Twisters (film)

Twisters is a 2024 American disaster film directed by Lee Isaac Chung and written by Mark L. Smith, based on a story by Joseph Kosinski. A standalone sequel to Twister (1996), the ensemble cast includes Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, and Sasha Lane. It follows clashing groups of storm chasers who investigate a tornado outbreak in Oklahoma. Talks for a sequel to Twister began in 2020, with Kosinski pitching an idea to Warner Bros. and Helen Hunt, who starred in the original, also expressing interest in a follow-up that was ultimately rejected. Several directors were approached before Chung was hired in December 2022. The cast joined in early-2023 and filming took place around Oklahoma that summer, with a brief hiatus due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Twisters premiered at the Empire Leicester Square in London on July 8, 2024, and was released internationally by Warner Bros. Pictures on July 10, and in the United States and Canada by Universal Pictures on July 19. It received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed over $372 million worldwide on a $155 million budget.

Plot Kate Carter works in Oklahoma with storm chasers Javi, Addy, Praveen, and her boyfriend, Jeb. Alongside a Dorothy V doppler, the team launches barrels of sodium polyacrylate beads into a tornado in hopes of reducing its intensity and securing funding for further research. However, the crew is caught in the middle as it intensifies into an EF5. Addy, Praveen, and Jeb are killed, while Kate and Javi survive. Five years later, Kate works at a NOAA office in New York City. Javi, working for mobile tornado radar company Storm Par, offers Kate a one-week position with his team to test a new 3D tornado scanning system using phased-array radar. Kate only accepts after Javi sends a news report about a tornado destroying a town. Kate and Javi join the Storm Par team in Oklahoma, which includes Javi's business partner Scott. Popular YouTube storm chaser Tyler Owens, known as the "Tornado Wrangler", also arrives in Oklahoma from Arkansas looking to capitalize on a predicted tornado outbreak. Tyler is joined by his crew of Boone, Dani, Dexter, and Lily, as well as British journalist Ben. Storm Par and Tyler's crew chase an EF1 tornado that has touched down in a nearby wind farm. Kate experiences a panic attack, rendering her unable to help Javi set up the third and final scanner needed for 3D imaging and she instead drives away. The team tracks another storm which produces another EF1, that also produces a Satellite that splits off. Storm Par chases the Satellite after noticing that it is intensifying, but as it reaches EF3 strength, it takes out the third scanner. Kate and Javi barely escape and drive to the nearby tornado-ravaged town of Crystal Springs to help recovery efforts, along with Tyler's crew. Having dismissed Tyler and his team as glory hounds, Kate is surprised to learn they use merchandise profits to aid tornado victims, while Storm Par investor Marshall Riggs profiteers by purchasing tornado-damaged land. Tyler invites Kate to a nearby rodeo in Stillwater, where they begin bonding. When a large tornado hits, Kate leads Tyler and nearby residents to shelter in an empty motel pool. In the aftermath, Kate and Javi argue about Riggs' intentions, causing Javi to blame Kate for their colleagues' deaths. Distraught, Kate retreats to her mother's farm in Sapulpa. Tyler follows and uncovers Kate's previous research regarding the tornado disruption experiment. Kate initially declines Tyler's offer to help retry the experiment but finally accepts. The next day, they release the beads into a passing tornado, but it fails to dissipate. Using scanning data provided by an apologetic Javi, Kate hypothesizes a change in the experiment to correct a previous oversight, namely adding silver iodide. The team tracks another tornado developing near El Reno. Javi and Scott's truck is knocked on its side and back upright again; they escape just as the tornado catches fire after striking an oil refinery. The tornado explodes in size becoming a mile-wide EF5 that heads towards El Reno. Javi attempts to rush to El Reno to help recovery efforts, but Scott pressures him to continue their mission for Riggs. Javi abandons Scott by the road and quits Storm Par. Kate, Tyler, and their team evacuate the townsfolk into a nearby movie theater. A derailed streetcar and debris traps Tyler. Kate struggles to free him, but with the arrival of Javi, Tyler is rescued. Kate drives Tyler's truck into the tornado's center. She fires the silver iodide into the tornado, and after a brief struggle with the controls, she launches the polyacrylite beads also, but the vehicle is overturned before landing on its roof. The tornado rips the theater open, nearly pulling Lily and Tyler out just as the measures take effect, weakening the tornado. The team rescues Kate and celebrates the dissipating tornado. Sometime later, as Kate waits at the airport for her plane to New York, Tyler catches up with her to reconcile with her. Upon learning that flights have been delayed because of strong winds, the two swiftly depart for the storm. A closing montage shows that Kate, Javi, and Tyler have joined in a new tornado radar business and that Ben's story focused on Kate instead of Tyler.

Cast

Production

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