Confessions of a Streamaholic

I love Twisters (2024) I thought it was a great film with an even better soundtrack I am obsessed. I had seen the original when I was younger but haven’t watched it in a long time, I was about to write a post solely on Twisters (2024) when I searched and seen that the storyline’s weren’t as different as I thought so I gave it a watch to compare and see the similarities and I was pleasantly surprised.

Some of the basic things I found the same was the posters which makes sense since both films are about tornados but the surnames in a bolder text and a truck is seen in both. The flying cow on the 1996 movie poster I think is hilarious makes me giggle, not as much as it did seeing the scene of it in the movie though. I’ve not checked by could almost say they were filmed in the same locations as the setting was very similar countryside for miles but it is stunning when the weather is clear, the house Jo (Helen Hunt) & Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) grew up in also look nearly identical.

The original movie had a bigger opening title which I didn’t see with the modern one. I have mentioned many times how big a fan I am of the Twisters (2024) soundtrack got it on repeat, wouldn’t be surprised if it comes up on my Spotify wrapped. So many great names from Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Lainey Wilson, Benson Boone and many more. I can’t say the music in Twister (1996) was anything standout to me, but that could just be due to the different generations, music in movies seems more consumed to me these days due to the easiness of streaming platforms.

In both films there is a big Wizard of Oz presence you see this in Twister (1996) with ‘Dorothy’ the device they have to collect data from the tornado she has a picture of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz on her. This is a parallel to Twisters (2024) as they have a ‘Dorothy’ device too who we meet at the start. The guys are doing the same thing with the censors in ‘Dorothy’ to send them up into the tornado to get data. Later you see another reference to the Wizard of Oz with StormPAR team names as they use is ‘Lion’, ‘Tinman’ & ‘Scarecrow’.

The teams of chasers in the movies are also paralleled Jo (Helen Hunt), Bill (Bill Paxton) and their team have the same vibe as the ‘Tornado Wranglers’ who include Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), Lily (Sasha Lane) & Boone (Brandon Perea) and Kate (Edgar-Jones) eventually joins them leaving Javi (Anthony Ramos) who she used to chase with as seen in the first scene in the movie and who she came back to help StormPAR until you see his investor and what he’s gaining from the destruction. Again, this is a dynamic we seen in the 1996 film with Jonas (Cary Elwes) and his team of chasers who run because they have investments. The vehicles the teams drive are also similar in both movies with big 4×4 trucks, a caravan and another van vehicle of some sort. Another parallel is when Bill (Paxton) uses dirt to check the wind direction whereas Kate (Edgar-Jones) uses dandelions, I thought this was a sweet touch to show the connection to the original even though they had a lot of little moments and things you can compare between the two.

Both films have some light humor, obviously there is a lot of action and thrilling stuff going on but it is nice to have some back and forth between the characters, rewatching the original as an adult it also seems less scary now than it did when I was little and probably shouldn’t have been watching it. My only memory of it until the rewatch was the big dark scary tornados, but in the newer release the tornados don’t seem to be as dark in terms of the conditions, you can see this difference in the posters also.

For being made nearly 30 years ago Twister (1996) the effects and visuals weren’t as terrible as I thought they would be everything but the fire explosions was very realistic. However, I think visual and technique wise you notice more in Twisters (2024) like showing the time jump by changing Kate’s hair colour, the change in light when she wakes up from dreaming about Jeb and the video clips that is used frequently throughout Twisters (2024) to show them taking videos of what they are doing or in the ‘Tornado Wranglers’ case filming live. The tornado effects in both films are incredible I would love to look into more about how this was actually shot.

Some small things I noticed from Twisters (2024) was the handshake Kate (Edgard-Jones) & Javi (Ramos) have and how crazy the ‘Tornado Wranglers’ are with wanting to set flares into the tornado, but in both films they head right into the tornados no matter what, the guts you must need to have to be a chaser. The 1996 movie spans over a day and a half whereas the 2024 one is based over about a week. I like that ‘Dorothy’ was the whole purpose of the first film to get her working then the second film mention and demonstrates ‘Dorothy’ but them moves onto the 3D scan of a tornado shows you how technology has advanced between these being filmed.

I though the main character dynamics between Jo (Hunt) & Bill (Paxton), then Tyler (Powell) & Kate (Edgar-Jones) were really good casting. Jo and Bill are supposed to be getting divorced but over the course of the film they find there way back to each other giving us a nice ending. Although the dynamic between Tyler and Kate is never hinted as romantic you can see the underlying chemistry between them, if they ever filmed another I would guarantee something happens between them.

Overall, I think both movies are amazing in there own right. For the time Twister (1996) I’m sure was a big hit and now having watched again as an adult I really enjoyed it however, I think due to the progression of film making and the soundtrack Twisters (2024) is the one I would probably gravitate back to more but I think that’s a generational thing. Some people will go for the original because it’s the original and those in the younger generation will probably only know of the new film.