“Twisters” Blows into Theaters with Abandon

Twisters (Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Maura Tierney) – Twister was a huge hit in 1996. Starring Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes and a supporting cast that included Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Jamie Gertz, its executive producer was Steven Spielberg. This “sequel,” Twisters, is also a Spielberg (Amblin) production. Starring relatively unknown Daisy Edgar-Jones (Where the Crawdads Sing) and Hollywood’s hottest actor, Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick, Hidden Figures, Hit Man), Twisters is an edge-of-your-seat thriller.

Action movie fans should rush to the theater to see it even though there aren’t any gunfights. Instead, like the original, it features two teams of tornado chasers racing each other and heading into the storms with reckless abandon. As the movie begins, we see our heroine, Kate, leading a team of storm chasers in a race against catastrophe in her quest to test her theory that tornadoes could be tamed by releasing some chemicals directly into the twisters. Their quest turns catastrophic, resulting in Kate giving up the chase, presumably forever. If true, there would be no movie.

In the five ensuing years, technology has improved, and Kate rejoins the chase. That’s when she meets a group of tornado “wranglers” led by Tyler (Glen Powell), who views chasing as a marketing opportunity and internet sensation. He’s everything Kate hates, which means, of course, that they will ultimately end up together. (In the original, Cary Elwes played the villain.)

Once this is all established, the movie becomes a two-hour disaster fest much like the original film. Seemingly everything goes flying, sucked into the countless vortexes depicted in the film. Tornados appear to be a daily occurrence in Oklahoma as Kate and Tyler drive into danger. But Kate is haunted by her catastrophic past, returning home to her small-town Oklahoma farm and mother (Maura Tierney). Tyler follows her and they soon team up to tame the storm.

If you can just put logic aside and not worry about continuity and inconsistencies (how can the electricity still be working in the movie theater as the town gets blown away?), you can just enjoy the amazing special effects. The list of compositors, animators, and visual effects people number in the hundreds. Heck, there are 80 stunt people credited.

I rate the movie an A- with the only criticism being the predictable love story and a ridiculous sub-plot about the motives of her friend’s storm chasing team. But no one should care about plot. This is a special effects extravaganza. The original movie had flying cows and tractor. This one has flying people, houses, and trucks.

After the film, you will never want to visit Oklahoma during tornado season. Of course, I have never wanted to visit Oklahoma at all.

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