On July 19, 2024, Twisters touched down in theaters around the world and blew audiences away with its incredible special effects, breathtaking chase scenes, compelling storyline, and an up-and-coming cast of future stars including Glen Powell. But how does it compare to its predecessor, the Bill Paxton-led Twister?
Special effects
Twisters’ special effects are certainly better than its 1996 companion, but we have to grade the original on somewhat of a curve to be fair because the technology for special effects has improved so much in the past 28 years.
However, despite the time between the two films, the effects in Twister have aged surprisingly well. The tornadoes in the two movies are equally scary, although they will terrify audiences in different ways.
Cast
The cast of Twisters is remarkably similar to the cast of the original. The original Twister served as a launching pad for the careers of Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt. Both were already borderline stars, but the success of Twister and their premier roles in the film sent their careers into the stratosphere.
Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell are at remarkably similar points in their own careers to where Hunt and Paxton were at the time.
Glen Powell is coming off a string of star-making performances that really kicked off with his role in the 2022 summer blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick. Powell followed up Maverick with starring roles in action movies such as Devotion, comedies such as Anyone But You, and this summer’s Netflix original film Hit Man.
Actors such as Brandon Perea could parlay this experience into significant roles in the future that could help their careers soar to new heights. Anthony Ramos put on a career-defining performance as Javi, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see him become a star thanks to this role as well.
Without a doubt, though, this movie will have the biggest impact on Glen Powell’s career. In his role as Tyler, the former Top Gun star demonstrated that he can be trusted to play the leading role and carry a movie.
The storyline in Twisters has more depth
The storyline of Twisters actually had more to it than the original. The characters featured many of the same interests, and the film shared the love story arc along with multiple teams of scientists trying to test new technology. However, the love story is more complicated in this movie, And as a result, is more thought-provoking.
Where the first movie featured the story of a divorced couple who rekindled their love while embracing a shared passion for chasing severe weather, this movie features a love triangle between two people who knew each other previously and a third person who couldn’t appear to be more different than either of them.
Sure, they can get a bit cliche at some point with the played-out trope of a romantic interest between a country boy and a city girl who fall for each other. However, this movie goes much further than that and explores the characters in more depth than the original Twister ever dreamed of doing.
Twisters references real-world events
Twister did a great job of referencing real-life events in the script. The movie’s third and final act takes place in El Reno, Oklahoma. This city has a tragic tornado history, including the infamous 2013 F5 monster storm that took the lives of multiple experienced and cautious storm chasers.
Prior to the movie's release, we predicted that the movie would reference the city where the TWISTEX team was killed in May 2013.
They did so in a creative and tasteful way by having the two groups put their differences aside and work to save the lives of residents in the doomed city. This is also the way he finally this year.
It may have been too close to reality if the movie depicted any of the chasers dying in the El Reno storm. Instead, Tyler's team puts chasing on hold in an attempt to save lives while Kate and Javi join them.
In particular, this scene seems tasteful and like a real tribute to the TWISTEX team because putting chasing on hold to save lives is exactly what Samaris and his team would have done if they had been in that same position.
While the movie does feature some chasers getting killed and several other close calls, it is not distasteful because there are no direct references to real-life tragedies where chasers lost their lives during tornadoes.
Twisters features callbacks to Twister
Twisters features several references that fans of the original movie will appreciate. Early in the movie, we see Javi’s team with an updated version of Dorothy, the beloved instrument pack from the original that Bill and Jo's team were attempting to place inside of a tornado.
Tyler and Kate's experiment to disrupt a tornado also involved releasing chemicals into a tornado while requiring the chase team to intercept the storm by getting in its path and then getting themselves out of the way.
During the hotel evacuation scene, Kate is wearing the same outfit that Jo was wearing during the famous drive-in movie theater scene in the original movie. Perhaps most subtly but also most importantly, there is a connection to Bill Paxton.
Viewers may not recognize the person, and if you blink you could miss it. However, pay attention to the actors during the hotel evacuation scene. The customer who is arguing with management is none other than Bill's son, James Paxton.
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