Oklahoma native Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones, Normal People, Where the Crawdads Sing) is a college student and expert at tracking and predicting storms. She and her friends/classmates are avid storm chasers working on a science project, trying to tame tornadoes by injecting them with barrels of sodium polyacrylate beads, reducing the moisture inside them, and effectively killing them before they have a chance to wreak havoc. However, while testing Kate’s theory, things comes to a tragic conclusion, causing Kate to abandon the project, storm chasing in general, and move away from Oklahoma.
Five years later, Kate is working at the National Weather Service office in New York City when she receives an unexpected visit from old friend Javi (Anthony Ramos, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, In the Heights), who now works for tornado radar company, Storm Par. He asks Kate to come back to Oklahoma for a week to help him test out some new equipment—mobile radars that can create a 3D model of a tornado in order to gather critical lifesaving data about the way the storms work. Javi has all this high-tech equipment to study the storms, but he needs Kate’s expertise to help find and track the tornados. Kate still has a bit of PTSD from the last time she was in her home state, but reluctantly agrees to help Javi out.
She soon discovers that the circus has already arrived in town. Oklahoma has been experiencing a “once in a generation tornado outbreak”, and every amateur storm chaser has come to check it out. This includes a particularly rowdy group of YouTube chasers out of Arkansas, led by the cocky cowboy Tyler Owens (Glen Powell, Anyone But You, Top Gun: Maverick), a self proclaimed tornado wrangler. His squad includes camera man Boone (Brandon Perea, Nope, The OA), drone pilot Lily (Sasha Lane, American Honey), and merchandising man Dexter (Tunde Adebimpe). They are also joined by British reporter Ben (Harry Hadden-Paton, Downton Abbey, The Crown) who’s doing a piece on American storm chasing—though he hasn’t yet realized exactly what he signed up for riding with Tyler. Tyler and his crew love to make a spectacle of themselves, literally driving into storms and riding them like a bucking bronco. Tyler likes to say that “It’s Not My First Tornadeo”, and even has a T-shirt with his face on it to let everyone know.
As Kate and Tyler first meet, they both have preconceived notions of one another. Tyler thinks that Kate is just some city girl who doesn’t know the first thing about storms. And Kate thinks Tyler is just some money-hungry, egotistical social media star looking for likes. However, as they continually cross paths and bash heads chasing the same storms, they soon discover that they actually have a lot in common, and may be able to work together to help those whose lives are thrown into chaos by the storms, figure out a way to improve the early warning systems, and possibly even stop these tornadoes in their tracks before they can decimate more small towns.
Twisters is the follow-up to the 2003 classic Twister. Unfortunately we don’t get any cameos or character connections to the first film. The link between the two movies is actual very minimal—in the opening sequence we just see Javi deploying a now-vintage Dorothy V device filled with sensors to gather information about a tornado. That said, the film does an excellent job of recapturing the same adventure, spirit and danger of the first film, taking viewers on a wild ride with some fun, quirky characters. Much like the first movie, we open on a major storm that will alter the lives of our main character forever. We have this brilliant young storm chaser who gives up on her dreams after a tragic setback, but is lured back into the world of storm chasing, reigniting the spark and drive she once had to find a solution that could possibly save many lives and homes. Much like the first film, we also see Kate reconnect with people from her past—her mother, and her old friend Javi. Javi has noble ideas on how he can help save lives, but the financing for this comes at a questionable moral cost. And one final similarity is that we have the aspect of multiple teams with varying levels of technology competing to chase the storms. Except here, our team is the one with all the high tech gadgets, and the competitors are the ragtag group. But this is where we get the film’s secret weapon of charm, Glen Powell. It feels like the role of Tyler Owens was written specifically for him as he is an expert when it comes to playing these kinds of charming, cocky, but with a kind heart roles. Tyler is wild and unpredictable, and just enjoys living in the moment, and this attitude is infectious, both for the audience and for Kate.
Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell have excellent on-screen chemistry, and it is fun to watch their rom-com like verbal sparring at the beginning lead to more. While their crews may be at odds, there’s a connection between Kate and Tyler and they wat to work together. The pair is joined by Anthony Ramos, and a great supporting cast including Maura Tierney (ER) as Kate’s mother, David Corenswet (Pearl, We Own This City) as Javi’s business partner Scott, Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding, The Mandalorian) as Dani, another one of their team members, and Daryl McCormack (The Woman in the Wall, Peaky Blinders), Kiernan Shipka (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Mad Men) & Nik Dodani (Atypical) as some of Kate’s friends.
While I never thought the effects in the original Twister movie looked bad, the storms in Twisters are taken to the next level. The tornados look amazing, and feel so realistic and lifelike. It never once felt like digital effects, but rather that you were watching actual storm footage! Sure, some of the situations get a bit over the top, like a fire-filled tornado, or a storm blasting through a crowded movie theater (in a scene that is reminiscent of the barn in the first movie), but these are the kinds of things that make these movies great popcorn flicks!
Universal has yet to announce a physical media release date for Twisters, but it is now available to rent or own on Premium Digital. I ended up watching this via Fandango at Home, because my preferred platform of Apple TV oddly currently only offers the film in HD at the time of this review. The 4K picture looks stunning, especially as these dark and stormy tornadoes move across Oklahoma, leaving a path of destruction in their wake. Like I mentioned earlier, the storms look amazing and so natural and real, you forget it’s all effects. The Atmos soundtrack provides clear dialogue throughout, and a thoroughly-immersive experience as the heavy winds blow, thunder roars, and you feel like you are right there in the middle of these storms. The film also has a catchy music soundtrack that fills the room.
Most of these early PVOD releases don’t include any bonus material, but Universal has given viewers a fun gag reel and a trio of short deleted scenes to tide them over. Additional material should be automatically added later on once the general digital and/or physical media releases occur.
What’s Included:
Specs and availability of bonus features varies by provider.
Film: (2:02:41)
- 2160p / Widescreen 2.39:1
- Dolby Vision / HDR10
- Audio: English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Audio, French (Canada) 5.1, Spanish (Latin America) 5.1
- Subtitles: English CC, French (Canada), Spanish (Latin America)
Extras:
There should be additional bonus material added to this digital release later on, at the time of the general digital and/or physical releases.
- Deleted Scenes (2:06)
Three short deleted scenes play back-to-back—Javi picks Kate up at the airport; Kate washes up in a convenience store bathroom and then watches the weather report on TV; and after Tyler cleans off Kate’s face, she walks away, looking back at and smiling at his oddball team. - Gag Reel (3:59)
Fun with the cast as they flub lines, make each other laugh, dance, and have fun on set.
Final Thoughts:
Twisters is a thoroughly enjoyable follow-up to the 2003 classic Twister, but only has a very thin connection to the first film. However, it does an excellent job at capturing the same sense of action, thrills and humor, introducing us to a whole new batch of quirky and dedicated storm chasers. The film features a great cast, led by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell, who have excellent on-screen chemistry. Universal’s 4K release looks and sounds amazing. Though I would recommend picking it up on a platform that offers it in 4K. At the time of this review it is currently only being offered in HD at Apple, and if you purchase it there while it’s only HD, you will only get HD rights in Movies Anywhere. If you purchase it elsewhere in 4K, you should get 4K rights in MA, and these will port to Apple in 4K once they fix their entry to offer 4K. Either way, this is an extremely entertaining film, that comes highly recommended.
