Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Directors Cut, Session 54, 54 of these, baby.
Yeah, it's awesome. Keep you going. Your host and program director here James J. Maylove with my partner in art our head of production set
HabHagger set the Mike Saran. Let us roll. Let us roll indeed. Let the thunder roll. Nice. Well played, sir.
That was really bad. We apologize to our guest. My bad pun had a reason. It had a reason for being because we are today are talking with another
civic media colleague, our meteorologist. We asked the best listeners in radio to welcome to the WFHR stage.
We continue our civic series with this show. We ask our listeners to welcome to this stage our magnificent meteorologist, a wonderful writer, civic media's own weather whisperer Brittany Merlot.
Thank you so much James. It's a pleasure to be on here chatting with you guys. You are the best.
Oh, thank you. Now a lot of our guests that we've had on Brittany, we hear from our our stations and everything, but I don't know the one that we necessarily are so consistent with in our audience is so familiar with.
Our audience probably feels like they know you quite well already and you do a great job of that interacting with our hosts throughout the whole civic media family.
But I thought this was an opportunity for us to really get to know you a little bit better. So let's just kick off right at the beginning, Brittany. Tell us a little bit about yourself where you're from and how growing up for you.
Sure, absolutely. So I am from a suburb of Chicago. Yes, Illinois couldn't get out of there fast enough.
And that is where the story starts, honestly. Nice. Nice. Oh my gosh. So I was let's see, 1990 was about five, six years old or so.
And a big F five tornado came through a suburb. I mean, it was only 10, 15 minutes away from where I was growing up. And it actually hit my family's house. My cousins often playing field.
So, you know, I saw the sky just green and dark and eerie at such a young age and, you know, my family's freaking out after the storm hits. We go there right away.
So I saw extreme devastation at such a small age. I mean, all I remember the only thing left of their house was the three front cement stairs. Everything was gone. It was trees ripped into pieces just debris flung everywhere.
And as a little kid, you know, where's the house? And I remember vividly my mom walking into the basement. Well, we didn't know the basement. It just looked like the ground. And here she is disappearing into this muddy ground and it starts raining again.
And I just freaked out. So I grew up terrified of storms, tornadoes, all of that. And a lot of people did there too because those tornado was really, really significant.
There were no warnings whatsoever. The meteorologists didn't even know ahead of time that they have such an event right there on their shoulders. So I mean, from the forecasters of the National Weather Service to how our radar technology is today to our warning systems, it changed everything. And it changed me.
It made me want to keep everyone safe, learn more and really adjust again, get that warning out there. So I was right along with them. And that's where it all started for me.
It's a very dark start, but I tell you.
You know, Brittany, I think your story is similar to other meteorologists that I've gone back and listened to some of their interviews and hearing some of them talk about their origin story, where they got fell in love with weather.
And for me, I think weather's fascinating. I like it and you know, I've talked to you about this before that it's interesting to me, but I don't have the passion for it that some of you do.
And where that passion comes from and what that passion is made up of. And for me as an outsider, I look at that and I think of curiosity, I think of understanding weather, understanding something that is almost un-understandable and unpredictable and everything and trying to predict it and all this, the battle of that, if you will.
But to hear you and others talk about it so much of this comes down to wanting to protect people, looking out for people, wanting to help people in any way you can.
It really does speak to where the, not just your origins, but the origins of meteorology to begin with.
Absolutely. 100% I feel like all of us do have that one scary story or really significant weather events or just a rare one maybe that really drew us in and really wanted to pay the path, the career path that way to keep everyone, you know, informed because it is hard to do.
So it's predicting the future. We just have all of this data that we have to try to gather together and mesh and make it make sense for every little pinpoint area.
It's harder than you think, it's more than just the weather app.
Right, right. When it comes to being influenced by weather at a young age too, I was born during a snowstorm, one of the worst snowstorms in, I think of this top five snowstorm or something like that.
My parents weren't able to get to the hospital, so my mother had me on a white couch in the middle of the snowstorm.
And I've heard this story in my whole life and I'm sure the audience has heard it for 20 years.
I've rambled it and everything, but what I don't really talk about with that one is that story always revolves around the snowstorm and the ability and what that did to the community and how even in the late 70s,
how that whole community was shut down when that happened.
And the way that individuals stepped up and fought through that weather to do things like bring me into this world and keep my mother okay and everything.
I was brought into the world by a bunch of VMTs and firefighters and police officers and everything that fought through that storm to be able to get to that.
When it comes to whether it's not lost on me, certainly, about the way that this that we can help each other with this information, but also the way that we come together through weather is always stood out to me.
And I'm curious if that's another part of what you love about covering this subject as well, Bernie.
Oh, 100%. I mean, it is magical how communities come together after a disaster hits.
No matter your differences before, you all, you know, power together communities grow stronger and that is magical.
And just on top of that, it doesn't have to be a crazy bad event.
It could be the bitter cold that we get in Wisconsin.
And some of us, you know, it's the conversations of, yeah, did you hit negative 20?
Well, my town hit negative 30.
Like it's just that rivalry that fun.
I mean, you have that fun in Wisconsin.
And I think that is why this state is so perfect for me.
We get all four seasons. We all come together.
It's more than a conversation.
It's community as well.
It's good talking with another Illinois brat too.
Yeah, I gotta admit, I gotta admit it is.
Brittany, I'm curious.
When it comes to the individuals we've talked to, the wide range of influence with individuals and different people we talked to from different walks of life,
what were some of the influences for you growing up?
Oh, that one.
You know, a lot of my professors, a lot of teachers, but I came across.
They definitely helped me along the way.
They really influenced me.
I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do.
I just took these classes in meteorology just to learn for myself.
And they kind of guided me into the communication world, into the TV broadcast world,
which then led me into radio, and just really getting your voice out to help and save.
And it's just those people along the way have been absolutely amazing.
And then even the people, like I said, that are touched by disasters.
I'll never forget a specific story.
I think it was to tech Wisconsin and the entire community, the mobile home park was gone.
The media is trying to get in there.
This is a very sensitive time for them.
They don't work cameras and microphones in their faces.
And that's, you know, it's my job.
But I'm not there for that.
I want to make sure that they're comfortable and okay.
And I'll never forget walking in there.
They let me in.
They saw that I knew, you know, I was different from the rest of the media.
I walked in there, gave them a big hug and started crying with them and picking through to breathe.
And finding pictures of them and just their family and stuff.
And those things, that keeps you going.
That moment, that's just being able to be there for these people.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, definitely.
We're fortunate.
We're humbled.
We get to experience similar things.
And I can't, at the same time, can't imagine what that's like.
It's something we don't get to speak to.
And I was really hoping we'd be able to dive into with you a little bit.
And we're doing so.
Where you're not just, we think of a meteorologist and you cover weather.
You're also a journalist.
And you're covering stories.
You're covering people.
It's a lot deeper and a lot more layers to it than that.
I know not every meteorologist does this.
You do.
And certainly a lot of the ones that we look at are common knowledge or names that we know
do similar things.
And it just speaks to the depth of the job that we don't always quite understand.
It's more than like you said, than temperatures.
And trying to let people know if they can wear their shorts out or not.
And you brought up something else.
Actually, a couple of things there that I wanted to come back to.
One of them, where you got your start.
You started in TV, Bernie?
Yes, I did.
It's funny because I was terrified of the camera.
I was shy girl, you know, an introvert.
Somehow, some way.
Here I am, right?
I remember trying out for it.
And they had the camera guy and all these people in the studio.
And they're like, all right, Bernie, your turn.
And like, can everyone leave or turn around?
This is TV.
That's awesome.
And not a bad idea.
That's horrible, yeah, really.
So what was it about radio that made you want to give radio a chance?
How did that come about?
Well, TV is pretty strict.
We'll put it that way.
Radio gets to be your self a little bit more.
And I'm all about transparency and having a good time with the weather.
Yes, there's times when we need to be serious.
But there's other times when let's have a little fun.
Let's enjoy the day.
And radio, let's me do that.
Well, well said.
And I really, something I hadn't really thought of when it comes to that.
Then you don't have to worry about the maps, you know,
if you're pointing in the right area or if you missed it or, you know,
it's like, don't be able to learn.
I understand.
But yeah, you don't have as much interaction with green screen and radio.
Yeah.
But you know, chances for a buck-up and that or anything.
But I do want to take this opportunity to let everybody know out there that doesn't know yet.
If you are not following Bernie Merlough all over social media, be sure to do so.
She is all over whether it is LinkedIn or Instagram or Facebook,
especially her YouTube page.
Be sure to subscribe to all of these.
Keep up to date, not only on your local weather and weather in general.
But if you want to have some fun with the weather,
not many people are having more fun with it than Britney.
It's contagious.
You can't help it.
But be sure to follow her on those.
Britney, with all these different things we're talking about
and the fun that weather can be in some of that,
one of the fun things that I imagine really educational things is storm chasing.
And you are a storm chaser.
Oh yes, I am.
I'm doing that for quite a while.
So that story is quite funny.
I ended up starting, you know, I was going to school for something else at first.
I think it was like criminal investigation, which really was aka journalism.
But I didn't realize it at the time.
So here I am, right?
And taking some meteorology classes just so I can learn,
just so I can stop being scared of these storms.
So I'm taking these classes.
And it is through a community college in Illinois, very small.
And they do storm chasing as a class.
Credits work towards your degree.
You go away for two weeks down in Texas, Oklahoma,
wherever the severe weather set up is going to be.
And it is amazing.
And so educational.
You're drawing surface maps.
You're taking the atmosphere and looking at it in a detailed level of where everything's coming together.
Studying that tornado, Genesis.
Then you're out in the field looking at the clouds forming, watching them turn into a supercell.
I'm telling you, it's unlike anything, any classroom that you could even get to.
So to watch it happen, it was the most educational experience.
But then it slips right when that tornado touches down.
Everything changes.
First you get a rush of adrenaline, right?
Oh my goodness, the tornado is down.
This is what we came here for.
And then it starts to head towards the town.
And your motions turn.
And panic and fear.
And you're calling into the National Weather Service to get those radars to sound.
Or I'm sorry, the alarms to sound.
And another cool feeling is when you hear them go off and you know you made that call in.
Stay those lives.
Oh, it is so rewarding.
And that's the point I want to make.
Storm chasing is not about going to see the storm and the tornado and get the video of it.
Yes, that helps the researchers because we don't know too much about tornadoes.
But the truth is we really just want the ground truth, the eyes on it.
Is there really a tornado?
And then that goes straight to every TV meteorologist, radio meteorologist.
We all know now that it is confirmed by a storm chaser.
We know that that person is educated and we know that it's real.
So that's where it all comes from.
But there are some fun moments and there are a lot of busts too.
We are out there waiting and nothing happens.
Yeah, I was going to say, so we'll get to the real question here.
The Twister movies for how accurate are they?
And do you like them?
You know, I have to love them 100%.
But I'm not going to lie there are moments where meteorologists are like you've got to be kidding me.
You know how the first one or maybe the fire in the second one.
Like that.
The fire works.
Like that's ridiculous.
Yeah, that's the movie.
That's the movie.
A little artistic interpretation.
Yeah, right.
A little license.
And I'm glad you brought that upset for one.
We're actually going to the second half of this show is going to feature our own Melissa K.
We're going to talk a little about the new Twister movie.
In part because Melissa and I never really get to review movies together.
That's right.
But also because of the tie-in with our conversation with Brittany here.
And I'm curious about, well, actually real quick, I do want to come back to something.
And I don't want to get lost on the audience here.
I think it's so beautiful about what Brittany is sharing with us.
And I really do appreciate the time and you're sharing so much Brittany.
What can begin with fear and can end with a passion and end with love.
And some real positivity, some real good.
You've mentioned a little bit here where this passion started.
And it started at a fear and a concern.
And how you didn't let that, it stayed there.
It evolved for you.
You challenged that.
You pushed that.
I had a phobia of driving until my early 30s.
And defeating that phobia is still, even, I've been driving for almost 20 years.
And I still feel, I'm not 20, but I've been driving for almost 15 years.
And I still feel it every day that how much I'm proud of that.
How good it feels to be able to do something like that.
When we conquer our fears, when we face them, the positive and the things that can be accomplished with that,
it's noteworthy.
And I really do appreciate you touching on that.
And I think it's a note to the audience no matter what your fears might be or what their challenges might be in life.
You can face them.
And what can come up that?
What can come up facing those fears?
When it comes to the Twisters movie that you bring up there, said them glad you did.
Because I was curious about not so much some of the tech and the things that they do in the movie,
but just the tech in general.
And you touched on this too, Brittany, when you first started in this and where we are now,
how much it has changed technology-wise.
And granted, you've gotten into this a little later in the meteorology game.
And even still, I'm curious.
I imagine there's been quite a few tech changes in the time you've been doing this.
Oh, yes, absolutely.
It's outstanding how far they've come with radar advancements to,
we can feel like debris being thrown into the air on a radar stand now.
Just the tilts, the reach, what we're able to see through it is outstanding.
You know, we still have some way to go on research on exactly what's happening,
but we've got those tools, we've got those chasers out there that equipment trying to gather at all
and amazing scientists working so hard to get it all together just to keep everyone safe.
I mean, I think we're right now at a 13-minute advanced warning for a tornado.
That means we should know as scientists, 13 minutes before it touches down.
That's where we're trying to guarantee that we want to cut that down even more.
So it's a lot of work and people's lives are at risk trying to get close to these things
to get it safe for everyone else.
But there is one thing I want to say, you know, storm chasing looks fun in the movies.
Don't do it.
You don't know what you're doing without a scientist.
And it's true.
It's becoming more and more dangerous just because there's more people out there trying to chase the traffic now
is the bigger danger than the tornado itself.
I appreciate that they touched on that in the movie.
I wish they'd spent more time on it because that seems like an issue to outsiders like us.
I'm glad that you noted that, Brittany.
I appreciate it.
We're speaking with Civic Media's Brittany Merlot.
Just a couple more questions.
This interview might go a little long.
I apologize.
But I really, I was so excited to talk to you, Brittany.
I'm curious as a storm chaser or just as an individual,
what is some of or what are one of the more crazy weather moments you remember or have experienced?
Oh, I'll take you straight to out of South Dakota.
I can't remember the year, but it was my first time storm chasing.
Oh gosh, my mom was like, there's no way you're actually going to go chase your biggest fear.
I was like, yes, I am.
I'm going to face it.
You've got to do it.
I'm going to do it.
So I'm on my first trip.
No tornadoes.
No tornadoes.
We're in Texas.
Oklahoma finally get up to South Dakota.
It's happening.
It's happening so fast.
