Twisters (film)

''Twisters'' is a 2024 American disaster film directed by Lee Isaac Chung from a screenplay by Mark L. Smith, based on a story by Joseph Kosinski. Serving as a standalone sequel to '' Twister'' (1996), it stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, and Sasha Lane. It follows clashing groups of storm chasers who investigate a tornado outbreak in Oklahoma.

Talks for a sequel to ''Twister'' began in 2020, with Kosinski pitching an idea to Universal and Helen Hunt, who starred in the original, also expressing interest in a follow-up that was ultimately rejected. Several directors were approached before Chung was hired in December 2022. The cast joined in early-2023 and filming taking place around Oklahoma that summer, with a brief hiatus due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

''Twisters'' premiered at the Cineworld Leicester Square in London on July 8, 2024, and was released internationally by Warner Bros. Pictures on July 10 and in the United States by Universal Pictures on July 19. It received generally positive reviews from critics and has grossed $369.8 million worldwide.

Plot

Kate Carter works in Oklahoma with her storm chaser friends Javi, Addy, Praveen, and her boyfriend, Jeb. Alongside a Dorothy V doppler, the team launches barrels of sodium polyacrylate beads into a tornado in hopes of reducing its intensity and securing funding for further research. However, the attempt is unsuccessful due to the tornado suddenly intensifying into an EF5, killing Jeb, Addy and Praveen while Javi and Kate survive, the latter blaming herself for underestimating the tornado and quitting storm chasing and the experiment altogether.

Five years later, Kate works at a NOAA office in New York City. Javi, now working for mobile tornado radar company Storm Par, offers Kate a one-week position with his team to test a new tornado scanning system using phased-array radar. Kate initially declines but has a change of heart after Javi sends a news report about a tornado destroying a town without warning and assuring her that they have a chance to save lives. Kate and Javi join the Storm Par team in Oklahoma, which includes Javi's business partner Scott. Popular YouTube storm chaser Tyler Owens, known as the "Tornado Wrangler", also arrives in Oklahoma from Arkansas looking to capitalize on a predicted tornado outbreak. Tyler is joined by his crew of Boone, Dani, Dexter, and Lily, as well as British journalist Ben.

Storm Par and Tyler's crew chase an EF1 tornado that has touched down in a nearby wind farm. Kate suffers a panic attack causing her to drive away, rendering her unable to help Javi set up the final scanner. The team tracks another storm which produces another EF1, that also produces a satellite that splits off. Storm Par chases the Satellite after noticing that it is intensifying. The Satellite intensifies into an EF3, and takes out the scanner. Kate and Javi barely escape and drive to the nearby tornado-ravaged town of Crystal Springs to help recovery efforts, along with Tyler's crew. Having initially dismissed Tyler and his team as glory hounds, Kate is surprised to learn they use merchandise profits to aid tornado victims, while also learning that Storm Par investor Marshall Riggs profiteers from Javi's project by purchasing tornado-damaged land at very low prices and re-selling them for exorbitant amounts.

That night, Tyler invites Kate to a nearby rodeo in Stillwater, where they begin bonding. When a large EF4 tornado hits, Kate, Tyler, and several others take shelter in an empty motel pool, but a motel employee and two other guests are killed. In the aftermath, Kate confronts Javi about Riggs' intentions and claims Javi is ignorant to the victims being exploited, causing an offended Javi to thoughtlessly blame her for their friends' deaths. Distraught, Kate abandons Javi and retreats to her mother's farm in Sapulpa. Tyler follows her and uncovers Kate's previous research regarding the tornado disruption experiment five years ago. Kate initially declines Tyler's offer to help retry the experiment due to her guilt and trauma, but later accepts when Tyler points out that her experiment can still give people a fighting chance against tornadoes. The next day, they release the beads into a passing EFU tornado, but it fails to dissipate. Using scanning data provided by Javi, who shows up at Kate's childhood home to apologize to her, Kate is able to hypothesize a change in the experiment to correct a previous oversight, namely adding silver iodide.

The team tracks another tornado near El Reno. The tornado becomes rain-wrapped, and nearly hits Javi and Scott. They are nearly killed but they escape just as the tornado catches fire after hitting an oil refinery. The tornado explodes in size, becoming a mile-wide EF5 that begins shifting towards El Reno. As Kate and the Wranglers head into town, Javi decides to follow them, but Scott attempts to pressure him into continuing their mission for Riggs. Enraged, Javi abandons Scott by the road and quits his partnership with Riggs, finally seeing how callous Riggs and his team are.

In El Reno, Kate, Tyler, and their team, learning that all shelters are full, evacuate the remaining townspeople into a nearby movie theater when a derailed streetcar and debris traps Tyler. As Kate struggles to free him, Javi arrives just in time to help save Tyler before a water tower nearly collapses on them. With the theater not having a basement and unable to withstand a direct hit from the tornado, Kate drives Tyler's truck into the tornado's center. She fires the silver iodide into the tornado, and after a brief struggle with the controls, she successfully launches the polyacrylite beads, but the vehicle is overturned. The tornado rips the theater open, sucking out two people and nearly sucking Lily and Tyler out as well right as the measures take effect, and the tornado dissipates. The team rescues Kate and celebrates the experiment's success.

Sometime later, as Kate waits at the airport for her flight back to New York City to gain funding for further research, Tyler shows up. Tyler chases Kate to stop her from leaving and they reconcile. Upon learning that flights have been delayed because of strong winds, the two swiftly depart for the storm. A closing montage shows that Ben's story focused on Kate and that Kate, Tyler, and Javi have joined in a new tornado radar business.

Cast

Production

Development

In 2020, Joseph Kosinski met with Amblin Entertainment and the Kennedy/Marshall Company to pitch a follow-up to the 1996 film '' Twister'' revolving around a "new generation" of storm chasers. In June 2020, Universal Pictures announced it was meeting with writers to develop the reboot, with Frank Marshall attached as a producer and Kosinski in early negotiations as director. Around the same time, the studio rejected plans from ''Twister'' actress Helen Hunt to direct a sequel. That version, written by Hunt, Rafael Casal, and Daveed Diggs, who collaborated on the television series '' Blindspotting'', would have followed "all black and brown storm chasers", members of a rocket science club at a historically black college and university. In October 2022, Amblin, Universal, and Warner Bros. met with directors for ''Twisters'', a sequel being fast-tracked for an early 2023 production start after Steven Spielberg, an executive producer of the original film, expressed enthusiasm for a script by Mark L. Smith. Filmmaking couple Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Travis Knight, and Dan Trachtenberg were in talks to helm the project, Kosinski having dropped out to direct '' F1'' (2025). The studio reportedly wanted Hunt to reprise her role, with the hopes of the story focusing on the daughter of her and Bill Paxton's characters.

In December 2022, Lee Isaac Chung was hired to direct the now standalone sequel. Chung's pitch to Marshall, Spielberg, and executive producer Jay Sandberg included a presentation that intercut footage from ''Twister'' and his own '' Minari'', a semi-autobiographical indie drama that cost $2 million, specifically a scene in which characters experience a tornado watch. Chung credited his time at Lucasfilm directing an episode of '' The Mandalorian'' as accustoming him to projects with visual effects and noted growing up in tornado alley as inspiration. In preparation for ''Twisters'', he revisited the original film; Spielberg's ''Jaws'' (1975) and '' War of the Worlds'' (2005) (described by him as "movies about powerful forces of nature or monstrous things coming at you or looming above you"); "driving movies" such as '' The French Connection'' (1971) and '' Gone in 60 Seconds'' (2000); and Akira Kurosawa's ''Seven Samurai'' (1954) and ''Ran'' (1985) (for inspiration in capturing weather through camera movement). Character dynamics were influenced by the films of Frank Capra and Howard Hawks, especially '' It Happened One Night'' (1934) and '' The Big Sky'' (1952). Chung was inspired to approach Glen Powell for a lead role after seeing an appearance of his on an episode of the morning show '' Today''; Powell was contacted while filming '' Anyone but You'' (2023) in Australia to do a chemistry read with Daisy Edgar-Jones over Zoom. Edgar-Jones suggested that her character, Kate, have a camera, in reference to the documentary '' Fire of Love'' (2022) about volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft; the character was partially inspired by Dorothy in ''The Wizard of Oz'' (1939). Cast members attended a "weather boot camp" to learn about tornadoes from meteorologists and storm chasers. The program was organized by meteorologist and former NOAA analyst Kevin Kelleher, a technical advisor on both ''Twister'' films. Paxton's son, James, has a cameo as a motel guest who tries driving away from a tornado.

