Twisters is the sequel to the original famous movie Twister that starred Helen Hunt. The cast in Twisters is full of up-and-coming stars. It had a Production Budget of $155 million and reportedly an Advertising Budget of $100 million.
As of this writing, it has a Worldwide Gross of $370,962,265 which is good news because that means it made a little money.
Before I get to the review, I’m sure you have some of the same questions that I do:
On March 18, 1925, the deadliest tornado in U.S. history, the Tri-State Tornado of 1925, tore a 219-mile-long path across Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. It was the longest path of a tornado in recorded history, although modern storm investigation practices find that there are typically breaks in a tornado’s path.
The F5 tornado was estimated to be about a mile wide and had winds over 300 mph. It traveled at a record speed of 73 mph and destroyed more than 19 communities, including over 15,000 homes.
It claimed the lives of 695 people and injured more than 2,000 others.
The Saturia-Manikganj Sadar tornado, striking Bangladesh on April 26, 1989, is considered the deadliest in recorded history, killing about 1300 people, injuring another 12,000 and leaving approximately 80,000 people homeless. A mile wide and traveling approximately 10 miles, it didn’t last long—but it managed to destroy entire towns. It’s also only one of many devastating tornadoes to affect Bangladesh, with five other twisters since 1964 taking an estimated 2500 lives.
Tornadoes develop from severe thunderstorms in warm, moist, unstable air along and ahead of cold fronts.
The key atmospheric ingredients that lead to tornado potential are instability—warm moist air near the ground, with cooler dry air aloft and wind shear—a change in wind speed and/or direction with height. An unstable airmass promotes the development of strong updrafts, while wind shear will further increase the strength of the updraft, and promotes the rotation from which tornadoes are produced.
After reading how powerful tornadoes are and the amount of damage they can do, I’m sure you’re wondering (as am I): does anyone really chase tornadoes? I mean, wouldn’t the smart thing be to go the other way?
Turns out, people actually do chase tornadoes.
Dave Call, a storm chaser since the ’90s and professor at Ball State University’s geography and meteorology program who is currently writing a memoir about his storm chasing experience said, “I mean, there’s weather researchers, and there’ll be some professors or research scientists who may be professors or government — it all gets a little confusing — but they’re out there. But then there’s also people like me that are teaching classes. There are journalists that are covering it as part of their job. There are weather spotters, and then just people doing it because they find it cool, like the people who hike to the tops of mountains or try to get to every country in the world.
“If you went out storm chasing in the ’80s or early ’90s, it was all basically visual storm chasing. If you really wanted to know what was going on, you’d have to pop into a weather service office somewhere, or have somebody in an office somewhere that you could call into and ask what the weather looks like.
“Then, I want to say it was in the 1990s, you started to be able to get some satellite feeds of weather. These were expensive and you needed special equipment, but at least now you could get radar information in your vehicle. You still might have to go to the Weather Service, or go to a library to find the internet to get weather data.
“The first year I went out in 2008 [with Ball State], we had a satellite feed of weather information, and we actually stopped at the library several times to get weather information. Then the year after that, we went ahead and got a mobile hotspot and we could look at weather information on our laptop. But of course, the problem was that the cellphone network 15 years ago was sparse if you had the wrong carrier or you were in the wrong area. And keep in mind, a lot of times these storms are in pretty rural areas.
“But in the last 15 years, the cellphone networks have greatly improved and you have all this stuff on your phone. The original software we were using back in the late ’90s, early 2000s — the startup cost to get into storm chasing could be pushing four figures. Well now, if you have a phone and you buy an app, you’re talking maybe $10. So it’s so much easier to get that radar information.”
A lot of people actually do chase tornadoes and it seems like the movie depicted that aspect of tornado chasing quite accurately, especially how so many people are chasing tornadoes who really have no idea what they’re doing.
According to IMDB, there have been 35 movies made about Tornadoes.
Here are the more famous ones:
Starring Helen Hunt in 1996
Starring Richard Armitage in 2014
Starring Maggie Grace in 2018
Now that you know all about the most powerful tornadoes of all time, what causes them, and why people chase them, it’s time to get to the analysis of Twisters.
Daisy Edgar-Jones starred in Where The Crawdads Sing so it’s nice to see that she’s starting to make a name for herself with another lead role. In the role of Kate Carter, Daisy plays a tornado chaser from Oklahoma. I just read that Daisy is from England (she had me fooled) which had to make playing a girl from the South quite the challenge.
I would’ve guessed she was from the U.S. I did notice she had a Southern accent at the beginning of the movie and it gradually dissipated throughout the movie. By the end of the movie, she had a California accent. So, I knew she clearly wasn’t from the South, but I wouldn’t have guessed she’s from England.
Daisy Edgar-Jones got a tough lead role that I think most actresses in Hollywood would die to have. Overall, she was pretty good. There were a lot of things she nailed, but there were some things she missed. During an important emotional scene, she barely missed making the scene feel real. It was clear she was trying to get “there” emotionally, but couldn’t quite get “there.”
