Hastings Museum

Tornado Alley 3D, an explosive new film narrated by Bill Paxton (Twister, Titanic), brings nature’s most dramatic weather phenomena to Hastings Museum.

See the trailer above and our TV ad below!
NOTE: The last showing of this film is Nov. 21, 2012. See it today!

Considered the most eagerly awaited giant screen release of the decade, Tornado Alley 3D follows daring filmmaker Sean Casey (star of the Discovery Channel’s wildly popular Storm Chasers series) and the researchers of the VORTEX2 initiative on a thrilling quest to witness the birth of a tornado from its very heart.

Armed with a giant screen HD camera, a fleet of customized vehicles designed to withstand gale force winds, torrential rains and unrelenting hail, and an arsenal of the most advanced weather measurement instruments created, Casey and the VORTEX2 scientists take audiences on a heart-pounding mission to experience a tornado’s destructive power while gathering comprehensive extreme weather data.

Carrying a 92-pound giant screen camera, Casey and his crew race after storms in TIV-2, a 7-ton armored “tornado intercept vehicle” engineered and built by Casey to help him capture what he considers a cinematic “holy grail,” a shot of a tornado from point-blank range.

Tornado Alley 3D is the culmination of Casey’s efforts and gives audiences the chance to ride along—and to experience a visual powerhouse of never-before-captured tornado footage on the giant screen.

“Tornadoes are surreal, unimaginable,” Casey said. “I want to witness something that I am truly in awe of. My dream has always been to get footage that’s as powerful as the subject matter. There’s a huge difference between filming a tornado from a couple miles away with a telephoto lens, and filming a tornado that’s on top of you with a wide-angle lens. After eight years, I’m thrilled to finally share these incredible experiences with audiences everywhere.”

Tornado Alley 3D is also a heart-pounding science adventure, following leading researchers Joshua Wurman, Karen Kosiba and Don Burgess, along with the scientists of VORTEX2, on their quest to penetrate a tornado’s inner workings. The most ambitious scientific mission of its kind, VORTEX2 was comprised of more than 100 severe-weather researchers from all over the world and their fleet of radar trucks, mobile mesonet vehicles and the most sophisticated weather-measuring instruments ever created – used to literally surround tornadoes and the supercell storms that form them.

Their ultimate goal: to better predict where and when tornadoes will strike, and to provide warnings that give those at risk a few more minutes to protect themselves and their families.

Tornado Alley 3D is sponsored locally by Gary Thompson Agency, Farmers Mutual Insurance, KHAS-TV and Hits 106. It is showing at Hastings Museum through Nov. 22, 2012.