Twisters

Rated PG-13 • Theaters

Hollywood continues to rehash old ideas to cash in on nostalgia. Who would have thought Twister—in which we saw Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton chase tornadoes in the name of science—would need a sequel almost 30 years later? Twisters (now it’s plural, which means more tornadoes and more thrills!) is a stand-alone sequel only tangentially related to the original film.

Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is a talented meteorologist working at a weather service in New York City. Her old friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) lures her back to the stormy plains of Oklahoma promising that his latest technology will help solve the riddle of how to dissolve a tornado. But Kate and Javi’s team of scientists keep running into a misfit crew of storm chasers led by celebrity YouTuber Tyler Owens (Glen Powell). Kate is trying to save lives, while it seems Tyler is more interested in thrilling his viewers to keep the “likes” coming.

In the last couple of years, Glen Powell has become a bona fide star, and his charisma is the highlight of Twisters. His Tyler is cocksure with a mischievous grin, but underneath the devil-may-care persona lies a smart guy who cares about others. The film succeeds in stressing the human element, which could have gotten lost in all the Sturm und Drang of giant tornadoes ripping through small towns.

The special effects are cool, but this isn’t the kind of movie that you should think about too hard. There’s not much attempt at realism, and there are plenty of plot holes. The characters throw around a lot of meteorological terminology, which sounds authentic, but Kate comes across as some sort of weather shaman, able to predict the formation of a tornado based on a slight breeze and gut instinct. More unbelievable than Kate’s prognostications are the characters’ actions. There’s a subplot of financial shadiness that doesn’t make any sense, and few of the characters’ decisions seem rational. Our heroes keep putting themselves in needless danger to ratchet up the drama.

There’s plenty of destruction, but this disaster movie unfolds with few surprises. First the heroes chase after tornadoes, and by the end of the movie the tornadoes are chasing after the heroes. Mix in a bit of romantic tension between Kate and Tyler, and you have yourself a high-energy popcorn flick that also works for a date night.

Twisters is rated PG-13 for storm violence and occasional obscenities. The romance remains understated, focusing on the cute rather than the sensual.