Filming

Principal photography was initially set for the state of Georgia, outside Atlanta, for budgetary reasons. Instead, it commenced in May 2023 in Oklahoma, where the story takes place, marking Chung's return to the state after ''Minari''. The move cost the crew work days and resulted in the removal of some storm sequences. Filming was to take place at Prairie Surf Studios for 40 days and in metro Oklahoma City for 50 days. Ultimately, the shoot took 60 days, approximately 70 percent of which was spent capturing driving scenes. Other locations included the towns of Burbank, Calumet, Cashion, Chickasha, Fairview, Hinton, Kingfisher, Kremlin, El Reno, Midwest City, Okarche, Pawhuska, and Spencer. Filming was suspended in July due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. As six weeks of prep time were necessary to resume production, despite only having three weeks of material to film, the crew began prepping sets before the strike was over. Production resumed with the strike's conclusion in November and wrapped the following month. Dan Mindel was the cinematographer. Patrick Sullivan, who worked on the original film's art department, was the production designer.

''Twisters'' was shot on 35 mm film, at Chung's request after receiving support from Spielberg and Mindel, with Panavision XL and handheld Arri 435 and 235 cameras, using Panavision T-Series, C-Series and Primo anamorphic lenses. In preparation for the film, Mindel watched Westerns, road films, and films produced during the Golden Age of Hollywood set in rural America. He listed '' The Last Picture Show'' (1971) as an influence on the film's " Americana" style. Dailies were processed in Los Angeles, so the crew could not review their footage for several days. To maintain continuity, Mindel aimed to film under overcast weather, unless the script asked for blue skies. Because the shoot occurred during tornado season, delays were frequent. "It was happening every three days or so," Chung recalled, "We were always getting shut down—lightning, wind storms, and then storms that were producing tornadoes came through as well." Challenges arose in El Reno due to heat waves, lightning storms, and strong winds, as well as the presence of "a jet engine on set that you could barely talk over" and the need for a bright, hot key light to produce the "feeling of a storm-like sky", according to Chung. A set of an El Reno farmer's market was destroyed by a storm with 80-mile-per-hour winds, forcing the crew to rebuild it so they could destroy it again for a scene. The production recruited a former military meteorologist to monitor weather conditions with a squad of radar watchers, and film safety experts enforced protocols for shutting down production and sheltering when necessary.

The prologue was shot during the first week. It utilized practical effects such as hail, rain, and wind machines to simulate the storm, though the overpass that characters hide under was enclosed in blue screen. While parts of the sequence were filmed on location, the overpass was rebuilt on a makeshift studio backlot near Prairie Surf Studios. Three locations—Crystal Springs, Stillwater, and El Reno–are ravaged in the film by tornadoes. Scenes set in El Reno were filmed on location, while a 4-block stretch of land in Chickasha stood in for Crystal Springs and Midwest City portrayed Stillwater. Early versions of the script had the Stillwater tornado surround a college baseball game, but Chung suggested changing it to a rodeo. The pool of the motel where characters take shelter was constructed for the film; a hole was dug out of the motel's lawn and, since the pool is empty, no plumbing was required. After the shoot, the pool was removed and the hole was filled to restore the lawn. The theater sequence was shot on soundstages at Prairie Surf, using vintage seats from a closed Colorado movie theater; exterior shots were filmed in El Reno. It was Chung's decision for the characters to be viewing '' Frankenstein'' (1931), a reference to Universal's "monsters" franchise. Kate's mother's farmhouse was located in the town of Howe. The accompanying barn was initially a metal shed, which the art department skinned with wood from Missouri to resemble an Oklahoma barn. The barn's interior was built at Prairie Surf. Two versions of the ending were filmed; one where Kate and Tyler kiss, and the one in the film, in which they do not. Spielberg suggested the non-kiss take to solidify that Kate's character arc was about her returning passion for storm chasing.

