Twisters

Phone Transcript

JETHRO: Hello?

(Unknown): Pop Quiz, Hotshot! There's a movie about tornados. It makes almost a half-billion dollars - that's in 1996 money, back when money was worth something - and was even nominated for two Academy Awards. It has a cast and crew of household names, including the author of the novel that became what was then the Highest. Grossing. Movie. Of. All. Time. A license to print money, I think, so what do you do? What do you do?

JETHRO: Wait twenty-eight years to make a sequel?

(Unknown): What?!

JETHRO: You're talking about Twister, right? It just got a sequel with Twisters.

(Unknown): OK, wise guy, tell me all about it.

JETHRO: Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her team of storm chasers - Javi (Anthony Ramos), Addy (Kiernan Shipka), Praveen (Nik Dodani) and her boyfriend, Jeb (Daryl McCormick) - study twisters in Oklahoma. They think they can dissipate tornadoes by launching barrels of waterlock. They find a good test case, but it's much stronger than they anticipate, and all but Kate and Javi (who was miles away) are killed. 

Years later, Kate is a storm tracker at a NOAA office when Javi recruits her to help his company, Storm-Par, test their new weather scanner in Oklahoma. During their mission, they come across "storm wrangler" Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) and his storm chasers, who are off filming their latest meteorological adventures. The "city girl" and "country boy" initially don't get along, but they have to depend on each other to survive the ever-worsening tornadoes.

(Unknown): OK, OK, that's good. Tell me more.

JETHRO: The writing credits say it's "Based on Characters by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Curtin," but the only returning "characters" are the Dorothy probes used by Jo and Bill Harding (Helen Hunt & Bill Paxton). The probes are used by Kate and her first team in the prologue. Afterwards, Mark L. Smith's screenplay puts Kate and the audience through relatively unfamiliar narrative territory. I'm sure a lot of people will complain about the dissimilarities, but I haven't, for the story it tells is pretty decent.

(Unknown): How so?

JETHRO: Let's start with the characters. We don't get to know Kate's doomed storm chasers for pretty long. But we get to like them during that prologue and are perfectly gut punched when they are killed. They, Kate & Javi were that believable as longtime friends. Kate is quite compelling as she spends the movie owning up for her fatal miscalculations. She goes from panicking during one twister to helping citizens take shelter during the climactic monster tornado. Her survival is just as narratively satisfying as her theories finally working. 

Tyler and his "wranglers" introduce themselves as reckless glory hounds. But these storm chasers are anything but unlikable; their professional enthusiasm is endearing; their competence is impressive, and their altruism is inspiring. It's enough to make up for them accidentally running Kate and Javi off the road during their first storm chase. You'll be invested in Tyler and Kate's growing bond during their meteorological adventures. A lot. 

Now for a few others. It's later revealed that Storm-Par's financier, Marshall Riggs, is a bad guy. But he barely registers in the plot. Javi, however, perfectly sells us and Kate on Storm-Par's altruistic endeavors because he believes in them. So, we can sympathize with him even when he insensitively blames Kate for the fatal storm chase. He makes up for that by showing up his co-worker when the latter puts profit over people. Among the various bit characters, Jeff Swearingen was sympathetic as a doomed desk clerk, while Cody Paxton (Bill's son) and Lily Smith were less so as an ignorant couple. 

(Unknown): Hurry up.

JETHRO: Its relation to science is interesting. It explores a few concepts like the Fujiwara Scale, the Fujita Scale and why hiding under an overpass is a terrible idea. But it also has Tyler and his wranglers shooting fireworks into a tornado (which gave me the impression that they dissipated that tornado). In fact, Mother Nature is treated as a more palpable villain than Riggs himself. Either way, the cinematic twisters both look and sound perfectly menacing. Each one is more nightmarish than the last. The nighttime twister that disrupts a rodeo, and the climactic one that destroys a refinery - even creating a fire whirl - and later wrecks a movie theatre, are easily the most memorable. 

(Unknown): Hurry up!

JETHRO: There's some great Oklahoma scenery from cinematographer Dan Mindel, some excellent production design by Patrick Sullivan for the post-Twister devastations, and Benjamin Wallfisch's latest impressive score. 

(Unknown): Now!

JETHRO:  Who knows how scientifically accurate Twisters is, but it's still a pretty good blockbuster. It's worth paying even a few more dollars just to see the titular meteorological menaces on the biggest screens possible. It's also worth seeing it for the personalities on any screen. Give Twisters a spin and watch two hours spin right by. That's it for now. 

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