The Long and Windy Road

Twisters, the sequel to the ‘90s classic, features updates that will make your head spin.

By DEBORAH SKOLNIK

When you visit New York City often, as Scarsdalians tend to do, you learn to avoid sketchy situations. That guy on the subway combing his hair with a dirty plastic fork? Steer clear.  The poké-bowl restaurant that only earned a C from the Health Department? Run, Scarsdalians, run!

In Twisters, which continues the story of 1996’s Twister, we meet people who reject such wariness. These intrepid souls rush headlong towards giant wind funnels, ones which lift up entire motels as though they were Legos. When we meet main character Kate Carter, a rabid storm chaser, she does yet another thing Scarsdale residents rarely do: declares “Man, I love Oklahoma!” (More on Oklahoma later.)

Kate’s dewy eyes and bouncy ponytail evoke the most annoying version of Anne Hathaway. Yet our heroine’s enthusiasm is actually naivete. This becomes evident when disaster strikes, unspooling so rapidly that Kate can’t come to terms with its devastating after effects. From then on, her emotions are a tornado within her, a swirling vortex of regret and self-recrimination.

 Soon, we’re introduced to a cast of walking, talking tropes. You saw most of them in 1996’s Twister: nerd-herds who assist the main storm chasers; rival tornado-spotting teams—one good, one evil; bitter adversaries who become besotted (Kate and a hunky, self-described tornado wrangler). But the film makes a nod to how the world has changed since the original movie debuted. Nerds are no longer only white men. Storm hunters are now YouTube stars, the most cynical among them doing it for kicks and clicks. The need to outsmart twisters has grown more urgent due to climate change.

Technologically, the movie starts where its predecessor left off. Now that scientists understand the structure of tornadoes, the next question for researchers is how to destroy them. Yet, although we now live in a world where AI can write Ph.D. dissertations, the only way to learn more about twisters seemingly is to drive right up to—or into–them. Along for the wild ride, we get an eyeful of their scale and force. Is this all as fun as the original film?

Yes and no. Steven Spielberg produced 1996’s Twister and serves as executive producer here, yet this second iteration lacks his golly-gee touch. It is a grittier, less sanitized movie, where the landscape isn’t as pretty and people’s relationships are more ambiguous. Is hunky tornado wrangler really a narcissist? How trustworthy is the friend who has lured Kate back from Manhattan and cured her PTSD (Post-Tornado Stress Disorder)? A villain, his backstory inadequately explained by the script, plays a key role, although he rarely appears.

The only thing that’s clear is that the people in Oklahoma need some serious guidance. They build explosive oil tanks right by major population centers. A water tower is perched above a main street, releasing a flood when it’s predictably toppled. And every time a tornado chaser rushes into a town that’s in imminent danger, breathlessly asking “Is there a basement anywhere around here?” rest assured that the answer is no. “This building isn’t built to withstand anything like this!” a panicked movie-theater employee says as the skies darken. Really? 

But then, Twisters has one of the cutest endings in recent memory. When the credits roll, you realize that you’ve been sucked in, so to speak, by the sometimes-surprising plot and the spectacle of some of nature’s most lethal conjurings. Might as well give it a whirl.

To watch the trailer, click here.

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