Twisters review: an immensely entertaining summer adventure

What is it about director Jan de Bont’s Twister that makes it such an enduring piece of ’90s blockbuster cinema? In terms of its decade’s offerings, it’s far from one of the best. It has nonetheless emerged as a TV cable favorite and a source of comfort for many cinephiles. Is it the film’s eclectic, exceptionally well-cast array of actors, which includes deeply missed hall-of-fame worthy heavy hitters like Bill Paxton and Philip Seymour Hoffman? Is it the tangible nature of its central American setting with all of its dirt roads and wind-whipped grass fields? Or the fact that everyone involved in the film seemed aware of exactly what kind of movie they were making?

The answer, truthfully, is all of the above. It takes both a certain level of technical skill and a healthy bit of self-awareness to make a film as absurd and yet infectiously, breathlessly entertaining as Twister. The same is true of its new, standalone sequel, Twisters. The movie, directed by to the pain filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung, doesn’t go out of its way to connect itself to its 1996 predecessor. You don’t need to have even seen Twister to enjoy its sequel. The two films are, however, inextricably bound by their similar sense of adventure and their directors’ shared belief in the power of big-screen spectacle. If Twister showed that you could take even the most forgettable material and elevate it, then Twisters proves that you can, in fact, catch lightning in a bottle twice.

Unlike so many other legacy sequels, Twisters does not saddle itself with unnecessary links to its parent film. No character in it is the daughter or estranged cousin of one of Twister‘s heroes. Instead, the sequel’s plot revolves around Kate Cooper (Normal People breakout star Daisy Edgar-Jones), a bright young woman who is turned away from her lifelong dream of finding a way to destabilize tornadoes after a terrifying encounter with one cost the lives of almost her entire college crew. Chung opens Twisters with this formative moment in a sequence that is beautifully paced, viscerally gripping, and purposefully reminiscent of the storm shelter prologue of de Bont’s original film.

Chung’s sequel eventually picks back up with Kate five years later when she is lured back to her tornado-chasing ways by Javi (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts star Anthony Ramos), an old friend similarly haunted by their last, failed adventure together. Once she arrives back in Oklahoma, Kate quickly catches the attention of Tyler Owens (Hit Man star Glen Powell), a YouTube-famous tornado “wrangler” whose crew of eccentric thrill-seekers make themselves immediately and loudly known wherever they go. As both Tyler and Javi push her to engage further with the season’s increasingly destructive tornado “outbreak,” Kate finds herself torn between her fear of another life-threatening accident and her desire to revisit her previously abandoned dream.

Like de Bont did before him, Chung surrounds his Twisters leads with a bevy of colorful supporting characters. Nope star Brandon Perea stands out the most with his turn as Tyler’s exuberant videographer and right-hand man, Boone. Of all the film’s minor figures, Perea comes the closest to replicating the heightened comedic energy that Philip Seymour Hoffman brought to Twister nearly three decades ago. Harry Hadden-Paton also makes a memorable impression as Ben, a British journalist profiling Tyler who is repeatedly forced far out of his comfort zone, while Superman actor David Corenswet steals a few scenes as Scott, Javi’s misogynistic, gum-chewing business partner. The film’s vibrant supporting performances help distract from the thinness of Javi’s friend-zoned affection for Kate and Ramos’ uncharacteristically flat turn as his character.

It’s ultimately Edgar-Jones and Powell who anchor Twisters. The two actors have both been on the rise over the past few years, and they get the chance to shine here. Edgar-Jones’ natural stillness makes her well-suited to play Kate, a character whose initial stoicism might have rendered her boring or one-note by a less present performer. She’s a perfect counter to Powell, whose movie-star smile and charisma make you buy Tyler as the only person capable of pulling Kate out of her self-constructed shell. The Revenant co-writer Mark L. Smith’s script, meanwhile, finds the space for welcome scenes of fiery flirtation between Kate and Tyler, which then organically give way to more open-hearted moments of romantic connection.

Powell and Edgar-Jones, for their part, rise effortlessly to meet the film’s dramatic and comedic demands, and Twisters knows how to balance its lighter and darker moments. It moves like a summer blockbuster should, and it has the confidence to stand on its own. The film’s Twister callbacks are rare; the only obvious one being the inclusion of the Dorothy device created by Bill Paxton’s Bill and Helen Hunt’s Jo. Even that Easter egg proves to have a greater purpose, though, when Chung builds on its Wizard of Oz connection by partly setting Twisters‘ destructive climax in a small-town movie theater.

As the theater’s screen tears away to reveal a real-life tornado swirling viciously on the other side (and yet still perfectly framed by the movie palace’s red curtains), Chung’s belief in the enduring power of the Hollywood blockbuster is made spectacularly clear. When movies like Twisters are done right, the director shows us, they don’t just offer a vision of alternate worlds like Oz, but a portal into them.

2024’s blockbuster slate has proven to be an exceptionally good one. Many of this year’s best studio offerings have all brought something back to Hollywood’s big-budget field, whether it be uninhibited imagination (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga) or pure, unadulterated romance (The Fall Guy). Twisters isn’t better than either of those films, but it has plenty of note to offer, including a real, rom-com spark between its two leads.

More than anything, Twisters has something that has become increasingly hard to find in our era of CGI-driven filmmaking: texture. Chung and cinematographer Dan Mindel chose to shoot Twisters on 35mm celluloid film, and that not only gives the sequel a glorious, almost imperceptible grain but it also imbues it with a warmth that invites you in and further highlights the contrasting colors created by its orange-red dirt roads, green fields, and blue skies. The effect is immediate and immersive.

As one of his many catchphrases, Powell’s Tyler has a habit of telling his YouTube viewers, “If you feel it, chase it.” It’s a fitting line for a film that has a knack for making you feel the wind, grass, and rain of its Oklahoma setting. Rarely has “sit back and enjoy the ride” felt quite as applicable.

Twisters is now playing in theaters.