Twisters follows the story of destruction and chaos that are caused when an endemic of tornados sweeps the midwest due to climate change. Meteorologist Kate conquers her fear of the twisters in order to save the lives of people from her native state of Oklahoma. How does she plan on doing this? Using science to stop the Tornados by destabilizing their forms causing them to collapse. But, she couldn’t do it without the encouragement and help from her friends and allies. Twisters speaks to people’s fear of a single catastrophe causing personal and financial ruin. But also to the belief that one individual has the potential to completely disrupt a corrupt system.
We live in a time where climate change is causing bigger more frequent storms to devastate millions of people worldwide. Storms are always destructive to some degree, in the United States alone thousands of Americans die due to extreme weather events nationwide. Whether that be through extreme heat, droughts, flooding, hurricanes, and of course tornadoes, the death toll only climbs year by year. Twisters has been accurate in portraying this devastation, repeatedly being praised for its accuracy by the scientific community. However, the dream of stopping Tornadoes portrayed in the movie, remains solidly in the realm of fiction.
What is not fictional however, is the depiction of financial devastation that these tornadoes bring to communities across midwestern America. It’s not a one off mention, rather the economic burden that normal people face is put front and center, shaping the entire movie. In a typical disaster film it is the loss of human life that takes center stage. Although this is not neglected at all, the movie’s quieter moments focus on how normal people’s lives are ruined. Not by the tornado, but by the companies and investors that swoop in to take advantage of people who have lost everything.
When the world is as crazy as it is now, we turn to movies for two things, solutions and scapegoats. Twisters shows its audience an incredibly realistic view of storms and how they affect real people. Then, it applies a fantastical solution where the problem is fixed, stopping hurricanes from happening in the first place. It’s movie logic that is narratively satisfying without attempting to solve the systemic issues that make tornadoes so devastating for thousands of people every year. But it gets incredibly close, closer than most realistic movies dare to go. Twisters calls the business model of “buying land cheap” to be seen for what it is, wrong and inhumane.
The Plot of Twisters
Twisters (2024) first and foremost is what is known as a legacy film. In short, it’s a sequel to the cult classic film Twister (1996), but it is more than its predecessor. Rather than following the same characters doing more of the same thing, Twisters is more so inspired by Twister. The opening scene uses technology that was developed in the first film, Dorothy, showing continuity in universe. But beyond having meteorologist main characters , Twisters is a refreshing love letter than a true sequel.
The plot of Twisters follows Kate Carter, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, former PhD student and genius meteorologist as she tries to stop a EF5 tornado from destroying a small Oklahoma town. Kate’s goal from a young age was to stop a tornado in its tracks and conducted research on how to do it. However, on the day of her experiment the storm becomes far larger than expected, killing all of her colleagues besides herself and Javi. Devastated beyond belief she leaves for New York City. Five years later Javi, played by Anthony Ramos, finds her and manages to convince her to come back to Oklahoma to help him gather data for his startup.
Back in Oklahoma with Javi, Kate encounters Tyler Owens, a cowboy influencer known as the “Tornado Wrangler” who is selling merchandise to fans wherever he goes. Kate is disgusted by him, believing him to be someone who profits off of the destruction of the same storms that killed her friends. Kate eventually learns that Tyler, played by Glen Powell, uses the money made from his merchandise to provide food and other resources to towns that have been ravaged by tornadoes. After surviving a tornado together Kate and Tyler grow closer, and Kate learns that the investors supporting Javi’s startup are the same people that buy all the land from towns that are destroyed after natural disasters.
Disgusted, Kate runs back home and Tyler follows her. He then discovers her research and helps her develop it further, because it could help so many people and he believes in her. This research is put to the test when they face and nearly die to an EF5 flaming tornado. Javi realizes that he can’t stand by and be morally corrupt and helps Kate and Tyler in saving the town of El Reno. The movies ends with Kate facing her fears and successfully stopping a tornado, saving countless lives in the process.
Who or What is the Villain in Twisters?
When it comes to identifying who or what in a film is responsible for the problem, usually the answer is straight forward. Natural Disaster films tend to be even more so, the obvious conflict is whatever force is hurting our protagonists, it’s all very clean cut. But Twisters world blurs that line considerably. A tornado is a devastating force for certain, but it is not morally corrupt or malicious. Meanwhile a slimy investor is actively making things worse, literally profiting off of the misery of others, but they did not cause the destruction.
Twisters wraps up this moral dilemma as a neat bow of “it doesn’t matter anymore because we fixed it!”. But after portraying the financial reality of people who go through these tragedies it is unsatisfying for real world applications. We cannot stop a heatwave, or flood, or earthquake, or tornado even if we tried. And, if we could, what is there to prevent businesses in the movie or in the real world from trying to stop others from preventing natural disasters in defense of business? Of course we want easy solutions to complicated problems, and of course a movie is going to provide exactly that. But Twisters shows that it is not any individuals or even nature’s faults for the problems that we face. Rather, it is the system we have where we reward people willing to exploit others at their lowest.
