Summary
Twistermay be an action-packed disaster movie about storm chasers coming face-to-face with destructive tornadoes, but the film took its primary inspiration from a surprising source: a classic 1940 romantic comedy. The original screenplay forTwisterwas written byJurassic Parkauthor Michael Crichton and his then-wife Anne-Marie Martin. Crichton had wanted to write a movie about the thrilling world of storm chasers since seeing a documentary about storm-chasing on PBS, but for a long time, he didn’t have a story to go with it.
The release ofLee Isaac Chung’s standalone sequel,Twisters, has reinvigorated interest in the original 1996 movie. It’s prompted fans of the film to rewatch it and led new audiences to discover it for the first time. Jan de Bont, the filmmaker who would eventually bring Crichton and Martin’s script to life on the big screen, said in an interview withVulturethat the inspiration for the story came from an unusual place. Rather than looking to other disaster films for inspiration, Crichton turned to an iconic screwball comedy.
Michael Crichton & Anne-Marie Martin’s Twister Script Was Inspired By His Girl Friday
It’s a divorce comedy disguised as a disaster movie
Speaking toVulture, de Bont confirmed thatCrichton and Martin based theirTwisterscript on Howard Hawks’ 1940 screwball comedyHis Girl Friday. When Crichton was searching for the right personal, emotional story to pair with the dazzling spectacle of storm-chasing, he landed onHis Girl Friday’s bickering enemies-to-lovers couple. Cary Grant stars as a newspaper editor alongside Rosalind Russell as his ex-wife and best reporter. In a bid to win her back before she marries another man, the editor suggests that they cover one last story together.
This formed the basis for Bill and Jo Harding’s relationship inTwister. Instead of covering one last news story together, they chase one last storm together.Much like Grant and Russell, Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton spend the whole movie bickeringwith each other. The quippy arguments between the characters complement the spectacle of the tornadoes in a fun way. De Bont summed up the parallels perfectly: “A couple tries to get back together, and they like to argue a lot, and there’s some humor in it.”
Being A Secret Romcom Made Twister A Better Movie
Twister is more than just a standard disaster movie
Taking influence fromHis Girl FridaymadeTwistera better movie. It meant that it wasn’t just a standard disaster film with nothing more to offer than spectacle; it was a screwball romcom disguised as a disaster film.This made it a lot easier to connect with the charactersthan the average disaster movie.Audiences can identify with Bill and Jo’s relationshipand become endeared to their romantic chemistry. It’s much more engaging than watching generic, one-note characters just trying to survive.
Twister
Cast
In Twister, Bill and Jo Harding, advanced storm chasers on the brink of divorce, must join together to create an advanced weather alert system by putting themselves in the cross-hairs of extremely violent tornadoes. Jo’s childhood was stricken by the trauma of losing her father to a deadly F5 tornado, setting her on the path of a storm chaser. Having developed a new technology with her team named “Dorothy,” Jo seeks to make Tornadoes more predictable to give people a chance to make it to safety. Jo’s obsession created a rift between her husband, but new breakthroughs may bring them back together as the two pursue their greatest challenge yet - an incoming system that will produce yet another F5.
