Jo
Background
Dr. Jo Harding is in charge of a storm chaser team and teaches at Muskogee State College in Oklahoma. When she was five, her and her Mother and Father's house was destroyed by an F5 tornado which killed her father. She is separated from Bill. She has an Aunt Meg that lives in Wakita, Oklahoma.
During the events of Twister (1996) played by Helen Hunt and Alexa Vega
Jo is repairing a Doppler satellite with the help of Beltzer, when Bill walks up. He asks her if she signed the divorce paperwork and she asks him what the rush is. After he tells her he is getting married, she goes into her truck and pulls out the paperwork and hands it to Bill, who then notices one of the pages hasn't been signed. As she is reading the page, he tells her his fiance Melissa is with him and Jo goes to meet her. After meeting Melissa, Jo shows Bill the completed Dorothy unit based off of his design. Haynes tells the team a storm is forming and Jo and her team get in their vehicles and leave. They arrive at a diner where Jonas and his team are already at. Bill attacks Jonas when he realizes he is using a machine similar to Dorothy and asks Jo why she didn't tell him Jonas stole his design and then offers to help Jo for one day get Dorothy off the ground. Jo goes into the diner and orders a drink from a Waitress and Melissa walks up to her and asks her if she still loves Bill and accuses her of trying to keep Bill in her life. Jo and her team leave the diner and she and Bill ride in her truck. As they are driving Jo starts asking Bill questions about Melissa, but he tells her he doesn't want to fight. They then start to argue about their relationship. Bill and Jo drive towards a tornado on the ground and Bill drives into a rutted track in a field. The Tornado's path changes towards their direction and Bill crashes the truck into a bridge while trying to outrun the tornado. He and Jo hide under the bridge and the truck is lifted into the tornado. Jo convinces Bill to then use his truck and a new Dorothy is placed in the back of Bill's truck and he and Jo lead the team to find another tornado. Bill is heading in the same direction as Jonas' team when he notices the angle of the tornado and tells Jo it is going to change direction. The truck is caught in between two tornadoes and then dissipates and Bill has to comfort Melissa while Jo runs out to celebrate with her team. When Jo's team stops, they convince her to take them all to her Aunt Meg's house. They all drive to Aunt Meg's house and she cooks them a meal of steak and eggs. Another storm develops and Jo's team leaves Meg's house and leave Wakita. Rabbit tells them a short cut and they exit a corn patch and almost hit Jonas and his team. Bill tells Jo to make a right turn and they turn off of the road. Jo and Bill continue on to deploy Dorothy while the rest of the team stay back. They stop the truck to deploy Dorothy, but can't release it in time and a light pole lands on the truck knocking off Dorothy and scattering the sensors. Jo tries to gather the sensors, but the tornado forms again near them. Bill realizes Jo still has issues from her Father's death and tells her nothing can bring her Father back and she still has him. Jo and her crew stop at the Galaxy Drive-In. Jo goes to the window and orders eight coffees from one of the Drive-In Girls. She then sits down and signs the divorce paperwork. Bill walks up and tells her he thinks the sensors are too light and shortly after, Dusty runs up and tells everyone a tornado is coming. The tornado rips trough the drive-in as everyone takes cover. Dusty tells Jo the tornado has headed toward Wakita and everyone on the team packs up and leaves. They arrive in Wakita and find it destroyed. Jo and Bill run into Meg's collapsing house. They hear Mose barking and find Meg trapped under some rubble. They pull her out and take her to a Paramedic who tells them they will keep Meg overnight. As Jo stares at Meg's lawn art, she has an idea how to make Dorothy fly into the tornado. The team cut pieces of aluminum cans and place them inside of the data balls and Jo and Bill drive towards a massive tornado. They drop off another Dorothy in front of the tornado, but it is smashed by a large trunk debris and scatters everywhere. They are nearly crushed by a large fuel truck which is thrown from the tornado. As they are driving away, Jo and Bill have to drive through a house that falls in front of them. Jo preps the last Dorothy and they drive into a corn field and drive the truck in the path of the tornado and then jump out and run away as it heads in their direction. Dorothy successfully deploys and a stream of data is sent out. Jo and Bill run towards a farm and ultimately strap themselves to pipes in a shed. The giant tornado passes overhead and then dissipates. Jo and Bill start talking about the future and then argue on who is going to do the data analysis versus running the lab and then kiss.
