Don Shanahan
On the brink of the next outbreak of wild box office weather known as Twisters starring the everywhere-at-the-moment movie star Glen Powell, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment took the advantageous opportunity this month to release 1996’s Twister for the first time on 4K UHD disc format. The movie will be available to purchase on July 9 on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc from online and in-store at major retailers and available for purchase Digitally from Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Fandango at Home and more. Film Obsessive received an advance copy from WB for another edition of our “Off the Shelf” series.
THE MOVIE
To the uninformed, director Jan de Bont was coming off of Speed when he decided to rope the wind that was Twister. The movie stars then-future As Good As It Gets Academy Award winner Helen Hunt 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 is joined by her loyal team (including Todd Field, Alan Ruck, Jeremy Davies, and the unforgettable fellow future Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman) and her ex-husband Bill (the late Bill Paxton) to chase the largest tornado ever to strike Oklahoma as rival scientists (led by Cary Elwes) will stop at nothing to steal her breakthrough. This very author gave Twister the grand retrospective treatment for its 25th anniversary three years ago. That review goes into the experience of the era, a breakdown of the film itself, and a deep look at its impact and legacy since 1996. Head there for a deeper look at movie itself.
THE DISC
For this 4K UHD debut inside a shiny foil slipcase, the 4K remastering was overseen by director Jan de Bont. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment spared no expense making this box office smash look and sound spectacular. Equal to their usual process, the Ultra HD showcases 4K resolution with High Dynamic Range (HDR) and a wider color spectrum, offering consumers brighter, deeper, more lifelike colors for a home entertainment viewing experience. The visual and audio presentation of Twister is honored by the high upgrade from DVD. If there was every a movie in the Warner Bros. catalog deserving this treatment, it’s this one. Stefen Fangmeier’s groundbreaking visual effects still hold up a generation of movie-making improvements later, which is a testament to their greatness. The visuals usually get all the attention, but folks forget how harrowing this movie is in your ears. That layer of Twister gets wonderfully amplified for this release.
The menus, as usual for Warner Bros. larely are be plain and ugly, but folks are here for the movie. Buyer beware: This new 4K UHD disc of Twister does not include a Blu-ray second version. It’s 4K UHD, digital with the included code, or bust. Warner Bros. has been reducing that extra disc often in 2024 with their legacy releases. For those on older players, this is a good year to upgrade (especially with Amazon’s Prime Day coming up).
As far as special features go, the Twister 4K UHD Disc offers several previously released special features from prior DVD and Blu-ray editions, including the “Humans Being” music video from Van Halen. Those include a very insightful audio commentary by director Jan de Bont and visual effects supervisor Stefan Fangmeier. Their session is a rapid-fire smorgasbord of technical accumen discussion of the logistical nuts and bolts of creating their manufactured meteorological maelstroms between location shooting, practical effects, and the digital enhancements. The set stories from them show the immense challenges, which gain your respect. I know Bill Paxton has passed on, but someday, a commentary from the actors’ side would be a nice bonus.
Beyond the filmmaker commentary, three previous production featurettes highlight more of the behind-the-scenes processes from Twister. “HBO First Look: The Making of Twister” is primarily a brief of the film’s storyline and the actors’ participation while “Anatomy of a Twister” talks about the weather phenomena itself. “Chasing the Storm: Twister Revisited” is a sizable 28-minute retrospective program on de Bont’s crew and their work to create the necessary special effects. If there is a missing component from a previous release, it’s the 45-minute “Nature Tech: Tornadoes” mini-documentary made by The History Channel that followed and compared real-life storm chasers. That’s a bit of a mysterious omission.
There is one brand-new special feature, and it’s “The Legacy of Twister—Taken by the Wind.” This a nostalgic interview with Jan de Bont, who, at 80, curiously hasn’t directed a new movie since 2003’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider—The Cradle of Life. He is here boasting about how the new 4K color grading and Dolby Atmos mix has created a “new” version of Twister that is superior to its physical media predecessors. It branches from there to be a typical behind-the-scenes retrospective about the Midwest locations, and the film’s penchant for visuals across storytelling and effects. Legacy, once again with Universal Pictures’ Twisters on the horizon, is high on de Bont’s mind. Popularity across a quarter-century and change have earned Twister a good one.
