The 2024 film Twisters features angry cyclones that consome towns and people. Almost vindictively. Director Lee Isaac Chung (That award winning and Oscar nominated good ole Korean farm boy from Arkansas. IMDb does not mention it but Lee is from Lincoln, a small town almost on the border of Oklahoma. The location of Twisters.) gives us a rousing tale of almost supernaturally latent tornadoes.
Shooting the screenplay written by Mark L. Smith based upon a story by Joseph Kosinski based on characters created by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin; Chung drives this film like “he stole it.”
This is an exciting ride from start to finish.
The story
Twisters is not too dissimilar to the original Twister film. The plot is not the same, heck, the romance in the new film is not the same either. It lacks, obviously, the late great Bill Paxton and the awesome Helen Hunt. However, the base of the tale is the same. Coming home again to fix mistakes made in the past and falling in love.
At the start of the film, Kate, a college student with her eye on a grant, chases tornadoes with the idea of “killing” them. *A treat for fans of the first film; Twisters gives us an aged “Dorothy V to reminisce on.*
Tragically, and impressively, she loses three of her collegiate buddies to a twister. Flash forward, Kate is in New York and the remaining member of her old team; Javi recruits her. He wants her back in Oklahoma to track tornadoes.
Once she arrives, Kate meets Tornado Wrangler and YouTube star Tyler. Sparks fly and the tale starts in earnest.
The Main Cast
Daisy Edgar-Jones is Kate. The Divvy of the group, she can literally “divine” where a tornado is heading. *Divvy comes from the antique trade in the UK. Head over and check out Lovejoy on Britbox. All will be revealed.*
Glen Powell is Tyler. *Is this guy in everything right now? It is not an issue as he rocks in any role he plays.* Tyler is the tornado wrangler/YouTube guy.
Anthony Ramos is Javi.
Brandon Perea is Boone.
Harry Hadden-Paton plays Ben, the Brit Journo from London doing a story on Tyler.
It works
Director of Photography Dan Mindel brings us a film that looks as gritty as the soupy mud in Oklahoma. The lighting for each frame fits like a tight well oiled glove. Terilyn A. Shropshire edits this exciting feature with VFX to die for with a iron hand. Nothing is missed. *Except for the sloppy 4X4 beam scene with the water tower. That was down to, perhaps, continuity. The beam is a clear miss when it is meant to help Tyler escape.
Benjamin Wallfisch scores Twisters with a spot on mixture of musical measures that match each scene.
The entire cast kill it here. Kudos to actor/writer Hadden-Paton. He manages to make his smaller role shine through with apparent ease.*
The little differences
Twisters changes a few things. The drive-in sequence in the original has been changed to a rodeo setting. A wise move. Drive-ins are rapidly becoming extinct, while the great American rodeo lives on.
The twisters are bigger, fiercer and scarier. They almost seem to be supernaturally able to exact revenge on those who wish to destroy them. Action sequences explode across the screen. Surprisingly, for a film that kills off three “main” character at the very start, Twisters manages to keep pushing the envelope. It cranks up the tension with each new twister. It even allows the meek and humble chicken to make our hearts leap in our chest.
The verdict
I loved this one. Twisters easily earns a full 5 star rating. It is fun, pulse racing and it features attractive leads who can act. The upgraded mass tornado destruction impresses. This is a great old fashioned sort of film despite all the modern tech that went into making it. The film can be streamed on Peacock and rented on Amazon Prime.
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