Post-production

The film's tornadoes were created using special and visual effects, referencing footage of supercell clouds and real tornadoes shot by technical consultants, including storm chaser Sean Casey. The tornado in the finale was inspired by the 2013 El Reno tornado, the 2021 Western Kentucky tornado, and a wedge tornado that struck Kansas in 2023. Scott R. Fisher and Ben Snow were the special and visual effects supervisors, respectively. Special effects included wind fans running at around 70 miles per hour; two jet engines operating further away from the sets at 170-to-180 miles per hour; dump tanks; high-pressure pneumatic water cannons; and polyacrylamide for hail. Visual effects were handled by Industrial Light & Magic. Terilyn A. Shropshire was the editor. Chung said the most challenging part about making ''Twisters'' was balancing the tone because he wanted to entertain audiences while simultaneously taking the natural disasters seriously due to their real-world impacts. In June 2023, amid filming, '' The Oklahoman'' reported the production budget for ''Twisters'' as nearing $200 million. In July 2024, the budget was listed as $155 million before print and advertising costs.

Music

Benjamin Wallfisch composed the film's score. The soundtrack, '' Twisters: The Album'', was released on July 19, 2024, through on CD, LP, and digital download by Atlantic Records. It features 29 songs from primarily country acts, including Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Bailey Zimmerman, Megan Moroney, Tucker Wetmore, Tanner Adell, Jelly Roll, and others. Combs' " Ain't No Love in Oklahoma" led the soundtrack as a single on May 16, with few singles released in the subsequent weeks prior to the film's release.

Release

''Twisters'' premiered at Cineworld Leicester Square in London on July 8, 2024. Notably attending the event was Tom Cruise, who worked with Powell on '' Top Gun: Maverick'' in 2022. The film also screened at the Taormina Film Fest in Italy in July 2024. The film was released in the United States by Universal Pictures on July 19, 2024, and early in some international markets by Warner Bros. Pictures, beginning on July 10. It was also released through digital formats by Studio Distribution Services (under the domestic distributor Universal Pictures Home Entertainment) on August 13, 2024.

Marketing

The ''Twisters'' soundtrack accumulated over 175 million streams between May 29 and its theatrical release; Universal released one song per week for ten weeks, then a song per day the final week. In addition, the studio partnered with radio personality Bobby Bones. Sporting events were significant in raising awareness to the film. Universal worked with NASCAR for co-branded promo as well as MLB, Copa América, and WWE. The 30-second television spot broadcast during Super Bowl LVIII amassed 29.2 million views in a day and was among the year's most-watched Super Bowl trailers. Commercials for the film aired during events for All Elite Wrestling, NASCAR, the United States Olympic trials, Olympic Trials, UEFA Euro Cup, UFC, and the WNBA. Universal strategically put tickets on sales during the first game of the 2024 NBA Finals, made content with Dodge RAM and Wrangler (brand), Wrangler, and had the cast participate in a cross-country promotional tour that exceeded New York and Los Angeles and made stops in Dallas, Chicago, and Miami. Special screenings were held in Oklahoma and military bases, and discussions were held between the cast and meteorologists. As a result of the marketing, ''Deadline Hollywood'' noted that the film's top-grossing cities during its opening weekend were Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Atlanta, Oklahoma City, and San Antonio, and that theater chains in Middle America (United States), Middle America like B&B Theatres and Santikos Theatres surged over annual norms. The publication also said the film's "not political" standing (by not referring to climate change) appealed to "red states"; despite it, PostTrak reported that of opening weekend moviegoers, 16% were registered Democrats while 7% were registered Republicans. The highest-grossing theater that weekend was Regal Cinemas, Regal Warren in Moore, Oklahoma, at over $130,000.

Reception

Box office

, ''Twisters'' has grossed $267.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $102.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $369.8 million.

