Twisters director reveals set was hit by “brutal” real-life storm while filming

For Twisters director Lee Isaac Chung, one tornado scene got a little too close to the real thing when a actual storm hit set.

When making a movie about some of mother nature’s scariest and most unpredictable tricks (aka Twisters), one might actually hope to get a little inspiration from the real world. However, when it’s an aggressive windstorm that comes around during one of the most complicated scenes, a little distance might be nice.

Dexerto spoke to Chung about the upcoming Twister sequel, and when asked which tornado scene was the hardest to shoot, he revealed it was the big finale. Of course, it didn’t help that they were struck by a real-life weather nightmare.

“That was definitely the hardest sequence to pull off,” he said of the scene. “And then we got shut down by an actual big windstorm that blew through and destroyed our set.”

However, it wasn’t all for nothing. In fact, the storm ended up serving as inspiration when it came to designing the twisters in the new movie.

“They were snapping pictures as a model for what it should look like,” he revealed.

“I remember that day was brutal. And we had, like, 106 degree Fahrenheit weather, which is very hot. We just had weather beating down on us throughout that whole sequence.”

When it comes to making an action movie about the most frightening storms in Oklahoma, there’s a general twister rule of thumb.

“The bigger they are, the harder they are,” he explained. “There’s just so much more going on with the big ones. And there are a lot of actors and characters involved in those bigger ones as well.

“Anytime I have a scene in which there are a ton of people and they’re reacting to quite a massive tornado, I felt like those were the tornadoes where we needed a lot more days. And a lot more people on the ground trying to execute it properly.”

For more, check out our Twisters review. You can also take a look at all the new movies coming to streaming this month. Or, find out what the best movies of 2024 are so far.