Twisters review: "Glen Powell's whirlwind ascent continues"

Only Independence Day took more at the box office than the original Twister in 1996, and yet it’s taken 28 years to work up a second wind. In that time, Mission: Impossible, which came third in ‘96, has sprinted its way to six more instalments, with a seventh on its way. 

But thankfully Twisters was worth the wait, its swirl of large-scale spectacle, likeable characters, and heartfelt sentiment excusing a plot that’s really just a washing line on which to peg set-pieces… if such a metaphor is wise, given that an EF5 tornado would likely take the line, your clothes, the shed, the whole back garden, and your house too.

Twisters opens with a terrific suspense sequence in which a group of Oklahoma storm-chasers led by the intuitive Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) lose their tornado in the thick grey skies, swivelling necks like swimmers fearing a shark attack. Catastrophe ensues… Cut to five years later and Kate is now tracking weather patterns from behind a desk in New York. Then Javi (Anthony Ramos), from her old crew, re-enters her life, pleading that she join his new team to face the once-in-a-generation cluster of twisters set to raze Oklahoma.  

More reboot than sequel – the only returning ‘character’ is Dorothy, the scientific device invented to scan a tornado’s interior data – Twisters nonetheless whips up plenty of callbacks as Kate and Javi race other chasers to these funnels of fury. Their chief rival is ‘tornado wrangler’ Tyler Owens (Glen Powell); cocky and charismatic, he rocks a cowboy-hat-and-wet-white-T look for his million subscribers on YouTube.

Director Lee Isaac Chung handles the character beats with grace, retaining some of the heart and detail he brought to indie charmer Minari (2020). Raised on an Arkansas farm, Chung also a keen eye for rural Americana, not just in his country-music choices and a live-wire rodeo scene, but also in his feel for wide-open landscapes, and his care for communities – Twisters is a film that takes time to sift through the devastation wrought, meaning it feels churlish to suggest it might be 20 minutes too long.

But hey, you want to know about the wind, right? Well, like the storm-chasers themselves, Chung has new tech to play with, and Twisters outstrips Jan de Bont’s original blustery blockbuster for scale, while keeping things shudderingly immersive. You’ll emerge bruised and buffeted, and likely hoping it’s not another 28 years until we twist again. 

Twisters is released in UK cinemas on July 17 and in US theaters on July 19. For more, check out our list of upcoming movies.