It is a huge wedge tornado.
It knocks our radar out on our storm chase vehicle.
Now there's two vans.
The professors are in the other one.
I was kind of in the student one.
There's about ours is working.
And I just remember vividly by communicating back and forth.
They are kind of freaking out.
Long story short, we are stuck in between the hail core of softball side, hail,
and the wedge tornado, which I believe ended up being a four.
Wow.
And it was a panic moment.
The grass was going sideways.
The rain was sideways.
Couldn't see at all.
And the van kind of skidded a little bit from all those high winds.
Wow.
Let me see Beldon.
Is that a prayer?
What's in my friend?
I was like, is this it?
I don't know.
Where?
We're okay.
Everybody's okay.
Yeah, thankfully.
Thankfully.
Thank you.
Wow.
You know, this is one of the things that I want.
I know that whether you realize this or not subconsciously audience, Brittany is so good at.
You really take us to this moment and bring us to that.
You do it every morning when you join us.
There is an energy and a passion you have that is just contagious and gets us not only excited about the day ahead,
but also really curious and interested about this weather that we experience and everything.
It's really fat.
Thank you for that, Brittany.
Yeah.
Curious.
Thank you.
That means the world to me because that's what I want.
I want people excited and knowledgeable about the weather.
So more I can get the better in my deep dive on you and looking into some of the things that you're up to.
I see that you're also got a lot of other things that you enjoy and other creative outlets.
What are some of your other creative outlets outside of a radio and writing and weather in general?
Oh, gosh.
Well, I'm trying to get my private pilot license right now.
I enjoy flying planes, all of that.
I'm really into water sports, kayaking, stand-up paddle boarding and getting to be outside in nature.
Whether that goes down to hiking and stuff like that.
But favorite, definitely winter.
I'm so excited.
I want some snowfall this year.
That sure was not good enough for me.
Oh, I blame.
I blame the years you spent up in Duluth because that's, you know, that's where I'm from.
That's my stomping ground.
You are.
I couldn't disagree with you more.
I had enough snow when I was grown up.
I don't need any more.
Get your fill.
The flying is so fascinating, so cool to me, Bernie.
I want to hear your story as you progress on that one.
And let us keep us up to date on how that's going because you can fly me around anytime.
I'd love to experience that.
That'd be fun.
Of course, I want a speed plane so I can land anywhere.
Oh, there you go.
Yeah, no, that's the way.
Yeah, absolutely.
If I was over going to fly, that's the way to do it.
I want to learn to fly.
So there you go.
Just two more questions for you, Brittany.
We ask both of these to everybody that's been joining us under the Civic Media family here.
What does it mean to you to work at Civic Media?
Oh, wow.
It means a lot.
There's just something to be said about.
The truth, the facts, you know, really just laying down what people need to know.
The local community, focusing on Wisconsin, we're in every part of every neighborhood.
And we really care.
That's what matters.
And working with a group of people who are just so amazing, so passionate, so dedicated,
and really good at their job.
I'm in love with it.
I'm in the world to me.
Well said.
Yeah.
Your final question, Brittany, we can let you get back to Mother Nature and all those other things
that you're doing to help keep us safe and everything.
If you could have coffee with any historical figure, who and why?
Ooh.
Oh, that one is tough.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This is my hardball question for everybody.
Oh, I'm trying to go so deep and think fast.
It's a historical figure.
It's tough.
The positive here is there's no wrong answer.
That's right.
You know, there's no wrong answer about it.
I'm stunts.
I don't know.
Wow.
That's cool.
That's all right.
Maybe it would be not so much a figure, but maybe going back in time and seeing like some
of the beginnings of the first meteorology and how we did that in some of those, or even some
of the more bigger weather, you know, moments in history.
Imagine being able to go back and you're not affected by it at all, but you could sit back
and watch the, you know, the ice age happen or something like that.
That's a great, big moment in our Earth's history.
You know, it's funny that you say that because it's right before you said ice age.
That's what I was thinking.
And I was like, who in the history?
Oh, look at the ice age.
100% would be amazing.
Or why not take me to the warmest time on Earth so I can see what that's like and what it feels like.
Wow.
That's interesting.
Oh, that's amazing.
Yeah.
That is a really great answer.
Yeah.
Great answer.
Great answer.
Yeah, sure.
You're on coffee.
That will be fine.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It will be good.
You're good.
And if you think of a name later on, you feel free to text it to set that out and let us know.
But we, this is definitely part one.
We are definitely going to be talking again sometime, Brittany.
I cannot thank you enough for the time and what you do for our communities and certainly for us here at Civic Media.
We appreciate you.
Thank you so much.
Appreciate you guys as well.
Be sure to look for Brittany not only on social media anywhere there.
If you're on social media, you will find her.
Type that in your, type in your search bar, Brittany Merlot and follow along with what she's doing.
But listening every morning here at Civic Media where we'll be, she'll be joining us on our morning shows.
We'll talk real soon, Brittany.
You take care.
Thanks.
You as well.
