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Get Blasted by Tornado-Force Winds Before Seeing Twisters at These Movie Theaters
Granted, 55 miles per hour is hardly the stuff on an F5 tornado, but you can leave those to Glen Powell.
Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, and the rest of the stars of Twisters said that filming the upcoming disaster movie involved “a jet engine hitting us with ice.” If you want to have a similar experience, you’re in luck. There is a special promotional activation in 20 movie theaters across the country that will let you step into a tube and get blasted by high-speed winds. (Ice, presumably, is only included if you accidentally bring your fountain soda in with you.)
The wind tubes were installed around Memorial Day weekend and will remain until the end of July, meaning interested fans can step into a simulated twister while at the theater to see Twisters, which opens on July 19. (The full list of locations can be found at the bottom of this story.)
RELATED: Twisters: Enter the Eye of the Storm in Behind-the-Scenes Look at Long-Awaited Twister Follow-Up
The team behind the installation told NBC Insider that the tube gets its wind from two fans inside the display: a 1 horsepower blower rated at 3,600 cubic feet per minute and the other is a 3 horsepower fan that blows 1,700 cubic feet per minute of air. The fans are arranged in a way that causes the air to swirl inside the tube, simulating a tornado with wind speeds of approximately 55 miles per hour.
While 55-mile-per-hour winds are no joke, they’re far less than what you’d experience in a tornado like those depicted in Twister and Twisters. That wind speed is what you could expect in a tornado rated F0 on the Fujita Scale used to measure tornado intensity. F0 tornadoes typically cause minor damage to chimneys, break tree branches, and push over shallow-rooted trees. The most intense tornadoes, rated F5, have wind speeds between 261 and 318 miles per hour. Those winds can lift entire houses off their frames and hurl cars the length of a football field.
RELATED: Filming 1996's Twister Temporarily Blinded the Two Stars, Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton
Still, if all you want to do is have a little immersive fun before seeing Twisters on the big screen, a breezy simulated F0 tornado sounds preferable.
Find the Twisters wind tunnel at the following theaters:
Alamo South Lamar (Austin, TX)
AMC Burbank 16 (Los Angeles, CA)
AMC Empire (New York, NY)
AMC Grove 14 (Los Angeles, CA)
AMC Lincoln Square (New York, NY)
AMC Metreon (San Francisco, CA)
AMC River East (Chicago, IL)
AMC Universal Citywalk (Los Angeles, CA)
AMC Town Center 20 (Leawood, KS)
B&B Red Oak 12 (Red Oak, TX)
Cinemark 17 Tulsa (Tulsa, OK)
Cinemark 18 Webster (Webster, TX)
Cinemark West Plano (Plano, TX)
Harkins Tempe Marketplace (Tempe, AZ)
Marcus Ronnie’s Cinema (Saint Louis, MO)
Megaplex Jordan Commons (Sandy, UT)
NA Showcase Warwick 15 (Warwick, RI)
Regal Atlantic Station (Atlanta, GA)
Regal King of Prussia (King of Prussia, PA)
Regal Warren Moore (Moore, OK)
Twisters opens in theaters on July 19. Get your tickets here!
