‘Twisters’ Review: A Whirlwind of a Summer Blockbuster

Disaster movies were all the rage back in the ’90s, and Twister was the golden standard. Featuring an all-star cast consisting of Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, the film put tornado chasing on the map with its tense scenes and destructive visuals. It’s a film that still holds up quite well to this day. So when Universal Pictures announced a sequel was in development, I couldn’t help but look at the situation with hesitation. It’s easy to get sucked into an easy cash grab vortex since the original film has such a devoted following. Thankfully, Twisters doesn’t rely heavily on nostalgia and instead focuses on delivering a fun and exciting summer blockbuster that takes new characters on a similar path of destruction.

College student and storm chaser Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones) has spent her young life studying tornados and believes she has a new invention that can actually help break apart a whirling tornado using sodium polyacrylate, resulting in less damage and more lives saved. The only way to test her plan, however, is to release barrels of the stuff directly inside a tornado. Her attempt at doing so results in the biggest failure as not only does the tornado fail to dissipate, but it ultimately swallows up three of her friends, including her boyfriend. Five years later and Kate is still haunted by the event, taking a cozy desk job in New York at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It’s there that she’s approached by Javi (Anthony Ramos), the only other survivor of that fateful day, who believes he has the technology to finally learn all there is to know about tornados to help save lives. He needs Kate’s help and expertise, though, and she reluctantly agrees to return to chasing tornados back in Oklahoma to face down mother nature and her past.

Twisters is a sequel but it also feels like a reboot to the original. The premise remains mostly the same; competing teams of tornado chasers hunt down the biggest and baddest twisters for science, fame, and glory. Kate is looking for redemption and to ease her conscience with what happened years ago. If she can figure out a way to save people then maybe at least the friends she lost won’t all be for nothing. Then you have Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), an internet celebrity storm chaser who does it all for the thrill and viral fame. He drives headfirst into tornados not for the science but just because he can. There’s no benefit to shooting off fireworks into a tornado, but he does it anyway because it makes him look good. Naturally the two butt heads at they compete for the same twisters. What makes Twisters so entertaining is the path these characters take. Just as there is still so much unknown about tornadoes, these characters all have their own secrets and motivations.

Glen Powell is without a doubt the heart and soul of Twisters. He simply oozes charisma and is the kind of guy everyone wants to chill and grab a beer with. As Tyler, he initially presents a sense of cockiness and bravado that only looks meanspirited when paired alongside the well intentioned Kate and her team who are actually trying to do something productive with their tornado chasing. There’s nothing wrong with what he does. The more time the film spends with him, however, the more you get to see of his character and true motivations. It’s the same for everyone including both Kate and Javi as well. Twisters is about more than just surviving increasingly more devastating tornados. The film does a good job at making you care about its characters, thus making their survival all the more thrilling.

That being said, there is still plenty of tornado action. I honestly think it’s quite funny that within the first few minutes of the film, Kate and her collage classmates essentially do what the original Twister set out to accomplish and release a newly updated Dorothy V into the center of a tornado and are able to briefly track its wind patterns. Mother nature is not so easily tamed, though, and the twisters that follow are destructively beautiful. The scenes might not be as intense as the first film, and I believe that’s due to the score not being on the same level, but there is still that sense of being at the mercy of mother nature that is so terrifying. There is only so much you can do other than run in the opposite direction. Twisters once again makes you feel in awe of the planet.

Twisters is a satisfying sequel, and while it doesn’t quite live up to the original, it still imbues an appreciation for tornadoes. Sure, it can be a little over-the-top sometimes. The vehicles everyone has are basically indestructible tanks and there is enough plot armor to cover all of Oklahoma, but that doesn’t make the thrill of the chase any less enjoyable. It’s a whirlwind of a summer blockbuster that delivers a downpour fun. It’s all I could ask from a sequel to one of the most memorable disaster films of the ’90s.