Summary
A real storm chaser breaks down two key scenes fromTwistersand whether they could happen in real life. Following up the 1996 action dramaTwisterafter over two decades,Twistersis the standalone sequelto its ’90s predecessor. It features a leading cast including Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, Harry Hadden-Paton, Sasha Lane, Daryl McCormack, Kiernan Shipka, Nik Dodani, and David Corenswet.
In an interview withWIRED, meteorologist and storm chaser Cyrena Arnold analyzes two of the phenomena fromTwistersand whether they could happen in real life.
She firstdebunks the concept that two tornadoes can combine into one, compounding tornado, explaining that in reality, “their different rotations would disrupt each other” rather than form “some super tornado.” Around that tornado, some “satellite tornadoes” could form, but nothing that combined them. She also mentions that the"technology is not there" to be able to “disrupt tornadoes,“another detail inTwisters. Check out the full quote from Arnold below:
The odds of two tornadoes being able to combine into one are pretty slim. What’s more likely to happen is that their different rotations would disrupt each other. They’re not going to form some super tornado. Now we do see out in the field of storm chasing, two tornadoes happening in the field at once from time to time. It’s super rare. But you can have a main tornado and outside of that have satellite tornadoes form that are much smaller and weaker tornadoes.
As for your second question, can we actually disrupt tornadoes in real life? Eh, not really. The technology is not there yet, nor the knowledge to control the weather in any way. The absolute closest we can get is through some very basic cloud seeding. Putting some chemicals into the atmosphere, and they’re naturally occurring chemicals, that allows condensation to happen, and allows storms to precipitate out or to rain. That can increase the precipitation that a storm is going to put out by 10-15%.
So, the effects of cloud seeding are super negligible. And that’s really the only thing we can do these days to kind of ‘control the weather.’
How Twisters Commits (Or Doesn’t) To Realism
Twisters Is Intended To Be A Spectacle
The idea of disrupting tornadoes is key toTwisters, so the fact that this cannot happen shatters some of the effect of the film. Listening to Arnold’s explanation is a good reminder thatTwistersis utterly a work of science-fiction, like any disaster movie. The fact that tornadoes themselves rip through tornado alley every year does not make the scenes inTwistersany more realistic, even if seeing a tornado may cause more visceral fear for some.Twisters’priority is to go for big thrills, even when that may further divorce it from realism.
Twisters Will Have A Very Hard Time Beating One Original Twister Record
Twisters may have secured a higher Rotten Tomatoes score than Twister, but the new flick will have a hard time beating one of the 1996 film’s records.
That said,Twistersmakes a concerted effort to make its lavish disasters feel more real. One way it does this is through the extravagant set pieces. Edgar-Jones and Powell recently explained that theTwistersproduction team rebuilt models of entire neighborhoods to create a more “real” effect to the film. Furthermore, some of the film was shot on location in areas that had been destroyed by tornadoes, giving the movie a more raw feel. So, even if the science ofTwistersis not always there,it commits to at least the illusion of realism.
Twistersaccomplished these feats through the use of its exorbitant budget.Twisters' budget is estimated at $200 million, making it one of the most expensive movies to come out in 2024. Through learning more about the scale ofTwisters' production, the extent to which that budget went to its visual effects is clear. AsTwistersenters its opening weekend, it will aim for a great box office that can put it on the path to making back its huge budget.
Twisters
Cast
A follow-up to the 1996 original film Twister, Twisters is a sequel set years after the original, said to be fast-tracked by Steven Spielberg and Mark L. Smith, with Frank Marshal as producer. Little details exist about the film, but Helen Hunt is expected to reprise her role as Jo, with the film likely to pay homage to the late Bill Paxton.
