ALAMOGORDO, NM - Tornado season is fast approaching in the region of America’s heartland known as “the severe weather capital of the world”—and on April 6, 2012, Tornado Alley, an explosive new film narrated by Bill Paxton (Twister, Titanic), will bring nature’s most dramatic weather phenomena to the Clyde W. Tombaugh Giant Screen Theater on the campus of the New Mexico Museum of Space History.
Widely considered the most eagerly awaited IMAX release of the decade, Tornado Alley follows daring large-format 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 an IMAX® 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 ever created, Casey and the VORTEX2 scientists take audiences on a heart-pounding mission to experience a tornado's destructive power while gathering the most comprehensive extreme weather data ever collected.
Carrying a ninety-two-pound IMAX® camera, director Casey and his crew race after storms in TIV-2, a seven-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 is the culmination of Casey’s efforts and will give 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 says. “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. I’m thrilled to finally share these incredible experiences with audiences everywhere.”
Tornado Alley 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 over a hundred 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 is a production of Giant Screen Films and Graphic Films. Major funding was provided by the National Science Foundation with additional support from the Giant Dome Theater Consortium. The film is distributed by Giant Screen Films of Evanston, IL. For more information, visit the Web site: www.tornadoalleymovie.com
Tornado Alley will premiere Saturday, April 6, at the Clyde W. Tombaugh Giant Screen Theater on the campus of the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo. Movies begin showing at 11:00 am daily, seven days per week, with the last showing at 4:00 pm. Please call the number below or visit our website for more information.
The New Mexico Museum of Space History is a division of the NM Department of Cultural Affairs. For more information, call 575-437-2840 or toll free 1-877-333-6589 or visit the website at www.nmspacemuseum.org.