Into the Storm (2014 film)

Into the Storm
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Steven Quale
Produced by	Todd Garner
Written by	John Swetnam
Starring	Richard Armitage Sarah Wayne Callies Matt Walsh Alycia Debnam-Carey Arlen Escarpeta
Music by	Brian Tyler
Cinematography	Brian Pearson
Edited by	Eric A. Sears
Production company	New Line Cinema Village Roadshow Pictures
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates	August 8, 2014 (2014-08-08) (United States)
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$50 million
Box office	$161.7 million

Into the Storm is a 2014 American found footage disaster film directed by Steven Quale, written by John Swetnam, starring Richard Armitage and Sarah Wayne Callies. The film was released by Warner Bros. Pictures on August 8, 2014. It is a meteorological disaster film about a rash of tornadoes striking Silverton, Oklahoma.

Plot

A group of high school students are in a car together in the night as a storm is brewing. When the storm gets worse, they look up ahead and see a tornado approaching. A girl begs for them to go, but the boy recording on a camera gets out to video tape the tornado. He gets back in the car, but the tornado picks them up before they can escape, killing them all.

In the town of Silverton, Oklahoma, the local high school senior class is preparing for graduation. The high school's vice-principal, Gary Fuller (Richard Armitage), has asked his two sons, Trey and Donnie, to record messages from the seniors for a time capsule to be opened in 25 years. Elsewhere, Pete (Matt Walsh), a veteran storm chaser, has been attempting to intercept and film tornadoes using a heavily armored Tornado Intercept Vehicle nicknamed Titus, but has come up short all year long. Upon learning of a major line of developing storms, the chasers confer and decide to head for Silverton in hopes of filming tornadoes. After arriving in Silverton, the team discovers that the cell they had been chasing has dissipated, upsetting Pete. As the team reconvenes to determine its next move, the Silverton cell abruptly strengthens, resulting in a hailstorm and tornado. As the team films, the funnel abruptly shifts course and heads for the high school.

At the high school, the senior students are participating in commencement ceremonies when the weather suddenly sours. Moments later, the tornado sirens sound, and the students are subsequently marshaled into the school building by the head principal and his staff. In the aftermath of the tornado, shaken students emerge from the damaged building to view the destruction, while Gary sets out to rescue his eldest son Donnie, who had gone to an abandoned paper mill to help his friend Katlyn (Alycia Debnam-Carey) with a project; both were subsequently trapped when the tornado brought the building down on them.

As Pete's storm chase team stops in a small part of town, a tornado takes shape just as Gary and Trey arrive, destroying several buildings. Everyone except Gary and Pete's meteorologist, Allison Stone (Sarah Wayne Callies), make it to safety while the two are almost killed before the twister dissipates. Then, after Gary pleads for help, Pete's team agree to help Gary get to the paper mill. While en route to the mill, another round of erratic tornadoes forms and encircles Pete's team, in the process destroying a residential neighborhood and a car lot. An explosion turns the tornado into a firenado, which Jacob (Jeremy Sumpter) tries to film, only to be caught up into the storm and is killed. This causes friction between Pete and his team, as Pete's concern seems to be more on collecting data than ensuring his team's safety. After recovering their vehicles, Allison leaves with Gary to continue their trip to the paper mill.

At the mill, the two trapped students attempt to use their phones to call for help, but the storm's devastation has rendered the phones almost useless. To make matters worse, a water pipe abruptly breaks and begins to flood the hole in which the two are trapped. Injured and at risk of drowning, the two record messages for their loved ones, then prepare for the worst. At the last minute, Gary and Allison arrive and successfully free the two students.

In the skies above Silverton, a convergence of tornadoes results in a colossal EF5 tornado that threatens to level the town. The town's citizens have taken shelter at the school, and Pete's team, however, determines that the school's storm shelter will be inadequate in the face of the monstrous tornado. Unable to alert the school's staff with mobile devices, Pete's team rushes to the school to notify the citizens that they must evacuate. While citizens rush to board school buses to flee the advancing storm, Pete and his team move to track and follow the storm, but the last school bus and a handful of cars are cut off from the retreat due to a downed transmission tower.

In an attempt to improvise a shelter, the storm chasers and school refugees take cover in a storm drain, but debris from the tornado damages one of the storm grates, compromising the shelter. In an attempt to save lives, Pete hands over his research hard drives to Gary, then sacrifices himself by leaving the shelter to move Titus down to the storm grate, where a combination of the vehicle's weight, ground anchors, and winch cable are used to anchor the storm grate to the concrete face. Titus's equipment proves unable to anchor the vehicle to the ground, and the tornado picks up the vehicle. From the camera turret aboard Titus, Pete observes the funnel of the tornado as the vehicle is lifted above the clouds, and then it crashes back down to the ground, killing him instantly. Shortly thereafter, the EF5 tornado dissipates.

