Tornado-chasers whip up a storm easy to get caught in
Parbina Rashid
Spoiler alert! There is no cow flying in this one. Yes, the black and white (or, was it brown and white) bovine from ‘Twister’, which became a symbol of disaster movies, is missing in this standalone sequel of the 1996 Hollywood blockbuster. In fact, the only character ‘Twisters’ shares with its predecessor is the tornado.
But director Lee Isaac Chung of ‘Minari’ fame gives us something better — ‘tornado-tamer’ Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones), who is ‘better than a cow when it comes to sniffing out the build-up of a storm’, to quote her mother Cathy (Maura Tierney).
Lee takes this sequel to the next level by putting Kate in the eye of the storm, burdening her with a past full of trauma and the responsibility to free Oklahoma from the increasing spate of tornados.
Kate is a meteorologist, who once used to be a storm-chaser. A tragic incident five years ago, in which she lost her boyfriend Jeb (Daryl McCormack), and friends Addy (Kiernan Shipka) and Praveen (Nik Dodani), changes her life. She leaves home and moves to New York, her science project to tame a tornado shoved into the cold storage.
When Javi (Anthony Ramos), another survivor from Kate’s misadventure, now a military man, asks her to help him test a prototype — a sophisticated weather sensor — she agrees reluctantly. Once they reach Oklahoma, they realise that storm-chasing is no longer a domain of the scientists but an open field, infested by storm tourists and social media stars.
In this current scenario, we meet charismatic ‘tornado wrangler’ Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) and his crew, which includes videographer Boone (Brandon Perea), drone operator Lilly (Sasha Lane), scientist Dexter (Tunde Adebimpe) and mechanic Dani (Katy O’Brian). There’s journalist Ben (Harry Hadden-Paton) too, who wants to write a piece on storm-chasers.
Soon, the chase turns personal, with both parties chasing each other. ‘If you feel it, you should chase it’ is Tyler’s pet line and he lives by it, be it a storm or the subject of his affection. After all, they are a match made in heaven — he with his swag and she with her sixth sense, which beats technology when it comes to spotting a tornado. But we are not complaining. Their chemistry aligns itself to the chemical compositions of the storms triggering a chain reaction in us. And the result is mush, awe and nostalgia.
Lee’s prime focus is making the film visually spectacular, and he has sleek VFX and cinematographer Dan Mindel’s expertise to help him out. The love story is kept simple and subtle, to bring back the taste of old-world charm. It’s refreshing. Too much emphasis on Kate’s sixth sense would have seemed out of place in today’s timeline, but in Lee’s hands, it becomes convincing.
The predictable storyline gets a twist when Kate realises that Javi has not been completely truthful. A conflict between a real estate lord and his boys and Tyler’s rebel gang is on the brew, but it subsides without making much impact. The tornados grow in ferocity and breadth, but Lee stays clear of making climate change the culprit.
As Tyler, having proved he is not just about counting ‘like’ and ‘subscribe’ on his YouTube channel, helps Kate resume her project to dissipate a storm with chemicals, the insightful information about tornados and the stunning visuals keep our adrenaline rush going throughout this two-hour fare.
At no point of time does Mark L Smith’s screenplay slack. Nor does the acting. If at all one can find fault, it’s Edgar-Jones in the initial stages of her Kate 2.0 avatar, when her subdued-ness comes across as studied, not spontaneous. But once the film reaches its climax, with the ‘tornado wrangler’ saving lives and the ‘tornado-tamer’ heading straight into a giant whirlpool with her chemicals and conviction, we are converted to ‘tornado lovers’.
