Twisters

Twisters has been churning in the wind waiting to be re-imagined since 1996’s Twister. This time, Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones go head-to- head chasing destructive monster tornadoes trying to find out what makes them spin to control them. Director Lee Isaac Chung (Oscar nominated – Minari) and writers Mark L. Smith and Joseph Kosinski, went all in on paying homage to Jan de Bont’s original blockbuster. Kosinski was the first director of this new iteration, then left over some pesky “creative differences.” But Kosinski fashioned the story from which Mark L. Smith wrote the screenplay adding more scientific intricacies. 

Ironically, we were on a plane from San Francisco to Chicago July 15th watching the 1996 Twister starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, when the pilot let us know we were going to go around turbulence from storms in the midwest. We landed about an hour before 10 plus tornadoes were touching down in the Chicago area, including where we were landing at O’Hare airport. As we arrived at our apartment, the sirens went off. Whew! And to complete our tornado marathon, the press screening for Twisters was the next night. 

In this latest film, there are plenty of Easter Eggs strewn over the Oklahoma landscape, including Helen Hunt’s tornado data collection contraption, “Dorothy” which is being hauled behind the truck in the opening scene. The storyline of Twisters follows the beats of the original with an excruciatingly rough tornado encounter that turns deadly, setting the eventual life path for future meteorologist Kate Carter (Edgar-Jones – Where the Crawdads Sing). Carter is lured back to Oklahoma and the storm-chasing game by her longtime friend and survivor of the first killer storm, Javi (Anthony Ramos – Hamilton, Transformers, In the Heights, A Star is Born). Powell, the “IT” actor of the moment (Hit Man, Top Gun Maverick, Anyone But You) plays Owens. His good looks and humor are unavoidable on movie or TV screens these days. Powell plays the handsome, grinning, celebrity storm-chaser who caters to his million YouTube followers by offering live video streams and a ton of cool merch.

Back in ’96, Jami Gertz was odd-woman out in the love triangle with Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt whose chemistry was undoubtable. Here it’s Javi (Ramos) and Powell circling chairs for Edgar-Jones’ affection. In the meantime the thin plot revolves around how Javi got unlimited corporate funding for developing research for 3D Imaging tech to understand the forces at work inside these enormous funnels. Javi wants to use Kate’s innate talent that connects her to the atmosphere. She’s got incredible instincts at picking up on where a tornado will hit. Tyler and his ragtag team of consistently screaming buddies only seem to be looking for the thrills of the chase and a way to please their YouTube fans and sell T-shirts.

Inevitably, the storms only get more intense, which is the real reason to see this film in the first place. On that score, the special effects and sound teams show how far their crafts have evolved since Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt were dodging cows and tanker trailers. The intensity and apprehension as each mass of spinning air approaches creates beautiful fury that explodes in prolonged scenes. The only thing for the characters on screen and the audience is to hang on to their seats. If you see this in a Dolby theater, you’ll actually feel the vibrations and power of these massive wind tunnels. Watching the effect of the sky begin to churn and turn ominously is so effective that when the tornado begins to drop to the ground you may want to shout, “Look Out!”