Bye, guys.
Bye.
Well, the more directors cut coming up for you right here at WFHR.
Welcome back to Director's Cut on this Sunday evening.
Thanks for joining us, everyone.
Want to say a big shout out to Brittany Merlot, talking about her life and career.
And speaking of weather.
Well, the weather has been in the news not only because of hurricanes and stuff like that going on,
but also because of the movies.
There was a big movie came out just a little bit ago, a sequel to a 90s classic.
I think you could say called twisters.
And for this, we brought in, we brought an expert about twister movies.
Our very own Melissa K.
Oh, wow.
I think I just got a promotion, guys.
They're going to end that to the resume.
Put that on the book of business cards.
Yeah.
So I have to admit, I got this wrong, guys.
I thought we were going to be talking about the board game twister.
I really apologize.
I thought, okay, I got to do some homework here real quick.
I was wondering why you had the spinner here.
You know, it was a little confusing, but I do not want to play that game.
Yeah, I got a bit.
I was going to be really nervous to play that game with you guys.
So I'm kind of glad that we're going with this.
No, no, no, no.
So a couple, when this movie first came out, first off,
it felt really good to have kind of summer blockbusters back.
I thought that was pretty noteworthy.
People came back to the movie theaters this summer,
whether it's Deadpool and Wolverine or Twisters,
or some other surprise hits even.
The old Deadpool movies, yeah.
Yeah, that's been really cool.
And when this came out, I honestly, I didn't have a big desire to see it,
but I thought, okay, eventually I'll see it.
But that was what shook me a little bit about it,
was that Melissa was so excited about it.
And then when you saw it, you came back and told Seth and I about you,
enjoyed it.
I thought I had that in the back of my mind.
I had the mouth surgery last week,
and I was up at night, and oh, I'll watch it.
I'll just put it on in the background.
I didn't think much of it.
It really pulled me in.
I really liked it.
I didn't expect to like it, not on that.
I thought it might be good.
I didn't expect to like it as much as I did.
I actually think that they did some kind of
original storytelling in some of this.
And I want to get to some of that with you, Melissa.
And I've got some random facts about behind the scenes stuff
and everything like you guys probably knew I would.
Of course.
I'm a nerd about these things.
But to start off, we don't get a chance to like talk movies
often enough with Melissa.
No.
And so here, just thank you for the time.
I know how busy you are.
Thanks for joining us here.
You're welcome.
What did you think of the movie?
What were your takeaways?
I adored it.
I loved it.
I wanted to go see it again.
In the theater, and I was going up to visit my brother
in Duluth like the following weekend.
And we were going to try to go.
It didn't work out with everything else we had going on.
But man, I would have loved to have gone and seen it in the theater again.
I honestly, I was, there was no way I could have found to watch it
before we had this.
But I was thinking in the back of my mind.
So I watched the trailer.
And I'm actually really glad I didn't watch the trailer before.
I saw the movie.
Oh.
Because the, are we like doing spoilers?
Yeah.
Yes.
Or alert.
If you haven't watched it.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Absolutely.
After you've watched it.
There you go.
I didn't, I didn't see the, the love interest that was going to happen.
Yeah.
In the movie.
Because I didn't watch the trailer.
Because they, they kind of blow it in the trailer.
They give it away.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And in the, in the movie itself, you absolutely hate Tyler Owens
in the beginning.
Yeah.
He is like, hateable.
Yeah.
Like really hateable.
Mm-hmm.
And, and Glenn Powell did an awesome job with that.
Yeah.
But the, but the, the, the cake Carter character, which is the,
the strong female lead.
Yeah.
Which I was, I was honestly very nervous about because I love Helen Hunt in the
original poster.
Yeah.
Love, love, love.
And, um, I was, I was afraid of being let down.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
She did fantastic.
Daisy Egger Jones.
Yes.
The actress you're talking about.
A great actor.
Mm-hmm.
And it was, I have not seen a lot of her work.
I've seen any of her other work.
I've enjoyed, I really liked her in this role.
She did phenomenal.
I think you could make the argument.
I, a lot of people use this movie as an example of example B of, um, Glenn Powell
being a movie star.
Mm-hmm.
And, and, and a big, not just a movie star, like the next big movie star,
the next big action star.
So, I went into it thinking a lot of that.
I came out of it.
No, that was a Daisy movie.
Mm-hmm.
Like, she stole the scenes from him.
Every scene they were in together, I thought she stole.
And, I thought she was the lead in the movie.
Mm-hmm.
I thought of her as the lead actor in it.
She absolutely was.
And, even though he's listed first for some reason on the cast.
It's a typical thing that Hollywood is always there.
Yeah, they do that.
I'm glad you brought up the love story part because while there is some
original storytelling here and there's some, a lot of original graphics
and special effects being done.
They changed the game when it comes to some of that stuff and what they did.
That people are going to be doing years and decades from now,
because of this movie.
But, I really enjoyed.
I've told you guys this before.
I get so tired of stereotypical story tales.
