I watched both movies in one day for some reason and this is how it went
I don’t remember where I was or exactly how old I was when I saw Twister for the first time as a kid. All I know is that I had to have been old enough for my biggest childhood fear to have firmly taken root: having a parent die. So naturally, the image of young Jo’s father being sucked out of their storm shelter by an F5 tornado during the opening minutes of the movie has stuck with me for a long time.
Yesterday, I watched Twister for the first time since that fateful childhood day. It wasn’t like I’d been avoiding it or anything. I knew I wasn’t going to be as scared this time. That said, watching Jo’s father getting ripped up into the sky amidst staccato lightning flashes, piercing screams, and howling wind remains effective to this day. It’s impossible not to imagine what it would be like to be lifted away like that—to wonder how long you’d survive in the twisting gale before a piece of debris skewered you.
Despite knowing that Twisters was a standalone sequel, it felt appropriate to give its 1996 predecessor a watch before seeing it. I had forgotten everything about it except the cold open. I also knew nothing about Twisters, but it sounded it great. Literally. I don’t watch trailers in the cinema, opting instead to read on my Kindle or just close my eyes. But the soundscape of the trailer felt enormous and powerful and thrilling.
Overall, I was feeling excited for what will henceforth be called Tornado Day. And if you feel it?
Chase It
Twister was the second-highest grossing movie of 1996, which feels a little insane given the state of things today. Still, it’s not an undeserved achievement. This is an impressive movie, not only for its visual effects which were breathtaking at the time (it won an Oscar for them), but for its screenplay, which managed to chisel a satisfying narrative out of such a mindless antagonistic force as ‘Bad Weather’.
It does this, of course, through character. After what happened to her as a child, Jo (Helen Hunt) has an extremely personal relationship with tornados. She’s looking to capture data on them that will help with predicting their formation, hopefully allowing people more time to evacuate disaster areas. She’s also going through a divorce with Bill (Bill Paxton), who used to be tornado-chaser like her, and helped design ‘Dorothy’—the machine Jo wants to use to capture data on the tornados.
For as heart-pounding as the tornado scenes are, the real magic of Twister lies in Jo and Bill’s relationship. It’s fun to watch them bicker and flirt as they oscillate between finalising their divorce and rekindling their romance. There are less tornados than you might think in the movie, but I never felt like that was a bad thing, because I was enjoying the character dynamics so much.
There are also a merry band of storm chasers helping Jo. Philip Seymour Hoffman stands out the most simply because his character is borderline insane. From the way he wears his jacket to the unsettling comments he makes to Bill’s new fiancé, he’s good for a laugh. The rest of the storm chasers are lost in the mix, though. They all ostensibly have specific roles to play in the tracking and chasing of tornados, but I couldn’t care less about them. I honestly figured they were cannon fodder when they were first introduced and was a little disappointed when I didn’t get to see them all bite it in various tornado-related ways.
To Tame a Tornado
Still, watching the destruction that the tornados in both of these films cause is riveting. There’s an outright Bad Guy in Twister played by Cary Elwes, and the film isn’t afraid of letting the audience root for his demise. Things are a little more tragic in Twisters, which opens with an absolute jaw-dropping scene of tornado destruction. Of course I won’t spoil it here, but this scene alone is worth the price of entry. It does a fantastic job of establishing the emotional stakes for our lead—Kate, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones—as well as the level of destruction that tornados can cause.
Of course, Glen Powell is soaking up a lot of the discourse around Twisters for being a charismatic Cool Dude with a cowboy hat. He plays “professional tornado wrangler” Tyler Owens which is a great piece of casting. His personality is totally at odds with Kate’s timid/traumatised demeanour, which is good for some conflict, although I would’ve liked to see the romance between them pushed a little harder.
Again, Twisters is impressive because it manages to pull off a whole narrative based around tornados. There’s some overlap between the plots mostly around the idea of a protagonist looking to study tornados, but Twisters adds a new dimension with Anthony Ramos’ character, Javi, who has built a business around gathering tornado date which he may or may not be using for unscrupulous purposes. Javi is a surprisingly multi-dimensional character and it was great watching his relationship with Kate and Tyler shift and evolve.
The two films do feel quite similar in both narrative and aesthetics, but of course the visual effects in Twisters are a lot more impressive. It also has a much more powerful and character-based climax in my opinion. Where on a personal level Helen Hunt’s Jo is working through a divorce, Kate is working through fear, which feels a lot more primal, and the film does a great job of exposing it and arcing her towards overcoming it.
Conclusion
Watching both of these movies in one day was certainly a lot of fun. A spiritual sequel to Twister was never something that audiences were clamouring for, but I think it’s great that it got made. One thing I’m particularly glad for was a lack of ‘Remember this from the first movie!?’ moments that so often plague legacy sequels (I’m looking at you, every modern Ghostbusters movie).
Twisters stands tall as an exceptionally fun sequel and despite some dated visuals, Twister has actually aged exceptionally well and is well worth a watch if you’re looking for more tornado action after catching Twisters in the cinema—which is something that you should do; this is a killer movie to see on the big screen.
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