
After a dangerous experiment to see if it is possible to disrupt the destructive power of a tornado goes wrong and leaves three members of her team dead, Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) gives up her post-graduate research for a safer position as a meteorologist in New York City. But when the only other survivor of the incident approaches her with a way to more safely test her theories and says he has the corporate financial resources to do so, she finds herself drawn back to Oklahoma and the world of tornado chasing. There, though, she encounters Tyler (Glen Powell), who seems more interested in storm chasing as a way to generate content for his social media accounts than for scientific purposes. And while she feels that Tyler’s maverick ways will get someone killed, she stills finds herself attracted to him.
Much like the original Twister, Twisters is a bit of a survivor’s story wrapped inside a 90s action film. Edgar-Jones’s Kate is struck from much of the same mold as Helen Hunt’s tornado chaser in the first film. But she also has some elements of Bill Paxton’s Twister lead character mixed in as well. While she has seen the destructive nature of a tornado in a horrifyingly personal way the same way Hunt’s Dr. Jo Harding did, Kate has the experience drive her away from her study of the phenomenon and not further into it. And much like how Paxton’s Bill Harding had stepped away from up close tornado research only to be pulled back in by the allure of the danger, Kate slowly finds herself drawn back into a world she thought she had left behind.
Minari director Lee Isaac Chung may seem like an odd choice to helm this film, moving from his award winning drama drawn from personal experience to a big budget studio picture like Twisters. But thanks to his presence, what little characterization is in the script gets well explored. Chung also manages to use a couple of simple tricks early in the film to show how the tragedy that befell her friends still haunts her five years later.
Chung also doesn’t just play the material for thrills, although there are plenty to be found. He and the screenplay remember that tornadoes are hugely powerful and violent forces of nature and we see the aftermath of these events in the form of devastated towns. Granted, these somber moments don’t necessarily sit well next to the more traditional action beats of the story.
Speaking of characterization, outside of our two leads and Kate’s mother (played by an empathetic Maura Tierney), the rest of the cast is fairly one-dimensional. And this is where the original wins over this new version. The 90s group of storm chasers we meet are a rag-tag group of eccentric scientists who live for the thrill of danger their research involves, maverick cowboys if you will. And the supporting cast bringing them to life included the likes of Alan Ruck and Philip Seymour Hoffman, experts at doing a lot with a little. All of them made hanging out with that film’s cast enjoyable. However, the supporting cast in this new film can’t seem to bring deeper life to their characters outside of what little is to be found on the page.
