Night of the Twisters

Night of the Twisters
Directed by	Timothy Bond
Produced by	Michael Lambermont Stephen Roloff Sean Ryerson
Written by	Ivy Ruckman (novel) Sam Graham (teleplay) Chris Hubbell (teleplay)
Starring	Devon Sawa Amos Crawley John Schneider
Music by	Lawrence Shragge
Cinematography	Peter Benison
Editing by	Gary L. Smith
Distributed by	Atlantis Communications PorchLight Entertainment MTM Enterprises 20th Television The Family Channel
Release date(s)	February 14, 1996
Running time	92 min.
Country	Canada USA

Night of the Twisters is a film directed by Timothy Bond and released by MTM Enterprises and distributed by PorchLight Entertainment 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.

It was the first original motion picture made for The Family Channel, and it appeared on the channel (and its successor channels) until 2004.

Plot

The prologue of the movie is set in rural farmland in Dannebrog, Nebraska. Bob Iverson, a storm chaser, is driving down the road and manages to save a family from an oncoming tornado.

Meanwhile, Dan Hatch lives in fictional Blainsworth, Nebraska, 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 athlete.

The characters in the movie are Dan's family, along with Dan's friend Arthur. Arthur has two sisters, Stacey and Ronnie. Jack's mother, Belle, and Laura's sister, Jenny, are more secondary characters. Bob Iverson, arrives in Blainesworth tracking a massive storm that is arriving near the town.

The action begins when Jack comes home and sits down to watch TV and his show is interrupted by a severe weather announcement about a tornado sighting 14 miles northwest of Blainsworth, near the town of Dannebrog.

The excitement continues as Dan and Arthur struggle to find their family, while Laura and Jenny are trapped inside the local diner. Dan finds Jack on a closed road covered in fallen power lines, and pulls him from his overturned truck, and sees 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 the fact that Dan may have been the only one down the road as it was blocked by policemen saying it was unsafe. They then go save their grandmother, Belle at her farm.

Eventually Jack, Dan, Stacey, Arthur and Ryan leave the shelter to go home and look for Laura. Just as Jack's truck pulls into the driveway Jenny, Bob, and Laura also drive 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. They, along with Bob and Jenny, make it to an overpass as the twister nearly sucks up Dan before it dissipates into the air. They walk out from under the overpass just as the sun rises on a clear day and the storm has passed. At the end of the film, Dan explains that he is going out with Arthur's sister, Stacey, while Arthur became class president, and Bob and Jenny got married and pregnant with twins. He also tells that his grandma, Belle, died the following year in '97.

External links

• Night of the Twisters at the Internet Movie Database