Fictional Women Around the World: Dr. Jo Harding

We've got cows! We're back with a more disaster movie heroines, this time Twister's Dr. Jo Harding.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and welcome to Steffan never told
your production of iHeartRadio. And yes it's me still flying solo,
but Samantha is around. She will be back hopefully she

(00:25):
is on vacation. Although this one I'm recording a bit preamptively,
I guess, just in case to have because it's an
evergreen topic. It's just been on my mind and it
goes along with the theme we've been talking about, which
is disaster movies, and especially nineties disaster movies. But okay,
so today for the subsub sub subsub segment of fictional

(00:47):
women around the world, we are talking about doctor Joe Harding,
who's from the nineteen ninety six movie Twister. I loved
this movie as a kid. I loved it so much
I sought out other Helen Hunt movies, like movies that

(01:07):
would have never interested me because I loved her so
much in this movie, and I briefly toyed with being
a stormchaser, as did like a lot of people in
my age group. But the reason I was thinking about
it is one of the most amazing things I saw
at dragon com this year. I actually didn't see it,
but I saw it that through someone else's clips social media.

(01:31):
Was a reenactment of a scene from Twister, a dramatic scene,
and it involved cows. It involved a flailing tornado. It
involved some pretty decent accents in acting, and I loved
it. It was one of the funniest things I saw, and
so I wanted to talk about this and this movie.

(01:51):
I did watch it probably once a year. It always
makes me want steak and eggs. And it reminds me
of the incredibly dramatic and now defunct ride Rosa Studios,
which I'm about to go too. So that's another reason
I've been thinking about it. That and The Mummy, which
I hope that ride doesn't. I keep hearing rumors fire
getting rid of it. I hope that's not true. But
you can find YouTube clips of the Twister ride. It's

(02:13):
very dramatic. It's full of amazing quotes. Me and my
friends used to quote it back to each other all
of the time. You basically kind of walked through this
you know thing and learned about tornadoes, and then you'd
walk through sets and you'd see destroyed houses and then
at the end, like you'd see the cows fly in
front of you and something would spark and catch fire

(02:33):
and fall over, I swear to I kind of stand
and watch ride, I guess, but I liked it. Apparently
there is a sequel coming out in twenty twenty four
called Twisters. Very interested about that. Okay, yes, let's get
into this one. This one will probably be a bit shorter.

(02:54):
So this does go in tandem with our conversation. So
we've been having around doctor Ellie Satler from Dress Park
and Evy from The Mummy. But in the nineties there
was a bunch of your kind of science intelligible women,
which sounds so condescending, but there were usually movie magic
science at least somewhat in these movies. Because I have

(03:18):
heard a lot of pretty embracing critiques of the science
of this particular movie, and one was Helen Hunt's doctor
Joe Harding, the meteorologist at the center of the nineteen
ninety six film Twister. I also want to say I
was thinking about this, and I was thinking about another

(03:39):
character I want to do that was pretty important to
me during this time, who was in the field of science,
Sam Carter from Stargate played by Amanda Tapping, And I
do want to talk about her, but I try not
to have too many well oh, white women with blonde

(04:00):
hair and blue eyes, so I try to space that
out a little bit. I'm not saying that they weren't important,
but it is important also to keep that in mind.
So just a note about that, because I'm trying to
fill in for some stuff while Samantha's out. I'm doing
these somewhat easier for me topics. But just a note,

(04:22):
Just a note about that, and also this movie. A
couple of notes about this movie, because it does have
a few notable things to it. It made a lot
of money. It got a few Oscar nominations. I mean
mostly like sound and effects, but still got some Oscar nominations.
I don't want to that sounds like I'm saying those

(04:43):
aren't worth it, but they are. Just to specify. It
has a museum in Wikita where a lot of the
movie takes place. I almost got the chance to go once,
but then we couldn't do it. And it was the
first film to be released on DVD in the U.
From what I read, it was in part written by

(05:03):
Joss Whedon, but he left it multiple points due to
illness and then marriage. Laura dern Ellie Sadler was originally
going to play this role. A bunch of other big
actors too. Jan Dubant directed it, and he was, by
most accounts, difficult to work with. He insisted it be
filmed in Oklahoma instead of on a sound stage because

(05:27):
it might be the last great action film not filmed
on a sound stage. That's paraphrasing, but that's basically what
he said. And there were a lot of injuries. Helen
Hunt and Bill Paxton were both temporarily blinded by a
special effect. They both had to get hepatitis shots after
filming in unsanitary conditions. Hunt allegedly got a concussion from

(05:50):
being so exhausted from the shoot and hitting her head.
It was actually two instances where she might have gotten
a concussion. Dubant said basically, Oh, I love her, but
she's comes, and Hunt replied, clumsy. The guy burned my retinas,
but I'm clumsy. I thought I was a good sport.
I don't know ultimately if he on chalks me up

(06:10):
as that or not, but one would hope. So, yeah,
it's pretty sounds like she's got a pretty good point there.
Crew members left the production because they felt Debonte was
out of control. He apparently hit a camera assistant out
of frustration, and others were injured on set too, So

(06:34):
it just sounded like it was not very safe working conditions.
And when we think about what people are fighting for
in the strike and the writer's strike and the actor's
strike and what has happened before on sets, like it's important.
It's important, all right, Let's break down this character and

