Storm chasers are a rare breed of people who get a thrill out of heading right into the middle of a tornado in order to study it. Movies about storm chasers have been made, like Twister. Now there’s Tornado Alley, a documentary which is right up the alley of storm chasers.

What’s it like to stalk one of the meanest weather phenomena on the face of the planet? Tornados are spiralling funnels of wind and condensation that connect a mass of dark clouds to the ground. They spin with wind speeds that reach up to more than 430 kph. They are fickle, but the local damage they create—uprooted trees, airborne cows, destroyed houses—can be devastating.

Justice League Tornado Cloud T-Shirt

Powerful tornados occur often in the central United States, otherwise known as Tornado Alley—which is also the setting of this documentary of the same title. The movie follows the work of storm chasers in VORTEX 2 as they attempt to get a deeper understanding of how tornados form. A critical point is their attempt to drive right towards a rampaging tornado and hope to gather enough data.

Storm chaser Sean Casey leads his team of researchers armed with gadgets and gizmos fit for a science-fiction film. But Tornado Alley is not fiction. It’s a real science adventure with real people riding inside their custom-made armored vehicles that appear to be more suitable for a war movie than a science documentary. It’s the movie that gives a ringside seat to an awe-inspiring weather phenomenon.