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{{Short description|1996 American television film directed by Timothy Bond}}
{{Infobox Film
{{About|the film|the book by [[Ivy Ruckman]] on which it is loosely based|Night of the Twisters|the tornado outbreak known by the titular nickname on which the book (and loosely, the film) is based|1980 Grand Island tornado outbreak}}
| name = Night of the Twisters
{{Infobox television
| image = Night of the Twisters film poster.jpg
| image = Night of the Twisters film poster.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = DVD release poster
| image_size =
| director = Timothy Bond
| caption = DVD cover
| producer = Michael Lambermont <br /> Stephen Roloff <br /> Sean Ryerson
| genre = Action<br>Drama<br>Family
| writer = Sam Graham <br /> Chris Hubbell
| director = [[Timothy Bond]]
| executive_producer = William F. Burns<br>Anne Marie La Traverse<br>[[Wayne Rogers]]
| based on = {{based on|''Night of the Twisters''|[[Ivy Ruckman]]}}
| producer = Michael Lambermont<br>Stephen Roloff<br>Sean Ryerson
| starring = [[Devon Sawa]] <br /> Amos Crawley <br /> [[John Schneider (television actor)|John Schneider]] <br /> [[David Ferry (Actor)|David Ferry]]
| music = Lawrence Shragge
| writer = Sam Graham<br>Chris Hubbell
| based_on = {{based on|''[[Night of the Twisters]]''|[[Ivy Ruckman]]}}
| cinematography = Peter Benison
| starring = [[Devon Sawa]]<br>Amos Crawley<br>[[John Schneider (screen actor)|John Schneider]]<br>[[Lori Hallier]]<br>[[Laura Bertram]]<br>[[David Ferry (Actor)|David Ferry]]
| editing = Gary L. Smith
| music = Lawrence Shragge
| studio = [[MTM Enterprises]]<br>[[Alliance Atlantis|Atlantis Communications]]<br>[[PorchLight Entertainment]]
| cinematography = Peter Benison
| distributor = [[Television networks preceding ABC Family|The Family Channel]]
| released = February 14, 1996
| location = [[Kleinburg, Ontario]], Canada
| runtime = 92 min.
| editor = Gary L. Smith
| company = [[MTM Enterprises]]<br>[[Alliance Atlantis|Atlantis Communications]]<br>[[PorchLight Entertainment]]<br>[[ABC Family Worldwide|International Family Entertainment, Inc.]]
| country = {{flagicon|Canada}} [[Canada]] <br /> {{flagicon|USA}} [[USA]]
| network = [[Freeform (TV channel)|The Family Channel]]
| language = English
| budget =
| released = {{Start date|1996|02|11}}
| gross =
| runtime = 92 minutes
| country = Canada<br>United States
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
| language = English
| budget =
}}
}}


'''''Night of the Twisters''''' is a 1996 television film directed by [[Timothy Bond]], about a family's struggle to survive a night with a bizarre and terrible storm passing over their town. The TV movie is based on the novel by [[Ivy Ruckman]], which centers around [[1980 Grand Island tornado outbreak]]. It was shot in [[Kleinburg, Ontario]].
'''''Night of the Twisters''''' is a 1996 [[television film|made-for-television]] [[disaster film]] that was directed by [[Timothy Bond]]. The film premiered on [[Freeform (TV channel)|The Family Channel]] (now [[Freeform (TV channel)|Freeform]]) on February 11, 1996, as the cable channel's first original movie (and appeared on the channel until 2004, under its successor brands Fox Family and ABC Family).


Filmed in [[Kleinburg, Ontario|Kleinburg]], [[Ontario]], Canada, it is based loosely on the 1984 [[young-adult novel]] [[Night of the Twisters|of the same title]] by [[Ivy Ruckman]], itself a [[realistic fiction|semi-fictionalized account]] of [[1980 Grand Island tornado outbreak|an outbreak of seven tornadoes]] that struck [[Grand Island, Nebraska|Grand Island]], [[Nebraska]] on June 3, 1980, which killed five people and injured 134 others; the film adaptation, however, is set in the fictional Nebraska town of Blainsworth, which serves as a stand-in for Grand Island.<ref name="giindependent-nightofthetwistersmovie">{{cite news|title='Night of Twisters' now a movie|url=http://www.gitwisters.com/bookmovie/twistersmovie.php|author=Colleen O'Neill|newspaper=Grand Island Independent|publisher=Morris Communications|date=February 9, 1996|access-date=November 23, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130111055242/http://www.gitwisters.com/bookmovie/twistersmovie.php|archive-date=January 11, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Film portrays Grand Island family|url=http://www.gitwisters.com/bookmovie/twistersmovie2.php|author=Colleen O'Neill|newspaper=Grand Island Independent|publisher=Morris Communications|date=February 10, 1996|access-date=November 23, 2015}}</ref> The film centers on a family's struggle to survive a night as a bizarre tornado-producing [[supercell]] thunderstorm tracks into and becomes stationary over their town.
It was the first original motion picture made for [[Television networks preceding ABC Family|The Family Channel]], and it appeared on the channel (and its successor channels) until 2004.


==Plot==
==Plot==
At 1:16&nbsp;p.m., in the rural farmland in [[Dannebrog, Nebraska]] in the [[Autumn|Fall]] of 1996, Bob Iverson, a [[storm chasing|storm chaser]] with the Kansas State Tornado Center relaying information to the [[National Weather Service]] on a chase assignment, is driving down a country road to track a [[supercell thunderstorm]]. While observing the storm, Bob spots a [[tornado]] touching down almost a mile south of his location; he warns a family living nearby, right as their daughter Sarah, arrives home from school, about the oncoming twister, which sends them running into their [[root cellar]] before it destroys their farm.
The prologue of the movie is set in rural farmland in [[Dannebrog, Nebraska]]. Bob Irisen is driving down the road and manages to rescue a family's life from an oncoming tornado that destroys their farm. The girl in it is likey BAH. That means bad at head. Will provide citation for that. Am 9.


Meanwhile, in Blainsworth, Nebraska ({{convert|120|miles}} southwest of Dannebrog), aspiring teenage artist Dan Hatch, who is constantly being pushed by his [[stepfather]], Jack, to be an athlete, participates in a [[bicycle]] race and damages his bike; Jack pushes Danny into finishing the race nonetheless. Danny falls behind the other racers. He later wins a new bike in a raffle held by a bank. While trying out his new bike, Dan and his best friend Arthur Darlington run into Arthur's two sisters, Stacey (whom Dan is infatuated with) and Ronnie Vae. Dan and Arthur arrive home as the former's mother Laura is making dinner, when she also asks Dan to tend to his baby [[half-sibling|half-brother]], Ryan. Later, Laura's sister, Dan's aunt Jenny, calls to inform her that they were assigned to fill-in shifts as waitresses at the Salty Dawg, a [[diner]] where they work. Because Jack will not have enough time to take Laura to work, Jenny volunteers to take her.
Meanwhile, teenager Dan Hatch lives in (the fictional town of) Blainsworth, [[Nebraska]] (the book is set in the city of Grand Island), along with his [[stepfather]] Jack, [[mother]] Laura, and baby [[half-brother]], Ryan. Dan is an aspiring and practicing [[artist]], but is constantly pushed by Jack to be an [[sportsperson|athlete]].


The characters in the movie are Dan's family, along with Dan's friend Arthur Darlington. Arthur has two sisters, Stacey and Ronnie Vae. Jack's mother, Belle Zephyr, and Laura's sister, Jenny, are more secondary characters. Bob Irisen arrives in Blainsworth tracking a massive storm that is arriving near the town. The action begins when Jack comes home and sits down to watch television, as the show he is watching is interrupted by a severe weather bulletin about a tornado sighting 14 miles northwest of Blainsworth, near the town of Dannebrog. Several minutes after Jack leaves to check on Belle, a violent tornado hits Blainsworth's Capitol Heights neighborhood, sending Dan, Ryan and Arthur take cover in a shower in the basement's bathroom as the twister starts to obliterate the Hatches' home.
At 3:37&nbsp;p.m., while continuing to track the [[severe weather]] creeping toward the town, Bob decides to head southwest into Blainsworth, as Stan, the [[meteorology#Meteorologists|meteorologist]] Bob is radioing to, is astonished at the [[anticyclonic storm|anticyclonic]] weather pattern for the fall; while there, Bob meets Laura while getting some [[coffee]] at the diner. That evening, when Jack arrives home and sits down to watch [[television|TV]], the show he is watching is interrupted by a [[KNHL|KHAS-12]] weather update, reporting a tornado {{convert|14|miles}} northwest of Blainsworth, and a [[tornado warning]] was issued for [[St. Paul, Nebraska|St. Paul]], Dannebrog and rural [[Howard County, Nebraska]]. Jack leaves to check on his mother, Dan's grandmother Belle, who was asleep in her [[rocking chair]] when he phoned her. [[civil defense siren|Tornado sirens]] then blare throughout town, only to cut off as Dan goes to get Ryan from his crib. A tornado then approaches Blainsworth's Capital Heights neighborhood, with the noises emitting from the drains notifying Dan and Arthur of its pending arrival; they and Ryan take cover in the [[basement]] bathroom's shower tub as the twister obliterates the Hatch residence.