Interesting Note:
Filming for the highly-anticipated Where the Crawdads Sing took place in Louisiana over a period of four months, and Daisy relished experiencing new surroundings. “I’d never seen an environment like it,” she admitted to Harper’s Bazaar.
“I’d never been to a swamp, seen nature like that, or cockroaches before. It was an amazing place.” It wasn’t all work, work, work though, as Daisy got to experience the nightlife in New Orleans, dancing on Bourbon Street and sampling their gigantic tequila shots. “My friends and I also hired kayaks and took a trip down the Bayou – there were alligators sleeping on the banks, it was pretty incredible.”
One of the coolest things about being an actor/actress is getting to go to a bunch of different cities and places and learning new culture.
Daisy Edgar-Jones gave an entertaining performance and I hope we’ll get to see her act in more lead roles soon.
Daisy Edgar-Jones Performance Grade:
7.8 B Good
Ever since Top Gun 2: Maverick I feel like Glen Powell has been everywhere. And there’s a good reason for it. He’s an absolutely terrific actor. There’s no doubt he’s a rising star in Hollywood. In a few more years, he’ll probably be a household name. In his role as Tornado Wrangler Tyler Owens, Glen Powell shined bright once again. He was fun, funny, and brought a lot of energy to the movie. He also had the two best lines in the movie. From beginning to end, Glen Powell was very convincing.
Interesting Note:
Glen Powell was one of the important co-stars in Top Gun: Maverick, but that almost didn’t happen.
Powell told Men’s Health in 2022 that he also auditioned to play Rooster in the 2022 blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick,” after spending months learning how to live like a pilot and spending time on an Air Force Base in Edwards, California.
Miles Teller got the role, but Tom Cruise, the movie’s star, and Joe Kosinski, the director, were impressed by Powell and offered him the role of Hangman.
Initially, Powell turned down the character, telling multiple outlets in the past that he didn’t like the original Hangman and thought the character wouldn’t add anything to the movie.
But Cruise and Kosinski still wanted Powell to be in the movie, so they rewrote the role based on his suggestions.
“I said my piece to Tom about what I do and what I do well, and he listened. Tom’s a listener. He listens to the crew members, he listens to his collaborators, and he hears people,” Powell told GQ in May.
Since then, Cruise has been a close friend and mentor to Powell.
That is every actor’s dream.
Due to production delays and the COVID-19 pandemic, “Top Gun: Maverick” was delayed from 2019 to 2022.
Powell told THR in May that he nearly went broke during this waiting period.
“I’d never made any significant amount of money on a movie, including ‘Top Gun,’ and I was depleting a bank account to a point where my accountant was like, ‘This pandemic cannot last much longer,'” Powell said.
But it was worth the wait. According to Box Office Mojo, the film was a huge commercial success, raising $1.495 billion worldwide. It also boosted Powell’s profile, which likely gave him the opportunities that made him the leading star he is today.
Powell told Men’s Journal in 2022 that the “Top Gun: Maverick” cast was taught how to fly multiple planes, including the Cessna and the F-18.
But Powell went one step further and actually got his pilot’s license after filming had finished.
In 2020, Powell announced in an Instagram post that he had got the license. In the caption, he said Cruise, who is a licensed pilot, paid for his flight school.
We’re definitely going to see Glen Powell in a lot more movies and I’m looking forward to watching him perform at the highest level.
Glen Powell Performance Grade:
9.3 A Excellent
I remember first seeing Anthony Ramos on a Crown Royal commercial. I don’t drink alcohol, but even in that commercial, you could tell he might have something special as an actor. He was in Hamilton, which is one of the most popular plays in our era. He’s also been in several movies. The first time I got to see him in a lead role was in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts in 2023. He was a bit shaky in that movie. It was clear to me that he was just getting his feet wet. But in his defense, that movie didn’t have a very good script.
In Twisters, however, Anthony Ramos seemed completely comfortable in his role and did not disappoint. In the role of Javi, Kate’s good friend, Anthony Ramos is in charge of leading a team of storm chasers. Anthony got a pretty good script and he made the most of it. He was fun yet serious. There was nothing that I’d say he missed badly.
Interesting Note:
Anthony Ramos, who is of Puerto Rican descent, grew up with his single mother, Mildred, and two siblings in a housing project in Bushwick, which was then a rough part of Brooklyn. The family often struggled financially. According to the book Hamilton: The Revolution, Ramos related to the line from a Hamilton song “My Shot” that said “See, I never thought I’d live past twenty,” because he said: “That’s how a lot of people in my neighborhood think. A lot of them didn’t live past 21.”
Starting at age 10, Ramos played baseball and aspired to play on an NCAA Division III college team, and then become a professional coach. “I was planning my whole life around that vision,” Ramos said. While attending New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn, Ramos auditioned for a talent show and didn’t realize it was a musical until after receiving the lead role, according to Hamilton: The Revolution. He enjoyed it so much that he started shifting his focus from baseball to acting. “I just stopped showing up to games,” Ramos said of losing interest in baseball. “I had a moment on the field where I was like, ‘Yeah, this ain’t it.’ I didn’t belong there anymore.”
