SPECTACULAR FX; TORNADO RE-CREATED FOR PUBLIC.

Byline: Kevin D. Thompson Cox News Service

There you are. Face-to-face with a five-story-tall, 12-foot-wide tornado. A swirling demon spirit that can topple 25-foot telephone poles like toothpicks. Snap sturdy power lines like pencil-thin twigs. Toss 2,000-pound Jeeps like rag dolls and cause gas pumps to explode in spectacular fireballs.

And don't forget that flying cow.

Sound dangerous? It's not. Intense? You bet.

It's Twister . . . Ride It Out, Universal Studio's latest gee-whiz, you-gotta-see-this attraction, created in part by a Valencia company.

Based on the 1996 movie starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, Twister boasts the largest indoor tornado ever created and has quickly become Universal's second most-popular attraction behind Terminator 2 3-D.

Even though Twister is, as Universal boasts, a thrilling way to ``ride the movies,'' it was a not-so-thrilling ride to promote. The 18-minute attraction (with a 2-1/2-minute storm) was supposed to open the first week in March but was postponed a month after a rash of real-life twisters devastated Central Florida.

According to the National Weather Service, the national tornado death toll is 122 - the worst since 1984 and nearly double the toll for all of 1997.

So, it's no surprise that unlike the $60 million T2-3D, which got A-list, red carpet treatment, Twister's unveiling was subdued. For instance, a big, star-studded opening gala, which was to have included Paxton, Hunt and Steven Spielberg (the movie's executive producer), was scrapped at the last minute.

``It just wasn't appropriate,'' said one Universal spokeswoman.

Naturally, Universal says it has no regrets about building a multimillion-dollar attraction (Universal's keeping mum on the price tag) that's based on such a destructive, real-life phenomenon.

``We never believed we did the wrong thing,'' says Mike Hightower, Twister's project director. ``But we wanted to make sure the public knew that we were sensitive to the situation and that we were going to provide some sort of education for people.''

That education comes in the form of Red Cross brochures that are handed out to guests after leaving Twister and posters plastered throughout the attraction that dispel long-held myths and inform people how to survive a tornado.

Ron Griffin, president of Attraction Services, a Valencia special effects company, says Universal is just feeding a growing appetite for such blockbuster attractions.

``Does it bother me to build a disaster attraction? No,'' says Griffin, whose 3-year-old company created several Twister effects, including the massive fire sequences. ``Does it bother me that people get killed by real tornadoes? Of course. But there are a lot of attractions that have the same problem. There's Earthquake. There's Jaws, and we know people get eaten by sharks. But that's what the public wants.''

It was a natural

The decision to make Twister was made two months after the movie opened. Although roundly panned by most movie critics for its inept plot, ``Twister'' did boast many impressive effects that made it a natural theme park attraction.

But several questions had to be answered before the project got the green light. Could a realistic, 50-foot tornado be created? If so, could it be contained so it wouldn't blow Universal Studios to Kansas? What would the major effects be? Should Twister be a traditional ride or walk-through attraction? How hot should the fire be? Could a durable attraction that could accommodate 2,400 guests an hour, 365 days a year be created?

``The film really delivered some spectacular special effects and really allowed you to see and feel what it was like to be in the heart of a tornado,'' notes Eddie Newquist, Universal's vice president of attraction development. ``Because we had never done this before at a theme park, that was our biggest challenge.''

After scaling down its ideas (Universal originally wanted to create a 60-foot-tall twister that was 20 feet in diameter) and consulting a battery of scientists and wind-flow experts, the theme park operators were told that a huge - and controllable - indoor tornado could indeed be created.

``There are a number of museums that have small tornadoes that are used to check air flows and currents,'' Newquist notes. ``So we felt that if we could increase the size of these science projects and make this elaborate science project, we could do it.''

Lots of fans

Twister uses dozens of powerful, specially designed fans to create its unique vortex. Among them are 18 fans with 7-foot-long blades positioned on ground level, midlevel and high-level.

Jan de Bont, who directed the movie, was minimally involved in the project. But Hightower says de Bont did sit through a presentation and commented that he ``wanted a lot of flying debris, a lot of wind and a lot of intensity.''

Spielberg was at the same presentation. What did he think?

``At the end of the demonstration, he just turned around, looked at me and said, `How did you do that?' '' Hightower said. ``We were all kind of nervous, especially when you're presenting something to a creative genius like Steven Spielberg.''

The project took 18 months to complete. Many theme park attractions, however, are built in four or five years. During peak periods, 500 people were working on Twister.

``That schedule was tough,'' said Griffin, noting that during the installation phase some employees clocked 30 consecutive hours. ``And we couldn't slip. When Universal says they're opening a theme park attraction on a given day, marketing revolves around that, so it has to open that day, unlike a government job. They'll just say, oh, we won't have that plane ready this year.''

One thing Universal wanted to do but couldn't was blow 50 mph winds on guests. (The closest a visitor gets to the tornado is 25 feet.)

``We found out that the more wind we blew on the guests, the more detrimental it was to the tornado,'' Hightower explains. So they settled on 40 mph winds.

Walk-through attraction

Universal also settled on making Twister a walk-through attraction, unlike Jaws or Back to the Future, which are traditional theme park rides.

``If you're sitting down in a theater and watching this tornado, you're not part of the show,'' Hightower said.

Before you even experience the twister, you see a variety of set pieces, including storm-chaser vehicles and high-tech weather equipment. After getting an ominous introduction on twisters from Hunt and Paxton (``Few have stared it in the face and lived to tell the tale,'' Paxton dramatically says at one point), guests then walk through the wreckage of what used to be Aunt Meg's home. You hear creaking noises. Hissing sounds. Lights flicker off and on. Then a guy with a hard hat guides you to the soundstage where the tornado awaits.

Just one operator controls all the special effects. Everything is computer-controlled and preprogrammed, so all an operator essentially has to do is monitor the equipment and make sure everything runs smoothly.

Nothing is smooth, however, on the wind-swept, rain-soaked Twister soundstage. But that's how it's supposed to be.

``Our intention was to never terrify people or show them the horrors of a tornado,'' Newquist said. ``Our intention was to allow guests to experience an exciting weather phenomenon. It's not about real-life tornadoes. It's about a movie.''

One that looks frighteningly real.

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Photo

Photo: (Color) Ron Griffin of Attraction Services shows a 50-foot animated woman created by the Valencia-based company.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News