After Dan and Arthur escape from the basement of the leveled home through the collapsing floor beams where the first floor once stood, and look in awe of the rubble that was once the Hatches' home, Arthur runs into Stacey and Ronnie Vae, who both survived the twister themselves in the Darlington's home (their parents were out of town on a trip back home to [[California]] at the time the storm hit). As Dan struggles to find his own family, Laura and Jenny are trapped inside the Salty Dawg, the local [[diner]] where Laura works as a waitress, which also gets destroyed by one of the tornadoes. Dan and Stacey then go save Dan's grandmother, Belle, at her farm; the two teenagers find Belle underneath wooden boards blown onto her from off of the partially damaged barn near her house (which itself survived intact). As Dan and Stacey rush in the car to get Belle treated for her injuries, Dan finds Jack on a closed road covered in fallen [[power line]]s; he pulls him from his overturned [[truck]] (with the help of emergency crews, after an earlier attempt by Dan and Stacey to push the truck in order to free him nearly injures Jack further), seeing this as an opportunity for his father to finally see him as reliable. However, Jack just gives a simple thank-you to the fact that Dan saved him from multiple dangers and that Dan may have been the only one down the road as it was blocked by [[policemen]] due to it being unsafe.
After Dan and Arthur escape from the basement through the collapsing beams from the first floor, Arthur runs into Stacey and Ronnie Vae, who both survived the twister in the Darlington's home (their parents were out of town on a trip back home to [[California]] at the time the storm hit). As Dan struggles to find his own family, Laura and Jenny are trapped inside the diner (as they were taking cover inside, due to Jenny's car malfunctioning when she went to pick up Laura), which also was destroyed by one of the tornadoes. Dan and Stacey then go save Belle, at her farm; the two teenagers find her underneath wooden boards blown onto her from off of the damaged barn near her house (which itself survived intact).


Later that night at the shelter, Dan reveals to Stacey that Jack is his stepfather and that his real father, Daniel Sr., was a [[pilot (aeronautics)|pilot]] who was killed in a plane crash when Dan was 6. After telling her that he feels that he isn't good enough in Jack's eyes and talks about the good qualities that his stepfather has, Stacey helps Dan consider that the two could try and find some common ground.
As Dan and Stacey rush in the car to get Belle treated for her injuries, Dan finds Jack on a closed road, with his [[Ram Pickup#First generation (1981–1993; D/W)|truck]] – which was overturned by the tornado, pinning him underneath it – covered in fallen [[overhead power line|power line]]s; he pulls Jack out from under the truck (with the help of emergency crews, after an earlier attempt by Dan and Stacey to push the truck to free him nearly injures Jack further), seeing this as an opportunity for his father to see him as reliable. However, Jack just gives a simple thank-you to the fact that Dan saved him. Later that night at the shelter, Dan reveals to Stacey that Jack is only his stepfather and that his real father, [[pilot (aeronautics)|pilot]] Daniel Sr., died in a plane crash when Dan was 6. After he reveals that he feels he is not good enough in Jack's eyes and talks about the good qualities that his stepfather has, Stacey helps Dan consider that the two could try to find common ground.


Eventually, Jack, followed by Dan and Ryan, who sneak into the station wagon loaned to Jack, leave the [[Shelter (building)|shelter]] to go and look for Laura. Just as Bob pulls his truck into the driveway of the destroyed house, helping passengers Jenny and Laura along with him searching for Jack, Dan and Ryan, Jack's station wagon also drives up and the family is reunited. As soon as everyone reunites, three tornadoes touch down near them. Bob, realizing no adequate shelter is available, advises the group to make a run for it. The group narrowly escapes one of the twisters, which picks up a car that the Hatches' neighbors try to outrun the tornado in themselves, destroys several buildings in its path and hurls a tree branch into the windshield, briefly knocking Jack unconscious causing Dan to take over driving the vehicle out of the storm's path. They, along with Bob and Jenny, make it to an overpass as the twister blows out the back window of the station wagon, nearly sucking up Dan before it dissipates into the air. As they walk out from under the overpass just as the sun rises on a clear day after the storm has passed, Jack admits he's proud of Danny for not giving up in the face of adversity and trying to reunite the family.
Eventually, Jack, followed by Dan, who sneaks himself and Ryan into the [[Jeep Wagoneer|Jeep]] loaned to Jack, leave the [[Shelter (building)|shelter]] to look for Laura. As Bob pulls his truck into the driveway of the destroyed house, helping passengers Jenny and Laura along with him searching for Jack, Dan and Ryan, the Jeep also drives up and the family is reunited. Three tornadoes then touch down near them. The group escapes a twister, which picks up a car that the Hatches' neighbors try to outrun the tornado in themselves, destroys buildings in its path and hurls a tree branch into the windshield, knocking Jack unconscious and prompting Dan to drive them out of the storm's path. They, along with Bob and Jenny, reach an [[overpass]] as the twister blows out the Jeep's back window. As they walk out from under the overpass just as the sun rises on a clear day after the storm passes, Jack admits he is proud of Danny.


In the film's epilogue, showing what happened with the characters one year after the storm, Dan explains that he is now dating Stacey, while Arthur became [[class president]], and Bob and Jenny got married and are becoming first-time parents to twins. He and Jack have also become closer and Jack is now supportive of him. He also tells that his grandma, Belle, died the following year in 1997.
One year after the storm, Dan is dating Stacey, Arthur became [[class president]], Bob and Jenny got married and have twins, Jack is supportive of Dan and took up new hobbies after the storm destroyed his shop, and Belle died.

==Cast==
{{castlist|
* [[Devon Sawa]] as Danny Hatch
* [[John Schneider (screen actor)|John Schneider]] as Jack Hatch
* [[Lori Hallier]] as Laura Hatch
* [[David Ferry (actor)|David Ferry]] as Bob Iverson
* [[Helen Hughes (actress)|Helen Hughes]] as Grandma Belle "Zephyr" Hatch
* Amos Crawley as Arthur Darlington
* [[Laura Bertram]] as Stacey Darlington
* Jhene Erwin as Jenny Hatch
* Alex and Thomas Lastewka as Ryan Hatch
}}


==Reception==
==Reception==
''Night of the Twisters'' received positive ratings at the time of its release in 1996, but received very poor reviews from critics, who mostly criticized the special effects. However, audiences have liked the film, leading to the film being shown on television until 2004. The film is popular among families as a good way to engage children in disaster suspense, without showing gory or disturbing images, as well as a happy ending.
At the time of the film's release in 1996, ''Night of the Twisters'' received positive ratings when it aired on The Family Channel, but received very poor reviews from critics, many of whom criticized the special effects used in the film. The Family Channel continued to air the film until 2004, under its Fox Family and ABC Family brands.


==Availability==
==Availability==
''Night of the Twisters'' was released on [[VHS]] by [[GoodTimes Entertainment|GoodTimes]] shortly after its release on television. As VHS became less popular, its replacement was a [[DVD]] that was released in 2006. However, the DVD was later discontinued and ''Night of the Twisters'' is currently out of print.
''Night of the Twisters'' was released on [[VHS]] by [[GoodTimes Entertainment]] and MTM Home Video shortly after its television release. As VHS became less popular, the film was re-released on [[DVD]] by GT Media in 2006.

==Discrepancies in the film==
===Differences between the film and the novel===
* Dan's grandmother, Belle, was never in the novel.
* In the film, Stacey does not help Dan and Arthur out of the basement (Dan instead is the one who gets the both of them and Ryan out), but in the novel, she does.
* While the film takes place in 1996, the novel takes place in 1980.

===Differences between the film and the actual event===
* In the film, the series of tornadoes occurred in the fall. In real life, the tornadoes occurred on June 3, 1980 during the summer.
* The first tornado that hits was on the ground for several miles and moved quickly. In real life, the tornadoes stayed within the Grand Island city limits, and crossed over their paths by looping around at only {{convert|8|mph|km/h|abbr=on}}.
* Eight tornadoes struck in the film (not counting the one in the opening prologue, although Jack's narration in the final scene prior to the epilogue states that half of Blainsworth was "ravaged by anywhere from 10 to 15 tornadoes"), while seven hit Grand Island that night. In addition, four tornadoes are depicted as being on the ground simultaneously in the film, while only two were on the ground at the same time in the Grand Island event. In addition, the final scene in which the Hatches leave the overpass that they take shelter under in the final tornado has the family walking off as the sun has risen – Jack states in his narration that the tornadoes occurred over the span of three hours, thus creating an incorrect timeline as the events leading up to the tornadoes hitting Blainsworth take place in the evening; the Grand Island outbreak does take place over three hours, however all seven tornadoes touch down between 8:45 and 10:45 p.m.<ref>[http://www.crh.noaa.gov/gid/?n=gi1980tornado The Grand Island Tornadoes: A Look Back at June 3rd, 1980]</ref>
* The most destructive tornado occurred first at an unknown strength. On June 3, 1980, the fifth tornado was the most destructive at F4 intensity.

