‘Twisters’ behind the scenes: Nebraska professor lends scientific expertise to movie makers
OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - It’s the summer film that moviegoers and weather fanatics have been looking forward to: “Twisters” hit the big screens Friday, a remake of the original “Twister” film from 1996.
While making the new movie, creators wanted to make sure the storyline was not only entertaining but accurate. After meeting with career stormchasers, the team turned their attention to scientists. Among them was Dr. Adam Houston, a professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“So they wanted to get the other side. The scientific stormchasing side. And so I was happy to talk about it,” Houston said.
They discussed the difference between professional, recreational, and scientific storm chasing, a major theme of the movie.
“They’ve talked to the people on both sides. So hopefully they’re able to appreciate that difference and kind of play off of it. Because it can be interesting and it can be fun. It can also be confrontational, I mean that, that is, that’s a reality. The motivations sometimes are at odds with one another. And only so much because sometimes the motivation changes the decisions you make when you’re in the storm,” said Houston.
They also talked about one of the in-depth research projects Houston worked on, resulting in a storm-chasing drone named the RAAVEN.
“Actually there are very few people out there who know about using drones in storms. And so my collaboration with the University of Colorado who actually developed the drones that were used in the movie and we’ve been collaborating for many years. The TORUS project involved flying drones into storms. And so I think they also wanted to get that perspective since we’re the only ones who do that,” said Houston.
Houston says he immediately called up his colleague after seeing the RAAVEN in the movie’s advertisements.
“But yeah when we saw it in the trailer, both Brian Argrow at the University of Colorado and I, you know we weren’t together at the time but we were immediately chatting about it. ‘Did you see it? It was in the movie!’” Houston said.
Aside from the excitement, Houston says he hopes the movie inspires the next generation of scientists.
“The kid that watches this and says, ‘Oh I didn’t realize that atmospheric science was something that I could do for a job, whether or not it’s stormchasing or something else,” he said.
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