A uniquely dangerous tornado outbreak attracts the attention of a YouTube celebrity and a team of scientists in this sequel to the 1996 disaster movie.
In 1996, Jan de Bont’s summer blockbuster Twister revitalized the disaster movie by making tornadoes all the more terrifying with groundbreaking special effects for the time, while also telling a compelling story about a university professor, her husband and a ragtag team of students in a race to use a game-changing device on uniquely powerful tornadic activity. Almost twenty years later, a sequel has finally arrived in Twisters, and the results amount to an overall entertaining popcorn film that tells a solid character-driven story with a phenomenal humanist element, and strong performances from two of Hollywood’s hottest rising stars.
Twisters follows Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones), an Oklahoma storm chaser with aspirations of developing a technology meant to vaporize tornadoes from within before they can wreak any havoc on civilian life. However, a miscalculation puts herself in the danger of a maximum grade EF-5 cyclone, killing her boyfriend at the time and two of her friends. Five years after the incident, Kate is so haunted by the aforementioned tragedy that she has far removed herself from storm chasing and her rural home state, working as a meteorologist in New York City.
But then, one of her former colleagues Javi (Anthony Ramos) returns to her life, now owning and operating a tech startup looking for assistance with testing a new storm navigation system in rural Oklahoma in time for a severe tornado outbreak. From there, Kate agrees to return home with Javi and is all set to join his team of scientists with chasing whirlwinds and assessing the amount of damage they’ll cause with Javi’s new technology, only for their study to be quickly interrupted by “The Tornado Wrangler,” Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), a reckless YouTube superstar with his own team of scientists looking to make thrills out of the destructive forces of nature via dangerous stunts.
What follows is a race between the two bands of storm chasers from one supercell to the next in a battle to use nature for mindless entertainment versus scientific study. But this journey takes Twisters on remarkable turns the longer the characters grow as people and get to know each other on-screen, as well as in every instance director Lee Isaac Chung demonstrates astounding compassion for his ensemble, the world around them and even the audience watching his first foray into blockbuster filmmaking.
There’s a lot of time spent on Kate, Javi and Tyler witnessing the human cost of these deadly windstorms across the Oklahoma plains and helping survivors pick up what they can, while Kate’s arc finds herself falling into bouts with survivor’s guilt and anxiety over studying tornadoes again, but old and new friends are there to provide encouragement and hope for her every step of the way. It’s an endearing thing to see in a summer blockbuster.
A clever way Twisters shows compassion for theater spectators in particular is through complementing all the scientific terms characters use when planning out their methods of storm tracking and subsequent containment. The jargon here can be difficult to latch onto for viewers who are not weather-averse, but a well-edited montage smartly provides the visual aid necessary for all moviegoers to understand the parts of a tornado and each team’s strategy to confront a given typhoon. On that note, it wouldn’t be a Twister sequel without sequences of environmental terror, and they’re always suspenseful from the gnarly, atmospheric darkness of the supercell under which our heroes are trapped, to the well-crafted visual effects and thunderous sounds of giant debris landing mere inches away from Kate and company.
And the two lead actors do well with the material they were given, especially Glen Powell. After stealing the show with his supporting role in Top Gun: Maverick, Powell continues his rise toward leading man status with a solid turn as Tyler Owens, who enlivens Twisters with infectious energy communicated by unique charisma and a laid back personality that fades when real danger comes into view. Meanwhile, Daisy Edgar-Jones wonderfully does the heavy lifting as the narrative’s main character, especially in isolated moments where Kate ganders into the horizon for the nearest storm while visibly haunted by her past traumatic experience.
As well-crafted and well-cast Twisters is, the film is not without its flaws. The story may be cohesively told and driven by Kate confronting her personal fears head-on, but getting to the emotional zenith as well as a surprising revelation about Javi’s tech startup can be a chore because the script is riddled with flat dialogue that doesn’t offer any deeper intention other than moving the plot forward.
However, that often requires the actors to put an upward spin on their delivery of such lines, and that’s something this cast does very well. It’s also worth noting that the movie’s balancing act between its cheesy action and human drama isn’t always successful; sometimes the serious humanity undercuts the high energy of these characters’ exploits, while near-cartoonish timing of a tornado’s sudden appearance so soon after the previous one distracts from the affecting character work on display.
But a straightforward blockbuster that leaves logic at the door is something that has been noticeably absent from Hollywood in recent years, and Twisters succeeds in its aim to fill that void in spades. Audiences will root for Kate, Javi and Tyler to succeed in their storm chasing all the way to the end, be enraptured by the wonder created by Benjamin Wallfisch’s musical score, watch in awe and terror at the tornadoes and their destruction crafted authentically through CGI, and be moved by this band of characters’ willingness and innate desire to help survivors out of a storm’s path. At a time where we’re all divided, it shines a light on the good side of us all despite our differences, and that’s why it’s worth venturing out rain or shine to see Twisters.