In 1996, Jan De Bont – fresh off his wildly successful summer action film Speed two years prior – battered theatergoers senseless with the disaster epic Twister. While filled with arch characters and packed with stale action movie moments (if I ever see another “Grab my hand!” scene again… ugh), the finished film ratcheted up enough charm to be memorable and, to be honest, endearing. (C’mon – Philip Seymour Hoffman as a stoner storm chaser who balanced goofiness with a straight-ahead work ethic? GIMME.) It also made a splash as one of the first titles released on the then-nascent DVD format in 1997.
28 years later, Minari director Lee Isaac Chung takes the stick from De Bont and runs ferociously with Twisters, a legacy sequel no one was expecting… nor expecting to be this good. Surprisingly, there’s a lot in Twisters to dig into and unpack along with the stormy fun from the first. While there are callbacks and little references to the original, Twisters stands well on its own as its own beast, as hairy as the storms themselves and as riveting as you could hope it would be.
Twisters follows the track laid down by its predecessor: Spurred on by a devastating tragedy, a young woman uses science in an attempt to study, understand, and ultimately combat tornadoes. As the damage rises, each day brings a new chance to get under one of these things and poke around in it. In the previous film, it was a nearly-divorced couple who go head-to-head with funnel clouds and debris; here, it’s fresh-out-of-school Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a New York City meteorologist whose graduate studies turned fatal for her storm-chasing team.
Propelled by writer Mark L. Smith’s script, Daisy Edgar-Jones practically soars off the screen with how she creates a smart, strong character in Kate. Unencumbered by other people’s assumptions and preconceived notions, Kate holds her own against everyone, including former team member Javier (Anthony Ramos), now studying storms professionally, and Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), a social media personality with a million followers and a team reminiscent of Jo and Bill’s chasing team from 1996. More on that later…
What follows is a race between two of the best scientific minds in the field: Kate and Tyler. Both have the school knowledge, but Kate’s got a little bit of an edge over Tyler with unbeatable instincts. However, she’s holding back due to a life-defining loss portrayed in the film’s opening. Even with this trauma coming to the forefront regularly, it’s still a hoot to watch this dick-measuring contest between Kate and Javi’s team and Tyler’s whooping and weird cadre, especially as Kate gets the better of Tyler every time.
Of course, Tyler can’t be too mad; he takes each L that Kate hands to him and turns it into an opportunity to shine. Glen Powell uses his perfect white teeth, infectious grin, and endless amounts of charm to make Tyler a formidable other half to this onscreen pairing. Smith writes Tyler as a guy who knows what he’s chasing, is respectful of it (even though he fronts for the cameras), and keeps a cool head in rattling situations. What’s even better is that he’s not just some “alpha male” trying to show how much he’s the man; he’s just enjoying the wave he’s riding, and he doesn’t want to step on anyone’s toes… but that doesn’t mean he’s not gonna have fun.
Chung wisely keeps our focus on these two and their respective missions – which, to be fair, are both going to yield results for the scientific community to study. In contrast to the storm chasers from the first film, we rarely see or get to know Tyler’s ragtag team, consisting of drone operator Lily (Sasha Lane), video documenter Boone (Brandon Perea), Dexter (Tunde Adebimpe), and Dani (Katy O’Brian). Honestly, we get to know more about Ben (Harry Hadden-Paton), a tag-along journalist who’s more prone to vomiting for comic relief than being a fully fleshed-out character. Even less could be said about Javi’s team, a bunch of polo shirt-wearing scientists who take themselves too seriously; there’s one who stands out for following their boss’ directives, but he’s just a mook who could’ve been played by anyone. These folks are there to speed the plot along, not being of much importance except to give us alternate camera angles or to be caught in a gravity-defying battle of life-and-death between them and a tornado.
One thing Smith’s script has over the original is that there’s genuine humanity to be found amid the ruckus, which Chung keeps top of mind first and foremost. A lot of it lies with Kate and her redemption arc, which pulls us more toward Daisy Edgar-Jones and her character. Even Tyler, written to give us the humor and the devil-may-care bravado, is grounded as a respectful, respectable person. The caricatures stop and start with Tyler’s team (who overact more than act), but they, too, possess the means to bring things down to earth when needed. Where Smith falters a bit – and thus, the movie itself – is the shoehorned-in subplot about the real motives behind Javi’s employment, meant to spark some kind of tension, I guess. It’s a paper-thin reason to bring Javi back into Kate’s life after the disastrous prologue, but it serves its meager “Stick It To The Man” purpose. As played by Anthony Ramos, Javi’s a solid friend to Kate, but he also gets sidelined to keep us alongside Kate and Tyler as they compete for each tornado’s attention.
Speaking of tornadoes, the intervening 28 years have allowed visual effects technology to advance well beyond the obvious CGI from the original. Twisters features impressive depictions of storms, sidewinders, and – of course – “TWINS!” Shot on film and on location, Chung makes plain his dedication to keeping things as real-world as possible, only resorting to CGI for the impractical, impossible, and unwieldy. Special effects – rain, wind, makeup, and other enhancements – gain traction by the larger-than-life sound design that aids and abets the visuals in terrific harmony. The storms howl and roar their way through the speakers in perfect concert with the onscreen action, a potent mix that begs for large-screen theater viewing.
I owned Twister on widescreen VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, and Blu-ray, and I rejoiced when the 4K disc dropped on my front porch just last week. I’m a big fan. So… what with Hollywood repurposing films and making legacy sequels out of everything, is it any surprise that Twister would receive the same treatment? Absolutely not. As a fan, does Twisters hit the mark? Absolutely yes. The soundtrack goes a little heavy on the country music for my taste, and the side banana characters are even more side bananas (emphasis on “bananas,” as far as Tyler’s team goes) this time around, but it’s still a wild ride and a full-on blast of fun and thrills.
