Twister (Jan de Bont, 1996) is a top-5 Spielbergian action spectacle in many respects—the pace, the background characters, the seamlessness of the special effects, the Crichton connection—but two stand out:
- Shot after shot of faces awestruck in wonder at what stands “behind” the camera (i.e., us);
- Hollywood spectacle as popular vehicle for narrative meditation on, and visual enactment of, the mysterium tremendum et fascinans—simultaneous attraction to and fear of (super?)natural forces beyond human control or understanding.
Twister, in other words, is the sequel to Jurassic Park that Spielberg never made.