Atomic Twister

A series of tornadoes cripple Hellman-Klein Nuclear Power Plant in Basset County, West Tennessee by damaging a power transformer and a generator, killing the plant's security guard Stu (Carl Lewis) in the process, and leaving the plant with very little power to operate. Hellman-Klein's shift supervisor Corrine Maguire sets out to try and contact the NRC, while an operator shuts down non-vital systems, which include the electric pumps to reduce power. Just then, a second tornado hits the plant, damaging the diesel pumps, losing almost all controls. Meanwhile, Campbell Maguire (Daniel Costello), the plant's shift supervisor's 12-year old son, is caught in the twisters. His babysitter, Stacy is killed and he runs away towards the plant on his bike.

When the diesel pumps fail, the staff try to restart the electric pumps, but they won't respond. The nuclear reactor overheats, causing coolant to evaporate from the waste pool, threatening to expose radioactive material. The staff attempt to initiate SCRAM procedures to try to shut down the nuclear reactor, but the computer fails to respond. With no communications between the plant and the police department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; leaving them on their own, Corrine, Potter, and Neville venture inside the containment room to shut down the reactor manually, but radiation leakage prevented them from doing so. Neville (John Summer) decided to manually shut down the reactor himself in order to divert the reactor's coolant to the waste pool to buy the operators more time, having taken full responsibility by ordering them to shut down the electrical pumps. He successfully does so, but is now locked himself inside the containment room.

A local police officer named Jake (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), a friend of Corrine, and whose his mother was killed by a tornado during his childhood. searches for Campbell and finds him on the road. Together they make their way to safety at Corinne's request. On the way they discover Jake's girlfriend, Ashley (Charmaine Guest), trapped on a steep hillside in her car. Jake goes down to rescue her. Both Jake and Ashley are nearly killed when her car slides over the cliff but Campbell saves their lives, risking his own to do it when he is given an option to escape. Jake lauds Campbell as a hero and lets a relieved Corrine know of her son's survival and heroism.

Firemen who arrived at the site began spraying water into the reactor pool, but it only slows down the evaporation. Meanwhile, a disused diesel generator is found in the original blueprints by the NRC, and the plant workers plan to hook it up to the electric pumps to save the plant. They order some diesel fuel for it, but the tanker truck driver panics at the idea of driving in the adverse weather. Jake, a former truck driver, intercepts the fleeing truck driver and delivers the diesel to the plant himself. At the plant, the heat is starting to prove too much for the firemen and they start to pass out while the water from the hoses is having very little effect. Mere minutes before meltdown, Jake helps the firefighters while Corrine hooks up the fuel and attempts to start the generator, eventually she was able to turn it on. With the generator running, the pumps restart and the waste pool starts to refill. Although the plant is damaged, a nuclear meltdown is averted.

Campbell and Corrine are finally reunited and held together as Jake and Ashley set a date to get married. Corrine and Neville; who has suffered radiation poisoning for being trapped inside the reactor containment room, looked at each other before she thanked the latter for his "self-sacrifice" as Neville is taken away to the hospital.

• Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Deputy Jake Hannah
  • Jared Michael Thomas as Young Jake
• Sharon Lawrence as Corinne Maguire
• Joanna Morrison as Stacy
• Carl Lewis as Securityman Stu
• Jonathan Blick as Potter (as Johnny Blick)
• Meryl Main as Gail Clark
• Daniel Costello as Campbell Maguire
• Charmaine Guest as Ashley Bishop
• George Henare as Manuel Fluentez
• John Leigh as Deputy Rollins
• John Sumner as Neville
• Corbin Bernsen as Sheriff C.B. Bishop
• David Aston as Man at Cliff
• Paul Barrett as Fuel Tanker Driver
• Grant Bridger as Maguire's Neighbor
• Katrina Devine as Gloria
• Peter Feeney as Fireman

This television film was based on a real-life disaster that had taken place on June 24. 1998, when an F2 tornado hit the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Ohio resulting in the loss of off-site power. Despite that, the film bears no resemblance to the actual events at Davis-Besse.

The film depicting the fictional power plant in near were filmed at Huntly Power Station and Meremere Power Station, both in New Zealand.

Despite taking place in Tennessee, most of the scenes, including Jake's flashback sequence; which was filmed on a farm along State Highway 2, was filmed across Auckland.

Since 2019, the film is available for streaming online on The Roku Channel, IMDb TV, Vudu and Tubi TV.

• Atomic Twister at IMDb
• Atomic Twister at AllMovie
• Atomic Twister at the TCM Movie Database