Jen Walton
The new "Twisters," a stand-alone sequel to the 1996 film, has the same kind of giant tornadoes that inspire awe and dread as the original. It follows professional storm chasers and scientists as they pursue the dangerous storms.
Jen Walton, a storm chaser from Denver, has already seen the new film twice and loved many of the nods to the original movie, the accuracy of the tornado science, and the appreciation for storm chasers.
Walton wasn't always in love with storms. "It started with sheer terror," she said. As a kid, she'd drag a sleeping bag into her parents' bedroom during storms. But eventually, she got over her fear and has been chasing storms for the last six years.
An environmental communicator by training, she understands the importance of media portrayals, even fictional movies, for scientific topics. Here's what she says "Twisters" gets right and wrong.
Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, and Amblin Entertainment
Walton was a teenager when the original "Twister" came out. With the sequel, it was exciting to see the community she's a part of portrayed on screen.
"The way that the movie celebrated chaser culture, they definitely nailed some of the things that we do, like hanging out at gas stations," she said.
Tornadoes bring out large crowds, from storm-chasing tours to researchers to weather enthusiasts, she said. And there are different personalities in the mix.
For example, Glen Powell's character in the new movie, Tyler Owens, films outrageous storm-chasing stunts for YouTube, which is actually a real thing people do, "the social media chaser, as we call it," she said.
But there's not just one kind of chaser, she added. Walton said she tends to hang back and take photos instead of getting as close as possible.
Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo
In the new film, the main characters have the roads pretty much to themselves when driving after the storms.
While that may have actually been the case 30 years ago when storm chasing was more niche, that's far from reality today — partly thanks to the original "Twister" which brought a lot of newcomers to the pursuit.
"The thing we struggle with most days is what's called 'chaser convergence,' where it actually gets so busy out in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road that people get stuck in traffic," Walton said.
It mostly happens in Texas and Oklahoma, where storm chasing is the most popular, she said. And it can be dangerous, like when a line of cars blocks the only escape route from a tornado.
Jen Walton/FARM Facility
"Our crew's not like your crew," Owens tells researcher Katie Carter, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, in the movie. "We don't need PhDs and fancy tech."
Walton doesn't have a background in meteorology. She went on a storm-chasing tour in 2018 and then began studying on her own. "I realized I could teach myself to forecast and chase successfully," she said.
While she takes incredible images of storms, she's also interested in the science. In May, she helped a Doppler on Wheels tornado research team deploy instrument pods in the path of storms.
That assignment led to a frightening situation where the vehicle she was in ended up close enough to the tornado that debris fell all around her.
"I realized that this is a very real, potentially very significantly dangerous situation," Walton said.
NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory
Tornadoes are so unpredictable that close calls do happen, Walton said. But she worries that "Twisters" sets an unrealistic expectation about what happens when you get close to a storm.
In the movie, several vehicles get in and near tornadoes and emerge without much damage. In reality, flying debris can break windshields and kill or injure people, Walton said.
Walton has concerns about the newest generation of chasers being unsafe. Many may not remember the 2013 El Reno storm when four storm chasers were killed, she said.
That's why Girls Who Chase, the initiative Walton started to support women in STEM fields, offers Storm Chasing 101. It provides basics on staying safe while on the hunt for tornadoes.
People are going to chase storms whether or not they have the training, Walton said, "so, we might as well develop a new generation of more self-aware, safer, crowd-friendly storm chasers."