== References ==
<references />


==References==
== External links ==
{{reflist}}
* {{imdb title|0117179|Night of the Twisters}}


==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0117179|Night of the Twisters}}
{{ABC Family Original Movies}}
{{ABC Family Original Movies}}
{{MTM Enterprises}}


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{{DEFAULTSORT:Night Of The Twisters}}
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[[Category:Films set in Nebraska]]
[[Category:Films set in Nebraska]]
[[Category:1996 television films]]
[[Category:1996 television films]]
[[Category:1996 films]]
[[Category:American disaster films]]
[[Category:American disaster films]]
[[Category:American films]]
[[Category:1990s English-language films]]
[[Category:English-language films]]
[[Category:Canadian disaster films]]
[[Category:Canadian action television films]]
[[Category:English-language Canadian films]]
[[Category:Films shot in Ontario]]
[[Category:Films about tornadoes]]
[[Category:Disaster television films]]
[[Category:Alliance Atlantis films]]
[[Category:MTM Enterprises films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Timothy Bond]]
[[Category:1990s American films]]
[[Category:1990s Canadian films]]
[[Category:American action television films]]

Latest revision as of 19:49, 28 October 2024

Night of the Twisters
DVD cover
GenreAction
Drama
Family
Based onNight of the Twisters
by Ivy Ruckman
Written bySam Graham
Chris Hubbell
Directed byTimothy Bond
StarringDevon Sawa
Amos Crawley
John Schneider
Lori Hallier
Laura Bertram
David Ferry
Music byLawrence Shragge
Country of originCanada
United States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producersWilliam F. Burns
Anne Marie La Traverse
Wayne Rogers
ProducersMichael Lambermont
Stephen Roloff
Sean Ryerson
Production locationsKleinburg, Ontario, Canada
CinematographyPeter Benison
EditorGary L. Smith
Running time92 minutes
Production companiesMTM Enterprises
Atlantis Communications
PorchLight Entertainment
International Family Entertainment, Inc.
Original release
NetworkThe Family Channel
ReleaseFebruary 11, 1996 (1996-02-11)

Night of the Twisters is a 1996 made-for-television disaster film that was directed by Timothy Bond. The film premiered on The Family Channel (now Freeform) on February 11, 1996, as the cable channel's first original movie (and appeared on the channel until 2004, under its successor brands Fox Family and ABC Family).

Filmed in Kleinburg, Ontario, Canada, it is based loosely on the 1984 young-adult novel of the same title by Ivy Ruckman, itself a semi-fictionalized account of an outbreak of seven tornadoes that struck Grand Island, Nebraska on June 3, 1980, which killed five people and injured 134 others; the film adaptation, however, is set in the fictional Nebraska town of Blainsworth, which serves as a stand-in for Grand Island.[1][2] The film centers on a family's struggle to survive a night as a bizarre tornado-producing supercell thunderstorm tracks into and becomes stationary over their town.

Plot

[edit]

At 1:16 p.m., in the rural farmland in Dannebrog, Nebraska in the Fall of 1996, Bob Iverson, a storm chaser with the Kansas State Tornado Center relaying information to the National Weather Service on a chase assignment, is driving down a country road to track a supercell thunderstorm. While observing the storm, Bob spots a tornado touching down almost a mile south of his location; he warns a family living nearby, right as their daughter Sarah, arrives home from school, about the oncoming twister, which sends them running into their root cellar before it destroys their farm.

Meanwhile, in Blainsworth, Nebraska (120 miles (190 km) southwest of Dannebrog), aspiring teenage artist Dan Hatch, who is constantly being pushed by his stepfather, Jack, to be an athlete, participates in a bicycle race and damages his bike; Jack pushes Danny into finishing the race nonetheless. Danny falls behind the other racers. He later wins a new bike in a raffle held by a bank. While trying out his new bike, Dan and his best friend Arthur Darlington run into Arthur's two sisters, Stacey (whom Dan is infatuated with) and Ronnie Vae. Dan and Arthur arrive home as the former's mother Laura is making dinner, when she also asks Dan to tend to his baby half-brother, Ryan. Later, Laura's sister, Dan's aunt Jenny, calls to inform her that they were assigned to fill-in shifts as waitresses at the Salty Dawg, a diner where they work. Because Jack will not have enough time to take Laura to work, Jenny volunteers to take her.

