STACK #240 October 2024

MOVIE FEATURE

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Bill Paxton attempted to create a sequel to Twister in the mid-2000s, collaborating with his long-time friend James Cameron. The planned film was to be a realistic depiction of the 1925 tri-state tornado, which claimed 695 lives. However, the project was ultimately abandoned due to its high costs.

Hang on to your seats, the epic disaster movie Twisters is ripping its way to physical media! Words Gill Pringle S tarring Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, and Anthony Ramos, this standalone sequel to the 1996 movie Twister tells

the story of retired storm chaser Kate Cooper, who's haunted by a devastating encounter with a tornado. Lured back to the open plains by her meteorologist friend, Javi (Ramos), to test a groundbreaking new tracking system, Kate soon crosses paths with Tyler Owens (Powell), a charming but reckless social media superstar who thrives on posting his storm-chasing adventures. Daisy Edgar-Jones came to Twisters as an earnest fan of its predecessor. “I grew up in England, where we don’t have much of anything in the way of treacherous weather, besides the occasional thick fog, so Twister was a transporting, exciting, scary thrill ride that captured my imagination. “When I heard they were making a new chapter, I was begging my agents to get me the script, and, sure enough, I loved it. The story honoured the first film in so many ways, from a strong female lead to an ensemble of rich, fascinating characters. And it created this amazing new modern world of storm chasers that was so resonant, touching, funny, and just plain fun, I knew I had to be involved,” she says. Part cowboy, part viral video hustler, and pure charm incarnate, Powell’s character is a former rodeo star turned “tornado wrangler”, leading a raucous band of “extreme meteorologists,” whose only ambition is to get close enough to

think he is, this self promoting adrenaline junkie,” says Powell. there’s real depth to him. His team of storm chasers seem like this travelling circus of thrill seekers, but they share this “But then you realise

Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos, and Glen Powell

• The OG Twister is out on 4K Oct 16

a twister so they can light it up with pyrotechnics and film it - chasing weird weather as much as they chase fame. Unlike Edgar-Jones, Texan native Powell’s own intimate tornado experience is etched on his psyche, remembering how he travelled with his family to East Texas to visit his aunt in May 1997, when he was about nine

complicated fascination with the unexplainable phenomenon that are tornadoes. They seem to have a casual, devil-may-care attitude, but they’re no dummies. They have deep respect for the awesome power of tornadoes and care about the people affected by the destruction they cause. If Twisters is all about the weather then expect some equally stormy scenes as Tyler and Javi engage in a romantic rivalry over Kate. “I imagined that Javi’s a guy that has always loved Kate, but never knew how to tell her, and those feelings lingered and evolved into a deep care for her,” explains Ramos. “It’s nice that it’s Javi who brings Kate back to Oklahoma, the world that was her home, but it also engenders in him a hope, or maybe expectation, that in bringing her back to Oklahoma, maybe a bigger thing can happen between them. With Javi and Tyler, the dynamic is tense, for sure,”

• Twisters is out Oct 23

years of age. The family happened to be in the small town of Jarrell when an infamous tornado touched down - an F5 storm stretching three-quarters of a mile wide, obliterating more than 30 homes and causing more than 27 fatalities. Powell’s family took shelter in a carpet store, and, in the days after the storm, they helped the locals clean up the devastation. That experience of seeing how tornadoes impact people’s lives surely informed his performance. “I wanted to start out with my character presenting as exactly the guy you

28 OCTOBER 2024

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