‘Twister’ gave rise to a generation of storm chasers. Here’s what they hope to see in the sequel

When it comes to influential films in the world of climate research and weather reporting, few if any could hold a candle to “Twister,” Jan de Bont’s epic 1996 actioner that has spawned a sequel blowing through theaters this weekend.

When it comes to influential films in the world of climate research and weather reporting, few (if any) can hold a candle to “Twister,” Jan de Bont’s epic action movie that has spawned a sequel blowing through theaters this weekend. When the film came out in 1996, Dr. Elizabeth Smith, then not quite 6 years old, went to the theater to see it with her parents “and I apparently lost my mind about it and became obsessed,” she told CNN in an email interview. When it came out on VHS, she remembers “watching it over-and-over-and-over the way some kids watched things like ‘The Little Mermaid.’” Smith, who keeps an enamel pin of the “Twister” VHS on the lanyard she wears at work, is now a research meteorologist at NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory – an organization that even gets a mention in the de Bont film. “I also remember certain concepts really imprinting on me,” she told CNN of “Twister’s” impact. “Specifically in the early chase scenes, Jo and Bill (Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton) are in the truck, and they recognize mammatus clouds in the sky overhead. They indicate that this is an omen for bad things to come. I have very clear memories of plastering my face to the backseat window watching, just in case the mammatus appeared so I would be READY.” Many took their interest in the subject one step further, with enrollment in undergraduate weather research and meteorology programs seeing a notable bump. Academic research articles on these trends sometimes refer to this as the “Twister Effect.”