Twister was the smash-hit 90s disaster film about tornadoes, co-scripted by Michael Crichton, which sent an innocent cow twirling up into the heavens. Now here’s the jeopardy-multiplying follow-up called Twisters – there are loads of them – although the title might lead some British audiences to assume it’s an affectionate biopic of racehorse trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies.
Lee Isaac Chung, known for his autobiographical movie Minari, directs, and Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Kate, a brilliant and courageous tornado researcher, or maybe tornado whisperer, chasing down the whirlwinds in Oklahoma: a country gal with an instinctive knack of knowing where they’re going to spring up. Kate is haunted by an awful event in her past and knows as much as anyone how tragically destructive tornadoes can be; her mom (Maura Tierney) points out that these days there are more twisters, more disasters, more extreme weather events and you’d think a scientist like Kate would name the obvious culprit. Yet this film seems weirdly coy about saying the words “climate change” out loud.
