it.” There’s no second, no number [two]. That was it. That was no other choice I wanted. This was him. He totally so filled all those little parts, and he brought some lightness to the movie, and that’s really hard to do in a serious situation to bring some lightness to it. He was just so perfectly suited for that. It’s really, I think, is great in the movie.
Yeah. Fantastic casting on your part. I wanted to ask about the opening. It’s such a great way to start the film. It really sets the stakes for the action and shows off what people can expect from this real thrill ride of a movie. How important was it to really set the tone early on?
That I think is the most important thing. I think openings of movies are always important, but for an audience to get involved, they have to get a sense of what it actually feels like and what the results would be. So to see that one tornado approaching this little farm, and they have to run out of there and they run to the safety place in front, the cellar. It is so real, it looks like, and I wanted to be that as real as possible, but that was always a real effect.
That was no visual effects. That was all big lighting storm and big, big wind machines and debris flying, and it was so great that once inside, you kind of knew, “Oh my God, this is not gonna end well.” Then when he’s trying to really hold up that [door], nobody would expect that he would be sucked out of there too. Just that one moment, and there’s the sound of that moment where you really hear the sucking sound taking him out and [he] disappears. Wow. You got your audience, I think.
The production of Twister is almost as legendary as the film itself, and everybody went through a lot. You dealt with some terrible luck with the weather, and you were really pushing the boundaries, and there’s a lot of challenges that come with that. Similarly, tornado chasers put themselves in danger because they feel like the thrill is worth it. Did you ever connect with those as a filmmaker because you have that similar willingness to go all in for your pursuit of art?
Absolutely. The whole idea is that our people will get in the car to change the tornado and get as close as possible to just a close-up look. That was so insane to me. And I totally, exactly. I mean, I think, to be honest, I think we all would love to do that now have at least, uh, we would be scared, of course. But I think it’s such a super high energy, super high anxiety, excitement that you can, that you, that achieves that you, you know, you’re going towards danger, you know, and is it coming at you? Can you avoid it? It’s an amazing experience, and a lot of what they told me and what they showed me… basically that found its way into the movie because it is really crazy what they’re doing.
Also, I like the trucks they had. They always just had no idea. They make this truck with all the antennas and the radar things. It’s so insane. I’ve never seen that before. Really, it’s like attacking a monster, you know?
Thanks to Jan de Bont for speaking to us about Twister.
