Twisters Review

1996 saw the release of Twister, a disaster film that many have nostalgic feelings for. 28 years later it has been given the legacy sequel treatment that focuses on a new generation of storm chasers.

Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is a gifted meteorologist who gave up storm chasing after three of her friends died during a failed experiment. The other survivor, Javi (Anthony Ramos) has set up a company that monitors tornados and he convinces her to come back to Oklahoma for a week. Whilst in the Sooner State Kate meets the charismatic Youtuber Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) who hunts tornados for the thrill and clicks.

Twister was a film that came out when there was a growth in special effects-laden films and disaster films. Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park showed there were major advances in CGI effects, there were disaster films like Deep Impact and Dante’s Peak, whilst Independence Day was a combination of disaster films and special effects-heavy spectacle. Twister was a film with a lot of energy as a group of scientists as they drove across Oklahoma to get their instruments into a tornado. It had a thin story but made up for it with a colourful set of characters played by a top cast (i.e. Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, and Philip Seymour Hoffman), and the special effects hold up well for a film from 1996.

Twisters aimed to be a throwback to ‘90s blockbusters. It was a film that had a lot of special effects and peril to please a blockbuster audience, a bit of drama and comedy, and a cast with emerging talent. Daisy Edgar-Jones made her name with lead performances in Normal People and Where the Crawdads Sing, Glen Powell had proven himself to be a leading man in Anyone but You and Hit Man, and the film has the talents of the likes of Anthony Ramos (In the Heights), Brandon Perea (Nope), Sasha Lane (American Honey) and Kiernan Shipka (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina). The producers were ambitious with the filmmakers they looked at, including Joseph Kosinski (who has a story credit), Travis Knight (Bumblebee), and Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane). Lee Isaac Chung who got the directing gig made a name for himself with the indie drama Minari.

Whilst Twisters was a sequel to Twister, it was a standalone film. None of the characters from the original film appeared and Twisters had some broad similarities to the original. Kate’s goal was to get close enough to a tornado so it could suck up an important instrument. In the first film Helen Hunt’s character was trying to feed a tornado multiple sensors, in Twisters Kate was trying to get a tornado to take an absorbing powder so it could be dispersed. This took Twisters in a sci-fi direction, fitting because Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park, co-wrote the original film. Twisters also had a similar crash between corporate-backed scientists and the plucky enthusiasts with their homemade equipment.

There were some notable differences between Twister and Twisters. The original film was a brisk 105 minutes as it showed the characters chasing tornados and there was barely any respite. Twisters was longer and slower as a result. There was more focus on the collateral damage tornadoes can cause as they wreak havoc on towns, neighbours, arenas, and industrial sites. The film was focused on a bigger window of time, which meant there was more downtime. Kate became known to her rivals in Tyler’s crew and discovered there was more than them being adrenaline junkies. Kate was given a character arc where she was suffering from PTSD and survivor’s guilt and she needed to overcome her fears so she could complete her scientific research. It was a standard story that had been done many times before.

Twisters did attempt an anti-big business message. This is standard for a Hollywood film, even though they are made by massive corporations. One of the distributors was Warner Brothers and their chief executive has been rewarded for his constant failure. Twisters wanted to be a celebration of Middle America since the film was showing aspects like rodeos and farming. However, the film had a troubling aspect with its anti-authority message. Tyler stated to Kate that she didn’t need a team of scientists with advanced degrees, all she needed was a team with a passion for working in science. It almost came across as an anti-vaxxer message where Tyler may as well have shouted ‘Do your own research.’ Despite Kate being a PhD candidate she based her ability to find tornados on hunches and instincts. Who needs data or equipment?

The goal of Twisters was to be a special effects-heavy popcorn flick and on that front the film was solid. There was lots of CGI spectacle and destruction which was perfectly fine. There was an emphasis on the destructive power of these forces of nature and how they destroy lives and property. It would be terrifying to be sucked up by a tornado. Twisters has been getting some positive reviews, but it has been overhyped, like Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 was in 2023. As a blockbuster experience, I had more fun with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

Twisters was a decent, if unspectacular disaster film. It had the special effects one would expect from a blockbuster and a generally likable cast, but it offered nothing new to the blockbuster sphere or disaster genre.