Twisters – Tornado-obsessed student, Kate, is convinced she has discovered a way to dissipate twisters from the inside. but after a disastrous first attempt, she gives up and takes a job tracking the phenomena instead. When twisters start turning up unexpectedly around Oklahoma, Kate is convinced to return to storm-chasing by a friend from her past. With the tornadoes getting bigger and stronger, can anything be done to help the people who live in the paths of these monster storms?

Twisters (2024) – Director: Lee Isaac Chung

Rating: 12A

Running Length: 122 mins

Starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos

Genres: Disaster

REVIEW: ‘TWISTERS’

The ’90’s were full of disaster movies. Back then it seemed that the Earth was in constant peril. So many things threatened our existence with aliens (Independence Day) and meteors (Armageddon) as favourites; fictional humans never faced so much mass extinction! Another threat came from the weather. As technically the tornado capital of the world by rights I maintain that the UK should have been the setting of any stormy disaster flick (seriously, look it up). However for some reason those Hollywood bigwigs didn’t think Brits running round saying ‘ey up, it’s a bit windy!’ was appealing. There’s clearly no accounting for taste!

Apologies, I didn’t know this review was going to go down THAT rabbit hole when I first stared typing so, let’s get back to a somewhat professional review! ‘Twisters’ is (shockingly) the sequel to 1996’s ‘Twister’ – did we need a sequel that barely mentions the original 28 years later? Of course we did! So this time, our heroine is Kate (Edgar-Jones) who ‘knows’ tornadoes and her knowledge, as well as her gut instinct, makes her an expert tornado chaser. Having invented a game-changing system that could massively decrease the threat wrought by such devastating weather will it prove effective? Throw in a couple of men (Glen Powell and Anthony Ramos) to even things out, and you have yourself a modern-looking movie.

If you love the good ol’ US of A, this is absolutely the movie for you. I’m willing to bet most of the world hasn’t seen a woman clad in the American flag, riding a horse draped in the American flag, while holding an American flag that flies from a pole (that has an intense flame shooting out the top) all while the National Anthem is being sung. Well, thanks to this movie, I have! Some of the major characters are ‘hillbillies’ and the stereotype of the brash, gung-ho patriots is alive and well. However, thankfully the stars of the show are definitely the impressive twisters; you will not be disappointed by the number of the destructive vortexes and the incredible special effects that bring them to life.

CONTENT: IS ‘TWISTERS’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

A small group of college-aged storm chasers go after a tornado. This starts off as a seemingly simple project, however inevitably the storm becomes much more dangerous. The scene ramps up the tension and becomes an edge-of-your-seat scene and culminates in tragedy. This isn’t overly upsetting as audiences have had little chance to get to know the characters but it does have a knock on effect to other characters.

A group of Youtuber storm chasers are much more reckless and gung-ho than Kate and her team. They revel in getting as close to the twisters as possible including even stopping their car in the middle of them and setting off fireworks that are taken up into the funnel. This could make these deadly tornadoes appear to be much safer to kids than they actually are.

While fleeing a twister, a wooden hut hits a car. The driver says ‘I think I killed some chickens’ and they then drive through a flurry of feathers.

There are numerous exciting scenes of twisters throughout the movie , many of which show people being sucked in and killed. Nothing is gory or overly lingered on.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘TWISTERS’ FOR KIDS?

‘Twisters’ is a huge amount of fun and is jam-packed with action, special effects and watchable characters. There are numerous tense scenes and lots of unknown characters are killed so we would recommend caution for children who are sensitive to such things. However, we would recommend this movie for kids aged 9 and over.

• Violence: 0/5
• Emotional Distress: 2/5 (several known characters are killed, the people who care about them are shown to be upset but this isn’t lingered upon other than a few mentions throughout the film.
• Fear Factor: 2/5 (many scenes involving twisters become very tense and could be frightening for some kids)
• Sexual Content: 1/5 (Kate is seen in bed with a man, when she turns over to face him he disappears and she realises it was a dream)
• Bad Language: 3/5 (mild to moderate bad language)
• Dialogue: 0/5
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of destructive weather, helping people, friendship, and prejudice.

Words by Laura Record