Twisters Is A Sequel To The Finest Film Ever, Not A Remake Of It

Throughout Tremendous Bowl LVIII, a teaser trailer dropped that baffled a variety of viewers—it wasn’t the Despicable Me 4 one making enjoyable of AI, however an action-packed Tornado teaser. The trailer showcased the July 2024 film starring Regular Folks’s Daisy Edgar Jones and High Gun: Maverick’s Glen Powell as storm chasers. It featured scary twisters obliterating homes and sucking up unlucky folks, as tornadoes are wont to do.

However these with data of the long-lasting ‘90s flick Tornado have been a bit misplaced—is Twisters a sequel to that movie or a remake? Let me, the foremost Tornado professional at Kotaku (and certain past), clarify.

Tornado is the very best film ever

First, an essential assertion: 1996’s Tornado (starring Helen Hunt and late greats Invoice Paxton and Philip Seymour Hoffman) is my favourite film of all time. I used to be a younger baby once I first noticed it, and it kicked off a lifelong obsession with tornadoes and storm techniques—I’ve a number of Doppler apps on my cellphone, and I’m nonetheless making an attempt to arrange a visit out west to go see the monsters in particular person. Tornadoes are fascinating not solely due to their harmful, awe-inspiring energy, however due to how uniquely American they’re—they occur elsewhere, certain, however it’s the actual make-up of the US (the Rocky Mountains, the flat plains of the Midwest, the nice and cozy, damp air from the Gulf of Mexico) that make them so commonplace right here.

However I wasn’t the one one who beloved Tornado—it was the second-highest grossing movie of 1996 (behind solely Independence Day) and obtained Oscar noms for its visible results and sound design. Directed by Dutch filmmaker Jan de Bont (Pace), Tornado is a quintessentially ‘90s motion flick wherein a scrappy bunch of storm chasers face off towards each the wrath of mom nature and a gaggle of company sell-outs, as they race in direction of an enormous scientific discovery (and away from tornadoes, after all). There are flying cows, a twister ripping by way of a drive-in film display that’s displaying The Shining, and big, sensible explosions. Van Halen wrote a tune for it, for fuck’s sake.

Tornado strikes the proper steadiness between realism and ridiculousness that we so hardly ever see in trendy cinema. It reveals us the true-to-life harmful energy that may be a twister tearing by way of an open subject and tells us that the warnings for these in its path typically come too late. However we’re additionally informed that Paxton’s character (a storm chaser turned soon-to-be-weatherman) is preternaturally able to predicting when a storm system will produce a twister, or the place that twister will head—and it’s this reward that units him aside from the company sell-outs (led by The Princess Bride’s Cary Elwes). It’s absurdly stunning.

Each single particular person in my life is required to look at Tornado in the event that they wish to stay in my life, and I’d implore you to do the identical.

However Twisters shouldn’t be a remake

Now, followers of Tornado have been possible confused as a result of there are a components of the Twisters trailer that appear instantly pulled from the unique movie: the workforce searching for shelter beneath a bridge whereas within the path of an enormous twister, the white-shirt climate folks (Jones and firm) staring throughout the car parking zone at a maverick storm chaser (Powell), and a gadget that appears equivalent to the one seen within the authentic film, floating doodads and all. The font is even the identical, for the love of Dusty.

Plus, the story facilities round Jones and Powell—and I’ve seen a minimum of one publication claiming Jones is the daughter of Hunt and Paxton’s characters, although it’s not confirmed. I can say with confidence that Powell’s character (dubbed “the Twister Wrangler,” whereas Paxton’s character was nicknamed “the Excessive”) is clearly modeled after real-life excessive storm chasers like Reed Timmer, who rides into storms in his automobile, the Dominator, which he’s modified to resist the highly effective winds and particles. There’s a scene within the trailer wherein Powell’s character deploys drills from the underside of his truck that bore down within the floor, ostensibly to forestall the twister from lifting up the automobile and hucking it a whole lot of yards away. Timmer even confirmed to The Oklahoman that he took Twisters author Mark L. Smith storm-chasing, and helped with the movie’s idea.

However in accordance with Leisure Weekly, Twisters is a standalone sequel (not a remake) that received’t require viewing the unique to grasp it—although I’d urge you to. Director Lee Issac Chung (Minari) beloved Tornado, although, so anticipate there to be tons of throwbacks even when Jones’ character isn’t instantly associated to the earlier leads (even the unique EW footage have nods to the unique film).

“What was important to me was that it at all times felt like in that first film, which didn’t essentially really feel like a catastrophe film,” Chung informed EW. “To me, it felt like an journey film, and I at all times beloved how that film impressed a technology of meteorologists and individuals who have been serious about science and climate simply because it made that research really feel prefer it was an journey. That’s one thing that I wished to retain with this one.”

I don’t learn about you, however I’m so able to get twisted.

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