POND CREEK—Pilot Randy Alexander had no idea he’d become a movie star in his 70s.
The now-retired aviator, who professionally flew for Deterding Aerial in Pond Creek until three months ago, was tapped to do fly-bys for last year’s blockbuster “Twisters”.
He’s the pilot of the yellow plane that moviegoers witnessed in several scenes including the one staged at Midway, the gas station west of Kremlin on U.S. 81. The man even scored an actual credit at the end of the film as one of the four pilots involved.
“I was honored, in awe of the whole movie deal,” the 73-year-old said in a recent interview. His then-boss Jim Deterding, owner of Deterding Aerial, picked him for the acting role since Alexander was nearing the conclusion of his decades-long career as a cropduster.
The local cropdusting company was contacted in early 2023 by movie scouts, who had spotted and selected Midway as one of “Twisters” filming locations; in turn, Midway’s managers recommended Deterding Aerial for the aerial acting.
Deterding Aerial, which has been in business since 1976 on the south edge of Pond Creek, owns three 502 B-34 Air Tractors, which are the most popular agricultural aircraft known for its reliability and versatility in aerial applications like crop dusting and seeding.
Jim Deterding said initially he didn’t want to commit to be part of “Twisters” because filming would be done during his busiest season and it would mean they would be one plane down. However, and his wife, Jeanine, ended up agreeing and they were compensated for that loss of business. They also were paid to bring in other equipment such as an old tanker truck and dry materials for the film.
Additionally, Jim Deterding told the production crew his company doesn’t fly on Sundays, out of respect for their faith, so he said the crew rearranged the film schedule to accommodate.
Oklahoma Department of Transportation had to be contacted accordingly, he said, since the plane would be used as a prop at Midway thus had to land on the highway and be pulled into place on the gravel lot. The road had to be temporarily closed during the time of landing as well as takeoff three days later.
Alexander was chosen as the real pilot to fly the plane whereas other Deterding Aerial pilots Kevin Deterding and Daniel Yoder were simply on set with the plane at Midway and assumed uncredited roles. The two can momentarily be seen in that film clip on and around the plane’s wing with Alexander in Midway’s back parking lot.
“Someone had the idea of having a plane in the background,” Yoder said. Because there was not an actual script for them, he added, “they let us do whatever we wanted.”
While they were waiting around—which there was a lot of sitting and standing around those three days in mid-May 2023—the three men had a chance to chat with actors Anthony Ramos who played Javi, as well as meeting the leads, actress Daisy Edgar-Jones who played Kate and actor Glen Powell who played Tyler.
“Kevin and I were looking at a map while Daniel pretended to be a mechanic,” Alexander said about that Midway scene that made it into the final cut.
He also mentioned that the radio-controlled airplane drone in that scene did get away from its handlers, nearly hitting several people and causing minor damage to the Deterding’s plane to which the production crew paid to repair.
Alexander mostly interacted with crew member Christina Fong, whose official title was second unit second assistant director for “Twisters.”
In film production, a second unit refers to a separate crew that shoots scenes independently of the main unit, often focusing on action sequences, stunts, or establishing shots; additionally, a second assistant director (aka 2nd AD) manages logistics and ensures the smooth operation of the production, including creating call sheets and managing talent, including the extras, hence the reason Fong directly reached out to Alexander.
“I was told I was going to do a fly-by of some sort,” Alexander described about his acting role outside of the Midway scene which didn’t include any flying onscreen.
A week later he reported with Deterding’s oldest 502 B-34 Air Tractor to the countryside northwest of Kingfisher, he said, “where they showed me what they wanted me to do. I did my best to give it to ‘em.”
Fong and her crew coordinated with Alexander via radio for the scene toward the latter part of “Twisters” in which Kate and Tyler are leaving her mom’s house in the rain and Alexander flew overhead.
“I did 10-15 different angles in the rain before it finally cleared,” Alexander said, and “they chose the shot they wanted” that made it into the final cut. He thanked fellow cropduster Craig Michael of Kingfisher for providing the water and fuel at the Kingfisher Airport in the drizzling rain.
Scenes and sequences were filmed out of order of what moviegoers see on the silver screen, which made it difficult to pinpoint what was going on, Yoder said about that summer, adding, “when you’re on set, they tell you nothing.”
For example, the scene in which Kate and Tyler’s teams converge at Midway before taking off running for the pending storm outbreak was filmed May 15-18, 2023, but that scene actually appears in “Twisters” after the motel night scene at Heritage Inn in Fairview, which was technically filmed after Kremlin on May 19, 2023, as the 10th day of shooting out of 53.
Basecamp and catering for the cast and crew was held offsite of the motel at Fairview Municipal Airport unlike Midway which served not only as the film set but basecamp and catering too. In fact, some of the cast and crew camped out in the storage rooms at Midway during the 12-hour shooting schedule.
And because the filming at Heritage Inn was primarily outdoors, minimal exterior adjustments had to be made compared to the overhaul that happened inside and outside of Midway, plus the shooting in Fairview only occurred that evening rather than four days like in Kremlin.
A notable change is Heritage Inn was renamed Medford Motel for the film according to the call sheet by Dirt Road Films LLC; however, no motel signage was visible in that film clip.
There also was a fabricated sign for Deterding Aerial that read “serving northern Oklahoma farmers and ranchers” erected on the east side of Midway that never was really visible in that particular film clip either. Jim Deterding doesn’t know what happened to that prop that mimicked his company’s actual sign on U.S. 60 other than they were not given it.
Twisting around the state
“Twisters” hit the big screens the following summer of 2024.
Oklahoma Film and Music Office released a map of all the filming locations including Midway and its former sister station Lone Ranger, at the junction of U.S. 412 and U.S. 60 in Orienta and hasn’t been an active or open gas station for at least 10 years.
Unfortunately, Midway didn’t get to keep most of the props used in the movie, so when the few tourists arrive, they don’t really see much to match.
“A lot of people may not know,” said Midway’s store manager Teri Hicks, other than the locals from Kremlin-Hillsdale, about Midway starring in the “Twister” reboot.
On the flip side Heritage Inn’s manager Justin Condren said he thought it was strange that people were stopping by to take pictures of the middle section of the Fairview motel until he realized they were obviously fans of the movie; he was not the manager when filming happened in 2023.
For Deterding Aerial, it’s business as usual. Since Deterding Aerial’s true location in Pond Creek wasn’t used in “Twisters” since Midway was its stand-in, they’ve not really seen tourists hanging around their sign or tarmac to gawk at the yellow plane … not yet anyway.
That may change later this year when NWOKBuzz.com launches its Twister Tours in conjunction with Twister the Movie Museum.
Unlike the original film “Twister” which put Wakita on the map after the tiny rural town was cordoned off for the better part of five months, “Twisters” was marginally filmed in Northwest Oklahoma.
Other towns where filming was held included El Reno, the only town in the movie that got to keep its name, and Howe.
The climactic scene with the ball game, movie theater, water tower, and trolley—El Reno was the unsung movie star, something the town was familiar with. Remember in the 1980s El Reno was one of the backdrops during Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman’s cross-country road trip for the Oscar-winning flick “Rain Man.” (El Reno stood in for Amarillo, Texas, and the motel featured has since been demolished.)
The tiny town of Howe, population 600, is located on the east side of the state almost in Arkansas; just like Northwest Oklahomans travel to Enid to shop, residents of Howe typically drive to Fort Smith, Ark. Howe served as Kate’s hometown.
What some movie buffs may not know is that the rodeo arena demolished by a tornado was allegedly in Stillwater as purported in “Twisters,” but was actually filmed on an empty lot big enough to hold a purpose-built rodeo and an empty pool in Midwest City.
And the tornado-ravaged town of Crystal Springs was actually a four-block area in Chickasha transformed for the scene by movie producers. Making a brief appearance in the scene where Kate and Tyler’s teams show up to help was Enid’s very own Buzz guy Curtis Tucker; for a split second, he was part of the search and rescue assisting with the disaster relief dressed in a yellow hardhat.
KFOR Ch. 4 meteorologist Emily Sutton had an onscreen within a TV screen appearance during the Midway scene. In a deleted scene on the Blu-ray version, members of Tyler’s team salivate over Sutton too. Many fans remember in the original “Twister” the featured meteorologist was then-KWTV Ch. 9’s Gary England.
To that end, Twister the Movie Museum in downtown Wakita has been showcasing memorabilia for “Twister” to the public since Warner Bros. film studio urged the town to open the museum 30 years ago this September by donating “debris” from the movie set.
The late actor Bill Paxton, who was one of the main stars of the 1996 film as storm chaser-turned-TV weatherman Bill Harding, was a key supporter of the museum and donated several personal items. The zenith of Twister the Movie Museum is the original Dorothy weather data prototype (there were four made for the movie) sits in the center of the museum complete with working lights.
The location of the museum is on the actual site of the “Twister” location office used by cast and crew where they would check in with the location manager who would direct where they’d be for the day.
Curator Linda Wade is proud her museum is one of the first movie museums in this part of the country, and despite naysayers who said attendance by movie fans from around the globe would wane, the museum has remained steadfast as a popular attraction in Northwest Oklahoma.
In fact, Wade said the number of visitors has doubled since “Twisters” hit theaters last summer. And she just recently accepted what will be one of the zenith props for “Twisters”—the trailer full of yellow barrels Kate used to release super-absorbent polymer solution to potentially destabilize or dissipate tornadoes—for display within the museum.
While in Wakita, movie fans can take the walking tour through town to see where “Twister” was filmed. In five blocks there are five spots marked by pedestals highlighting its significance in the movie, three of which focus on storm chaser Jo Harding’s (played by actress Helen Hunt) Aunt Meg (Topeka, Kan.-born actress Lois Smith), whose house and hometown surroundings were prominently portrayed.
Then there is perhaps the most notable star of “Twister”—the Wakita water tower. Thanks to the B-roll footage taken by WB film crews in the early 1990s, Wakita has since starred in several TV shows and movies representing small town America, including the WB Superman prequel “Smallville.”
Storm chasers regularly appear in town and frequently keep in touch with Wade. Last year two storm chasers from Iowa wed using Wakita’s water tower as their wedding destination.
Fans of both “Twister” and “Twisters” and storm chasers alike will have a chance to celebrate their fandom with celebrities from both films, including Alexander, at the museum’s 30th anniversary event themed “We Got Cows” on Sept. 13 in downtown Wakita.
And Wade has already announced Twister the Movie Museum will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of “Twister” on May 16, 2026, with a huge shindig; details will be shared later this fall about who all will be making an appearance in Wakita next summer.
In the meantime, the museum officially reopens for tornado season this Tuesday, April 1, and regular hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 1-5 p.m. For appointments to visit outside of business hours, call (580) 594-2312. There is no admission fee to enter Twister the Movie Museum, yet donations are what keep the museum going, Wade said, and there are Twister-themed trinkets for sale.