Once I first watched the 1996 traditional movie “Twister” as a child, I bear in mind being in awe of the tornadoes on display and the characters who devoted their lives to monitoring them.
Within the film, Invoice (Invoice Paxton) visits Jo (Helen Hunt) at her discipline website in Oklahoma to get their divorce papers signed. It’s imagined to be a brief go to, so Invoice brings alongside his present fiancée, Dr. Melissa Reeves (Jami Gertz). However when tornadoes strike, Invoice doesn’t resist the attract of his outdated job as a storm chaser ― and his ex-wife. He joins Jo’s scientific mission to deploy a brand new tracker know-how right into a twister and ultimately falls in love with Jo once more.
As a child, I bear in mind cheering for Invoice and Jo. However now rewatching the movie as an grownup, all I can take into consideration is the one who will get swept up and left behind by the 2 human disasters: Invoice’s fiancée, Melissa.
Melissa is essentially the most misunderstood character within the movie who’s handled as an outsider by everybody she meets. She is a fertility therapist who thought she was marrying a TV weatherman, however in actuality, Invoice and his outdated scientist buddies are all thrill seekers who don’t perceive why somebody like Melissa wouldn’t need to threat her life in the identical means that they do.
Melissa may have been a destructive nag, however she is genuinely interested in her fiancé’s previous career as a storm chaser: “I find this kind of interesting, I’m gonna tag along” is how she solutions when Invoice suggests leaving her behind whereas he hangs out together with his ex-wife and outdated buddies ― a suggestion that turns into an infuriating sample within the movie.
Melissa is out of her depth, however she gamely drives a truck behind the caravan of storm chasers, and virtually dies when a wind-blown automobile narrowly misses her. Regardless of his future spouse’s near-fatality, Invoice retains dragging Melissa into extra twister hunts.
Melissa, understandably, screams and is scared after two waterspouts rock the truck she is in, whereas Invoice and Jo hug in pleasure about seeing the climate phenomenon.
In the long run, Melissa’s largest sin is that she doesn’t need to hunt tornadoes and finds it “crazy” that her fiancé and the folks he as soon as labored with do that for a dwelling.
Warner Bros/Everett Assortment
Why I’m extra impressed with Melissa than another character
Melissa’s steadfast characterization was not acknowledged throughout its time. In 1997, Gertz obtained a Worst Supporting Actress nomination for a Razzie Award due to her portrayal of Melissa in “Twister.”
However she is the character I’m riveted by as an grownup. Melissa is way more calm and cheap than I might be if I acquired dragged into chasing a number of tornadoes in in the future with my fiancé’s ex-wife. In a lesser film, Jo and Melissa can be outright enemies vying for Invoice’s affection. As Helen Hunt put it in a 2024 oral historical past for the movie, “In some early drafts of the script, [Jo and Melissa] were kind of catty with each other, but we both thought, ‘Boy, is that a mistake,’ and we just never did that.”
Thank goodness. What makes Melissa the character I root for now’s that she is welcoming to strangers who don’t welcome her again. She clocks Jo’s motives from the bounce. Melissa is aware of Jo remains to be in love with Invoice, and she or he calls her out on it throughout their first assembly on the diner: “You’re still in love with him, aren’t you? Not that I blame you.” She stays well mannered to Jo, though Jo is not going to signal the divorce papers stopping her and Invoice from getting married.
20 years after the movie’s launch, there’s a small however rising variety of followers like me who see what an unfair place Melissa was put in, and wish justice for her. Melissa is a girl forward of her time who managed the pressures of her profession and her crumbling relationship with grace. Go on TikTok and you will note movies from fellow Workforce Melissa followers who level out how impolite it’s in your fiancé to go away you behind with a man who jabbers on about twister “suck zones” whereas he rides alone together with his ex-wife in a unique automotive.
Actually, Melissa is what makes “Twister” work. As our viewers surrogate, Melissa is the one who asks the scientists how precisely tornados and their warning techniques work. She doesn’t have a flashy job like storm chasing, however she is as devoted to her profession as Jo and Invoice are to theirs. She solutions telephone calls from sufferers even when a cow is hurling previous her in a twister (“I gotta go, Julia. We got cows.”).
However to thrill-seekers like Invoice and Jo, Melissa’s 9-to-5 job is just not as spectacular. When Invoice tells Jo that his future spouse is a therapist, it’s with a hesitant pause and a side-eye, not with a declarative boast. He’s nonetheless looking for his ex-wife’s approval and doesn’t acknowledge the gem that Melissa is, however I ― and my fellow Melissa followers ― do.
“Jami Gertz doesn’t get all the glory like Bill and I did,” Helen Hunt recalled in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “She had the less flashy part, but I think she was part of the secret sauce that made it fun to watch. Maybe more than people realize.”
There are quite a lot of thrilling set items in “Twister.” When tornadoes of unprecedented power hit Oklahoma, all hell breaks unfastened: a cow flies previous the street, a drive-thru movie show will get demolished, and vehicles crash by storm shelters. The hazard brings our essential characters nearer collectively. However for me, the second that makes me clap within the movie is when Melissa has had sufficient.
After surviving a sideswipe from an F4 twister and dwelling by a day of traumatic storms, Melissa is finished. Invoice tells her he’ll see her within the morning as he traipses off to a different harmful journey with Jo, and Melissa informs him that she is not going to be there. “I can’t compete with this. I wouldn’t even know where to start,” she says matter-of-factly. “Funny thing is, I’m not that upset. What does that mean?”
When Invoice avoids accountability and says he didn’t imply for any of this to occur, Melissa takes the excessive floor and provides Invoice her blessing: “She needs you,” which means Jo.
Melissa stays civil and smiles when Invoice asks if she shall be OK after a day the place she is clearly not. “Don’t worry about me, I know my way home,” she replies just like the boss she is after which walks away, head excessive.
I cheered at this matter-of-fact declaration. Jo and Invoice are misplaced, however Melissa is aware of who she is and what she deserves. It’s what made me a proud member of the Melissa fan membership. Come be part of me.
