The most iconic moment of the 1996 blockbuster Twister was apparently an afterthought, according to its director. Following a group of storm chasers, the film grossed over $495 million at the global box office. It stars Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt, Cary Elwes, Alan Ruck, Todd Field, Jeremy Davies, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the storm chasers, and Jami Gertz as Paxton's fiancée, who winds up in a love triangle with him and Hunt's character. The film has retained its popularity in the years since its release, and at one point Hunt pitched a Twister sequel focusing on more diverse storm chasers that she would direct, but the project never got off the ground.
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Twister was directed by Dutch cinematographer-turned-director Jan De Bont, whose work as a cinematographer helped shape the look of some of the most memorable movies of the '80s and '90s, including Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October, and Basic Instinct. As a director, he broke through with Speed before landing the '96 disaster film, which both Steven Spielberg and James Cameron passed on directing. A major draw for De Bont was teaming up with VFX house Industrial Light & Magic. With their aid, he hoped to make the film's stormy spectacle come to life with a mixture of practical effects and CGI, similar to their ILM's work on the velociraptors in Jurassic Park.
There is one iconic Twister scene that was an afterthought, however. Paxton, Hunt and Gertz are closing in on a pair of tornados when several cows caught in the swirling wind are whipped past their truck mooing, leading Gertz to hang up a phone call after saying, "We got cows," in complete shock. De Bont relayed in a recent interview with Yahoo! News that the moment wasn't in the film's original script. He also didn't clarify if the cows were solely his idea, or born from a moment of collaboration. Check out his quote below:
"It’s funny because it was an afterthought. I thought you have to have as bit of relief, give the audience time to breathe.”
Since Twister is such a tense ride, De Bont's inclusion of a moment of levity was a wise one. But given that it's the sequence that has endured in audiences' minds the most since its release, it's funny that it wasn't always a part of the plan. Efforts to duplicate Twister's success in a sequel made solely with CGI would be a mistake according to De Bont. That Twister worked as well as it did is a testament to ILM's work blending practical and computer effects. It's all the more clear how important their work was, as reportedly behind the scenes was as much of a disaster as what can be seen onscreen. During filming, conditions were reportedly so unsafe that original director of photography, Don Burgess, and almost two dozen camera operators quit. At another point, both Paxton and Hunt were temporarily blinded after hours of intense lights were blasted in their eyes to create the contrast of the dark, stormy skies often seen behind them.
Still, the film remains an enjoyable and popular one, and seeing another Twister down the line is likely all but inevitable. Although Hunt's version will never see the light of day, a reboot directed by Top Gun: Maverick's Joseph Kosinski was optioned in 2020 and is still in development. Despite guiding the original to success and playing a hand in creating its most iconic scene, De Bont won't be involved.