Twister 4K Ultra HD

"Twister" delivers a swirling, hard-hitting, tornado chasing adventure that is one of the most exciting and thrilling action pictures to have been produced. The story is about two scientists, played by Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, pursuing the most destructive weather front to sweep through mid-America in over a decade. Hunt stars as Dr. Jo Thornton-Harding, who as a small girl watched her father sucked to his death from her family’s storm cellar by a massive tornado. Now a storm chaser, a scientist who risks her life to study the dark side of nature by taking her data-transmitting instruments directly into the path of a deadly storm, Jo chases the largest tornado ever to strike Oklahoma as her marriage implodes and rival scientists will stop at nothing to steal her breakthrough. (Gary Reber)

Special features include commentary by Director Jan de Bont and Visual Effects Supervisor Stefen Fangmeier; four featurettes: "The Legacy Of Twister – Taken By The Wind" (NEW) (HD 15:14), "Chasing The Storm: Twister Revisited" (HD 29:00, "Anatomy Of A Twister" (HD 08:34) and "HBO First Look: The Making Of Twister" (HD 14:04); Van Halen Music Video – "Humans Being" (HD 03:37) and a Movies Anywhere digital copy.

The 2.39:1 2160p HEVC/H.265 4K Ultra HD HDR10 picture, reviewed on a VIZIO Quantum X P85QX-JI UHD/HDR display, was photographed on 35mm Eastman film stock with 70mm blowup prints at 2.20:1 in anamorphic Panavision® and Super 16 using Arriflex 35-III, Bell & Howell Eyemo, Panavision Panaflex Gold and Panavision Panaflex Platinum camera systems and sourced from a remastered 4K Digital Intermediate. The picture is sharp and clear throughout with a virtually unnoticeable smooth grain structure. Color fidelity is healthily saturated with rich and warm hues that light up the screen. At times, primaries pop, such as red signs and the red on Bill's truck. Earth tones are perfectly natural and realistic, such as the farm fields that provide the setting for the tornado chasing. Flesh tones are healthy and accurately hued. HDR contrast is well balanced with deep natural black levels and revealing shadows, as well as realistic white levels. The gray skies provide the perfect overcast conditions as the tornadoes approach. Resolution is excellent with good image detail, especially during closeups of facial features, clothing and objects such as the scene with pounding hail. This is a visually exciting and realistic picture with explosive imagery that is often extraordinary. A real disaster classic. (Gary Reber)

The repurposed Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel soundtrack is extremely dynamic with ALL channels virtually engage and at time at excruciating sound pressure levels. Atmospherics and sound effects are often intense and sweeping in their strength. Storm sound effects are realistic with intense thunder, rain, wind, and howling as well as all manner of objects flying through the air with destructive sonic intensity. Atmospherics and sound effects are incredibly diverse and realistic, including fiery explosions and large objects destroyed such as houses, businesses and vehicles. Foley sound effects are precise and quite prevalent. The music score is a mixture of orchestral and pop music that often blares from the amplified car radios. The orchestral/choral segments occupy a wide and deep soundstage that aggressively extends to the surrounds. Bass frequencies are widely distributed throughout the soundfield, with deep, powerful bass often extending to sub-25 Hz during the intense tornado destruction sequences. Dialogue throughout is intelligible even during competition with the loudest destructive sequences, and with reasonably good integration.

The Immersive Sound element is virtually a constant with a heigh layer that is comprised of an extension of the music, extensive atmospherics and sound effects, including lightening strikes, thunder, rain, wind, vehicle and road maneuvering sounds, all manner of flying and destructive debris, and countless other effects. At times, Foley sound effects are active. The height layer is constantly active, as should a proper Immersive Sound element, and often intense and directional, and is tremendously effective in enhancing dimensionality, The filmmakers did a splendid job at fully utilizing the height facilitation that Dolby Atmos provides. Quite a bit of creativity went into this repurposing this 1996 soundtrack.

This is an incredible production that delivers what is an extemely powerful and dimensional holosonic® spherical surround experience that is adrenaline exciting. This is a real challenge for a home theatre system that is not capable of increible dynamic range and SPL stamina. (Gary Reber)