In two weeks, Sean Casey and his tornado-tracking crew will say goodbye to their families, hop in his self-built 14,000-pound Tornado Intercept Vehicle and, they hope, find themselves smack in the pathway of a twister within the next two months.
The tank-like TIV is one of the stars of “Tornado Alley,” the recently released IMAX film directed by Casey, whom weather geeks know from the Discovery Channel’s “Storm Chasers” show.
Last weekend, Casey appeared at Fernbank Museum of Natural History to introduce the film and received a rock star welcome, with fans lining up before his arrival hoping for an eventual photo or autograph.
The soft-spoken Casey, who lives in California with his wife and two toddler daughters, obliged with an ever-present smile, and also answered questions about the massive TIV, which he had driven from its previous tour stop in Charlotte.
The skeleton and bracing of the behemoth are steel, the walling contains light Kevlar and the bulletproof windows are polycarbonate and tempered glass. As seen in the movie, hydraulic steel spikes bore into the ground when Casey finds the perfect spot – hopefully in the direct path of a tornado.
Still, even with this protection and his exhaustive experience, Casey acknowledges occasional fear when chasing storms.
“I’m in this home-built tank and you see [a tornado] coming at you, and … you do have second thoughts,” he said.
In contrast to “Tornado Alley”’s menacing scenes of tornadoes forming – ghostly tendrils intertwining to form a cone of destruction that arrives with a chilling roar – is the film’s even-keeled narration by Bill Paxton.
Chosen partially for his association with “Twister,” Paxton was the only one Casey wanted for the job.
“He has that mellow, heart of America feel to his voice. I felt the imagery didn’t need to be built up. I wanted a narrator who had that calming quality,” Casey said.
Indeed, from scenes of a violent hailstorm pounding farm animals to the devastating aftereffects of a typical twister, “Tornado Alley” has its moments of tension. Though from the dryness and safety of a movie theater seat, it’s a thrilling – albeit worrisome – experience. (Also, for the IMAX-phobic, mostly the weather -- not the camera -- is moving, so the movie isn’t too jarring to the equilibrium.)
Casey and his crew, including driver and medic Marcus Gutierrez, work closely in the film with the researchers of the VORTEX 2 project, the radar-scanning Doppler on Wheels trucks deployed into the heart of a tornado to gather research.
Casey’s goal throughout is to capture the birth of a tornado, an extremely perilous mission that he was on for eight years. Whether or not he succeeded is something you’ll learn from the film, but, Casey said at Fernbank, “We got exactly what we wanted.”
“Tornado Alley”
Directed by Sean Casey. Unrated. At IMAX Theatre at Fernbank Museum of Natural History (through Aug. 11). Running time: 43 minutes.
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