Mm-hmm.
Boy meets girl.
Boy loses girl.
Boy gets girl back.
Or, or some of that, those stories.
Right.
I think even if you've seen the trailer or you're going into it,
and you're like, well, typically in Hollywood,
the male and the female characters are going to wind up together or something
like that.
And you're kind of even had that subconsciously in your head.
Would I, and again, heavy spoilers here, everybody?
Yeah.
Your most.
What I enjoyed was that whole movie.
We never even saw him.
Kiss.
Nope.
We never even saw them.
He did a beautiful job of building tension.
Yeah.
And that's all you experienced.
It was.
And it was not a typical love story.
It was definitely a, these are two people doing what they love
in careers that they love.
And, well, did they get together?
Maybe?
Maybe not?
Exactly.
And if you left before the credits, you're an idiot.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because it's only in the credits that you actually get to see what happens after the story.
I love that the movie, and again, spoilers.
I will, I'll stop saying that.
I just hate spoiling things from people.
Yeah, but they should have already turned right now,
after watching the movie.
Right.
The movie wraps up with a perfect, just an absolutely perfect ending where it is he runs
to the, she's leaving the airport.
He runs to try to stop her and everything, which we've seen in a million movies.
Right.
But then they're just kind of left where you would be in real life.
Okay, I got here.
I ran here now.
What do I say?
I don't, what do I actually say to this person?
I'm out of breath and all that.
I forgot words.
And then they're saved by the cancellation of the flight.
And it being a tornado movie, having lights canceled was perfect, I thought.
And then the actors did an amazing job of just looking at each other.
I'm like, they had a whole conversation, just looking at each other.
And then it's just off in the credits role.
And I was like, oh, and in the theater.
So, okay, Brittany and I actually got to see this together, which was fantastic.
Because, I mean, as you know, now she's a meteorologist and has so much knowledge
and she was able to like, she was leaning over to me during all this.
Yes, this is in the very beginning.
I won't say the word, the S word again.
But in the beginning, she was a little livid.
She's like, no, no, no, no, no, that's not what you do.
That is absolutely Hollywood.
What are you doing?
Don't promote doing that.
Don't run under an overpass.
That's the worst possible thing you could do.
So she was a little upset about that.
But then throughout the movie, they included historical happenings
that actually took place in the world of meteorology and people that she has known
and have been involved in some of those really horrific things that happened.
And then Hollywood actually drawing from actual history
and sharing that story, she thought, and I agree.
I didn't know that, but I also thought that that was a nice move by them.
Well, there you go.
Next time you go to a Twister's movie, bring a meteorologist with you.
And they can point everything out.
They can make it even better at watching these spirits.
It's so jealous of that because it's everything I love about movies
is having somebody there to kind of like,
give you a director's cut, if you will.
Right.
Of the movie and what's going on there.
But when it got to the end and people are getting up and leaving them like,
oh, you guys are dumb.
You guys are dumb.
Sorry, I don't like to cast judgment on people.
But they've started to do that with movies.
I mean, I didn't really kick off with kind of the Pixar movies.
Like, you wanted to stick around for the credits because there were always bloopers.
There were always extra stuff.
And the way they ended that movie, like you described,
you knew they had to do something with the credits.
Which they did to a fantastic degree.
Right.
I think that's a great note to movie goers nowadays.
If you haven't picked up on this yet, stay to the end of the credits.
I don't care what the movie you just never know nowadays.
And if you're curious, if you don't want it, if you wanted spoiled for you,
nowadays you can oftentimes look online to see if a movie has a tag ending.
But even just giving the due to all of those people who participate in that movie
besides the ones you watched during the movie.
I mean, I hope that's why they're doing that with the credits.
You know, selfishly, I think that that would be a wonderful way to honor all of those people
by making people stick around for the credits.
I should look at these names.
Look at these names.
These people who are important to.
All right. So I think we should do a quick thumbnail of the plot.
Is there a plot?
I guess I don't know.
That's the question.
You know, they're just running around chasing storms.
Either one of you doesn't matter.
Okay.
Well, I'll start it off.
So the character of Kate had an idea when she was in college and they tried to
to seed storms, which is a thing, which is a real thing they have tried to do in the past.
And it's similar to the original Twister movie, which is what Helen Hunt's character was trying to do.
And sending these things up so they could map a tornado.
So they could see where and learn from that.
But unfortunately several of her friends died in the beginning.
Gotcha.
So then she got out of storm chasing, went off and worked at like, I don't know.
Oh, I mean, you're right.
Yeah, somewhere like that.
Yeah.
And then gets called in by one of her former friends kind of sucked in, unfortunately.
Oh, all right.
It's good.
You get one, Melissa.
One.
What?
You guys get the ball.
I don't know.
I get that.
But yes, brought back in to chase storms again to try to help solve the problems of these big storms
that are hitting towns before they can get the warning out.
Right.
Right.
Which we learned from Brittany is a real thing because there's still a lot that meteorologists do not know about storms.
