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 Paxton.
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 the weather which reports a tornado warning. He thought it was just a normal thunderstorm, but then saw that the storm was producing a large tornado when he heard a strange growling noise coming from outside. Jo was asleep when she heard the same thing, which woke her up. Her mother then came into the room and carried her outside to a storm cellar with her father, with her parents talking about a large tornado heading towards them.
Jo in her bed during the 1969 F5
As Jo comforted her dog Toby, her father noticed the cellar door shudder. With all of his strength, Mr. Thornton tried to keep the door shut but couldn't due to the furious howling wind. The roaring F-5 tornado outside was getting closer now. He tried as hard as he could, but the F-5 grabbed him and the cellar door, roaring as it sucked him out of the cellar with all of its might. Jo and her mother were watching in horror at the time.
This event traumatized Jo, but it also sparked a fascination of tornadoes because of her father's death. It became an amateur hobby for her. Years later, she worked at Muskogee State University, where she studied and achieved her degrees, and led a team of storm chasers working for the N.S.S.L.
She also met and worked with Bill Harding, and rival Jonas Miller in one of the labs. Jo and Bill eventually married, but in 1996, Bill filed for divorce for unknown reasons. Previously, Bill and Jo had been creating an experiment they dubbed, "Dorothy" based off the famous character from The Wizard of Oz, that hopefully would enable them to create a better tornado warning system.
Work[]
Jo and her team were stationed on a farm in rural Oklahoma, watching a nearby storm starting to form. Bill and his fiance Melissa Reeves showed up as Bill needed Jo to finalize the divorce papers. Jo explained to Bill that Dorothy was ready, and Bill was excited about the news. After one of Jo's team members, Haynes, reported a tornado being formed was imminent, Jo and her team readied up their equipment, Bill driving Jo's truck, and Melissa following behind the team.
As Bill and Jo got into an argument, another team member, Tim "Beltzer" Lewis, spotted an F1 beginning to form. After being informed by Belzter, Bill and Jo headed into a ditch by increasing speed to hopefully get ahead of the twister, and deploy Dorothy I.
Jo's 1982 Jeep Pickup.
However, Beltzer alerted a message on radio indicating the tornado became thicker and began to pick up speed, as Bill and Jo got into its path. As the tornado barreled towards them, destroying a barn and two silos in the process, and with Bill and Jo unable to escape, Bill stopped the truck at a bridge, and pulled a reluctant Jo under the bridge, despite her insisting on activating Dorothy I. The tornado stopped at the bridge, and became stationary momentarily, lifting up a tractor, Jo's truck, and several planks from the bridge. The tornado then dissipated.
After cleaning up, and her damaged truck towed away for repairs, Bill and Jo took his truck, and placed Dorothy II in the back. The team then spotted another tornado, an F2. This one they dubbed a "Sidewinder", due to its erratic path. Rival storm chaser, Jonas Miller attempted to intercept the twister (in an attempt to launch his version of Dorothy, "D.O.T. 3"), but the Sidewinder shifted its path, giving Bill and Jo a chance to intercept. However, the tornado headed into a river, where it split up into three waterspouts. Trying to escape, Bill and Jo got caught in between the waterspouts, as they spun Bill's truck around before finally dissipating. Jo's team followed up, in awe at the events that took place.
The team, tired after a long chase, headed to the town of Wakita, the younger ugly stepsister city of Wichita, to have dinner with Jo's aunt, Meg Greene. The team had multiple conversations regarding tornadoes and stories about Bill, and Jo and Meg had a private conversation about Jo's childhood, and her work. Soon, team member, Dustin "Dusty" Davis, heard reports of an F3 tornado being spotted several miles from Wakita.
The team headed off to try a second attempt at deploying Dorothy II, but the storm started to behave rather erratically, the team's computers registering that the storm would appear and then disappear. Bill drove the truck over a hill that team member Robert "Rabbit" Nurick predicted the F3 would be. As a hailstorm began to take place, Jo drove Bill's truck, as he activated Dorothy II. The F3 touched down on the road, but would repeatedly disappear and touch down again, dubbing it a "Jumper”. Jo slammed the brakes, and helped Bill pull Dorothy II out of the truck. However, as the F3 touched down a third time, it began to lift up power lines, causing a utility pole to fall on Bill's truck, knocking down Dorothy II. Bill pulled Jo into the truck against her protests. The two managed to escape as the F3 touched down for the fourth and final time before finally dissipating.
After the tornado dissipated, Jo ran back to pick up the sensors, but Bill, frustrated, tried to put some sense into Jo because of her obsession with tornadoes, and that killing herself "won't bring her dad back". Bill revealed his feelings for Jo. However, Melissa, being nearly fed up with the numerous close calls, became heart broken.
Later that evening, the team headed to a parking garage near a drive-in theater, so Bill could get his truck repaired. However, the wind soon began to pick up. As the TVs in the food court began to go fuzzy, Bill and Jo watched the lightning in the distance, only for it to get brighter and light up an F4 looming ominously over the trees and right for 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, seeing as he 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 heard sirens blaring and children shrieking. 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. 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 told Jo to go with her team, and finish the job.
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.
Jo and Bill discovered that Meg's wind chimes were still intact, and that they realized that since Dorothy was too light, 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 off into the F5 before being lifted up, causing Dorothy IV to open up and sending the sensors (which had wings made from the aluminum cans) into the funnel.
The intercept was a success, as data flowed into the team's computers. 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 on in shock and awe as the roaring F5 passed over them. After several tense moments, the tornado dissipated.
Bill and Jo exhausted from the ordeal, decided to discuss their plans they needed to make, kissed each other and decided to rekindle 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, Joan Cusack and Kate Mulgrew were all considered for the role of Jo Harding before Helen Hunt was cast.
Gallery[]