Next year’s Jurassic Park reboot, starring Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey, got an early bit of promotion last month when Bailey’s personal trainer posted a video to his Instagram showing off how ripped the actor is getting for the film. Now, is that really what a dinosaur movie needs? A defence strategy of “throat-punch a velociraptor first, ask questions later?” Twisters , thankfully, is a sequel that actually remembers the capable, rational scientist heroes of its Nineties predecessor. It suggests Hollywood might finally come to its senses when privileging brawn (and always sexless brawn, at that) over genuine smarts and expertise.
Even the film’s resident cowboy, Glen Powell ’s YouTuber and tornado wrangler Tyler Owens, studied meteorology and is handy with all the “CAPE” and “EF5” terminology. No one tries to headbutt a tornado. And no one suggests they drop a nuke on it, either.
Twisters , like its predecessor (and 1993’s Jurassic Park , if we’re keeping up the comparison), offers us compassionate, rational heroes faced with unparalleled destruction. And, here, that force rattles right through your bones. Kate Cooper ( Daisy Edgar-Jones ) has skills that border on the prophetic.
She can divine a tornado’s path by the way wheat shifts in the wind, yet has ended up stuck behind a desk in New York City. Suddenly, her old friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) turns up. He’s joined by a crew stacked with doctorates and a truck full of equipment capab.
