By Elias Savada.
A great Dolbyized and super-sized disaster ride.”
Youngsters, let me tell you something. Back a generation or so, in the late 20th century, there was a very popular film called Twister (catch it on MAX), an action trembler with a very sexy Helen Hunt and the late stalwart Bill Paxton as part of a team of tornado chasers extraordinaire. It’s back – after a 28-year absence – as Twisters, a pumped-up version of the same 2-hour, 3-act formula, with an even cuter couple caught up in the eye of numerous storms. This modern adaptation by Mark L. Smith of the 1996 original by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin pampers to the instant gratification demanded during these Facebook Live, social presence times.
I’m not calling it a sequel – maybe it’s a souped-up retelling, as the script includes basically a similar story, offers up an equivalent lightly-rocky love interest, again provides a few anecdotal references to The Wizard of Oz, cracks comparable cow jokes, rearranges some of the underlying characters (including Maura Tierney as a real mother vs. Lois Smith as an earth mother), and even provides some similar scenes and images. Instead of the young version of Helen Hunt’s character watching her father get sucked away in a whirlwind that introduces the first film (then flash forwarding 20+ years), Twisters follows its female lead, Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones), an all-business storm chaser who has some similar life-defining minutes before the film turns the clock ahead five years.
One of the climactic scenes in Twister takes place at a drive-in showing Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. That horror entry was released by Warner Bros., which was a co-presenter (with Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment) on both tornado films. Twisters moved that sequence indoors when shooting it in El Reno, to an old movie theater showing Universal’s classic Frankenstein. I suspect any follow-up (Twister3?) will offer Amblin’s executives (producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, executive producer Steven Spielberg) their turn to pick that film-within-a-film moment. This otherwise riveting passage is also one of the film’s falsest. The movie palace is being torn asunder (as is the town around it), yet the film continues to be shown as locals are cowering under the seats while the building’s ceilings and walls crumble to the intense weather outside. No way there would still be electricity available during this storm-of-the-century instant, and what kind of sadistic projectionist is on staff? Run for cover man!
The new film’s story is credited to Joseph Kosinski, director of Top Gun: Maverick, which upgraded an even older film (1986’s Top Gun) and fashioned its sequel into a modern-day megahit. Rising star Glen Powell moves up from his herk/good guy supporting role in the Tom Cruise starrer to easily slide into leading-man shoes as cocky tornado wrangler Tyler Owens, showcasing the actor’s attractive looks and natural acting manner. Ladies, don’t lie. His handsome honkytonk cowboy veneer is the obvious center of your attention.
Director Lee Isaac Chung transforms the tale into an IMAX-worthy spectacle (shot on 35mm film in Oklahoma, like the original), aiming for a topically themed (tornados seem to be a daily occurrence) updraft to the year’s lackluster box office – the exception being the animated lifeboat Inside Out 2, launched a month ago. I doubt there will be any additional Oscar nominations here (save for technical ones) for the indie-centric Chung, who earned multiple nods for his 2020 award-winning, autobiographical drama Minari, but Chung does a fine job weaving together the story, characters, and effects into a film worthy of its big ($200 million!) budget. The production values are top rate thanks to Dan Mindell’s camerawork, Scott R. Fisher’s special effects, and Ben Snow’s visual effects, all punched up with 19 original country-focused songs and Ben Wallfisch’s loud, peppy score.
Chung grew up on the Arkansas border with Oklahoma (when he also filmed Minari), where he learned about tornados up close (but not as close as the effects teams take you in Twisters). He accepted the challenge of this film with trepidation. “I was truly honored and terrified to make the transition into tentpole, summer blockbuster territory. But the film embodies what inspired me to take on the challenge; I wanted to run toward my fears and not away from them.”
Anxious to get out of the heat and find a solid dose of tornado porn? Here’s a fresh serving in a compelling enough package. It will be a familiar tale to those who have seen the original, with its new generation of eclectic meteorological characters (the cast is fleshed out with diverted performances by Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Sasha Lane, David Corensweet, and others). You may not be fully swept away, but it’s a great Dolbyized and super-sized disaster ride.
Elias Savada is a copyright researcher, film critic, craft beer geek, and avid genealogist based in Bethesda, Maryland. He previously reviewed for Film Threat and Nitrate Online. He has been an executive producer of the horror film German Angst, the documentaries Nuts! and The Pain of Others, and numerous other features and shorts. He co-authored, with the late David J. Skal, Dark Carnival: the Secret World of Tod Browning (first published in 1995, a revised edition was published by Centipede Press in January 2024, and a paperback edition will arrive in February 2025).