Into the Storm
It is night, and four high school students are in a car together in a worsening storm, when they look up ahead and see a tornado forming. A girl begs for them to go, but the boy recording on a camera gets out to video tape the tornado. As it approaches, 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. Before the tornado dissipates Gary must save Pete's meteorologist, Allison Stone (Sarah Wayne Callies), when she fails to make it to safety with the others. Then, after Gary pleads for help, Pete's team agree to help Gary get to the paper mill. While en route, 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 one of the tornadoes into a firenado, which Jacob the cameraman, (Jeremy Sumpter), tries to film, only to be caught up in the storm and 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 two large tornadoes results in a colossal EF5 tornado that threatens to level the town. The town's citizens have taken shelter at the school, but Pete's team 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 at a construction site, 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, before then crashing back down to the ground, apparently killing him. 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. Allison praises Pete's sacrifice and dedication to science. The last footage shows the two local daredevils Donk and Reevis as they survived the storm.
historical