Twisters

Story

Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones) studied tornados as a college student, trying to find a way to disrupt their power and intensity by collapsing them. Unfortunately, while testing her hypothesis 3 of her college friends died. After that, Kate moved to New York to study storm patterns on safer screens. Five years on, however, Kate is contacted by Javi (Anthony Ramos), another former college student. Javi persuades Kate to come back into the field in Oklahoma, to test out his groundbreaking research that tracks tornados with more sophisticated equipment.

Kate soon discovers that Javi and his ‘STORM PAR’ crew are in competition with the ‘Tornado Wranglers’, a sometimes reckless crew headed by Tyler (Glen Powell). Tyler has a strong following on social media and is fearless in the face of danger. As the tornado season intensifies, the chasers run into several tornados and are often found fighting for their lives. Kate comes to realise that STORM PAR has unethical reasons for its research and that not all is as she was led to believe.

Themes

Tornados; Natural disasters.

Violence

Twisters has some violence. For example:

The violence of the tornados is quite intense; objects fly and hit cars, windscreens crack, debris swirls and towns are completely destroyed.
Cars are badly affected by the strength of the tornados, forcing them off the road and through fences. A trailer tips over at one point.
A man gets badly hit by a horse that is running in panic.
People are evacuating a rodeo arena when a tornado smashes into the stands and smashes nearby windows.
A tornado causes a gasworks plant to go up in flames with a loud explosion.

Sexual references

Twisters has some sexual references. For example:

Kate kisses her boyfriend.
Kate dreams about her boyfriend being in bed with her.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

Twisters has some substance use – for example, there is some drinking, mainly beer out of bottles at various venues.

Nudity and sexual activity

There’s no nudity and sexual activity in Twisters.

Product placement

Twisters has some product placement – for example, an iPhone is used.

Coarse language

Twisters has some coarse language.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Twisters is a thrilling adventure movie about people who chase tornados for scientific research – and those who chase them for fun. During the movie, the destruction caused by the intense power of the tornados is devastating and several people lose their lives. The film is therefore not suitable for under 13’s and parental guidance is recommended for 13-year-olds. It is more suited for older teens and adults.

The main message from Twisters is that if you want to help protect people from natural disasters, it’s important to study them and to try and lessen the impact of their destruction.

Values in Twisters that you could reinforce with your children are scientific research, bravery, and respect for nature.

Twisters could give you the chance to talk with your children about the danger involved in trying to tame the forces of nature. You also discuss personal integrity in the context of social media influencers.