A Look Inside The Movie ‘Twisters’

Written by Michael Lee

*All Media used in this article is courtesy of Universal Pictures

Photo via Universal Pictures

Official Trailer: Twisters (2024)

Video via Universal Pictures

Plot Synopsis

The film begins introducing Kate Cooper, a college student working as a storm chaser in Oklahoma. She is a part of a storm chaser conglomerate of sorts, which includes her boyfriend Jeb, Addy, Praveen, and Javi. They are working alongside the Dorothy V doppler, first built by Jo Ann and Bill Harding from the original Twister. The group is hard at work on a brand new experiment, one that hopes to implement a special solution from eight different barrels to mix in with a twister in the hopes that it would somehow disrupt its intensity. Locating a newly formed twister, the crew launch their new solution within the bowels of the tornado and while it may seem as though it was successful at first, the tornado ultimately grows larger and the team is caught up in its dangerous path. They all attempt to hide under a bridge for refuge, but Jeb, Kate’s boyfriend, Praveen, and Addy are blown away by the harsh winds. Both Javi and Kate are the only survivors.

Video Featurette: A Look Inside The Movie | Video Courtesy Universal Pictures

Now, almost five years later after the incident, Kate is now employed at the New York City office of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We learn that Javi has graduated college and is employed at a company called Storm Par. The two reunite and Javi offers Kate a temporary, week-long position to join him and his team at Storm Par, as they are reading a new scanning system for tornadoes in Oklahoma. Kate is obviously still traumatized by the deaths of their initials team and so she refuses. Though later, Javi sends her news reports out of Oklahoma detailing the mass of devastation. Kate believes this is her second opportunity to do right, to make good on the deaths of their initial team, so she agrees, although reluctantly, to work with Javi.

Video Featurette: Experience ‘Twisters’ | Video Courtesy Universal Pictures

Kate arrives in Oklahoma and joins Javi and the rest of the Storm Par team, which at first includes a man named Scott, a businessman. The other members soon arrive, which includes a YouTube storm chaser sensation named Tyler Owens, also known on the internet as the infamous ‘Tornado Wrangler’. Tyler is joined by his crew; Dani, Lily, Dexter, Boone, and a man named Ben, an English journalist now covering storm chasing in America.

Video Featurette: Meet the Tornado Wranglers | Video Courtesy Universal Pictures

The newly formed Storm Par set on on their first chase, a tornado that has touched down at a nearby wind farm. They split into three different groups, each named after Dorothy’s companions in The Wizard of Oz: Scarecrow, Tin-Man, and Lion. Each particular team comes with their own equipment, hoping to create a kind of scan of the tornado that resembles a pyramid. The Scarecrow and Tin-Man groups are first to set up, and Kate and Javi have been assigned to Lion. As they attempt to set up, Kate drives the truck away from the tornado, backing out at the last second.

Back at the main camp, Kate has been introduced to Marshall Riggs, the man who helps fund the Storm Par team. Tyler is attempting to utilize Kate for her storm knowledge, attempting to try to beat the other teams to the next twister. As the team is en route, Javi and Kate have managed to follow the correct path of the twister and Tyler and his team have taken a wrong turn, watching the tornado dissipate near their location. Kate and Javi have launched their new scanning system successfully, though their third scanner has been blown out due to the strong winds. Javi and Kate escape, but barely, as the tornado has enclosed all around them.

Later, Kate and Javi are seen helping out the town that has been struck and devastated by the twister. It is here where Kate suspects Marshall Riggs’s plan to profit from traumatized families and their lands devastated by the tornados. After, Tyler and Kate go out to a nearby rodeo where a twister has stuck. They find refuge in an empty motel pool. Kate is clearly frustrated, as this has again worked in Marshall Riggs’s favor. Kate then confronts Javi about Riggs, but Javi becomes heated, blaming her for the death of Jeb and their initial crew.

Kate, clearly upset by the interaction with Javi, visits her mother at their family farm. Tyler manages to uncover Kate’s previous research and notes on the experiment she conducted at the beginning of the film. Kate still blames herself for the events of the experiment and the death of her colleagues, citing that experiment as a massive failure. Tyler then attempts to create a new model designed upon Kate’s previous work, wanting to test out the eighth barrel method once more. Kate and Tyler happen upon a passing tornado to release the solution, but it does not work. She takes note of this, now hypothesizing a change in the solution to somehow account for the difference that the model has incorrectly predicted.

Kate, Tyler, and his team are now near the town of El Reno, as another tornado is developing nearby. Javi and Storm Par are in on the chase, too. While Storm Par chases the tornado, their truck overturns but the group manages to escape just in time, as now a tornado of fire has developed in the area. Javi has had enough and abandons Scotts by the road, quitting Storm Par for good.

The team have now retreated to El Reno for a town evacuation. In the evacuation, a piece of flying debris has struck Tyler, pinning him down. Kate struggles to get him out, but Javi shows up just in time to save the both of them from the town’s water tower that falls directly in front of them. They find refuge in the town’s movie theater.

The ensuing chaos has radicalized Kate into taking the barrels with Tyler’s truck to the center of the tornado. She briefly struggles with the control system but eventually manages to launch the solution into the tornado until Tyler’s truck is flipped with her still inside. The theater has its roof ripped off by the winds and Lily is nearly pulled out by the gust, but Tyler saves her just as the solution takes effect and the twister dissipates. Tyler and Javi, along with the rest of the Storm Parr team run to Kate, celebrating her victory over tornado and the success of her solution.

Later, Javi and Tyler are dropping Kate off at the airport and makes her a promise that he will conduct more research into her successful experiment.Tyler wants Kate to stay, but she warns him of his dangerous methods of chasing. As she leaves, Tyler chases her and pulls Kate away with him, right as the announcement that weather has delayed all flights and the screen fades to black.