The near-20 year gap between Twister and Twisters hasn't stopped the excitement from building for the 2024 sequel that has already drawn plenty of positive feedback from critics and fans lucky enough to see early screenings. Some of the highest praise, though, didn't come from a critic or fan about Twisters, but from the film's leading man Glen Powell as he took a moment on the day of his latest film's release to heap praise on the original film's beloved star Bill Paxton.

Twisters Connection

Powell, who has seen his star power explode over the last two years, took to social media on Friday to pay his respects to Paxton to help celebrate the release of Twisters. He didn't mince words as he offered a “tip of the hat” to his friend Paxton, with Powell including an image of himself and Paxton while shooting the 2013 film Red Wing where the two met.

It is one of many tributes to Paxton that have continued in the years since the actor's death in 2017.

One of the most befitting tributes came shortly after his death took place thanks to around 200 storm chasers in and around Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The chasers worked together to form Paxton's initials ‘BP' on a map tracking each chaser's truck using a red tracking blip.

While Paxton is known a beloved for a variety of characters he got to play on screen during his career, he mostly served as a character and supporting actor in a majority of the films he worked on. Twister was one of the few times during Paxton's career where he got the chance to take on a leading role in what was considered a major theatrical release with big names attached behind the scenes, including Steven Spielberg.

“If Ya Feel It, Chase It!”

Paxton starred as storm chaser-turned-weatherman Bill Harding as he travels to Oklahoma to finalize his divorce with his estranged wife Jo Harding, portrayed by Helen Hunt, when he gets roped into another chase to help deploy a device the couple had conceived of years earlier to help research tornadoes. The chase sends the pair, Jo's team, and Bill's fiancee Melissa racing all over Oklahoma to try and successfully deploy the device, dubbed Dorothy, while trying to avoid the dangerous weather occurrences and beat out their old rival Jonas Miller, portrayed by Cary Elwes, from deploying his own version of Dorothy.

Twisters poster with farm background.

Twister would go on to be a massive hit thanks to a very positive critical and audience reception and earning roughly $495 million at the worldwide box office, making it the second-highest grossing film of 1996 behind Independence Day's estimated $817 million haul. The film even managed to score Best Sound and Best Visual Effects nominations at the 69th Academy Awards.

Twisters picks up nearly-20 years after the original and follows a new group of storm chasers in Oklahoma amid a record-breaking tornado season for the state. On one side is Daisy Edgar-Jones' Kate Carter, a former-storm chaser working for the NOAA who gets roped back into one more chase by her friend Javi, portrayed by Anthony Ramos, to help test something that could potentially disrupt tornadoes. Opposite Carter is Tyler Owens, played by Powell, a social media sensation nicknamed the “Tornado Wrangler” who has come to Oklahoma with his team to capture the outbreak.

Twisters is in theaters.