A new generation of storm chasers takes on Mother Nature in Twisters trailer

Like so many others, I adored the 1996 film Twister, now a classic in the “disaster porn” genre and still in frequent weekend and holiday rotation on broadcast and cable networks nearly 30 years later. We’re finally getting a follow-up with Twisters, directed by Lee Isaac Chung (Minari). Universal Pictures dropped the official trailer during the Super Bowl on Sunday.

(Some spoilers for the original film below.)

Twister rocked the 1996 box office, racking up $495 million worldwide and snagging an Oscar nomination for special effects. Critics’ reactions were more mixed. The film earned well-deserved praise for its special effects and sheer entertainment value.  Who can forget the flying cows, the jaw-dropping CGI twisters, and that classic scene when a tornado suddenly rips through a drive-in movie screen in the middle of The Shining? But others criticized the thin character development and dismissed the film as “loud,” “dumb,” and “a triumph of technology over storytelling and the actor’s craft.”

Was the film often ridiculously over-the-top (especially that final encounter with the F5)? Yes indeed. Were the supporting characters a bit one-note? Granted, especially Cary Elwes’ smarmy corporate-funded rival scientist. But Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton had genuine chemistry as estranged storm-chasing spouses Jo and Bill; their relationship was the heart of the film and clearly resonated with viewers.

And yes, the scientific elements were exaggerated for the big screen, although flying cows (plus pigs, horses, and various vehicles) are absolutely a thing during real tornadoes. The fictional sensing system DOROTHY was inspired by a 1970s instrument to measure real-time conditions of tornadoes called TOTO (Totable Tornado Observatory).  And so many young people loved the movie so much that they wanted to become tornado scientists themselves. The number of meteorological majors in the US grew by 10 percent in the 1990s, and the University of Oklahoma doubled its meteorology program. That’s pretty impressive for supposedly loud and dumb mindless entertainment.

Rumors circulated in 2020 about a possible remake of Twister, with Joseph Kosinski directing, but that had dissipated by the following year. Hunt then proposed a sequel, with herself writing and directing, but the studio nixed that idea. (Apparently, Hunt killed off her own character, Jo, in the draft script. Bold move.) Eventually, the project morphed into Twisters, centered on the daughter of Hunt’s and Paxton’s characters from the original. It’s now being touted as a standalone sequel, however, so that connection might have fallen by the wayside during development. Per the official premise: