Dr. Jo Ann Harding (born 1963) is one of the two main protagonists of the 1996 film Twister, in which she leads a team of storm chasers from Muskogee State University. In the summer of 1996 Jo, with the help of her notably underfunded storm chasing department and ties to NOAA's National Severe Storms Lab (N.S.S.L.), was heading a project known as 'Dorothy'— named after the instrument pack brainchild of her soon-to-be ex-husband, Bill Harding.
Jo Harding was played by Helen Hunt, while Alexa Vega played a five-year-old Jo.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Jo was born in 1963 to Mr. and Mrs. Thornton in Oklahoma. In June 1969, prior to her 6th birthday, Jo's father was drinking coffee and watching Gary England report the weather. England reported a tornado warning in the area of the Thornton family farm. Jo was awakened when she heard the roar of the storm. Her mother came and snatched Jo out of bed, and the whole family, including the dog Toby, ran to the storm cellar.
Jo in her bed during the 1969 F5
As Jo comforted the family dog Toby, her father noticed the cellar door begin to give away under the strength of the storm. Mr. Thornton tried desperately to keep the door shut, and his family safe, but the storm was just too strong. The roaring F-5 tornado was getting closer. He tried as best he could, but the powerful storm grabbed him and the cellar door, and sucked him into the black eye of the storm. Jo, her mother, and Toby watched in horror as Mr. Thornton disappeared forever.
This event traumatized Jo, but also lit a burning passion in her to prevent this type of tragedy from ever happening to anyone else. She was determined to create an early warning system, so people have more time to get to safety during a tornado, or strong weather event.
Love Life[]
Early in her career, Jo met, and fell in love with Bill Harding. The two eventually married, and worked in the same meteorology lab. Jo's passion for developing an early warning system for severe weather inspired Bill, and he designed Dorothy. Dorothy was a device full of weather recording sensors that needed to be placed in path of an oncoming tornado. It would be picked up, and the sensors would record what happens inside a twister, information previously unknown to science. Bill left Jo and filled for divorce before Dorothy was completed. They still love each other, but sometimes (most of the time) Jo is stubborn and unreasonable. Bill filed for divorce, citing unreconcilable differences, but Jo has not yet signed the papers, or taken off Bill's class ring (her wedding ring).
Tornado Chasing[]
Jo has assembled a team of storm chasers, whose goal is to obtain as much information as possible on dangerous storms. They spend the storm seasons tearing around tornado alley, hoping to eventually deploy Dorothy, now completed using Bill's design.
Jo and her team are on a farm in rural Oklahoma, watching a nearby storm form, when Bill and his new fiancé Melissa Reeves, show up looking for Jo. Bill and Melissa are anxious to get married, and need Jo's signature on the divorce papers to proceed. Jo & Bill fall into old patterns, and begin to argue a bit, until Jo realizes Melissa is here, and heads over to introduce herself.
Jo tells Bill that Dorothy is finally completed and his design has finally come to life. But before Bill can respond much, one of Jo's team members, Haynes, reports a tornado is forming. Everyone, including Bill decides to chase to finally try to deploy the first Dorothy.
Bill and Jo can't help getting into an argument, but another team member, Tim "Beltzer" Lewis, spots an F1 beginning to form. He inquires if they want to fight, or chase tornadoes, and they decide they'd rather chase. Bill and Jo head into a ditch to increase their speed, and hopefully get ahead of the twister. They have to be in front of it to deploy Dorothy I.
Jo's 1982 Jeep Pickup.
But quickly, the tornado grows in size, and the couple have no chance of deploying Dorothy I safely. Jo continues to try, and Bill has to physically restrain her under a small bridge. The tornado soon dissipates, and Jo wonders where her truck is, just before it falls from the sky.
Now the team has no way to deploy the remaining Dorothy's, until Jo suggests they use Bill's shiny new truck. At first he says, "No way!" But soon, Bill relents, and they load Dorothy II in the back of Bill's truck.
The team, tired after a long chase, heads to the town of Wakita, to visit Jo's Aunt Meg. Meg helped raise Jo after Jo's father's death. The team can clean up and Meg is always happy to feed the team. As they all sit around the dinner table eating steak and eggs, the team regales Melissa with crazy stories about Bill, which he continues to say are exaggerated.
Aunt Meg has a serious talk with Jo, while she's cleaning up. Meg says it sounds like old times down around that table, but it's not. Meg asks Jo if she just expected Bill to spend his life alone, pinning for her? Jo, with tears in her eyes answers, "Was that too much to ask?" She's still in love with Bill, but doesn't know how to not be so rough around the edges.
While the team is still at the table, the report of another tornado forming comes into the team, and they all have to run to catch up with it. Bill sends Melissa to ride with Dusty, and he and Jo go to catch the twister.
that the storm would appear and then disappear. Bill drove the truck over a hill that team member
After the tornado dissipated, Jo upset about failing to launch Dorothy, has an emotional breakdown, and tries to pick up the sensors, but Bill, frustrated, tries to talk some sense into Jo. Bill tells her that her obsession with tornadoes and killing herself "won't bring her dad back". During their conversion, its revealed that Bill is still in love with Jo, unbeknownst to them, the entire team, including Melissa hears them via radio. Melissa, nearly fed up with the numerous close calls, and chaotic behavior, now becomes heart broken.
