A young woman still reeling from tornado-related tragedy is pulled back into the world of storm chasing in Twisters, a slick new update of the original 1996 film starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton now playing in cinemas worldwide. There’s little connection to the earlier film here beyond the general premise, but this one is surprisingly well-scripted and packed with plenty of exciting scenes of devastating tornados that will satisfy most viewers tuning into a belated sequel.
Twisters stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Kate Carter, a stormchaser in Oklahoma who chases down tornados using a doppler named Dorothy V (one of the very few references to the first film, and itself a reference to The Wizard of Oz) alongside her friends Javi (Anthony Ramos), Addy (Kiernan Shipka), Praveen (Nik Dodani) and boyfriend Jeb (Daryl McCormack).
Kate has a theory: a specially-produced chemical mixture can be released into tornado clouds to reduce their intensity, potentially sparing damage and saving lives. The team puts this theory to the test in Twisters‘ dynamite opening scene—and things don’t go as planned, for Kate or the audience, as what initially feels quite innocuous takes a page from the Cliffhanger playbook.
Only fifteen minutes into Twisters and the script, by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) from a story by Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick), has delivered a genuine surprise while director Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) has crafted a first-rate action sequence to kick off his movie. Not bad.
One complaint: Twisters boasts an oppressively drab color palette, with cinematography by Dan Mindel (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) drenched in a variety of soft blues and grays. It’s hard to imagine a movie largely set during heavy storms looking much different, but couldn’t the sets and costumes, at least, boast some brighter visuals? At times, Twisters can feel almost depressing to look at.
The bulk of Twisters takes place five years after the dynamic opening scene, as Javi convinces a rattled Kate, now working a New York City office gig, to return to the Oklahoma field. When she does, she discovers a new breed of storm chaser in flashy vlogger and self-styled “Tornado Wrangler” Tyler Owens (Glenn Powell). At first put off by his tactics, Kate soon warms to his genuine insight… as well as his down-home charm.
Coming off Anyone But You and Hit Man, Powell is operating at peak appeal, and adds a much-needed sense of levity to what can otherwise feel like a downbeat narrative. Scenes between Tyler, Kate, and her mother (Maura Tierney) at Kate’s childhood home are particularly engaging, developing a romance between the leads while still advancing the plot. British actress Edgar-Jones, however, is never fully convincing as an Oklahoma native, especially next to the real deal in true Texan Powell.
Twisters is unusually well-scripted for a franchise Hollywood blockbuster, and there isn’t much fat in its story despite a lengthy runtime that exceeds the earlier film. Like the earlier film, the tornado effects are the real star of the show here; the extensive visual (and sound) effects work feels especially impressive when being used to recreate real-world dangers as opposed to otherworldly threats.
While pacing begins to lag during a midsection that can get repetitive with each tornado encounter being resolved in similar fashion, a thrilling finale that sees the roof ripped off a small-town cinema ends the film on a high note. Three decades after the 1996 original, Twisters doesn’t bring much new to the table, but executes its story with streamlined efficiency. It’s hard to imagine any viewers tuning in to be disappointed with what’s offered here.
