Twisters (2024)

I had the absolute pleasure of watching the new Twisters movie, directed by Lee Isaac Chung and starring Daisy Egar-Jones and Glen Powell. Spoilers ahead, like a lot. 

Twisters kept me between the edge of my seat and kicking my feet. Starting out with our opening group of five: Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones), Javi (Anthony Ramos), Addy (Kiernan Shipka), Jeb (Daryl McCormack) and Praveen (Nik Dodani). They are a group of scientists ready to make a difference. They are trying to find a way to collapse a tornado by absorbing moisture using sodium polyacrylate. They are buzzing. You really get excited for the group, and there is genuineness in them; you want them to be successful. Then, the sky starts to get darker, and the greens become darker and brighter. The browns and grays all start to blur together, and you can’t tell what is what. Tension builds as they get lost in the wind, and rain begins to fall (of what they thought was an EF1 but turns out to be an EF5). My heart was leaping out of my chest. I wanted them to make it so bad. They eventually are hit and thrown off the road and forced to leave their vehicle. The group tries to run for a nearby bridge for some kind of shelter, and one by one the tornado takes them. It results in the deaths of three of her friends; Kate and Javi are the only survivors. 

Five years later, we meet up with Kate again in New York. When Javi meets her at her job and tells her about StormPar (a company that he has just been put in charge of), and convinces her to come back to Oklahoma to help him collect data and help others, even if it is just for a week. Kate, naturally, has her doubts, but at the end of the day, all she wants to do is help people, and she knows that the technology Javi now has access to can help her do that. 

Now we’re back in Oklahoma, and on the first day on the site, we meet Javi’s team of researchers and internet sensation Tyler Owens (Glen Powell). He and his crew drive in, blasting country music and shouting the iconic phrase to the fans that soon follows: “If you feel it!” The crowd yells back, “Chase it!” Kate almost instantly catches Tyler’s eye. This starts some quick-witted banter and a delightful, “Will they, won’t they?” On their first run, we get our hearts racing again when we are relying on Kate to be able to face a tornado moving right at her. Unfortunately, she gets spooked and drives them out of the way of the tornado, which is too far for the machine to collect any data. Then when they get back to the hotel, which Tyler just so happens to also be staying at, there is more incredibly written banter that makes you love the two together despite their initial disdain for one another. Twisters does a great job of keeping the audience guessing and hoping. There is a certain part of you that “knows” what will happen, but the way they set up their shots makes you think that somehow it could all work out. 

The rest of the movie consists of the two groups, more often than not chasing the same tornado, one using it for science and the other for the thrill. After the tornado passes through, both groups will head into the towns that were affected by the tornado to help in any way they can, but StormPar is accompanied by a developer, who is buying up land after a tragedy. This is where a fight breaks out between our two leads. Kate is unaware of the ulterior motives of StormPar, and she’s quick to judge Tyler when he sets up a merch table, but it all pieces together when Lily (a member of Tyler’s crew) comes up to her and offers her free food and water that they are able to pay for because of all the merch sales. 

The movie then sets us up for a moment between our two leads when Tyler visits Kate in her hotel room and offers to take her to a local rodeo. This is where we learn more about Tyler and his fascination with tornados, and Kate reveals that she’s more than a city girl. I could not have been more excited to see these two on screen together. The way he looks at her when she’s not looking and the continuation of playful banter is great. I especially loved the cinematography for these scenes, bright colors and glitter that shine in the night. The colors are also beautifully saturated, and the tone gives the feel of an Oklahoma rodeo. There are softer shots in this film that I am a major fan of. I often found myself thinking, “Wow, what a beautiful shot.” And the image of a woman on a horse carrying the American flag is one of them. The crowd hasn’t quite reached its maximum volume, an in between moment. Then a tornado tears through the rodeo, and everyone is forced to evacuate. The adrenaline rushes again. With my hand over my mouth, I wonder what is going to happen as they are not near shelter. Kate spots an empty swimming pool, and they book it, with the motel they were just in flying up behind them. I felt for Kate at this moment as they were waiting out the storm. Tyler was placed behind her, shielding her like Jeb had all those years ago. I hoped that Tyler would still be behind her at the end of it. 

When Kate finds out what Javi is actually doing for StormPar, she confronts him, leading to a fight between the two friends. After this, Kate finds herself at her mom’s house. We’re now back in the old barn where she first thought about how they could absorb moisture from a tornado. We get a flashback to a younger Kate, wide-eyed and ready to help, and then we get a glimpse of Jeb, which hits you right in the heart and makes you wish that things could've been different. Tyler eventually finds her and sees her previous research, and gets excited. He knows that this should’ve worked. He helps her set up a new model to test her theory, showing that it should’ve worked. As time goes on, our two main characters are getting closer, and I am getting more and more excited. Javi also returns after the fight, and he comes ready to apologize. He also gives Kate the data from their 3D scans of the tornado, this allows Kate and Tyler to be able to see that Kate’s original moisture calculations were off. 

There is a beautiful shot of Kate and Tyler getting ready to test the new mixture, and we see Kate looking out into the distance as the sky grows darker. She looks out as the tornado forms, just her and the weather, another one of these precious moments in between. We are now coming to the end of the movie, the biggest tornado since the beginning of the film. Everyone tries their best to make sure people can get to safety, but the shelters are full, and they are forced to get everyone else into the movie theater. I am once again on the edge of my seat. Kate makes the snap decision to take Tyler’s truck out into the growing storm. Hopefully, this new mixture works. I admire Powell’s acting in the moments when Tyler realizes Kate is gone. He runs to the back door and is screaming and shouting for her, he has to be physically held back by Javi and another man. When they finally get him back inside, there is a moment where he is just standing there. He can’t think about anyone else, the two men have to remind him why they are there. There is a rush of scenes cutting back and forth between the ever-decaying movie theater and Kate driving into danger. Of course, the button to release everything gets jammed, adding to the urgency of the situation, but finally, it works, and now we wait. People are starting to fly out of the movie theater, and Lily, a member of Tyler’s group, loses her grip. It takes everything for Tyler not to let go, and then, suddenly, the sky clears. Kate did it. 

We end at the airport with Javi, Tyler and Kate, who are leaving to pitch their newfound discovery. As she’s leaving she tells Tyler, “If you feel it, chase it.” And while it takes him a second, he follows her into the airport. This is where my opinion could be different than most. I think that the end kiss scene should have been kept. I understand that Steven Speilberg thought cutting it prevented the movie from being too cliche, but they kept the scene leading up to a kiss. For me, it felt incomplete. I spent the whole movie rooting for them together and didn’t even get a kiss scene at the end. What interrupts the kiss is the loudspeaker telling everyone to expect delays because of the weather, they smile at each other and leave the airport together. 

Overall, I really enjoyed Twisters. I really enjoyed the overall look of the movie and the soundtrack was to die for, perfectly fitting for the movie.