TWISTERS (2024)

Twisters is likely the most eagerly anticipated film of the summer. This reboot of Jan de Bont’s 1996 film, co-written by Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton, has a lot to live up to. I’m pleased to say that the hype and anticipation are well-warranted.

While the original’s groundbreaking CGI was the true star, this reboot places the emphasis somewhere entirely different: the characters. To be clear, this is in no way a sequel or prequel to the original. Beyond the title and the basic premise involving two competing storm chaser teams, the characters and story are all new.

This reboot centres on Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a brilliant and traumatised meteorologist and former storm chaser. She’s convinced by her former friend Javier (Anthony Ramos) to join him and his new team to help them set up a groundbreaking scanning system while chasing unprecedented tornadoes appearing in Oklahoma. The handsome rogue, Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), leads a competing, unorthodox storm-chasing team that has gained internet fame by filming storms live on social media.

The VFX, while impressive, are not as thrilling as those seen in ’96. However, when you’re on an adventure with characters you care about, the tornadoes themselves don’t seem to matter as much. The weather is supplementary, a tool to aid the characters on their individual, internal journeys.

All three main characters have established arcs that they work through as the film progresses. Each of their unique “breakthrough” moments is well-acted, well-written, and compelling. Kate, in particular, represents a new kind of fourth-wave feminist heroine for young girls to look up to and emulate. As a character, she’s neither overly feminine nor an impossibly strong yet emotionally stilted female we’ve seen in too many modern action films.

Our heroine, instead, is a brilliant young woman with a distinctly feminine instinct for and understanding of weather patterns. Kate deals with trauma, fear, and self-doubt in a way that keeps the audience rooting for her. We root for her not just because she’s a woman in a man’s world. Thankfully, she’s not the only female storm chaser in this film. Tyler’s team includes two other women who are treated as absolute equals alongside the male chasers. Finally, no one comments with surprise or derision at women chasing tornadoes, and the casual sexism displayed in action films of the 1990s and early-2000s is almost absent.

While Edgar-Jones is a beautiful actress, and there are hints at a love triangle between Tyler, Kate, and Javier, this heroine is prized for her brains and not her beauty. This is another positive difference from the original film. While Jo, Kate’s semi-equivalent in ’96, was brilliant, she was still casually sexualised by other characters and even by the camera, as evidenced by the unnecessary shower scene featuring a naked Helen Hunt.

Glen Powell (Hit Man), charming and handsome as always, clearly enjoys himself in his role as Tyler Owens. However, his unique talents shine most brightly in his cocky, flirty one-upmanship with Edgar-Jones rather than through his later moments of vulnerability.

Perhaps more touching and sincere is the delicate friendship between Kate and Javier. Ramos and Edgar-Jones navigate their characters’ shared trauma with practised steps. The awkward rekindled friendship, with its mix of resentment, one-sided romantic attraction, genuine warmth, and a connection that only shared history can create, comes across in a very real way.

While the majority of the film is much more grounded and realistic than the original, there are still some cheesy action moments. These are mainly found in the climax, where it seems the visual effects team couldn’t resist showing off a bit. The characters are subjected to increasingly large flying objects, and the laughably convenient need to take shelter in a cinema that just happens to be showing Universal’s black-and-white classic Frankenstein (1931) is the only thing that momentarily took me out of the film.

One assumes the studio insisted on showcasing one of their own monster films, with the climax taking place entirely within a cinema. This idea seems at odds with the vision of director Lee Isaac Chung (Minari).

This one scene aside, the film is emotional without being dull and action-packed without losing focus on the characters. As Ramos’s character, Javier, states near the climax, “It’s about the people!” When filmmakers focus on crafting good, character-driven stories, everyone wins—the actors, the producers, and the audience.

USA | 2024 | 122 MINUTES | 2.39:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH

Cast & Crew

director: Lee Isaac Chung.
writer: Mark L. Smith (story by Joseph Kosinski; based on characters created by Michael Crichton & Anne-Marie Martin).
starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, Harry Hadden-Paton, Sasha Lane, Daryl McCormack, Kiernan Shipka, Nik Dodani, David Corenswet, Tunde Adebimpe & Katy O’Brian.