Twisters review: 'warm-blooded' film explores dangerous weather
The film, focusing on 'tornado wranglers', stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell

Jan de Bont's "Twister" (1996) was a diverting "summer thrill ride", said Robbie Collin in The Telegraph. Now we have a stand-alone sequel, directed by Lee Isaac Chung (Minari), and a film that could have been a "faintly desperate revival of an ageing blockbuster brand" turns out to be vastly better than the original. I am happy to report that "Twisters" is a "wholehearted, warm-blooded, meticulously crafted good time".
Daisy Edgar-Jones stars as Kate Cooper, a meteorologist who is researching tornadoes in Oklahoma when one of them turns on her and her team, killing three of them. Five years on, her fellow survivor, Javi (Anthony Ramos), persuades her to come out of semi-retirement, and return to Oklahoma to monitor an especially virulent tornado season for the dodgy estate agency he is working for. But they're not the only storm chasers in town: Tyler (Glen Powell), a swaggering "tornado wrangler" with a million followers on YouTube, has also arrived to capitalise on the season. The film's formula is simple and winning: "everyday heroes you can't help but root for", enjoyable supporting turns (including from "Downton Abbey"'s Harry Hadden-Paton), and "light-touch direction" that "foregrounds" the human experience.
"Twisters" "does what it says on the tin, which is subject you to extremely bad weather over and over", said Deborah Ross in The Spectator. You may feel that "once you've seen one big storm, you've seen them all", but the film "never lets you off the hook, and is so furiously and incessantly loud that a doze is impossible. God knows I tried."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Well, "I liked the original a lot" and I enjoyed this follow-up too, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday. "Genuinely spectacular", and built around a "well-developed script", this is "classy" popcorn fare.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Sodium batteries could make electric flight viable
Under the Radar Low-cost fuel cell has higher energy density and produces chemical by-product that could absorb CO2 from the atmosphere
-
Flying into danger
Feature America's air traffic control system is in crisis. Can it be fixed?
-
Pocket change: The demise of the penny
Feature The penny is being phased out as the Treasury plans to halt production by 2026
-
A city of culture in the high Andes
The Week Recommends Cuenca is a must-visit for those keen to see the 'real Ecuador'
-
Green goddess salad recipe
The Week Recommends Avocado can be the creamy star of the show in this fresh, sharp salad
-
Fast-and-furious zombies, serial killer sharks and a matchmaking conundrum in June's new movies
the week recommends Danny Boyle is back with '28 Years Later' and Dakota Johnson has a Sophie's choice to make in 'Materialists'
-
Ancient India: living traditions – 'ethereal and sensual' exhibition
The Week Recommends Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism are explored in show that remains 'remarkably compact'
-
6 well-preserved homes built in the 1930s
Feature Featuring a restored 1934 colonial in Arizona and a cold-storage warehouse turned loft in New York City
-
Things in Nature Merely Grow: memoir of 'harsh beauty' after loss
The Week Recommends Chinese-American novelist Yiyun Li's 'devastating' memoir explores the deaths of her two sons
-
Sirens: entertaining satire on the lives of the ultra-wealthy stars Julianne Moore
The Week Recommends This 'blackly comic affair' unfurls at a 'breakneck speed'
-
Mrs Warren's Profession: 'tour-de-force' from Imelda Staunton and daughter Bessie Carter
The Week Recommends Mother-daughter duo bring new life to George Bernard Shaw's morality play