“ Twister ” was the second highest-grossing film at the box office in 1996 , so its enduring popularity shouldn’t be a shock. But still, the profound nature of its impact over time — there’s a museum dedicated to the film in its shooting location of Wakita, Kansas; a noted uptick in meteorology majors in the late ’90s directly attributed to the film; and stormchasers paying tribute en masse to star Bill Paxton upon his death in 2017 — astounds even its director, Jan de Bont . “It’s amazing how that happened,” the Dutch filmmaker told IndieWire in an interview timed to the release of the film on 4K UHD Blu-ray.
“And how quickly it happened. I think ‘Twister’ simply made people more interested in weather phenomena and it’s even why there are so many more weather shows on TV.” Couple that with the increasing focus on climate change in the 28 years since the film came out — “People thought tornadoes would happen in a narrow, small region in Oklahoma, but it is not just that.
You’re crazy not to pay attention to what’s happening,” de Bont said — and you’ve got a film that’s aged as well as any blockbuster from the ’90s. The funny thing is, a crucial part of its alchemy almost never happened. Having Helen Hunt star was a tough sell to Warner Bros.
and Universal, which jointly backed the movie. This was despite having already earned two Best Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy nominations for her role on the hit NBC sitcom “Mad About You.