Twisters: a film about hope

Twisters starts with a gust of hope. Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is an exuberant university student with a passion for everything weather and tornado. She knows the weather like a friend. She knows when it will rain, when it will pour, and when stormy clouds will ravage the earth with unending anger. She exudes sure-footedness, impulsivity and supreme intelligence. She is sure that her innovation with polymers (the kind used for leak-proof diapers) that she devised with advanced cloud microphysics can tame tornadoes. In her latest experiment, in Oklahoma, she tests this hypothesis with her friends. The result is a colossal failure. Five people entered this experiment. Two left. Kate, and Javi (Anthony Ramos), who was monitoring the situation from afar. 

Twisters starts with a gust of hope, but the gust is overpowered by a tempest of terror.  

The film always maintains that tornadoes are majestic, but they are also incessant, ceaseless, unrelenting and unforgiving.

 

Now, Kate works at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in New York. An area immune to most tornadoes. She studies weather from a computer, predictive models and her instincts. She exudes cautiousness, intellect and fear. Risks are overrated, she has come to learn. Unfortunately, her safe bubble is burst by her old friend Javi, who ropes her into tornado-chasing again. With the promise of helping to curb them. The film always maintains that tornadoes are majestic, but they are also incessant, ceaseless, unrelenting and unforgiving. The people hit by them can often be helpless. While Kate is joined in Oklahoma by an army of qualified scientists, she crosses paths with Tyler (Glen Powell), a storm-chaser and famous YouTuber. Similar to Kate, Tyler has an instinct and love for the weather. Unlike Kate, he is fearless, not as qualified and laid back. They have a rough start, but eventually, they hit it off. 

The film, thus, plays with its viewers continuously. On one hand, it is hilarious, and at some points, will make you swoon. Powell continues to deliver the charisma he did in Anyone But You and his more recent, Hitman.  At other points, it might make you want to sob. We get to learn more about Kate’s exuberant youthfulness during her childhood. As it turns out, she doesn’t just know the weather, she feels the weather. Not just that, but she always has. From early childhood experiences to school science fairs. What happened in the opening scene did not just make her learn fear. It made her lose herself. Daisy Edgar-Jones is fantastic in this role. Interspersing her character’s aloof charisma with bursts of her former cheer and excitement, she embodies the tumult of tornadoes tactfully throughout.  

The chemistry between the actors is also palpable. Edgar-Jones and Ramos effectively channel the conflicting nature of their friendship, which has been somewhat tarnished by their shared trauma. On the other hand, Powell and Edgar-Jones’s dynamic has a subtle tint of romance, accentuated aptly through some wittily written banter. If you are worried about cheesy romance though, do not fret. Director Lee Isaac Chung has masterfully ensured that Twisters always maintains its focus on the marvel and the mayhem of tornadoes. With marvellous and majestic cinematography (watch out for the twin tornadoes!), this feat is successfully achieved. For fans of the original Twister (1996), this film follows very similar themes and premise. However, for the most part, the central narrative is distinctly different.  

My favourite aspect of this film is its focus on the ethics of storm-chasing and studying tornadoes.

 

My favourite aspect of this film is its focus on the ethics of storm-chasing and studying tornadoes. The film, through its narrative, challenges passivity in these scenarios. The primary question is: is it right to monitor these scenarios for science as opposed to helping devastated local towns and villages? This conflict remains a central point of this film and ensures that the concept of storm-chasing is explored from a multitude of viewpoints. 

To deliver a fair warning, the science here is not always accurate.

 

To deliver a fair warning, the science here is not always accurate. While a few of the lofty phenomena demonstrated here, such as the twin tornadoes merging into a bigger tornado, are possible (albeit very rarely and minutely), the polymer hypothesis that drives much of Kate’s inner motivation, is realistically impossible. A New York Times article states just this. The scale of material and the unprecedented nature of tornadoes would render this idea fallacious and incontrovertibly implausible.  

The main criticism I had was that some of the drama did not land as effectively as it should have. As Kate and Javi navigate their reunion, they have tense interactions. While I do appreciate the realism here, the execution may have been better. Javi’s character, in these scenes, comes off as disarmingly immature, although in other scenes he remains level-headed and good-humoured. Moreover, the ending felt a smidge anti-climactic, however, it appears a sequel, following the same story, may be on the cards. 

If you are looking for a fun, and at times, emotionally rejuvenating disaster film, I would recommend Twisters. It may start as just a gust of hope, but it ends with a rainbow of possibilities and prospects. There are a lot of muddy puddles in the middle, but at the end of the day, this film tells us: “Hope prevails!”