ABOUT NEVER STOP CHASING

  • In the immersive documentary Never Stop Chasing, legendary storm chaser Reed Timmer pursues a life hunting the world’s most violent weather. Haunted by the tragic death of his mentor, Tim Samaras, in the historic 2013 El Reno tornado, and the sudden loss of his best friend and long-time chase partner, Joel Taylor, Reed’s life on the edge takes a severe emotional toll. Driven by an unshakeable compulsion, he pushes his mind and body to the absolute limit in pursuit of the perfect storm. Operating the custom-built, armored “Dominator 3,” Reed and his eclectic crew—Connor, Mike, Edgar, and “Local Man”—plunge directly into the impact zones of apocalyptic supercells. Despite holding a Ph.D. in meteorology, Reed’s highly aggressive intercept tactics constantly put him at odds with a traditional scientific establishment that frequently dismisses his controversial approach. The film captures the duality of their extreme lifestyle: the euphoric highs of intercepting a tornado alongside an embedded New York Times reporter, and the terrifying lows of being overtaken by a massive wedge tornado inside their vehicle. When the Dominator suffers a catastrophic engine failure, the team is forced to continue their pursuit in a vulnerable rental car. This fateful decision places them directly in the path of the devastating 2024 Greenfield tornado. Confronting the horrific human toll left in the storm’s wake, Reed and his team must reconcile the adrenaline of the chase with the profound destruction they witness. Ultimately, the renegade crew captures unprecedented visual data that forces the meteorological establishment to finally validate Reed’s methods, cementing a historic breakthrough in tornado science.

  • A 20-YEAR JOURNEY

    Never Stop Chasing represents the ultimate reteaming of world-famous storm chaser Reed Timmer and director Ken Cole. Cole is a filmmaker and meteorologist who has chased with Timmer for over two decades, beginning with Timmer’s PBS debut, Tornado Glory, in 2003. Making use of Cole’s extensive archive, the film anchors its emotional stakes by exploring the realities of the subculture, throwing audiences into the most pivotal chase day in meteorological history: the 2013 El Reno tornado. As the largest tornado in history, El Reno tragically claimed the lives of legendary chaser Tim Samaras, his son Paul, and chaser Carl Young. The documentary also touches upon Timmer’s loss of his longtime Storm Chasers partner, Joel Taylor. Through Cole’s insider perspective, the film captures Timmer’s evolution from a sense of youthful invincibility to a deeper confrontation with loss, aging, and mortality.

    PUTTING THE AUDIENCE INSIDE THE TORNADO

    Because Never Stop Chasing was designed to rival the scale of a summer tentpole, the visual and audio experience was treated with blockbuster scale. To capture the claustrophobia and adrenaline of a storm intercept, Cole brought in elite Directors of Photography Brent Meeske and Walter Mather, both veterans of documenting extreme subjects in the harshest environments. Rather than relying solely on traditional documentary methods, the production utilized a staggering 22-camera verité setup, incorporating aerial drones and high-fidelity cinema cameras (Sony FX6 and FX3) to capture 360-degree, direct cinema footage. The film was graded in Dolby Vision to deliver an epic, vivid, and hyper-realistic picture. To match the breathtaking visuals, the film’s immersive Dolby Atmos sound mix was completed at StudioPost at Universal Studios. Cole worked closely with the Universal sound team to analyze the actual physics of sound near tornadoes, focusing heavily on frequencies that standard field microphones fail to capture. The ultimate goal: to realistically put the audience inside a tornado for the first time in cinematic history. To elevate the experience, Cole enlisted Emmy-winning and Grammy-nominated composers Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson (Cobra Kai, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story), who crafted a highly thematic original score utilizing the Budapest Scoring Orchestra.

    THE GREENFIELD CLIMAX: A HISTORIC METEOROLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGH

    The film’s gripping climax centers on the devastating May 2024 Greenfield, Iowa tornado—one of the three strongest tornadoes ever recorded in human history. But the jaw-dropping 4K drone footage captured during this sequence didn’t just make for incredible cinema—it actually made meteorological history. The production’s footage was so incredibly clear and precise that top scientists were able to use it to track the storm’s flying debris. By analyzing the film’s video, Dr. Josh Wurman officially verified that the Greenfield tornado packed unimaginable wind speeds of 318 mph. It proved to the world exactly how powerful this monster storm was, turning an epic movie climax into a real-world scientific breakthrough.

  • In the immersive documentary Never Stop Chasing, legendary storm chaser Reed Timmer pursues a life hunting the world’s most violent weather. Haunted by the tragic death of his mentor, Tim Samaras, in the historic 2013 El Reno tornado, and the sudden loss of his best friend and long-time chase partner, Joel Taylor, Reed’s life on the edge takes a severe emotional toll. Driven by an unshakeable compulsion, he pushes his mind and body to the absolute limit in pursuit of the perfect storm. Operating the custom-built, armored “Dominator 3,” Reed and his eclectic crew—Connor, Mike, Edgar, and “Local Man”—plunge directly into the impact zones of apocalyptic supercells. Despite holding a Ph.D. in meteorology, Reed’s highly aggressive intercept tactics constantly put him at odds with a traditional scientific establishment that frequently dismisses his controversial approach. The film captures the duality of their extreme lifestyle: the euphoric highs of intercepting a tornado alongside an embedded New York Times reporter, and the terrifying lows of being overtaken by a massive wedge tornado inside their vehicle. When the Dominator suffers a catastrophic engine failure, the team is forced to continue their pursuit in a vulnerable rental car. This fateful decision places them directly in the path of the devastating 2024 Greenfield tornado. Confronting the horrific human toll left in the storm’s wake, Reed and his team must reconcile the adrenaline of the chase with the profound destruction they witness. Ultimately, the renegade crew captures unprecedented visual data that forces the meteorological establishment to finally validate Reed’s methods, cementing a historic breakthrough in tornado science.