No Brain, No Pain – ‘Twisters’ Reminds Us of What a Summer Blockbuster Should Be

Cows best seek shelter in basements, because Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters storms its way into the summer blockbuster season. The standalone sequel to Jan de Bont’s now-legendary 1996 disaster movie promises more tornadoes, more carnage, and more brainless protagonists than ever before. The best part about it? It’s everything the audience demands from the cinema experience.

Twisters harkens back to the golden age of disaster movies

Volcano. Deep Impact. Dante’s Peak. Armageddon. Twister, of course. The ’90s was alive with the sound of disaster movies. Audiences couldn’t get enough as on-screen heroes fought asteroids, volcanoes, and tornadoes. It was man versus nature – with man triumphing in the end, but not before an insurmountable amount of heartbreak and tragedy is felt along the way. In 2024, Twisters replicates this successful formula. It’s about as deep as the first step in a splash pool, choosing peril over ponder, but by golly gosh in a field of corn, it hits every single sweet spot of its predecessors.

Daisy Edgar-Jones’ Kate experiences the worst kind of loss in her college years. Through her research, she harbors grand ambition to change the world by looking into the eye of the storm and stopping it. Instead, she loses her boyfriend and a few close friends after her plan fails. Five years pass, and Javi (Anthony Ramos) – one of the survivors of the tornado and Kate’s friend – finds her and offers a second chance at redemption. A reluctant Kate accepts his offer, but their tornado-studying experience is interrupted by notorious storm-chaser and YouTube celebrity Tyler Owen (Glen Powell). With different philosophies and different motives, it isn’t only the tumultuous weather conditions that the characters need to contend with.

If it sounds like every other disaster movie’s plot… Well, it is. This isn’t a story from the mind of Billy Wilder or Robert Towne. It’s a basic setup to bookend what everyone is truly here for: The pulsating action and endless destruction orchestrated by director Lee Isaac Chung. Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell’s names adorn the film poster, but the real stars are the tornadoes that hold the lyrics of Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” close to their wild hearts. From the fiery explosions to cars catapulting through the air and even a film theater having its screen replaced by the visuals of the storm, it’s endless danger here – and that’s exactly how it should be.

Dumb people doing dumb things

With the disaster being the hook, the characters prove to be secondary. The same holds true for Twisters. Sure, there’s a shimmer of a love story between Edgar-Jones’ Kate and Powell’s Tyler, while Ramos’ Javi plays a third wheel, but their arcs venture into a telegraphed and highly predictable territory. At the same time, how can anyone root for these fools? While Kate holds noble intentions about helping the world to contain storms, Tyler loves to race into tornadoes and set off fireworks, because YouTube views. These are the kind of characters that walk into dark basements in horror movies and are surprised when a killer is hiding in the shadows.

Isn’t that what they should be like in disaster movies, though? Imagine how boring these films would be if everyone did the responsible thing and followed instructions. It’s thanks to their ignorant and irresponsible actions that we are entertained and have so many memorable scenes to savor. (A special shout-out to the mouthy character played by James Paxton who decides to drive his car into the violent tornado when everyone told him to get to safety instead.) These hellraising individuals present themselves as intelligent human beings discussing complex meteorological theories, but they possess the EQ skills of trolls discussing Marvel movies on Reddit. Bless them. 

But is it cinema?

Legends like Martin Scorsese bemoan the state of cinema and what modern-day audiences choose to see in theaters. The simple fact is this: People aren’t prepared to head out of their homes for anything less than a spectacle today. There are a myriad of reasons for this, but the way of watching films has changed significantly. It’s impossible to not get into a fistfight in theaters nowadays as some social media influencer feels that’s the appropriate place to film their content and provide a running (and inaccurate) commentary to what’s on screen. Resultantly, it’s a tough sell to get butts in seats. A surefire way, though, is to provide a movie that doesn’t allow people the time or place to reach for their phones – look, a few bozos still will, but it’ll be far less than the number of people sitting through cerebral films such as Killers of the Flower Moon.

Twisters – especially in a format like 4DX – becomes a must-see cinematic event. Maybe it’s shallow. Maybe it’s brainless. Yet, no one can deny the thrills of the experience as it encapsulates the bonkers spirit of ’90s and the fever-pitch excitement of the blockbuster season. It’s Jurassic Park with tornadoes as it takes the audience on a wild journey, sucking them into the storm on screen and making them forget everything for two hours. It’s the purest, most uninhibited form of entertainment, and who can fault that? Sorry, Marty – but Twisters is C-I-N-E-M-A in 2024.