“Twister” (dir. Jan de Bont, 1996)
Who Hoffman plays: Dusty, a Deep Purple-listening Oklahoma storm chaser who lives life with F5 intensity.
What makes it memorable: Dusty in “Twister” shows off Hoffman’s true genius, as he takes what could have been a generic University of Oklahoma fratboy/meteorology student and elevates him into a character so memorable he helped turn the entire film into more than just an early CGI extravaganza. Really, he helped turn it into a film that people are oddly obsessed with almost 30 years later, and so much so that it’s finally getting a sequel, due out this year.
Behold just one moment that any true child of the ‘90s would have recreated over and over: When Dusty demands they raid Helen Hunt’s aunt’s kitchen — “Red meat, we crave sustenance,” he says, with the affect of a Valley Guy surfer dude who happened to take up storm chasing. “Food. Food! FOOD!” he shouts, while doing some unreplicatable gesticulation with his hand.
When Hoffman died, one of the terms that was immediately trending on Twitter alongside his name was “Twister.” Sure, it was the first movie where most people remember seeing him. But it was also that rarest example of an actor truly making his own of a massive Hollywood blockbuster, and leaving behind something incredibly distinctive — when so many of even the most talented actors get lost in the biggest tentpoles. No conglomeration of pixels could ever drown out Philip Seymour Hoffman. —CB