Jan de Bont is an adrenaline junkie. And there is nothing he likes better than being able to get his audiences hooked on it as well.
'I think we all are adrenaline junkies to a certain degree,' said the Dutch director, discussing his new film Twister.
'I like to feel that tingle of excitement when you break a new barrier. I like the audience to feel some of that same sensation.' De Bont set millions of pulses racing with 1994's surprise smash Speed. For his second film, he has abandoned buses, trains and bombs for a more natural menace: tornadoes. The film follows a team of 'stormchasers' - meteorologists who pursue tornadoes.
Helen Hunt (Mad About You ) plays Jo Harding, the obsessed leader of the stormchaser team. Bill Paxton (Apollo 13 ) is her estranged husband Bill, while Jamie Gertz is Bill's girlfriend Melissa, who volunteers for what turns out be the most terrifying ride of her life.
Twister's creators pushed the boundaries of mechanical effects and digital imagining to create the first truly realistic on-screen tornadoes.
The film reunites much of the creative team behind Jurassic Park, including executive producers Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, and writer Michael Crichton. But the driving force behind Twister is clearly De Bont, who overcame extraordinary obstacles to bring this film to completion.