Later that evening, the team headed to a parking garage near a drive-in theater, so Bill could get his truck repaired. Still on edge after what happened earlier, Jo, in the heat of the moment, signs the divorce papers. Bill approaches her and they awkwardly talk about ways to make Dorothy fly. Soon, the wind begins to pick up, the TVs in the food court began to go fuzzy, then lightning in the distance, becomes more violent and lights up an F4 looming ominously over the trees and heading towards the drive-in. Jo and Bill ordered everybody to get to shelter, as they and Jo's team sought shelter in the basement of the parking garage. The F4 ripped up the movie screen, and tossed several vehicles into the parking garage, and continued on its path.
After police and paramedics arrived, Dusty saw that the F4 was heading right for Wakita. Melissa broke off her engagement with Bill, knowing him and Jo still had feelings for each other. Bill and Jo got the remaining vehicles (Bill's truck, Dusty's bus, Beltzer's van, and Rabbit's truck), onto the road towards Wakita.
As the team arrived at Wakita, they were shocked at the damage. The entire town was nearly flattened, and Jo realized that they had no warning. They drove through the destroyed town looking at the damage, they hear sirens blaring and children shrieking during the ride. When Jo looked out of her right-side window, she saw the ghostly face of a young little girl looking right at her with a couple who almost looked like her own parents, causing Jo to stare in shock and disbelief. When they finally reached Aunt Meg's house, Bill, Jo, and Dusty ran up to rescue Meg and her dog Mose. As Meg was being placed into an ambulance, Meg tells Jo to go with her team and "go stop it", before "it happens to someone else".
Dusty, hearing the weather reports, discovered the F4 had roped out, and told a teary-eyed Jo that the N.S.S.L was predicting an F5. With Meg's encouragement, Jo agrees to "go stop it" and finish the job.
Jo and Bill discover that Meg's aluminum wind chimes were still intact and came to the realization that Dorothy was too light, and extra weight was needed to make her fly. The group salvaged as many aluminum cans as possible and headed off towards the F5.
Hours later, Jo and Bill went to intercept the massive mile wide F5. They deployed Dorothy III. It moved a couple times, but it was subsequently knocked down by a thrown tree. Bill and Jo noticed a petroleum tanker had been picked up by the F5. The tanker was thrown at them, knocking them loose from another tree they had been stuck on, and drove off as the tanker was picked up again. As Bill and Jo sped down the road, the tanker was thrown again, where it landed in front of them, exploding. Bill and Jo once again saw that Jonas Miller was attempting to intercept the massive twister. Ignoring Bill's instructions to turn around, he continued intercepting the F5. The F5 shifted its track, destroying a cellphone tower, and plunging the antenna into Jonas' truck, killing his driver, Eddie. The tornado lifted up Jonas' truck, and dropped it, killing Jonas in the explosion.
As Bill and Jo attempted to evade the monster tornado, the tornado destroyed a farm equipment dealership, throwing tractors and combines, and the winds even caused a house to roll onto the road. Bill and Jo decided that they would use Dorothy IV, their last Dorothy, to do one last intercept. Bill and Jo drove into a cornfield, heading for the tornado. Bill and Jo abandoned the truck as it drove straight into the F5, as the truck continued on its path, Dorothy IV opens up and sends the sensors (which had wings made from the aluminum cans) into the funnel before lifted up Bill's truck.
The intercept was a success, as data flowed into the team's computers providing them with all sorts of data. However, the tornado shifted its track once again, straight for Bill and Jo. The two ran for a nearby farm, and tried to take shelter in a barn, but realized it was too dangerous to hide in due to all the cutting tools that were hanging. After running a second time, they sought shelter in a white pump house on a hill. Tying themselves to the pipes with leather straps, they watched in awe as the roaring F5 passes over them. Inside the tornado they see its "eye", and lightning flash around them. Jo tearfully "comes to terms" with her father's death and fear of tornados. After several tense moments, the tornado dissipates.
Bill and Jo, safe and exhausted from the ordeal, discussed their plans on how to run the analysis and labs based on their new findings. They banter back in forth playfully. The team arrives and celebrate the launch, with Beltzer telling them to "check out the sky" to which Jo says, "You know what I think we've seen enough." Her and Bill kiss and make out, rekindling their marriage.
Trivia[]
- Jo's truck is a 1982 Jeep Pickup.
- According to Aunt Meg, Jo had been chasing tornadoes ever since she was a little girl. This shows how much of an impact the 1969 tornado had on Jo.
- Prior to the 1996 F5 tornado, Jo was the only member of her team to witness an F5.
- After Jo's father died, Jo got a mild phobia of tornadoes when becoming a storm chaser.
- Laura Dern, Nicole Kidman, Rene Russo, Meg Ryan, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robin Wright, Renee Zellweger and Kate Mulgrew were all considered for the role of Jo Harding before Helen Hunt was cast.
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Gallery[]