On this date 25 years ago, the disaster film “Twister” starring Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz and Cary Elwes opened in theaters.

An eccentric storm chaser and her former storm chaser husband — who’s seeking a divorce from her — team up for the dangerous task of placing scientific equipment smack in the face of a tornado.

Michael Crichton and his wife, Anne-Marie Martin, were paid $2.5 million to write the screenplay for “Twister.” Joss Whedon was brought in later to rewrite dialogue.

The entire shoot was “plagued” with sunny skies. In order to make the skies seem darker, the crew flooded the truck cab sequences with high-intensity lights. This caused both Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton to burn their retinas.

For much of the film, though, the clear skies had to be replaced with CGI storm clouds. This added 150 more special effects shots than originally planned, pushing the film way over budget.

The sound of tornadoes in this film was created by slowing down a recording of a camel moaning. Seriously.

The sound in this film was so heavy with bass that it destroyed surround speakers in theaters around the U.S.

“Cow.”
“Another cow.”
“Actually, I think that was the same one.”

The farmhouse scenes were filmed near Fairfax, Okla. Fifteen years later, a real tornado would come along and destroy that very farmhouse.

Originally, producers had planned to use “It sucks” as a clever advertising tag line for the film. Wiser colleagues talked them out of it.

The movie was originally to open on May 17 — as you may have noticed on the poster at the top of this thread. Warner Bros. moved that up to May 10 to reduce conflict with Tom Cruise’s first “Mission: Impossible” movie, scheduled to open two weeks alter.

“Twister” would be nominated for Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound.