FINGER OF GOD

As spring approaches, the thing I love best about this time of year is thunderstorms. Lord knows, outside of my son being home from school once summer rolls around, there's little else to like. I'm one of those folks that is uncomfortable when the temperature exceeds 75 degrees. Check my profile: fall is one of my "interests".

Thunderstorms, for better or worse, remind me of the movie, "Twister". One scene always gets to me. Not the tour de force opening when the child version of Helen Hunt's character's father is ripped from the storm cellar by a vicious tornado, and not the monstrous Oklahoma-eating beast at the end of the film, either.

It's the damned dinner scene.

You know, the one where the merry Bill Paxton-led group of shaggy meteorologist storm chasers are discussing their "hilarious" stories. The one member of the group that's not in the know, played by Jami Gertz, asks what an F-5 would be like during a Fujita scale discussion (you all know the commonality of that mealtime conversation). All of the other member of the groups fall silent, a couple drop silverware very audibly, and in the hush one of the guys states in a quiet tone, "Finger of God."

As if an F5 tornado is an ethereal, almost supernatural entity that is seen about as often as bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. It's spoken of like an evil, horrendous boogeyman, like Jabberwocky or Warren Christopher. It's this sort of intelligence-insulting boobery in modern day movie dialogue that ruins many genre films all the way around. Maybe I'm overanalyzing it, and a movie like "Twister" wasn't ever meant to be taken seriously anyway.


That's probably accurate.