In the United States and Canada, ''Twisters'' was initially projected to gross $40–55 million from 4,151 theaters in its opening weekend. After it made $32.1 million on its first day, including an estimated $10.7 million from Wednesday and Thursday previews, projections were raised to $75 million. It went on to debut to $81.3 million, the best-ever opening weekend for a natural disaster film, surpassing ''The Day After Tomorrow'' (2004). At the time, the film had the third-highest opening weekend of 2024, behind ''Inside Out 2'' ($154.2 million) and ''Dune: Part Two'' ($82.5 million). Of that opening, $2.1 million came from 4DX screenings, a record for the format, surpassing ''The Super Mario Bros. Movie'' (2023). However, this record would be quickly surpassed the following week by ''Deadpool & Wolverine'' when that movie made $2.5 million from 4DX. Because of its success in the format, ''Twisters'' returned to 4DX theaters alongside the original film on August 30 and continuing until September 5. The film earned $35 million and $22.8 million in its second and third weekends, respectively, both times behind ''Deadpool & Wolverine''. During its seventh weekend, as the film was released on PVOD, the film ranked number three at the box office and experienced a 27% box office increase from the previous week during its first three days.

Critical response

According to the website, critics felt that Chung added "more substance" to the film and praised the film's visuals and "unexpectedly well-handled romantic twist", calling it a "rousing piece of summer blockbuster cinema". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, the same score as the first film, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it 4.5 out of five stars.

Robbie Collin of ''The Daily Telegraph'' gave it a score of five out of five, writing that it "vastly improves on [the original] in all regards". Writing for ''Entertainment Weekly'', Jordan Hoffman gave the film a "A-" grade, saying "There's a ton of technobabble that you have to take on faith, but Jones and Powell do more than sell it; they make it compelling". IndieWire's David Ehrlich gave the film a "B+" grade and said "And for all of the unearned goodwill that ''Twisters'' extends to viral content creators, it still makes one of this summer's most emphatic arguments in favor of the big screen experience". Donald Clarke of ''The Irish Times'' gave it a rating of three out of five, explaining that "A sequel, while no masterpiece, feels perfectly serviceable in the era of lore-addicted trash such as ''Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire''".

Owen Gleiberman of ''Variety (magazine), Variety'' gave the film a mixed review. He praised the performances of Powell and Edgar-Jones, but suggested the film was not as innovative as the original film given the prevalence of the Internet and actual videos of tornadoes freely available. He wrote, "Staring up at the tornadoes in ''Twisters'', I felt like I'd already seen something exactly like them — and that when it comes to footage of actual tornadoes, I'd already seen something more incredible".

Scientific accuracy

The producers of ''Twisters'' consulted with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during development, with the federal agency contributing logos and props. The agency added that its contribution to scientific accuracy was only reflected "in some parts" of the film. A scientific review in ''The New York Times'' pointed out impossibilities with the film's mechanism for dissipating tornadoes, observing that the method suggested would require many tons of the chemicals used and require a much longer period. A professor at Texas A&M University also remarked: "it's highly unlikely that the small-scale methods depicted in the movie would have any real impact on tornadoes. To my knowledge, no one is actively pursuing such an approach". An article in ''Wired (magazine), Wired'' noted that the "twin" tornadoes featured in the film do occur in real-life as multiple-vortex tornadoes, drawing comparison to the Dunlap, Indiana tornado during the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak.

Writer Margaret Renkl criticized the film for not mentioning the link between climate change and the increasing frequency and intensity of tornadoes. Despite Smith's intent for the screenplay to incorporate the effects of climate change, Chung explained his decision to avoid explicitly referring to climate change as wanting "to make sure that we are never creating a feeling that we're preaching a message." According to Chung, Universal wanted him to put forward a clear message about climate change, but scientific advisors on the project suggested that he be more measured, because the link between tornado severity and climate change remains unclear.

References

External links

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4DX films
2020s American films
2020s disaster films
2020s English-language films
Amblin Entertainment films
American disaster films
American sequel films
Films about scientists
Films about survivors of disasters
Films about tornadoes
Films affected by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike
Films produced by Frank Marshall
Films scored by Benjamin Wallfisch
Films shot in Oklahoma City
Films shot in Oklahoma
Films set in New York City
Films set in Oklahoma
IMAX films
Rodeo in film
Universal Pictures films
Warner Bros. films