MOVIE REVIEW: Twisters

Images courtesy of Universal Pictures

TWISTERS– 4 STARS

One of this writer’s favorite lines from 1996’s Twister was Helen Hunt, fresh from surviving a tornado hunkered down in a ditch, answering Philip Seymour Hoffman’s question of “What was it like?” with her simple and curt response of “It was windy.” Hoffman echoes her last word and adjective with an unphased chuckle. Not all that removed from The Bikeriders last month rumbling for reactions based on one’s tolerance for motorcycle engines, an audience member’s comfort gauge for the best and worst of what wind can do will be the draw for the standalone sequel Twisters.

LESSON #1: WHO COWERS AND WHO IS CURIOUS– Ask any American Midwesterner who lives in the “Tornado Alley” (including this one) and they will outline two types of people during tornado watches and tornado warnings. There are those that immediately cower in closets, bathrooms, and basements when the town sirens wail. Conversely, there are also those who are curious in a crazy way to hang out by the windows or tailgate outside in the wild elements for a front-row seat to watch the show. Many may fall in between but, for the former, Twisters will be a loud and messy gauntlet of “hell nos” and “no f’n ways.” To the latter, it will tickle their bad weather joint pain sensations and be just the theatrical thrill ride they’ve been waiting to taste again for 28 years.  

Twisters opens on the “Tornado Tamers” group of college meteorology students in Oklahoma conducting a pair of storm-chasing experiments. The first is an ambitious theory of Kate Carter (Fresh and Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones), supported by her boyfriend Jeb (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande breakout Daryl McCormack), where a massive introduction of powdered moisture-absorbing compounds could effectively choke a tornado from its essential liquid fuel and make it dissipate on the spot. The second experiment–and the film’s only callback to its predecessor–is teammate Javi (Anthony Ramos of In the Heights) using the old “Dorothy” apparatus to release sensors into the tornado to capture data to prove or disapprove Kate’s hypothesis put into action.

LESSON #2: THE GOALS REMAIN THE SAME– Mirroring Jan de Bont’s classic, the scientific motives in Twisters remain matched to real-life ones of creating better detection systems and lengthening advanced warning times. The more minutes National Weather Service warnings can offer citizens, the more lives can be saved. Improved computer algorithms, radar systems, and spotting tools such as rugged cameras and drones are now part of the norm and are touted in the new movie. Nonetheless, the franchise jumpstarter arrives to add its invented novelty of the Tamers’ man-made defensive technology. 

Don’t worry. The director himself, Minari’s Lee Isaac Chung, knows full well Twisters is leaping into science fiction territory by playing up its big MacGuffin idea of essentially slaying a tornado right out of the sky. You went along with the cinematic salt shaker in 1996 watching people not get pelted to death by 200 MPH winds and unrelenting debris, and you’ll need to again in 2024 with this gusty romp written by Mark L. Smith of The Midnight Sky and The Boys in the Boat. 

Alas, when the Tornado Tamers exploits end in failure and tragedy, Kate puts storm-chasing and family behind her to work as an analyst and office suit with the NWS in New York City. Five years pass until Javi tracks Kate down and talks her back into the Oklahoma storm-chasing scene to scout his company’s new triangulation radar system made from military tech. Javi and his Storm Par business partner Scott (upcoming Superman David Corenswet) look to create more in-depth 3D models of tornadoes for detection studies while concurrently coordinating tornado survivors with relocation real estate services.

LESSON #3: PEOPLE FLEXING THEIR NATURAL INSTINCTS– Ignoring Scott’s hesitancy, Javi knows Kate’s superior natural instincts when it comes to understanding tornados and their patterns. She counts as a competitive advantage to the weather app amateurs hitting those same red dirt roads of the Sooner State for glory. Even so, Kate isn’t the only real deal on the trail. Enter the “Tornado Wrangler” YouTube sensation Tyler Owens, played by Glen Powell. His sense for supercells is as good as hers and–compared to her jaded state and fueling the competitive race-and-chase arc of the movie–the internet celebrity is fearless rumbling and tumbling his heavily-modified Dodge Ram rig right into the famed “suck zones” of the destructive funnels.

Anyone who’s seen and enjoyed 1996’s Twister knows that part of the movie’s charm is how the humans were composed to be equally interesting as the fascinating weather phenomena they sought. Try as supporting actors like Nope’s Brandon Perea and Sasha Lane of How to Blow Up a Pipeline do on Tyler’s eclectic crew, this sequel cannot match the original’s ragtag band of buddies in the charm department. Also, as was nearly prerequisite, someone was going to surface as the secondary villain in the film to the atmospheric freight trains tearing up towns. That revelation proves to be weak and inconsequential, even with comeuppance and redemption arriving in time for the climax.

Luckily, the two central leads of Twisters fill in the missing appeal. Daisy Edgar-Jones rightfully gets top billing in Twisters and is granted a character that, despite carrying around personal losses and doubts, is never a reductive damsel-in-distress. If anything her proverbial balls are bigger and brassier than the hunky ones lugged and swung by Glen Powell. The recent Hit Man star is in his ideal, showy element and gets time to enrich his hero with homespun heart to soften the initial vanity. Even so, thanks to product placements for beer and pickup trucks and an occasionally blaring soundtrack of pop country hits, Twisters is a can of Skoal in a back jeans pocket and 20% heavier put-on accents away from being even more redneck strong in its vibe.

LESSON #4: FEAR IS THE REASON YOU DO IT– When Twisters is all said and done, the foundational emotion being manipulated– or twisted, if you will– is fear. Inside the movie, characters are finding or testing their bravery against one of Mother Nature’s most frightenging and destructive forces. If their couragous scientific measures become successful, they can defeat a level of the pervasive fear about tornados and empower their fellow man to be more vigilant. Beyond the plot, Lee Isaac Chung’s movie is an unabashed disaster film that knows exactly how to radiate fear through blockbuster presentation and stacks a surprisingly sizable body count to do it. 

Not unlike the groundbreaking and Oscar-nominated technical efforts in 1996, Twisters amplifies all that is possible in the sound-and-fury departments to make its spectacle rattle theater seats and viewer cages alike. The first-rate visual effects are what folks are paying to see, and they look sharp and incredible with a quarter-century’s advancements in digital capacity. Even greater, the audio mix is what really pins you back, nailing the personified growl and howl given to these fingers of God. Taken together, the swagger and bluster of Twisters returns us back to that sense of stamina and vigor for enduring all things windy. The exhilaration is there if you can take it.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1218)