So that really adds a real lifeline, you know, a real real life thing to just like a kind of an action movie.
Right.
And I loved how they made her character.
They gave her the super sensory, not like not anything.
I don't know.
It's almost an intuition with storms where sense of it.
Yeah.
And then that first scene where they all get together, then all these scientists and all these.
And then the Owen, the Tyler Owens Glenn Powell character shows up in his macho machismo, you know,
Twister Wrangler character is such a three-letter word.
I can't say I'm there.
And you hate him so much.
And she's like, yep.
All right.
Yep.
We're going to head west.
And then they go east.
Or whichever way they go.
Right.
They go the opposite way.
And it's great.
So one of the things that I enjoyed about that, and a great job, Melissa.
I think that summarized the plot very well.
Well, at the beginning of the plot.
Right.
And it kind of, as the Kate character kind of comes back to the fold, then trying to find ways to, you know,
figure out, predict these things better and faster.
And we're one of the things that I thought that it was cool that came across in the movie.
I thought, well, was the idea that when they're doing this, we're talking about, we're,
we're just trying to get even minutes ahead, just even minutes ahead of this.
Right.
Because just a minute can save thousands of lives.
I love that they did touch on that a little bit.
I understand it's a Hollywood movie.
And you're not, you're only going to get so much of this.
But I would have, if I had critiques, it would have been, I would have liked a little bit more science.
I would have liked a little bit more of a tip of the head of actually having real meteorologists involved in this movie.
And on the screen and them talking about this device that she's trying to create.
And how realistic that truly is.
I know that they had plenty of brains on the set of this stuff.
But I mean, on screen as far as being able to talk about it.
And I do think something Brittany talked about that I think was really important too.
That it looked like they had good intentions of kind of like giving a little shame too.
But at the same time, they kind of highlighted and that's the storm chaser.
But I'm not at the particular type of storm chaser.
There are people like Brittany that do this and are just fascinated by weather while at the same equally at the same time wanting to understand weather more.
And so they can.
For the betterment and safety of people.
Right. Right.
And then there's the people that want their 15 seconds of fame.
And this is how they're going to try to get it by chasing a tornado and risking other people's lives and all of that.
And those types, they did touch on a little bit.
I would have liked a little bit more about that.
And I don't think that they did themselves any favors by having one of their main, if not their main character, be one of those type of people.
Although they did give him some brains.
And that's the thing.
So they, well, he's hateable.
Yeah.
And his whole character and the YouTube sensation type of character is is I think they did a good job of putting that kind of in a negative light in a way.
Yeah.
But yes, he does have the smarts and he actually what he's doing in the movie plot line wise is good because he is he does have the science and he has the smarts.
He has a crew of people who have never had training and only learned from him, which I mean that in itself is questionable.
I also got to admit that is a pretty cool vehicle he has.
I think it's pretty cool.
You could drill into the ground, man.
I mean, that this, although that would never work.
The ground gets pulled up to you.
But I loved the character that Harry Hayden Patton played.
The British guy that went along with for the ride.
Great job.
He did such a good job.
I mean, even his screaming was was delightful.
Shout out to the great more maternity, too.
More maternity had a kind of a cameo role in this one too.
And you know, we don't see her enough.
She's a great actor.
Yeah, she's very much underutilized.
Really good cast.
I really had no issues with any of the cast members.
I thought it was a well cast.
Teed me up perfectly James going to my next question.
And I guess a lot of this is going to be directed at Melissa because you know, she's our guest and all that.
So she's also a super fan of the original twister.
And I want to know I'm going to pick her brain about, you know, what the difference is,
which she liked about this one, the other one.
I got to say in retrospect, the original twisters also had one and one of the great underrated castes.
And of course, Helen Hunt that you mentioned, of course, the great, the late great Bill Paxton.
Carrie Elwis says the villain in that and Carrie Elwis is good.
And every single thing he has ever done in his life.
And so I mean, so Melissa, how does it stack up?
How does it stack up to the original one?
Well, I thought they did a better job of making the female characters shine in in twisters versus,
I mean, and obviously Helen Hunt shines in whatever she has been and specifically for me in twister.
But I don't think that she was highlighted as much.
And that makes sense for what, 1996.
But then they did a kind of an homage to the original where the female character goes home.
And in the original one, Helen Hunt goes to her Aunt Meg.
And they go and they have this amazing breakfast of like food that they, that she cooks for all of them.
And then it's just like this family atmosphere and everybody.
And then of course, I mean, not spoiling a 96 movie for anybody.
No, that area gets hit by a tornado later.
And the devastation to people that you love being so prominent.
And it creates that emotional like drive for Helen to be able to figure out why tornadoes do what they do and where they go.
And with the creation of the little, the little balls and little whirling up into the tornado.
And I just, I need to watch it again.
It's been a long time.
I think I have it on VHS guys.
Oh, yes, that's awesome.
Given your kind of reviews, if you will, of both movies, do you think that this would have been better suited if it was like a sequel to the,
it wasn't a specific sequel.