In the aftermath of the tornado outbreak, the townspeople begin efforts to clean up and rebuild. As Gary's sons move to complete their time capsule film, many of those they interview after the tornadoes express a newfound appreciation for their lives, and a hopeful outlook on life. The last footage shows two local daredevils Donk and Reevis hanging from a tree after they survived the storm.

Cast

Richard Armitage and Sarah Wayne Callies, who played the lead roles in the film.

• Richard Armitage as Gary Fuller, the vice principal of Silverton High School
• Sarah Wayne Callies as Allison Stone, a meteorologist
• Matt Walsh as Peter "Pete" Moore, a documentary filmmaker & stormchaser
• Max Deacon as Donnie Fuller, a junior at Silverton High School
• Alycia Debnam-Carey as Kaitlyn Johnston, a junior at Silverton High School
• Nathan Kress as Trey Fuller, a sophomore at Silverton High School
• Arlen Escarpeta as Daryl Karley, a camera operator
• Jeremy Sumpter as Jacob Hodges, a camera operator
• Lee Whittaker as Lucas
• Kyle Davis as Donk
• Jon Reep as Reevis
• Scott Lawrence as Principal Thomas Walker
• David Drumm as Chester
• Brandon Ruiter as Todd
• Kron Moore as Mrs. Blasky

Production

Oakland University's building, where some shots were filmed.

On October 28, 2011, Deadline reported that New Line Cinema bought the "found footage" natural disaster spec script written by John Swetnam, and that Todd Garner would be producing the film through his Broken Road Productions company. Garner came up with the idea for the script. On January 5, 2012 it was announced that director Steve Quale would direct the then-untitled "Found-Footage" Tornado thriller.

On April 24, 2012, Variety reported that New Line had given the green light for their next film project, about an EF6 tornado (although the current EF5 category has no upper limit), and that the film was in development and set to begin shooting on July 9 in Detroit. On August 23, 2012, the untitled "Category Six" Tornado project film got the title Black Sky, and was filming in Detroit. On September 24, 2013, New Line retitled the film to Into the Storm and set the release date to August 8, 2014.

Casting

An open casting call was held on May 19, 2012 in Pontiac, Michigan. On May 24, Alycia Debnam-Carey signed up to play a female lead. On June 1, New Line added Arlen Escarpeta to the project. On June 22, Sarah Wayne Callies signed up to play Allison Stone. On July 2, New Line cast Nathan Kress, who portrayed a brother finding his sibling. On July 11, 2012, Richard Armitage signed up to portray Gary Fuller, a widowed father who tries to rescue his son from the tornadoes. Shooting was set to begin on July 23 in Detroit. On July 13, Max Deacon joined the film's cast to play Donnie, an introverted teen with a crush on his high school's prettiest girl. Comedian Matt Walsh joined the cast of the film on August 1, 2012 to play the character of Pete.

Filming

Principal photography began in July 2012 in Detroit. On August 13, 2012, shooting moved to Rochester, Michigan, two weeks after filming wrapped in Detroit. It was also filmed in Oakland Charter Township, Oakview Middle School and Oakland University.

Music

The film's music was scored by Brian Tyler. The soundtrack of the film was released on August 5, 2014.

Release

On September 24, 2013, Warner Bros. set the film to be released on August 8, 2014. The film was released on Digital HD on October 28, 2014, and on DVD and Blu-ray November 18, 2014.

Critical response

As of September 23, the film made $46,425,752 in the US and $100,400,000 international for a total of $146,825,752, to triple its production budget and making the movie a financial success.

Into the Storm received negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 21% approval rating, with an average score of 4.3/10 based on 141 reviews. The site's consensus states, "Clumsily scripted and populated with forgettable characters, Into the Storm has little to offer beyond its admittedly thrilling special effects." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 44 out of 100, based on 32 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Variety's Scott Foundas called the film a feature-length VFX demo reel that makes one pine for the glory days of Jan de Bont. Scott Mendelson of Forbes reviewed the film and commented that the film is visually dazzling and mostly successful in updating the disaster film for the YouTube age. He said, "The special effects work is basically flawless, and you absolutely get what you arguably came to see. You want big-screen images of insanely large-scale tornadoes and big-scale devastation and disaster carnage? Into the Storm gives you plenty of rock-solid disaster porn."

External links

• Official Website
• Into the Storm at IMDb
• Into the Storm at Box Office Mojo
• Into the Storm at Rotten Tomatoes
• Into the Storm at Metacritic