It’s been ages since I saw the 1996 movie, but I still remember the visceral thrill boosted by the great performances of its leads Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, plus a memorable supporting role by the great Phillip Seymour Hoffman. It’s not a stellar movie by any stretch of the imagination, but Jan de Bont’s movie is entertaining and memorable enough to earn its cult-classic status. I went into this sequel not expecting that this one would top the original the way say, Top Gun: Maverick did, so in that regard, it met my expectations.
The movie doesn’t waste much time in bringing in the main event. A team of college science students led by ‘tornado whisperer’ Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is gearing up for a field experiment to ‘tame the tornado,’ in the hope it would land her a massive grant. Disaster movies are often so formulaic that the supporting characters that appear in the first calamity in the first act would perish. Sure enough, that is exactly what happened here. Most of Kate’s storm chaser teammates, including her boyfriend Jeb (Daryl McCormack, a fantastic actor wasted in a throwaway role) all got picked up by the forceful vertical wind.
Fast forward 5 years later, Kate is now working a safe desk job at the National Weather Service in NYC. Not for long though, as the other surviving team member from the college disaster Javi (Anthony Ramos) tracks her down. Armed with a new state-of-the-art tornado tracking system, she lures Kate back into the field again despite still being riddled with guilt for leading her college team into danger. So most of the movie takes place in a week’s time where Javi’s team Storm PAR crosses paths with a team of boisterous storm chaser YouTubers led by Tyler Owens (Glen Powell). I see a few familiar faces on Tyler’s group: Sasha Lane (American Honey), Katy O’Brian (Mandalorian series), and Harry Hadden-Paton (Downton Abbey) as a British reporter tagging along for a story.
Directed by Lee Isaac Chung, four years after winning Best Original Screenplay for Minari, it seems to be a good fit as he too grew up in a rural Midwestern town. I read that Chung insisted that the film to be shot on location in Oklahoma, which adds a level of authenticity given it’s the center of Tornado Alley. Though there is plenty of CGI done by ILM, it’s quite eerie to see real tornado footage captured by real-life storm chasers incorporated into the movie. The script by Mark L. Smith is serviceable, but the dialogue is a little on the nose and clichéd… a character yelling ’That’s our tornado, baby!’ and Kate marveling ‘It’s gorgeous!’ while staring at a rotating wall cloud above, ha! Somehow Joseph Kosinski who directed Top Gun: Maverick gets story credit, I think his strength is more on the visual instead of the narrative side.
As for the cast, fellow Texan Powell takes the mantle from the late Bill Paxton. Powell brings his smooth charm and cocksure energy, a huge contrast to Edgar-Jones’ mellow demeanor. It’s not clear what exactly drew Tyler to the bland, studious Kate, perhaps that innate talent for interpreting storm patterns by simply feeling the wind and observing far-off clouds is catnip for weather folks. I for one don’t find Edgar-Jones all that interesting as an actress and it’s a stretch to imagine the English-born 26-year-old as a bad-ass, weather-obsessed farm girl. The chemistry between them barely registers, which makes the romance tepid at best. It’s a problem when the scene of Kate’s mother Cathy (Maura Tierney) thirsting over Tyler packs more heat.
After Maverick, Powell has now been in two sequels that were released decades after the first movie. Now, this one could be categorized as a reboot, as the plot is pretty much the same. It features two competing groups of storm chasers of differing styles and motives. Javi does his best to keep the corporate backing a secret from Kate, while his teammate Scott (David Corenswet) isn’t keen on her being part of his team. It’s amusing to see future Superman Corenswet portraying an unsympathetic, un-Clark-Kent-like character, at one point he even yells ‘I don’t care about the people!’
The real star is the special effects of the tornado itself, though more advanced SFX tech doesn’t always translate to better set pieces. The rodeo and movie theater scenes showcase tornadoes’ incredible raw power and sheer destructive force. Still, this movie lacks a real memorable spectacle moment that takes my breath away, nothing spectacular that we haven’t seen before. While the original gave us a flying cow, we’ve got a chicken landing on the hood of a car, that pretty much sums up the level of intensity.
Minnesota weather has been pretty volatile this year and we’ve had plenty of heavy thunderstorms with damaging winds lately. There’s a bit of a queasy feeling that Twisters might hit too close to home, but in the end, this disaster adventure flick is definitely more escapist entertainment. “If you feel it, chase it!” Well, if you’re a fan of action-packed disaster movies, Twisters is still worth the chase.
Have you seen TWISTERS? I’d love to hear what you think!
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FLIXCHATTER FILM BLOG 
I still remember back in May of 1996 how excited I was to see the original Twister. It’s the first summer film of that year and it’s one of the first films to include so many CGI effects and those effects looked so cool back in the days. It’s also the film to have been released in the then new Dolby Digital Surround Sound.
I saw it on opening night and enjoyed it. It’s cheesy but forgettable. I haven’t seen it since, though. I have no desire to see this new one in theater. I’ll wait till it hits streaming and watch it at home.
I can’t remember if I saw the original in the theater or not, it might have been as I distinctly recall the moment that flying cow appeared!! Oh and the huge ladder that came through the car windshield that killed Carl Elwes’ character! Yes it was cheesy but more memorable than this one, plus there was definitely chemistry between Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt who were getting divorced.