It was kind of influenced by the original twist or some callbacks to it.
But I don't think so.
I think that's what saved this movie part of the reason it was as big as it was.
It is because they didn't have as far as I know any of the original cast, which so,
and while the story kind of runs along similar lines of them trying to, you know,
send a similar like the, the trailers with the orange barrels or yellow barrels.
If you were yellow with the, the lids that are supposed to pop open and some of those scenes were a little similar to the original movie,
which was kind of like I said, a nice homage to what had come before.
But I don't think that a sequel would have worked.
Hollywood is such a parody thing.
I really hope they paradise on this one and be like, you can, you know, it's okay.
You don't have to lay everything out for the audience.
And it's not a remake.
Right. You could do a tongue and cheek kind of like, hey, you guys remember the first one?
Here's a little reference to that. Here's a little easter egg to that.
There wasn't a cow.
But there was something similar in the second one.
Yeah, without going all in and be like, just a complete remake or prequel or anything.
Or a redo.
Yeah.
We got so much.
It's so good.
Well, and Phillips, you are off into the original.
It's amazing that I do remember.
I forgot about that he's in that too.
Yes.
But I have to say that, you know, it's interesting.
They didn't call it Twister 2.
Yeah.
Nope.
They call that Twister's.
Yeah.
And maybe this could be, you know, we all know that Hollywood and the movie business in general always takes the wrong, you know,
conclusions to when things are successfully always take the wrong conclusions.
Maybe this, they could take something positive from this one where yes, they're winking at the audience every now and then.
Hey, remember this in the first movie, you know, and I remember this, but they don't bring back any of the cast.
Obviously something they couldn't, but they don't bring back any of the cast.
They have a new story.
You know, it's, it's more of a continuation than a sequel kind of thing.
Maybe this is what, you know, instead of trying to fit everyone in the, you know, like, I don't want to use Beetlejuice because they didn't necessarily do the same thing.
But, you know, we got to bring back this person and they got to bring back this person to the thing.
Well, why?
Yeah.
You don't necessarily have to do that for story purposes.
No.
And maybe people would be more interested instead of trying to, you know, cram for all the fans like, hey, look at this.
Look at this kind of thing, you know, as a fan of superhero movies, they're the worst at doing the stuff like that for so much of the things.
And I think they're starting to reset that now.
But it seems from what you guys, I haven't seen it.
So from what you're telling me, this is what made the movie better.
It's the fact that, yeah, it's connected, but not a straight up sequel.
It's not a prequel.
It's, it's own standalone thing.
And I also got to say I tried to watch the trailer for the original Twister.
It's dark.
Yeah.
Literally.
Like there's flashes of scenes.
Yeah.
Right.
And watching it with the sound off, it was also very like, what, what am I even watching?
It's quite awesome.
They could have done that with that.
Right, right.
So wrapping up the segment.
We need it like a way to measure movies.
But what we use for like civic media or for director's cup.
I was thinking, I was trying to think of this.
And I first thought of cake.
I thought of like cake.
Yeah.
Yeah.
How many are in the whole cake?
Or is it just a slice?
I was thinking of a similar thing.
Is it?
We have to think of something.
We will work on that.
And it will have it by the next time Melissa joins us.
So one of the things, one of the themes James and I have when we do our movie episodes is like,
give it, you know, we're not saying, you know, go see this movie already.
Wow, this movie's terrible.
Don't see it.
We're saying, you know, check it out.
Maybe something like, I think you can tell from Melissa's enthusiasm.
How much she enjoyed it being a big fan of the original.
I say go see it.
So there you go.
That's the right thing.
Right.
She made it.
Whatever.
How ever you get your movies.
Check it or disregard it.
This is a check it.
Check it out.
Check it out.
We like, I think a lot of people like when Hollywood does stuff like this.
Yeah.
No one does spectacles.
Spectacle is not necessarily a bad thing.
It can be.
But it's not necessarily, and Hollywood does it best when they do it right.
Spectacle can be very good.
I do got to add in though a notice for people who don't like horror movies.
Every single, what you call it, trailer before the movie.
Maybe is was a horror movie.
Yeah.
I was at there like this through like with my hands over my eyes.
And covering my ears for until the movie started.
You know, I don't like horror.
Yeah.
For some reason, twisters is considered horror.
Yeah.
And some people who are scared of story.
Maybe.
I can see that.
But the genre, the labels for these things have gotten bigger and bigger.
And they just can't decide it's more.
So I do, I do appreciate the time, Melissa, so much for joining us on this one.
Uh, we got to do this more often.
Uh, it's great to have you apart.
That would, that would require you to watch a movie.
Hey.
You have to have the time to watch a movie like that too.
But she's, she's got that.
I thought we get through one thing without her hating me, but I guess not.
It would be, you know, it's, the audience looks forward to it.
Yeah.
It looks for it.
We look forward to hanging out with you.
Yeah.
That's going to wrap up the show this week, everyone.
We'll see you next time here on Directors Cut on WFHR.