At 3:37 p.m., while continuing to track the severe weather creeping toward the town, Bob decides to head southwest into Blainsworth, as Stan, the meteorologist Bob is radioing to, is astonished at the anticyclonic weather pattern for the fall; while there, Bob meets Laura while getting some coffee at the diner. That evening, when Jack arrives home and sits down to watch TV, the show he is watching is interrupted by a KHAS-12 weather update, reporting a tornado 14 miles (23 km) northwest of Blainsworth, and a tornado warning was issued for St. Paul, Dannebrog and rural Howard County, Nebraska. Jack leaves to check on his mother, Dan's grandmother Belle, who was asleep in her rocking chair when he phoned her. Tornado sirens then blare throughout town, only to cut off as Dan goes to get Ryan from his crib. A tornado then approaches Blainsworth's Capital Heights neighborhood, with the noises emitting from the drains notifying Dan and Arthur of its pending arrival; they and Ryan take cover in the basement bathroom's shower tub as the twister obliterates the Hatch residence.

After Dan and Arthur escape from the basement through the collapsing beams from the first floor, Arthur runs into Stacey and Ronnie Vae, who both survived the twister in the Darlington's home (their parents were out of town on a trip back home to California at the time the storm hit). As Dan struggles to find his own family, Laura and Jenny are trapped inside the diner (as they were taking cover inside, due to Jenny's car malfunctioning when she went to pick up Laura), which also was destroyed by one of the tornadoes. Dan and Stacey then go save Belle, at her farm; the two teenagers find her underneath wooden boards blown onto her from off of the damaged barn near her house (which itself survived intact).

As Dan and Stacey rush in the car to get Belle treated for her injuries, Dan finds Jack on a closed road, with his truck – which was overturned by the tornado, pinning him underneath it – covered in fallen power lines; he pulls Jack out from under the truck (with the help of emergency crews, after an earlier attempt by Dan and Stacey to push the truck to free him nearly injures Jack further), seeing this as an opportunity for his father to see him as reliable. However, Jack just gives a simple thank-you to the fact that Dan saved him. Later that night at the shelter, Dan reveals to Stacey that Jack is only his stepfather and that his real father, pilot Daniel Sr., died in a plane crash when Dan was 6. After he reveals that he feels he is not good enough in Jack's eyes and talks about the good qualities that his stepfather has, Stacey helps Dan consider that the two could try to find common ground.

Eventually, Jack, followed by Dan, who sneaks himself and Ryan into the Jeep loaned to Jack, leave the shelter to look for Laura. As Bob pulls his truck into the driveway of the destroyed house, helping passengers Jenny and Laura along with him searching for Jack, Dan and Ryan, the Jeep also drives up and the family is reunited. Three tornadoes then touch down near them. The group escapes a twister, which picks up a car that the Hatches' neighbors try to outrun the tornado in themselves, destroys buildings in its path and hurls a tree branch into the windshield, knocking Jack unconscious and prompting Dan to drive them out of the storm's path. They, along with Bob and Jenny, reach an overpass as the twister blows out the Jeep's back window. As they walk out from under the overpass just as the sun rises on a clear day after the storm passes, Jack admits he is proud of Danny.

One year after the storm, Dan is dating Stacey, Arthur became class president, Bob and Jenny got married and have twins, Jack is supportive of Dan and took up new hobbies after the storm destroyed his shop, and Belle died.

Cast

[edit]

Reception

[edit]

At the time of the film's release in 1996, Night of the Twisters received positive ratings when it aired on The Family Channel, but received very poor reviews from critics, many of whom criticized the special effects used in the film. The Family Channel continued to air the film until 2004, under its Fox Family and ABC Family brands.

Availability

[edit]

Night of the Twisters was released on VHS by GoodTimes Entertainment and MTM Home Video shortly after its television release. As VHS became less popular, the film was re-released on DVD by GT Media in 2006.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Colleen O'Neill (February 9, 1996). "'Night of Twisters' now a movie". Grand Island Independent. Morris Communications. Archived from the original on January 11, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
  2. ^ Colleen O'Neill (February 10, 1996). "Film portrays Grand Island family". Grand Island Independent. Morris Communications. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
[edit]