The Cast of 1996’s ‘Twister’: Where Are They Now? Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton and More

Nearly three decades before Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell ’s 2024 sequel Twisters , there was the OG 1996 film Twister starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton .

Hunt and Paxton played an estranged married couple, Jo and Bill Harding, working together to deploy a tornado research device amid a severe tornado outbreak in Oklahoma. Their team of storm chasers included Rabbit the navigator ( Alan Ruck ), Dusty the wise-cracking tornado fanatic ( Philip Seymour Hoffman ) and Laurence the quiet photographer ( Jeremy Davies ).

Twister was the second-highest-grossing film of 1996, behind Independence Day , and earned nominations for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects at the 69th Academy Awards. During a July 2024 interview with Entertainment Weekly , Hunt credited director Jan de Bont with the film’s success and staying power.

“He chose really good theater actors — classically trained actors with a sense of humor — not lightweights. Everybody was these good, solid actors. Some coming from independent films, some coming from improvisation, some coming from giant movies, some coming from small movies. I think that helped,” she said. “And he brought in a whole bunch of writers to make what was already an exciting script even more deep and more funny.”

Keep scrolling to see what Hunt and the rest of the OG Twister cast is up to now: