Everyone involved with “Twisters” is quick to point out that this is not a traditional sequel to 1996’s “Twister.”
Instead, director Lee Isaac Chung and cast members, led by Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, and Anthony Ramos, described the film to Entertainment Weekly as a “standalone sequel” and a “modern take,” meaning the story takes place in the same universe as the first film, but no characters will be returning from the Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton blockbuster.
But even though Twisters doesn’t feature or even reference any of the original Twister characters, the film finds plenty of ways to pay homage to the original story. Here are 19 ways the new film (in theaters now) pays homage to the first movie.
Jeremy Davies in “Twister.”
Universal Pictures
Muskogee State University
Twisters begins with five Muscogee State University students, Kate (Edgar Jones), Javi (Ramos), Jeb (Daryl McCormack), Addie (Kiernan Shipka) and Praveen (Nick Dodani), out in the field chasing storms. The team in Twister, led by Joe (Hunt) and Bill (Paxton), all belong to the same fictional alma mater, with their cars bearing school stickers and Lawrence (Jeremy Davies) wearing a shirt with the school’s crest.
Dorothy’s machine from “Twisters.”
Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Amblin Entertainment
Dorothy Machines
Joe and Bill’s storm-chasing team attempt to launch sensors into twisters to gather more information about how they develop, with the ultimate goal of developing a more advanced warning system. Their sensors are housed in a large, metal barrel-shaped device they call the “Dorothy Machine” (based on a real device called TOTO, short for TOtable Tornado Observatory). “Dorothy I”, “Dorothy II” and “Dorothy III” are destroyed before the sensors can be deployed, but the film ends with the success of “Dorothy IV”.
Joe and Bill only had four Dorothys in Twister, but “Dorothy V” appears at the beginning of Twister, so apparently one was made. While Kate focuses on experiments that could “control” tornadoes, Javi works on gathering more data, just like Joe and Bill. There’s no mention of storm chasers in Twister, and although the sensors are definitely being upgraded for 2024, “Dorothy V” looks like it was made in 1996.
The Wizard of Oz theme is expanded upon in the second half of the film, with Javi’s pursuit team given code names: “Scarecrow,” “Tin Man,” “Lion” and “Wizard.”
Lois Smith in “Twister” and Maura Tierney in “Twisters.”
Everett; Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Amblin Entertainment
Aunt Meg, meet Mr. Carter.
“Food. Food.”When Dusty (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is desperate for food after a tornado-tornado scourge, he and the other storm chasers know where to find it: the dining room table of Joe’s Aunt Meg (Lois Smith) in nearby Wakita.
In Twisters, the students at Michigan State University are also excited about a barbecue, but this time it’s promised by Kate’s mother, Cathy (Maura Tierney), and just as Joe’s team gets excited at the thought of Aunt Meg’s cooking, Kate’s friends are joking and yelling in the background as mother and daughter chat in the car through the storm.
Cary Elwes in “Twister” and David Corenswet in “Twisters.”
Everett, Melinda Sue Gordon / Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Amblin Entertainment
Jonas, meet Scott.
In Twister, it’s clear who the heroes and villains are. We root for Joe and Bill’s ragtag group of storm chasers, who dress in all sorts of outfits and drive around in a battered caravan of campers. Their enemies are their former friend Jonas (Cary Elwes) and his corporate-funded, pompous team, who “stole” Bill’s Dorothy idea (although Jonas calls it “an idea that never got done, an idea that never got done”).
At the beginning of Twisters, it’s not very clear who we’re supposed to root for; director Lee Isaac Chung and screenwriter Mark L. Smith intentionally blur the lines to keep things interesting. Kate and Javi are our introduction, but they arrive in Oklahoma as a uniformed, corporate-funded team of storm patrolmen. Powell’s Tyler Owens and his team arrive pompously, selling T-shirts with his face on them and bragging about having a million subscribers on YouTube.
But the real villain soon emerges: Javi’s business partner Scott (David Corenswet, star of James Gunn’s new Superman film). According to the film’s press notes, Corenswet “saw the morally dubious Scott as a character in the lineage of Cary Elwes’ characters,” saying, “Scott is a bit arrogant, but extremely competent and has a sharp mind. He embodies the darker side of a storm chaser’s motivations.”
Even the way the Twisters teams drive is reminiscent of the original film, as at various points in the film, both teams appear out of nowhere on a small road and run the opposing team off the road.
Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Twister” and the tornado wranglers in “Twisters.”
Everett, Melinda Sue Gordon / Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Amblin Entertainment
Meet Dusty and Tyler’s Storm Tamers
The original Twister featured a talented cast of actors including Alan Ruck, Jami Gertz, Anthony Rapp, Alexa PenaVega and Zach Grenier, but most fans would say the standout character was Dusty, played by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Twisters director Chung and costume designer Eunice Jera Lee knew they wanted to pay homage to Dusty when putting together the outfits for Tyler’s team of “storm tamers” (played by Brandon Perea, Sasha Lane, Tunde Adebimpe, and Katie O’Brien). “Perhaps the most obvious of these homages are Tyler’s popular right-hand man, Boone (played by Brandon Perea), who looks great in tie-dye, and Lily, the group’s free-spirited drone flyer, played by Sasha Lane (whose pants feature a floral fabric swatch, all evocative of the prints in Dusty’s outfit),” Lee says.
Jami Gertz in “Twister” Harry Hadden-Paton in “Twisters”
Everett, Melinda Sue Gordon / Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Amblin Entertainment
Melissa, meet Ben.
Helen Hunt recently told EW that Jami Gertz is the “secret weapon” to Twister’s success. As Bill’s fiancée Melissa, Gertz plays an outsider who sets up the love triangle between Bill and Jo and also serves to inform much of the exposition about the work of storm chasers and how tornadoes work. Harry Hadden-Paton, actor from Twisters, Downton Abbey and The Crown, plays Ben, a risk-averse British journalist who writes a profile on Tyler.
“Ben is an outsider,” says Hadden-Paton, “who has come to do his job as a journalist but finds himself drawn into a world he barely knows. What begins as a routine assignment becomes a terrifying adventure and he must learn how to survive.”
Unlike Melissa, Ben doesn’t encounter any flying cows… but Kate and Javi are amazed by chickens.
Bill Paxton in “Twister” and Daisy Edgar-Jones in “Twisters.”
Everett, Melinda Sue Gordon / Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Amblin Entertainment
Bill, meet Kate.
In Bill’s first Twister scene, he repeatedly tells his old team that he’s “not back,” and Kate says the exact same thing when she returns to the field (but only once). Later, while eating barbecue at Kate’s childhood home, Ms. Carter tells the story of how, as a child, Kate ran out of the house naked to see the storm approaching. This overlaps with the story of the team’s encounter with Bill at Aunt Meg’s table, where Bill was “naked” (or, as he puts it, “semi-naked”) and throwing liquor bottles into the tornado.
Kate also plays the role of tornado whisperer in Bill’s shoes, and the two characters have a sixth sense about storms, with rivals Tyler and Jonas watching where they’re going before they leave the pit stop (Kate even offers to buy herself and Tyler “a couple of drinks,” reminiscent of a moment between Bill and Melissa).
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Helen Hunt in “Twister” and Daisy Edgar-Jones in “Twisters.”
Everett, Melinda Sue Gordon / Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Amblin Entertainment
Kate’s Wardrobe
Costume designer Lee said Kate’s Twisters outfit (tank top, khaki overshirt, khaki pants) was a conscious nod to Joe, but she also sneaked in some less obvious references to the 1996 classic. In one scene, Kate wears an oversized baseball jersey, a reference to the one the boy wears as he emerges from the bomb shelter in the final scene of Twisters. “I landed on this really striking image of this blonde kid wearing a baseball jersey with the ‘Bombers’ logo on it,” Lee says. “Because Kate is blonde, I thought it would be fun to tie these characters together as an Easter egg. We just did the same style jersey with a little graphic twist.”
Twister; Daisy Edgar-Jones in Twisters.
Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Amblin Entertainment
sunflower
Twister’s art designer, Patrick Sullivan, wanted to pay homage to the huge sunflower field that appeared in the climax of the movie. And for good reason. Sullivan worked in the art department of the 1996 film, got his start in show business, and helped plant the sunflowers. Back then, it took months to grow the flowers, but when the decision was made to create a sunflower field at Carter’s house, “we were lucky to have an amazing green man who could make miracles happen,” Sullivan says. He instructed Andrew Nowling, head of Twister’s green department, to create an artificial sunflower field out of PVC pipes and colored leaves. “We were really grateful,” Sullivan says. “It was fun to bring the sunflowers into the movie and immerse the filmmakers and the audience all in the world of Twister again.”
Bill Paxton is filming Twister. James Paxton is starring in Twisters.
Warner Bros./Everett, Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Amblin Entertainment
The Paxtons
Traditionally, even in a “standalone sequel,” one of the characters has a connection to an original character. And while that’s not the case with Twisters , the movie does feature a character who actually has a connection to an OG star. James Paxton, the son of the late Bill Paxton, makes a cameo as a disgruntled motel guest. “It’s an Easter egg for my dad and for fans of the Original Series,” James Paxton recently told EW. “I did this for my dad.”
Sasha Lane and Glen Powell in “Twisters.”
Lee Isaac Chung
Let’s go to the movies
The penultimate tornado in Twister wreaks havoc on a drive-in theater, eventually ripping through the screen in a scene similar to Jack Nicholson terrorizing Shelley Duvall in The Shining. The rally in Twister is a rodeo, but by the end the theater is destroyed and the tornado again rips through the screen, except this time it’s Frankenstein.
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