If you didn’t believe it before, I bet you believe it now: Glenn Powell Summer is finally happening, whether you like it or not (me, personally, I don’t mind it!). His new film Twisters is already a certified overnight success. Except it’s not actually brand new, it’s a sorta kinda sequel to the 1996 cult classic of the almost same name, Twister. This gave viewers the fun opportunity to go into screenings with a bunch of preconceived notions of how the movie should be — every filmmaker’s dream! But it seems Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) at least found a way to keep the die-hards happy while still carving his own storm-chasing lane with the 2024 iteration. Now that Twisters is finally out, I immediately had to run to my local theatre, kick back in a reclining chair (without texting anyone for any reason, lest I be sued), and get to the bottom of the question at the top of everyone’s mind: Do British darling Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glenn Powell actually have chemistry? Answer: The jury’s still out. I (and the rest of the internet) also simply had to wonder: Why wasn’t Helen Hunt in the new Twisters movie? That and more answers to all the burning questions Twisters left us pondering below.
Why wasn’t Helen Hunt in Twisters?
Respectfully, it seems like this answer is pretty straightforward: because she wasn’t asked. The team behind the 2024 version wanted this film to focus on the next generation of tornado chasers by showing a “new story, with new characters and an entirely new science project” instead of picking up where the OGs left off. Director Lee Isaac Chung confirmed he never spoke to Helen Hunt, who had pitched her own reboot idea for Twisters that Universal Pictures ultimately passed on.
None of the 1996 film characters returned, even though a cameo from Helen Hunt or Alan Ruck, as a treat, may have been what fans were hoping for. Perhaps the fact that two of the other incredible stars from the original Twisters, Bill Paxton and Philip Seymour Hoffman, have since passed away also played a role in not including them. But it looks like the obvious motivation is Twisters (2024) isn’t actually a sequel, it’s an inspired standalone the studio likely hopes can potentially grow into a refreshed franchise.
Is the science in Twisters accurate?
After seeing some pretty big storms throw Glen Powell’s ass in a circle, I needed to know if the science the movie presents is accurate or movie magic. Without spoiling the ending, the movie’s weather experts are trying to figure out a way to make twisters disappear using chemical reactions to lessen the moisture in the air. Scientific experts have conceded if there was a way to dry out tornadoes, they would be significantly less damaging storms. But they also state the size of actual tornadoes in real life, compared to how much of the chemical invention Daisy and Glenn throw in the back of their pickup truck in the movie, do not match up. So basically the movie’s solution is a theoretical yes, reality no, at least for now.