(07:05):
the plot. It's a fairly simple plot. It starts with
Joe as a child losing her father during a tornado,
an incident that drove her to pursue a career in
meteorology with the main goal of improving the warning system
when it comes to tornadoes. To that end, she leads
a scrappy group of stormchasers, a group that used to
include her ex husband Bill Harding played by Bill Paxson,

(07:29):
who returns with his new girlfriend, therapist doctor Melissa, reeves
to get Joe to sign the divorce papers. When he arrives,
she shows him Dorothy, which is this design that they
came up with together that essentially was going to release
censors into the heart of the tornado to get accurate
readings that will help them understand and predict tornadoes, However,

(07:53):
someone would have to get close to the tornado to
deploy it. An incoming tornado distracts them before Joe can
sign the divorce papers, and she and the team rushes away,
and Bill and Melissa follow because they realize she hasn't
signed the papers. They also encounter their fancy city rivals
who have more funding tornado tornado chasing. Wise through some circumstances,

(08:20):
Bill and Joe end up sheltering under a bridge and
Joe's truck gets destroyed. Bill reluctantly agrees to lend her
his truck. Many tornado chases and sue. Melissa is more
and more concerned about this lifestyle. They visit Joe's aunt
and Wikita for food, and she nudges Joe, implying that
she and Bill are still in love. She's sort of like,

(08:42):
maybe you should think about this, think about getting back together.
Melissa learns about Joe's past with tornadoes, and then they
go to chase another tornado and try to deploy Dorothy,
but it's knocked over. All the sensors fall out and
Bill tries to get Joe to retreat with him, but
she is determined and the whole thing builds up into
a fight over her motivations about her father's death, over

(09:06):
and why they broke up, which is all broadcast over
walkie talkies for Melissa to hear the whole team. But Melissa,
and this is where the quote that I got to
see this whole scene is what they were reenacting at
Dragon Con. You've never seen it. Missed that house and
missed this house and come after you. They did it
way better. But so after this happens, they're staying in

(09:31):
a small town to repair their vehicles. Joe signs to
the divorce papers. Another tornado hits while they're watching the
shining and there's a lot of legends behind this actually,
and then the tornado heads towards Joe's and Keta. So
there's kind of this moment of like, well, what are
you gonna do? Where you're gonna go? Bill and Melissa,

(09:53):
and the relationship between her and Bill is basically like
this life is not for me, but maybe you and
Joe can work it out. And he goes with Joe
to rescue her aunt who is injured and says that
they barely had any warning. Through her yard decorations, they
are inspired to modify their Dorothy design just as a

(10:14):
weather prediction informs them a huge tornado is probably going
to come through, and it does a huge tornado in
F five And despite debris of all kinds driving through houses, explosions,
the death of their competitors, their fancy city competitors, and
the truly unbelievable lend scene, they deploy Dorothy. They get

(10:37):
the data, they kiss, they missed that house, and it
missed that house, and it came after them. So that's
pretty much it. But I did love it. There are
a couple of things when I was thinking about this
I picked up on. One is we've talked about this before,
but sort of that trend of giving women and what
is seen as a more masculine space a masculine name

(11:01):
being that. And she's pretty. I mean, she wears very
u sensible clothes for the field cheese in she has
plenty of instances where she gets very very dirty, and
it's not seen as like this isn't her place, this
isn't where she should be, similar to Ellie what we
talked about in that Jurassic Park episode. But that being said,

(11:22):
there's also Melissa Bill's fiance later not fiance ex fiance
she's the foil to Joe. She's the kind of uptight
city woman who is definitely the butt of a lot
of jokes that she doesn't like. This is way too
much like fatty food on my plate, or I don't

(11:46):
want to get dirty, or I don't want to do
this or do this. She does have some instances where
like she drives that truck, she dodges his debris, She's
screaming the whole way, but I think that's fair. She's
also mocked for being a therapist, which the nineties was
all that we talked about that in our Sex and
the City episodes. But I do think that she has
a good moment where she doesn't hate Joe. Joe doesn't

(12:08):
hate her, but she just sort of realizes it isn't
going to work. She is often played as a joke,
but is sort of humanized in that way, but also
sort of dismissed, like she's a very clearly a good
plot point to get them back together. I guess I
just like that they weren't pitted against each other so
much of trying to get Bill Paxton. It felt like

(12:30):
there wasn't any animosity between them, and it was more
about him figuring out what he really wanted, and her
kind of realizing like, oh, if that's if that's truly
what you want, then that's not what I want. I
do think it's also supposed to be sort of a
commentary on Bill Paxon's character wanting to go corporate as
a weatherman on TV and the more rough countryside of

(12:52):
being in the field. So Melissa versus Joe. I have
read a lot of stuff recently that I'm interested to
come back to about the trip of the Good Divorced Husband.
I think there's a lot to unpackt there, but just
a note about that. And then also, yeah, women in
stim as unrealistic as this may have been, it did.

(13:13):
I was into it. I was like, oh, well, maybe
this is what I want to do. And she seemed
so competent and she wasn't really sexualized to me, so
I just remember thinking like, ow, that'd be cool. I
could go out and do this and this and this
again not realistic, quite dangerous, don't do it unless you
know what you're doing. But yeah, it was an important

(13:39):
character to me. So if you want, you can find
that video. I've been mentioning that I saw a dragon
con it's amazing and I recommend it, but in the meantime, yes,
this is what I have to say about it for now.
If you would like to send your suggestions in you can.
Our email is Stephanie moms Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
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(14:01):
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