Although this film leaves no doubt that it’s a summertime, popcorn-laden rollercoaster ride — and quite a suspenseful one — there’s no denying the cautionary message also embedded in Mark L. Smith and Joseph Kosinski’s storyline:
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| With an EF5 (Enhanced Fujita Scale) tornado about to blow into town, Kate (Daisy Edger-Jones), Ravi (Anthony Ramos, center) and Tyler (Glen Powell) try to determine the safest place to hunker down. |
Because, as this thriller distressingly depicts, there will come a time when the financial damage, and tragic loss of life, become too great to dismiss.
(I’d have thought this was blindingly obvious years ago ... but certain segments of humanity do have a distressing habit of burying their heads in the sand.)
Anyway...
This sequel’s power comes not merely from special effects supervisor Scott R. Fisher and visual effects supervisor Ben Snow’s awesome action sequences, but also the crucial attention paid to characters and their interactions. That’s no surprise; director Lee Isaac Chung earned two well-deserved Academy Awards nominations for 2020’s Minari — easily one of this decade’s most sensitively emotional dramas — and he also helmed a 2023 episode of television’s The Mandalorian, which likely served as a testing ground for this big-screen feature.
Let it be said: Chung and editor Terilyn A. Shropshire move things along at a breakneck pace.
But as always is the case with such films, the best ones succeed because we grow to admire and care about the people involved. That’s definitely true here, since the viewers at Tuesday evening’s sold-out preview screening were riveted, worried and at the edge of their seats, during this saga’s ferocious climax.
But that comes later.
A prologue finds Muskogee State University graduate student Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and colleague Javi (Anthony Ramos) heading into Oklahoma’s “Tornado Alley,” in order to test a theoretical chemical invention that she believes could squelch small twisters, before they become larger monsters. Their team includes Kate’s boyfriend, Jeb (Daryl McCormack), and students Addy (Kiernan Shipka) and Praveen (Nik Dodani, recognized from his supporting role on the Netflix series Atypical).
(In a nice touch of continuity, Muskogee State was the alma mater of the characters played by Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, in 1996’s Twister. Indeed, that film’s writers — Anne-Marie Martin and the late Michael Crichton — are granted credits here.)
Alas, the experiment ends in tragedy.
Flash-forward five years, to the present day. Kate has fled to Manhattan, where she works behind the safety of a computer console, as a storm tracker for the U.S. Weather Service. She might have remained there, but for the unexpected arrival of Javi, with whom she has lost touch.
Now the co-founder of a start-up company, StormPar, Javi and partner Scott (David Corenswet) have developed a tornado-studying “phased array radar device” (PAR): an evolved version of the “Dorothy” machine that was central to Twister. But in order to test their equipment, they need somebody who can sense when tornadoes will develop, and how they’ll likely move ... and nobody is better at that, than Kate.
It isn’t an easy sell, but Javi reminds Kate of what initially motivated them: the desire to help save future lives and property. She reluctant agrees to give StormPar one week, and returns with them to her native Oklahoma.
(It must be said, however, that StormPar’s sensor arrays, when revealed — ideally placed at triangular points surrounding a tornado — are much too flimsy for their purpose. “Those things,” Constant Companion muttered, “neverwill survive long enough to do their job.”)
To Kate’s consternation, things have changed during the past half-decade. Thanks to social media, storm-tracking has become a spectator sport that lures scores of ill-prepared idiots determined to snag the perfect selfie. She’s appalled: even more so, when self-proclaimed “tornado wrangler” Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) roars into the enclave with his raucous band of “extreme meteorologists” (read: no degrees).
The larger-than-life Tyler is part cowboy, part video hustler — T-shirts with his image sell like hotcakes — and pure charm incarnate. He and his team ride Tornado Alley’s range solely to get close enough to twisters in order to light ’em up with pyrotechnics, and then film the results for social media clicks.
Kate finds him contemptible ... not that this bothers Tyler in the slightest. But it’s a genuine problem, because her research goals can’t take place alongside Tyler’s grandstanding antics; they’re mutually exclusive.
The story’s subsequent first act is mostly larkish, as Kate and her StormPar team attempt to out-maneuver Tyler and his merry marauders, as the next few twisters appear. As she quickly learns, Tyler’s instincts also are pretty good; their repeated efforts at respective one-upmanship become a sort of flirtatious dance.
Until matters get serious.
Edgar-Jones‘ Kate is totally believable, as a dedicated researcher fighting hard not to be defined by the scars of her past. Although she initially seems relaxed and in control, while focusing on the theoretical aspects of StormPar’s work, this proves deceptive. Being back in the field is another animal entirely, and Edgar-Jones’ features and body language become a study of barely restrained terror. Can she do this again?
Her inevitable breakdown, in the second act, is equal parts forlorn and anguished. It’s also embarrassing, because she loses her cool before an audience of one: Tyler. Edgar-Jones capably handles the necessary blend of anger, anguish and humiliation.
It also must be said that the London-born and raised Edgar-Jones completely buries her native British accent, to an astonishing degree. She sounds totally American (although probably not totally Okie).
Owens, riding high on the rapidly accelerating fame built on Top Gun: Maverick and this year’s Hit Man, makes Tyler a hunky, charismatic force of nature. Although he initially dismisses Kate as an inexperienced “city girl,” Tyler isn’t arrogant enough to ignore the repeated examples of her instinctive talents. And — surprise, surprise — he turns out to be a pretty decent guy.
Ramos is solid, in the challenging role of Ravi. Although a similarly dedicated researcher at heart, it soon becomes clear that StormPar’s creation resulted from uncomfortable corners being cut (another topical nod to nasty, real-world compromises).
The stand-outs in Tyler’s crew of wild ’n crazy hooligans include the well-named Boone (Brandon Perea), the team videographer and longtime boon companion to his boss: quick with a quip, and relentlessly cheerful. Sasha Lane’s Lily is a hoot: a lively adrenaline junkie and wild woman given to whooping war cries, as she monitors the drones that scout ahead for tornadoes.
Harry Hadden-Paton supplies comic relief as Ben, a British reporter assigned to Tyler’s crew, in order to understand what drives these crazy Americans. Rest assured, he’s soon in way over his head.
Maura Tierney lights up the second act as Kate’s mother, Cathy: a flinty, true-overall-blue farmer who nurtured her daughter’s passion for studying storms. Cathy’s slow-burn interactions with Tyler, when he unexpectedly shows up at the family farm, are priceless.
We even get a bona-fide villain, played by David Born, whose role in these events won’t be revealed here.
The science involved also sounds reasonable, although the characters occasionally slide into too much techno-babble.
The SFX notwithstanding, Chung also insisted on getting much of the action “in camera” ... which is to say, without CGI trickery. (Picture ginormous wind machines.) That lends considerable authenticity to the various dangers, as this story roars into its second and third acts.
The narrative also pauses at one point, to take in the post-tornado damage to a small town: a shattering upending of lives, families, homes and businesses, created in cataclysmic detail by production designer Patrick Sullivan (who also handled this assignment in Twister).
We thus realize that this also is a story about community: strangers coming together to overcome a common foe, and somehow move on with life.
Twisters is a helluva ride, with its intense action sequences matched by strong dramatic moments.
It’s also superior to its 1996 predecessor.
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