Yeah, perfectly fine to watch this one on streaming, Ted!
“. While the original gave us a flying cow, we’ve got a chicken landing on the hood of a car, that pretty much sums up the level of intensity.”…..that’s enough for me not to have to watch it LOL. Thanks
Mwahahaha!! That’s what I thought immediately after the movie was done. Well, I think it’s still worth watching on streaming if you like disaster flicks, Elly!
I’m going to wait for this on streaming as I did like Twister when it first came out as it is a fun film but it’s also known for its soundtrack that features the last song that Sammy Hagar did with Van Halen a month before he would be fired from the band.
Oh wow! I didn’t know about that tidbit about the song! Well this one has mostly country songs which aren’t my thing at all.
The other soundtrack also had a lot of country but also rock, pop, and alternative at the time. One of the reasons Sammy Hagar opposed to doing a song for the film was because he didn’t want VH fans to spend $18 for a CD because of one song and an instrumental that Eddie did. He also didn’t want to record the song because his wife at the time was pregnant with their first child and he didn’t want to leave her alone in Hawaii until Eddie threatened to fire him.
A month after the film and soundtrack, Sammy and his wife brought their newborn baby girl home on Father’s Day that year and Sammy got the call from Eddie that he was out of Van Halen and the band was working with David Lee Roth again. That was a shitty thing Eddie did though what happened to Roth months later was just as bad.
Honestly I don’t know much about the history of Van Halen and the fallout of Hagar, so this is all quite fascinating. Now I’m looking up about what happened to Roth!
Well, the original band reunited at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards in presenting an award to Beck as everyone was excited to see Dave back in the band but it was a publicity stunt for an upcoming best of album the band did as Dave thought he was back in the band. Later that night during a press interview, it fell apart and Dave was gone to be replaced by Gary Cherone of Extreme for Van Halen III released in 1998 and that FLOPPED. Many wanted to blame Cherone for that album but it was really Eddie’s fault.
I’m so glad I’m not the only person who thought Kate’s mom had more chemistry with Tyler than she did 😂
Hey Katie, yeah I feel like there’s more sparks between Maura and Glen, ahah. I was even thinking maybe for the follow up to Twisters, the ‘twist’ would be Tyler getting together with Kate’s mom instead 😀
I still keep meaning to watch the first Twister, (mostly because of Helen Hunt)but it never makes the cut of the thousands of movies at my fingertips.
Oh well! As far as action sequels go… the Die Hards are still my faves.
Thanks for the review, Ruth!
Oh you should watch the first Twister! Helen Hunt is great, and there’s actual chemistry between her and the late Bill Paxton.
Oh yeah, Die Hard movies have awesome action, that’s a great legacy for Bruce Willis for sure.
Okay! Twister it is; maybe tonight while I’m doing hand sewing. Needle in, needle out does not require full attention.
You know another actor I watch repeatedly is Tommy Lee Jones. You know, in the bg while Im drawing.
OH I LOVE Tommy Lee Jones, he’s fantastic in everything he’s in. Have you seen THE BURIAL? I love him in that movie, I included him and Jamie Foxx on this list of overlooked performances of 2023 https://flixchatter.net/2024/01/07/20-memorable-but-overlooked-movie-performances-of-2023/
I MUST see The Burial!! Great list, Ruth. I just checked it out.
I agree, I think disaster movie fans will be pleased. I had a good time with it too.
Summers are popular for disaster movies, just like Independence Day made a ton of $$$ in 1996.
Great reviews as always. I wasn’t planning on watching this film but I may give it a chance after reading your review. Honestly, I was not fan of the original 1996 movie. I recall being let down by the film which I saw in my high school class. That being said, this new version does appear to be an improvement. I am a fan of Lee Isaac Chung, whose previous movie “Minari’ was my personal favourite film of 2020. I was really moved by the depiction of immigration in that film. So, due to the director, I might check out “Twisters” when I find the time. Thanks for the recommendation.
Here’s why I loved Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari”:
Hello Hasan, hope you are well!
If you’re not that big a fan of the original, then I’m not sure you’d have fun watching this one as it’s kind of more of the same. It’s such a departure for Isaac Chung from Minari, but I applaud him for tackling such an action packed movie and he succeeded for the most part.
I agree w/ your review of the universal appeal of Minari, which is about a Korean immigrant in the American Midwest. The script is fantastic, which you can’t really say about this one, but he didn’t write this one.
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Great review once again. I recently had a chance to see this movie and really enjoyed it. I thought that it was a really engaging summer blockbuster. Chung did an extraordinary job of creating a tornado that was terrifying. I also feel the film was a massive improvement upon the 1996 original. It felt more grounded in emotion with characters that we could easily care for. While far from perfect, it’s a really entertaining summer blockbuster.
Here’s my thoughts on the 1996 original “Twister”:
Great review once again. I had a chance to watch this movie recently and enjoyed it. A fantatsic blockbuster about a tornado disaster. I thought it was a huge improvement on the first film which I found overrated. It found a nice balance between story and spectacle that was missing from the original.
Here’s my thoughts on the movie: