Like its titular tornados, “Twisters” blasts through a lot in its 122-minute runtime. A summer blockbuster with a surprising amount of brains to match Glen Powell’s brawn, it features subplots that are signs of the times – disaster capitalists; the Faustian bargain between scientists and financiers – and a deluge of imagery portraying lives and livelihoods threatened by nature’s awesome power. But two words you won’t hear from any of its characters are “climate change.”
“I just wanted to make sure that with the movie, we don’t ever feel like (it) is putting forward any message,” director Lee Isaac Chung explained in an interview with CNN. “I just don’t feel like films are meant to be message-oriented.”
To his credit, there is some scientific justification for the omission, too. Generally, scientists are the least certain about the connection between tornadoes and climate change as it’s unclear how warming temperatures are changing storms themselves or the outbreaks.
However, evidence is growing of the potential impact of planet-warming pollution. Recent studies have showed rotating, supercell thunderstorms that produce tornadoes are becoming more frequent in parts of the US outside so-called Tornado Alley, including in the Southeast and Midwest. They are also becoming more frequent in seasons that aren’t the traditional severe storm season, and recent December outbreaks have proved particularly deadly.
“We’ve never seen tornadoes like this before,” says Javi, Anthony Ramos’ entrepreneurial storm chaser, in one scene. He goes on to convince old friend Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) to join his research team, promising “We can save lives.”
In the film, ever-more destructive tornados carve up increasingly urbanized areas of Oklahoma.
“I think what we are doing is showing the reality of what’s happening on the ground … we don’t shy away from saying that things are changing,” Lee added. He name-checked Maura Tierney’s character Cathy, mother of Kate, as a voice for all this. Cathy, a local farmer, gripes that storms and floods are becoming more frequent, and the price of wheat more expensive, while stopping short of citing climate change.
“I wanted to make sure that we are never creating a feeling that we’re preaching a message, because that’s certainly not what I think cinema should be about,” said Lee. “I think it should be a reflection of the world.”
If it is cinema’s M.O. to show not tell, then Lee has the prerogative to show us what he wants – like a tornado ripping through a power station, sucking up the ensuing fire and setting the sky ablaze. However, for a film populated by scientists and clued-in citizens to not mention climate change is a little like the twisters themselves: there’s a hole at the center.
Nevertheless, this was a personal and earnest endeavor for the director, who built upon a screenplay by Mark L. Smith (“The Revenant”) and story by Joseph Kosinski (“Top Gun: Maverick”).
Lee was raised on a farm in western Arkansas, just across the border with Oklahoma. His upbringing (which he drew on for 2020’s “Minari”) included an early run-in with a tornado, when he was forced to seek refuge in a car as his family didn’t have a storm shelter. “When you have brushes with extreme weather as a child, anything that feels larger than life and dangerous … (leaves) a very big imprint,” he said.
“That sense of awe and wonder was something that I really wanted to preserve in this film – that it’s not just a summer blockbuster about running from tornadoes and hiding away,” he added. “I wanted to make sure that we’re also revering and honoring the beauty of that power.”
‘Everybody wants the cow’
For Lee, an avowed fan of the original “Twister” (1996), entering this world was a dream come true. “That film made that research and science feel like an adventure in many ways. That’s what I wanted this film to do,” he explained.
But while he peppers a few loving homages to Jan de Bont’s blockbuster in his own movie, he stopped short of one: the flying cow. “Everybody wants the cow,” Lee said. “They think they want the cow. But I promise you, you would be disappointed if there was a cow.”
“Any time I talk to anyone about that original ‘Twisters’ they would say, ‘Oh yeah, the big flying cow movie.’ I felt like I would hate to make a movie, update it, and just hear, ‘Oh yes, you made the new flying cow movie.’ So that was it – that was the decision.”
The production got more than it bargained for, shooting on location during tornado season in spring 2023.
“Being in Oklahoma, you don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Ramos. “There were days where the sun was out, (the) sky was blue, clear, and then boom. The clouds, they just descend upon you, and then the wind starts blowing, and you’re like, what is happening now?!”
“Making a ‘Twisters’ movie in Tornado Alley during storm season, tornado season, it’s kind of perfect. It really rubbed off on this movie,” said Powell.
“It’s this very specific place in the world,” he added. “Everybody that lives there has kind of pride in the weather. Everybody talks like a meteorologist, everybody’s weirdly just so knowledgeable about what’s happening and how it’s happening.”
Powell plays the charming Tyler Owens, a scoundrel with a heart of gold chasing tornados for social media clicks and adjacent revenue. Some of the extras in the movie were genuine storm chasers, leading to some real-life bonding. “We’re on some group threads with a bunch of storm chasers, which is a delight,” said Powell. “We get text messages sometimes from our friends in Oklahoma. They’re like, ‘We got something brewing down here! Get down here and come chase!’”
Still, Lee would rather pump the breaks on encouraging any more hobbyists to hit the road.
“I certainly don’t want this film to inspire a bunch of people to just pile into their cars and pickup trucks and chase a tornado, because that would lead to a lot of dangerous activity,” he said. “I’m hoping … if anyone’s interested in chasing a tornado, they just watch ‘Twisters’ again.”
“Twisters” premieres in UK theaters on July 17 and US theaters on July 19.
CNN’s Angela Fritz contributed to this story.