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In order to get the background skies looking suitably stormy, the truck cab sequences had to be flooded with high-intensity lighting for contrast. As a result, Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton suffered minor retinal burns through much of the filming.
A jet engine from a Boeing 707 was used to generate wind in some scenes.
A recording of a camel`s moan was slowed down and used as the sound of the tornado.
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# Features The Shining (1980), directed by Stanley Kubrick, and also has characters named "Stanley" and "Kubrick".
The oil truck in the tornado bears the name "Benthic Petroleum", the name of the company in The Abyss (1989). See also Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).
Trailers contain a shot not in the film: a truck tire hurtling towards the viewer.
elen Hunt was injured while filming the scene where the truck drives through the corn, when the door was forced back into her head. For later shots, the door was wedged open.
"It sucks" was originally going to be used as one of the taglines for the film, but the producers felt that it worked too much to the advantage of disappointed audiences and critics.
The real town of Wakita, Oklahoma had part of its old downtown area demolished by the film crew for the scenes after the twister passes. The studio then paid for the downtown to be rebuilt. The town also kept the new fire truck used in the film.
In the scene before the tornado hits Aunt Meg`s house, she is watching A Star Is Born (1954) starring Judy Garland, who of course was Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939), which features a tornado.
The original Director of Photography was Don Burgess (best known for his collaborations with Robert Zemeckis), but he and many other crewmembers walked off the set midway through filming after a series of heated arguments with director Jan de Bont.
Was the first movie released on DVD, and the last to be released on HD-DVD.
The instrument package used in the movie, "Dorothy", is actually a homage to the instrument pack real tornado researchers attempt to place in the paths of tornados, "T.O.T.O.".
The laptops used in the film are Silicon Graphics Indy Presenter LCD screens (not real laptops) that have been modified to look like functional laptops when in fact the screen image is generated by a computer off-screen.
The red combine used in the film is now in Watrous, Saskatchewan, Canada
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# The project was a co-production between Universal and Warner Bros. That is why the drive-in marquee shows Psycho (1960) a Universal release and The Shining (1980), a Warner Bros. release.
Jan de Bont is a fan of singer Tori Amos, and decided early on he wanted to include some of her music in the film.
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# During an early scene when Philip Seymour Hoffman is sitting on a lawn chair, he lifts his leg in the air while laughing. His genitals were fully visible for a split second; this was edited out for DVD and VHS releases, but was leaked from VHS screeners sent to industry professionals.
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# According to the book on the making of the movie, the CGI cow picked up by the twister sisters was originally a CGI zebra from Jumanji (1995).
Right after Bill and Jo come out of the toppled house, the teddy bear that hits their truck is CG.
Jan de Bont said he regretted thinking of the hail sequence because it took so long to do and was very difficult. Also the crew couldn`t find ice blocks big enough in Oklahoma, so they had to find them in other states.
Lois Smith`s character is reading Dante`s Inferno when the twister hits Wakita. The book also features a tornado in the second circle of Hell that punishes people ruled by Lust.
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# Many of the news reports spread throughout the movie are actual weathermen from Oklahoma news stations, including Gary England, chief meteorologist at KWTV in Oklahoma City, and Rick Mitchell, chief meteorologist at KOCO in Oklahoma City. The "1969" footage of Gary England giving the televised tornado warning to Jo`s family is actual archived footage of him issuing a tornado warning; however, Gary England did not join KWTV until 1972.
Young Jo`s dog in the beginning of the movie is a Cairn Terrier, the same breed as Toto from the Wizard of Oz.
The video that Dustin Davis plays when they chase the first tornado is for the song "Child In Time" by Deep Purple.
The 21 August 1995 draft of the screenplay credits Joss Whedon and `Jeff Nathanson (I)` as writers. Niether are credited in the final film.
At the end of the movie Bill remarks that the tornado didn`t take the house. In fact, it was originally supposed to. The Hardin County (Iowa) Historical Society and many citizens objected to the house being blown up so it was spared. The area is now a tourist attraction as the rubble from the barn and fences is still there exactly as it was in the movie.
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Helen Hunt
(as Dr. Jo Harding)
with Bill Paxton
(as Bill Harding)
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