Anthony Ramos had his breakthrough role in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit Broadway musical Hamilton, in which he originated the dual role of John Laurens and Philip Hamilton in 2015. Ramos followed that performance with roles in Spike Lee’s television series She’s Gotta Have It and a supporting performance in the Bradley Cooper–directed film A Star is Born. Ramos has since been cast as lead in the film adaptation of Miranda’s musical In the Heights, as well as 2023’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Ramos has also released several solo albums as a recording artist.
Anthony Ramos clearly has a lot of fight. It has taken a long time for him to develop his acting career, but it is really taking off now. I couldn’t be happier for him that he has now found so much success.
Anthony will probably be in Hollywood for a long time. I expect him to only get better and better.
Anthony Ramos Performance Grade:
9.1 A Excellent
With 2 out of the main 3 actors giving excellent performances, there’s a lot to love about the acting in this movie. All 3 of the main characters are rising stars in Hollywood and have a good chance of having very long successful film careers.
Some of the other actors were terrific, some were okay, and a few weren’t very good. Luckily, those who weren’t very good only had minimal lines.
Twisters has one of the bigger casts you’ll see in a movie these days, and there was a lot to enjoy about the acting.
Overall Acting Grade:
8.2 B+ Very Good
The predictability of the Plot is where this movie struggles. You can see what’s going to happen from a mile away. There really aren’t many twists and turns that you can’t see coming.
On the other hand, the story moves with good pace. At no time do you ever feel like it’s moving too slow. And I liked that they had two teams of tornado chasers. That was a creative idea that played well and allowed for a fun rivalry.
Plot Grade:
5.0 C Average
There are no dialogue scenes in Twisters that are going to blow anyone away, but they do a good job of sprinkling in humor throughout the movie.
Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) had a great line in the movie that perfectly fits with his belief system and describes him, “You don’t face your fears. You ride ‘em.” (This line is in the Movie Trailer, so I’m not giving anything away).
There is one scene near the end of the movie that feels off. All of the actors and actresses feel off. I think the real problem was the scene wasn’t written well enough for them to play it well. So, they just kind of had to do the best they could with poor writing for that scene.
But overall, the dialogue is pretty good and it’s fun to feel the sexual tension between Kate and Tyler, although they could’ve done it even better.
Dialogue Grade:
6.3 B- Above Average
Overall, there were some good things about the writing and there were some things that really struggled. Ultimately, the lack of great writing all throughout really affected how much people (including myself) enjoyed the movie.
Overall Writing Grade:
5.8 C+ Slightly Above Average
Since the story primarily takes place in Oklahoma, there’s a lot of country music in this movie. There are some songs from professional artists that are pretty good. The composed music, however, is sometimes okay, and often not very good. So, the overall grade for the music takes all of those factors into account.
Music Grade:
4.5 C- Slightly Below Average
There is a great shot at one point of the movie that goes from showing Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) looking up out of the truck window, then rises up through the tornado, and goes above the clouds, then shows the tornado collapsing from above the cloud line. It’s a heck of a shot that obviously involves quite a bit of CGI.
Other than that, the cinematography is quite good in this movie, but that shot going above the clouds really stands out.
Cinematography Grade:
8.2 B+ Very Good
As expected, the Visual Effects in Twisters were very good. The tornadoes looked real and the destruction looked real. They did a very good job of mixing in CGI with real shots to give the effect of true reality.
Visual Effects Grade:
8.6 A- Very Good
Lee Isaac Chung did a very good job of getting the best out of his actors and adding interesting cinematographic shots that kept things fresh. This movie had several scenes of sheer destruction after a Tornado that were remarkable. It probably took a long time to build those sets and instruct all of the extras as to what exactly to do. For me, that aspect of the directing was really incredible.
Taking into account everything that the Director is responsible for, Lee Isaac Chung did a really terrific job.
Directing Grade:
8.8 A- Very Good
There are some cuss words in Twisters, but no sex scenes.
Twisters has some excellent acting from 2 out of the 3 main stars. It has good cinematography, realistic action, and some humor. The plot is very simplistic and the dialogue could be better.
Overall, Twisters was as enjoyable movie.
Twisters Overall Grade:
6.2 B- Above Average
Twisters probably won’t be anyone’s favorite movie, but it’s a movie most people will enjoy.
Adrian Harris is a writer, author, and business owner. He hopes to soon open his own movie studio and become a movie producer, director, and actor. Read Adrian’s Bio.
Adrian Harris is a writer, author, and business owner. He hopes to soon open his own movie studio and become a movie producer, director, and actor. Read Adrian’s Bio.
*Comedy Short Story
Adrian parked the car in the driveway as he and his beautiful wife, Hannah, arrived at home. As they got out of the car, Hannah looked at the blooming flowers in their garden then at their two-story house, “It’s good to be home.”
Denis (I believe it’s pronounced Deni. The s is silent. Denis is French and French words and names are never pronounced how they’re spelled. The same can be said for a lot of English words) Villeneuve’s Dune Part 2 was probably the most anticipated release of the year.
About six years ago, I received the worst possible revelation from the Holy Ghost you can possibly receive. The Holy Ghost told me to study the Book of Job. The moment he told me that, I immediately put my head down. I knew what God was saying.
