From the producers of the Jurassic World franchise, Frank Marshall, and Patrick Crowley, comes Twisters, the standalone sequel to the 1996 hit disaster film, Twister. The original movie took audiences into the eye of the storm. It delivered a unique experience like no other film before it. Twisters is now showing in cinemas worldwide and looks to up the ante and put its spin on the disaster film genre. It is directed by Lee Isaac Chung and stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos, and Glen Powell.

Former storm chaser, Kate Cooper, now uses her expertise to study storm patterns from the safety of an office in New York City, but still suffers from PTSD related to a devastating encounter with a tornado during her college years that took the lives of her close friends. One of the friends who did survive, Javi, tracks her down and convinces her to come back with him to Oklahoma and test a groundbreaking new tracking system he designed while he worked for the military.

Now with a full professional team, they have everything they need to chase tornadoes and collect data, but they also find themselves competing with other storm chasers, with their biggest competition being Tyler Owens, a charming and wild social-media star, famous for his storm-chasing content with his rowdy crew, who have never met a storm they wouldn’t chase. As storm season intensifies, Kate, Tyler, and their competing crews find themselves in a fight for their lives as multiple systems converge over central Oklahoma.

The story centres around Kate Cooper, portrayed by Daisy Edgar-Jones who does an excellent job showing how her earlier encounter with a devastating tornado still affects her to this day. She shows plenty of character development as she gets back into the spin of things and slowly builds her confidence back up, but still has moments of hesitation. Even while still experiencing PTSD, she still has plenty of charm and personality, especially while interacting with other characters.

In the Heights star, Anthony Ramos plays Javi, one of Kate’s oldest friends and fellow storm chaser. While there’s a big section of the film he misses, he still plays an important role and later becomes an even more integral part of the story. Ramos’ performance shows that Javi never gave up his storm-chasing ways, even after losing his friends, Kate moving on and him having to shift to a different career. Storm chasing is simply in his blood and the film shows that he has come a long way and now has a full team of professionals working for him, but how he gets the funding might be questionable.

Glen Powell looks like he’s having a ton of fun portraying Tyler Owens, exaggerating his arrogant and self-absorbed cowboy personality, especially with the actor being a born and raised Texan in real life. Early on, it’s easy to hate the character, a self-described Tornado Wrangler who seems to only care for his social media clout, selling t-shirts with his face all over them and isn’t above using underhanded tactics to chase tornados after other storm chasers already did the hard work by tracking them first. He’s also taken a liking to Kate despite her being part of a rival crew and soon she sees there’s more to Tyler than how he presents himself on social media.

Various other stars also appear as part of Tyler’s crew, each with their field of expertise but all have the same rowdy personality as him, and everyone feeds off each other’s energy. They include Katy O’Brian, Sasha Lane, and Tunde Adebimpe just to name a few. Even if they all have more supporting roles, they all still get some memorable moments throughout the film.

Harry Hadden-Paton stars as Ben, a well-educated journalist from London who rides with Tyler’s crew to get a deeper insight into his story on storm chasing but has bitten off more than he can chew. He adds to the comedy and offers a different point of view on certain things, but it still feels like he could’ve done a little more in the movie.

The most noteworthy of the supporting cast is David Corenswet, who is set to don the red cape as the next Superman in the upcoming 2025 film and kick off the DCU brand of superhero movies. In Twisters, he also has a small role playing as Scott, a business partner of Javi but still has his part in the overall story. In this film, it’s clear to see he’s a big man compared to the rest of the cast, so his upcoming role as the new Man of Steel is no doubt an exciting one.

The original 1996 film was a visual marvel, especially for its time, but the 2024 film improves on the visual effects even more, creating breathtaking and terrifying disaster scenes that will blow audiences away with a whirlwind of emotions. There are also some subtle callbacks to the first film that fans will appreciate, even if none of the original cast are seen or referenced at all. None of the events from that film are spoken about either, not even a passing mention.

In some ways, this standalone sequel feels like a remake and a modern take on the original film. It may feel like a ‘we’ve seen this before’ movie, but it doesn’t overshadow any of its positives, although some mentions of the previous story would’ve been a nice way to honour the past and reward longtime fans, especially since both stories are set in Oklahoma. A different state would’ve been a good way to change things up.

Despite all that, it doesn’t take anything away from the sheer excitement and adrenaline rush this disaster film provides. The all-country music soundtrack perfectly complements all the mayhem onscreen, but also has some tracks for the calmer scenes as well. It features tracks by Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Kane Brown, Megan Moroney, Lainey Wilson, and various other country music stars. Just like the original film from 28 years ago, the Oklahoma setting provides some beautiful set pieces, even with a tornado tearing through the lands and towns.

Twister and Twisters share a lot of similarities but are still very different movies. The modern take reflects a lot of real-life aspects of the current day, not only with modern technology, but also showing how far and how silly social media has become, and how unbearable online influencers can be. Twisters isn’t aiming to be an award-winning movie, but just a fun disaster flick with an easy-to-follow plot, diverse and entertaining characters, and mind-blowing special effects. Twisters is a wild ride that puts its spin on the disaster genre, blows audiences away and creates a whirlwind of emotions.

Written by: Sammy Hanson