Movie Review: 'Twisters'

As a child, she was fascinated by the stormy cloudy conditions common to rural Oklahoma. She was excited to see the darkening clouds twist and churn in the sky and then vanish. Her fascination with weather continued at university where she majored in meteorology.

Nearing the end of her studies, Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones), had the idea to diminish the twisters/tornados strength by shooting a special solution into the them before they could inflict damage on the ground.

Next step was to test her theory. Hearing of a pending storm, she, her love interest and a few fellow students pile into their trucks and head towards the epicenter, pulling an open trailer containing drums filled with her “magic solution.”

Her idea was good, but it didn’t work – wrong mixture. The storm swept away her partner, all but one fellow student and all their vehicles. She and Javi (Anthony Ramos), managed to survive the storm by clinging to the steel beam of a highway underpass.

After graduation she left her past behind to begin a new life working at a weather monitoring firm in New York City. She is content with her new situation until the day Javi appeared at her office. He is now head of a well funded research company and wants her to join his team. He also wants to be near her. No, she wouldn’t do that again –one bad experience was enough.

Javi, having offered her the chance to correct the error of her first experiment, changes her mind. She agreed to spending one week with him in Oklahoma. “But only one week,” she emphasized.

Once there, she finds several other “twister-chaser-groups” fascinated by the same phenomenon. When hearing of a potential storm, they all gather at a nearby location and party until it’s “twister time.” One such group is headed by the excitingly reckless, charismatic Tyler (Glen Powell), aka the “Tornado Wrangler.” He arrives on the scene shouting, “If you feel it, chase it” to his cheering fellow enthusiasts. His assistant sets up a table selling tee shirts and mugs with Tyler’s quote and picture on them.

Kate feels Tyler and his rebellious group are tacky and avoids any contact with them. Tyler has other ideas. After seeing Kate and hearing of her extensive weather knowledge he wants to move towards a greater relationship with her – professionally and personally.

His efforts are helped when Kate discovers that part of the proceeds from the sale of his trashy merchandise goes towards aid to tornado victims. She becomes disappointed when she hears of Javi’s involvement in the project when he reveals the firm backing him purchases property from victims at a low price, to sell at a profit later.

Eventually Kate, Tyler and Javi form a team to refine her original experiment by expelling a revised solution into the storms. Reading their computers, their techno friends announce a major twister event is approaching quite soon –and it’s a very bad one.

The groups all jump into their vehicles and head in the storms’ direction. The three also load her new mixture into drums, load them onto a flat-bed trailer and roar off. This will be the ultimate test of Kate’s idea from so long ago.

Directed by Lee Issac Chung (Credits: Minari, The Mandalorian), Twisters runs 122 minutes and is a “must see” for thrilling, captivating look into the wicked side of Mother Nature. The special effects are breathtaking and convincing. The story also adds extra interest.