Night of the Twisters

At 1:16 p.m. on a Fall afternoon in 1996, Bob Iverson spots a tornado touching down about a mile south of his location. He relays a warning to a nearby family and shouts a heads-up to their daughter Sarah as she arrives home from school. They dive into safety in their root cellar just as the twister tears through the farm.

In Blainsworth, Danny Hatch is pushed by his stepfather Jack during a fall festival bike race. He pushes through a crash and finishes, earning a new bike in a bank raffle. The moment plants a desire for approval and a crush on Stacey that colors the coming events.

Back at home, Laura asks Danny to babysit his infant half-brother Ryan while she heads to work. The arrangement thrusts Danny into adult responsibilities and foreshadows the stormy evening to come. The family dynamic becomes a lower-stakes thread amid the looming disaster.

At 3:37 p.m., Bob decides to head southwest into Blainsworth to pursue the storm’s path. The meteorologist Stan expresses astonishment at the unusual anticyclonic weather pattern. The sense of danger tightens around the town.

While tracking the storm, Bob meets Laura at a local diner and shares urgent updates about the fast-approaching tornado. Their encounter ties the weather’s fury to the Hatch family’s peril. The town braces as sirens begin to blare.

Jack leaves to check on his mother Belle, who is asleep when he calls to warn her about a tornado spotted northwest of Blainsworth. The warning heightens the stakes for the Hatch family as the storm nears. The sequence amplifies the personal stakes beneath the broader disaster.

A violent tornado rips through Capital Heights, obliterating the Hatch residence. Danny, Dan, Stacey, and baby Ryan scramble to safety in the basement shower while debris collapses the main floor. The family is separated from much of the town in the chaotic wreckage.

Danny and Arthur escape through collapsing beams and reunite with Stacey and Ronnie Vae while discovering the town bank manager’s dead body. They decide to take an abandoned car to search for Danny’s family, even as Laura and Jenny are trapped in the tornado-ravaged diner. The misfit group begins a perilous trek through a storm-ravaged town.

Danny and Stacey rush to Belle’s farm and find Belle injured beneath broken boards. In a parallel rescue, Dan pulls Jack free from underneath his overturned truck with help from emergency crews. The rescue efforts offer a glimmer of hope amid the devastation.

Laura and Jenny are rescued and brought to the town’s community center shelter along with Bob. Three tornadoes touch down nearby, forcing the survivors to hunker down as the storm rages around them. The shelter becomes a fragile lifeline as fear climbs.

Danny and Ryan sneak into the Jeep loaned to Jack to join the search for Laura. Just as Bob drives Jenny and Laura toward the destroyed house to look for Jack, the Jeep arrives in the driveway and the family is finally reunited. The moment marks a pivotal turn toward safety amid chaos.

Three tornadoes touch down near the survivors, forcing them to flee in their vehicles. The group dodges debris and collapsing structures as they race toward what they hope is safety. The chaos peaks as the storm rattles the town.

The Hatch family, Bob, and Jenny reach an overpass to ride out the last of the twisters. A large branch smashes the Jeep’s windshield, and Danny takes command to drive them through the danger. The storm subsides as a clear dawn lights the sky.

A year after the storm, Danny is dating Stacey, Arthur is class president, and Bob and Jenny have married and are preparing for twins. Jack has become a supportive football coach and hobbyist, Belle has passed away, and Danny reflects on how surviving the disaster pushed him to live life to the fullest.