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In a moment of great American tension and yearning for comity, Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters doesn’t exactly arrive like a gift from the heavens, but it sure does its damndest to take you back to the “simpler” times of ‘90s high-concept popcorn thrills and goofy grins. And the high-concept at play here is very goofy too.
Take the film’s lead characters: she’s a transplant city girl who for years has chosen to observe tornadoes from the safety of a Manhattan high-rise; he’s a rough and tumble cowboy, or “tornado wrangler,” who might have studied meteorology at some point, but insists nowadays he doesn’t need fancy degrees or big-city book-learning to catch a twister. She intends to prove there is a way to scientifically blunt and stop a tornado before it reaches a major population center; he is out less for research than he is jonesing to capture “nature’s masterpiece” for extreme weather junkies on YouTube.
You might say he’s a little bit country and she’s a little bit rock n’ roll (or he’s a punk and she took ballet for a more appropriately millennial piece of nostalgia). Twisters even comes dangerously close to hinting that Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones are playing a respective red stater and blue who are out to make unlikely harmony in the heartland—although the movie stops just short of ever making a thematic point, be it political or otherwise, that could offend anyone. Hence why the smarty pants scientist characters, which also includes Anthony Ramos’ winning smile in a supporting role, never once conjecture why they’re seeing a massive uptick in tornados in the last five years. Funny, that.
What they are determined to do, though, is provide the kind of innocuous and wholly beguiling entertainment that was the 1990s’ bread and butter when Jan de Bont’s first Twister proved a smash hit on the back of rock solid Hollywood formula, great casting, and new-fangled special effects. Well, Twisters has all that, too, but this time arrives in a moment where we feel strangely starved for this specific, and delicious, sampling of bread and circus. Twisters might be a pseudo reboot and/or legacy sequel to a classic piece of ‘90s kitsch, but it also proves surprisingly adept at channeling that vibe into a modern, and irresistibly entertaining context.
That context mostly encircles Edgar-Jones’ Kate Carter, who like Bill Paxton’s tornado-whisperer from the 1996 original has a preternatural sixth sense about anticipating storms of the century. But after suffering a tragedy early in her life, she’s decided to put distance between herself and the tornado alley she grew up in. That changes on the day that her old childhood friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) shows up and begs Kate to come back to Oklahoma for a week. He thinks he’s created a new way to analyze twisters’ weather patterns and needs Kate’s third eye for tornadoes to catch one with his tech.
Once back on the ground in her home state, Kate is haunted by memories of the past as well as glimpses of the possible future when Powell’s big-hatted and big grinnin’ Tyler Owens shows up. Essentially a storm-chasing influencer, Tyler has a team of free spirits and adrenaline junkies around him to record his daredevil antics, such as when he drives straight into an F1 tornado in order to shoot some fireworks off inside it. Kate is at once repulsed but intrigued by the machismo, especially after she learns Tyler is more than just the fit of his hat and tight T-shirts. Soon the pair will find good reason to join forces as the tornadoes get angrier and more aggressive throughout their fateful week.
Twisters’ vague interest in pitting experts against social media amateurs is an intriguing kernel of an idea—and one which I wonder how Michael Crichton would’ve responded to. Crichton co-wrote the first draft of the 1996 original movie, and for all its Hollywood hokum, there was a tangible pleasure in that film’s showcase of Crichton’s favorite subject matter: believable, half-crazed scientists who offered great character bits for the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman or Alan Ruck. Twisters, by contrast, is far less interested in finding a verisimilitude in its eggheads. While Kate is a pretty great star vehicle for up-and-comer Edgar-Jones, the other scientists in the film are fairly peripheral. The only character on Javi’s team with more than five lines might even be David Corenswet in the thankless Cary Elwes role of “evil scientist who sold his soul to corporate America.” Though that is also a Crichton and ’90s staple.
But while Twisters might lack its original creator’s occasional stabs at storm-chasing authenticity, it never loses sight for an instant of why that ‘96 flick was such a hit: de Bont’s strong eye for Hollywood story structure which in turn buttressed his massive spectacle (this was the guy who made Speed, after all). Which is to say, Twisters is a lot smarter and more satisfying than the Jurassic Park reboots at the same studio from the previous decade.
As Chung’s first directorial effort after the tiny but heart-rending Minari, Twisters has a clear sense of its narrative foundations. Kate is a fine blockbuster breakout for Edgar-Jones, allowing her to bring much of the same fragile resilience she imbued to an indie horror like Fresh to a character whose complicated emotions toward tornadoes creates an emotional through-line to the film.
Powell, meanwhile, brings much of the same proto-movie star swagger he’s been showcasing for years to a role that back in the ‘90s could’ve conceivably been played by a young Brad Pitt or Matthew McConaughey. Not nearly as intricate or interesting as the character Powell co-wrote for himself in Hit Man, Tyler Owens will nevertheless beguile audiences as much as Kate. For years many critics (including this one) have noted Powell is a movie star on the make, and Twisters might be the right broncin’ vehicle to finally put him over the top at the multiplex.
The casting is across the board reliable, albeit Ramos doesn’t get enough to do as the third wheel in the movie. But at the end of the day, audiences do not see a movie like Twisters for the characters. Fortunately, the spectacle you might be paying for comes with enough solid characterization to quicken the pulse when the wind rises. After a fairly intense opening sequence prologue, Twisters divides the rest of its running time around an escalating series of storms, each providing a different visual and visceral thrill: there’s “twin” tornadoes, night time surprise attackers, and even a spinning inferno when one twister knocks over a gas tank in the third act. The climax is in fact a symphony of old school Hollywood movie magic as fleshy, likable characters cling for dear life in extreme wide shots as a few of them get sucked up into the sky. The choice for Kate and Tyler’s last stand against the tornado from hell has a particularly fun meta irony.
Also, for full disclosure, the Twisters screening I attended (and therefore influenced by) was the third and easily best run-in this writer has had with 4DX. While the “moving chairs” and water spray sensory experience of 4DX will always have a hint of the theme park gimmick about it, a movie like Twisters is so effective because it is a strongly calibrated, two-hour long theme park joy ride. And by the time this movie’s climactic seat-shaking was over, a round of sincere applause was heard throughout the auditorium as moviegoers looked to each person on their left and right, as if to ask, “Was that good for you?” Yes, yes it was.
Twisters is in theaters on Friday, July 19. Learn more about Den of Geek’s review process and why you can trust our recommendations here.
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