By Billed as a stand-alone sequel to 1996’s hit disaster movie Twister, 2024’s Twisters promises to bring more destructive weather mayhem and engage the minds of a new generation of audiences.
Five years ago, college student Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her team are out chasing tornados hoping their science experiment will assist the local communities and bring some much-needed relief to the deadly tornado season. A shocking accident sees Kate leave her dreams and the world of tornado chasing behind moving away to New York for a safer career with the weather service. It’s here that Javi (Anthony Ramos) tracks her down. Javi was one of her college team and had gone his separate ways. Joining the military, he learnt of new technology that would help realise their college days dreams of predicting and managing a tornado, the problem, Javi needs Kate and her uncanny instincts to lead them to the best possible chance of capturing one of mother nature’s most ruthless weather systems.
Reluctantly Kate agrees to a week with Javi and they set off back to Central Oklahoma’s Tornado Alley just as storm season promises to hit overdrive with some of the biggest systems the area has ever seen. It’s here she meets the Tornado Wranglers, a group of fellow chasers who seem to be in it for fame and fortune, live streaming their exploits on YouTube and selling merchandise to all manner of people at local stops or on storm watch holidays. (Yes, that’s a thing, yes, I want to do it!)
Leading the group is Tyler Owens (Glen Powell). Initially coming off as a cocky thrill seeker who seems to get his thrill by putting himself and others in danger, we learn throughout that there might just be a whole lot more to Tyler than we initially thought.
Powell’s take on Tyler is the stand-out performance amongst a host of great casting. His bravado and style we have seen in his other films fits the character perfectly but we get to see his growth and a level of intelligence come through that I was not expecting. What started off as a character who grated on me initially quickly grew into one of the more captivating on the screen.
Twisters takes a lot from the original and as a fan, I picked up on it straight away. Scenes were shot exactly as done previously, dialogue was reused and some general plot points have been included to tie the two together. These nods to the original and the font on the title are all lovingly included and not done to take away from the original but as an added feature. For a new generation of movie goers, it is hard to think you wouldn’t have seen Twister, but it was nearly 30 years ago now, thankfully you don’t have to have seen it as Twisters stands on its own without any tie-over plot points coming through.
The biggest stars of Twisters are of course the tornadoes themselves and there are some intense moments from the opening exchanges right up until the closing moments. Not only do we see the damage they cause to property but we get an insight into how they work. While the science talk can bog the flow down a little it quickly picks up again with the roar of the winds or a car tumbling across the screen.
Thankfully Twisters hits all the right marks for a big action flick and hits it well. A full complement of interesting and quirky characters works well with each other with a story that evolves throughout. While there is enough there for fans of the original to look back on with fondness, Twisters is its own movie and is best viewed with that knowledge. The CGI for the twisters has come along leaps and bounds and is complemented well by a booming score to keep your heart rate elevated.
Twisters is one to watch in the cinema, it may not do anything new or different, but it knows its niche and fills it well.
Twisters is coming to cinemas near you from July 11th 2024.
