ABOUT NEVER STOP CHASING

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.