Twister is more important than you realize, and here’s why you should be on the film’s side.
NOTE: A lot of this will be the author rambling on, but there is a point here that is more than a movie.
When Twisters was announced as a spiritual sequel to the 1996 classic, and it is absolutely a classic, many fans of the original were upset. I understand. It doesn’t have the late great Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt, or any of the original top billed cast. The film was a perfect storm (all of my puns are intended) of 1990s action movie tropes with some of the best effects at the time, which still largely hold up. This is NOT the original film, and it’s modernizing a classic.
And I’m thankful for it.
Twisters is a fun ride and one everyone can enjoy. It uses the exact same tropes with a modern cast and effects, and it entertains you for two hours while you awe at the marvelous effects and follow what’s a pretty fun story. Twisters isn’t the original, I get it, but it is a great follow-up to what is a story we all remember and love, and you should be hopeful this film will succeed. Why?
I get it, major studio films are licenses to print money. Everyone is flocking to the cinema to watch an EF5 launch a car over half a mile, scour the gound, and sweep homes off of their foundations, which is where the mind-blowing effects come in and show why they are likely to be in Oscar contention in 2025. The story and characters are there, but the audience wants tornadoes doing cool things. For the amount of money that going to flood the way to the studio, why should you want it to succeed? Well, the reason will shock you because it has nothing to do with film.
It’s going to inspire a new generation.
There’s always a stigma on art because people don’t believe it’s a real job. They see it as a bunch of people playing make-believe while people need to add to the real world. Well, you have some attitude, as YOU were inspired by a film in life. People watch films for themes they can identify with, stories they can draw from, and moments that are bigger than life, but there’s more to it than that. Movies can inspire people to see a new path of life that they would’ve never known beforehand. And that comes from movies. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a trip back to the 1990s.
Following 1993, there was a major uptick in paleontology majors in the US, and it created a gold rush to the discipline as well as created new paleontologists. Why 1993? Because Jurassic Park debuted in theaters and people were inspired by the dinosaurs in the film and characters like Alan Grant and Ellie Saddler. People revisited their childhood fascinations because they saw their favorite terrible lizards on the big screen. Following 1996, there was an uptick in meteorology majors and storm chasers in the US. What film came out then?
I understand that people don’t want to see their childhood recreated because nothing is as crystalized as the past. Hell, the author off this post has Twister as his 3rd favorite film of all time, but something you should understand is that real world career like meteorology could reach a brand new audience like it did in 1996. Whether you are aware or not, someone is going to see this film and think that they could be a part of it. They could be Bill Harding, Jo Harding, Kate Carter, or Tyler Owens. Sometimes, the person who’s script or article you were reading was inspired as well.
in 1996, I was that kid. Saw Twister in theaters, and crazy enough, a tornado hit my town in the middle of the screening. I remember the clouds, I remember the film, I remember the panic, and it stuck with me. I remember the nightmare I had about tornadoes a month straight afterwards and the phobia I had for a while. But I also remember that I couldn’t get the film out of my head. I couldn’t get tornadoes out of my head. So much so that I, the writer, was moments away from joining Iowa State to become the next Bill Harding. That isn’t the case, for now, but how many others were obviously inspired?
There are a lot of people, young and old, who were inspired by a film to find their calling. These people ended up helping their respective disciplines by finding new data, or bones, or chasing tornadoes and saving lives. Did Twister help find the next generation of Reed Timmers and Tim Samaras? Did Jurassic Park help draw the next Paul Sereno or Jack Horner? Absolutely.
We all see movies to be inspired. To be entertained. Sometimes, a new generation needs the same boost. In fact, with Twister, many meteorologists were inspired by The Wizard of Oz. They saw the tornado and couldn’t stop thinking about it. Someone saw Dante’s Peak and got into vulcanology. There’s a 32-year-old who never stops thinking about tornadoes 28 years later. We were all inspired or were absolutely in awe of Twister.
Now it’s our kid’s turn.
There’s someone in your position, maybe a little older or younger, or even your age, who sees Twisters and thinks, “That will be me.” I want it to be them. Twisters could expose them to a world they needed to know and be the future meteorologists who can change the storm-chasing game. A kid could watch Jurassic World: Dominion and want to jump into paleontology. The next generation will have access to better technology and knowledge that we leave behind, and they will be inspired by what we leave behind and show them.
Twister did that for this writer, and deep down, is still that meteorologist that aches everyday to chase storms and have become a severe weather expert. Names like Tetsuya Fujita, Greg Forbes, the late great Tim Samaras, Reed Timmer, Jim Cantore, Gary England… these are names that are among the greats, and though not inspired by Twister, are names that kids will learn as they dive into the discipline.
I want Twisters to be successful because there’s another kid like me who’s watching Twisters like I did 28 years ago (hopefully without the real tornado) and say they belong out there. See a film like Twisters, dive into the books, and become the next generation, the one that we’re supposed to make better than ours. So many people were inspired by the original, and the next generation should have the same lust for discovery and hopefulness that we had.
To the kid walking out of Twisters thinking “I want to be a meteorologist”, do me a favor: Please be one. We need you. You can.
I want you to be.