Twisters is a 2024 American disaster film directed by Lee Isaac Chung from a screenplay by Mark L. Smith, based on a story by Joseph Kosinski.

Serving as a standalone sequel to Twister (1996), it stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, and Sasha Lane.

Talks for a sequel to Twister began in 2020, with Kosinski pitching an idea to Universal and Helen Hunt, who starred in the original, also expressing interest in a follow-up that was ultimately rejected.

Tyler is joined by his crew of Boone, Dani, Dexter, and Lily, as well as British journalist Ben who is writing a piece on storm chasing.

StormPAR chases the satellite as it intensifies into an EF3; they successfully deploy the scanners, although one is lost to the tornado while Kate and Javi barely escape its path.

Using data scans provided by an apologetic Javi, Kate hypothesizes launching silver iodide into the tornado to ensure dissipation.

In 2020, Joseph Kosinski met with Amblin Entertainment and the Kennedy/Marshall Company to pitch a follow-up to the 1996 film Twister revolving around a "new generation" of storm chasers.

[4]: 5  In June 2020, Universal Pictures announced it was meeting with writers to develop the reboot, with Frank Marshall attached as a producer and Kosinski in early negotiations as director.

[6][7] In October 2022, Amblin, Universal, and Warner Bros. met with directors for Twisters, a sequel being fast-tracked for an early 2023 production start after Steven Spielberg, an executive producer of the original film, expressed enthusiasm for a script by Mark L. Smith.

Filmmaking couple Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Travis Knight, and Dan Trachtenberg were in talks to helm the project, Kosinski having dropped out to direct F1 (2025).

The studio reportedly wanted Hunt to reprise her role, with the hopes of the story focusing on the daughter of her and Bill Paxton's characters.

[10] Chung's pitch to Marshall, Spielberg, and executive producer Jay Sandberg included a presentation that intercut footage from Twister and his own Minari, a semi-autobiographical indie drama that cost $2 million, specifically a scene in which characters experience a tornado watch.

[9][11][12] Chung credited his time at Lucasfilm directing an episode of The Mandalorian as accustoming him to projects with visual effects and noted growing up in tornado alley as inspiration.

[11][13] In preparation for Twisters, he revisited the original film; Spielberg's Jaws (1975) and War of the Worlds (2005) (described by him as "movies about powerful forces of nature or monstrous things coming at you or looming above you"); "driving movies" such as The French Connection (1971) and Gone in 60 Seconds (2000); and Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) and Ran (1985) (for inspiration in capturing weather through camera movement).

[4]: 9 [14] Character dynamics were influenced by the films of Frank Capra and Howard Hawks, especially It Happened One Night (1934) and The Big Sky (1952).

[4]: 9 [17] Other locations included the towns of Burbank, Calumet, Cashion, Chickasha, Fairview, Hinton, Kingfisher, Kremlin, El Reno, Midwest City, Okarche, Pawhuska, and Spencer.

"[28] Challenges arose in El Reno due to heat waves, lightning storms, and strong winds, as well as the presence of "a jet engine on set that you could barely talk over" and the need for a bright, hot key light to produce the "feeling of a storm-like sky", according to Chung.

[4]: 26–27 [27] A former military meteorologist was hired to monitor weather conditions with a squad of radar watchers, and film safety experts enforced protocols for shutting down production and sheltering when necessary.

It utilized practical effects such as hail, rain, and wind machines to simulate the storm, though the overpass that characters hide under was enclosed in blue screen.

Scenes set in El Reno were filmed on location, while a 4-block stretch of land in Chickasha stood in for Crystal Springs and Midwest City portrayed Stillwater.

[4]: 23–27  Early versions of the script had the Stillwater tornado surround a college baseball game, but Chung suggested changing it to a rodeo.

[32] Chung said the most challenging part about making Twisters was balancing the tone because he wanted to entertain audiences while simultaneously taking the natural disasters seriously due to their real-world impacts.

[36][37] It features 29 songs from primarily country acts, including Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Bailey Zimmerman, Megan Moroney, Tucker Wetmore, Tanner Adell, Jelly Roll, and others.

Commercials for the film aired during events for All Elite Wrestling, NASCAR, the Olympic Trials, UEFA Euro Cup, UFC, and the WNBA.

The website's consensus reads: "Summoning a storm of spectacle and carried along by the gale force winds of Glen Powell's charisma, Twisters' forecast is splendid with a high chance of thrills.

[63] Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Jordan Hoffman gave the film a "A+" grade, saying "There's a ton of technobabble that you have to take on faith, but Jones and Powell do more than sell it; they make it compelling".

[64] IndieWire's David Ehrlich gave the film a "A+" grade and said "And for all of the unearned goodwill that Twisters extends to viral content creators, it still makes one of this summer's most emphatic arguments in favor of the big screen experience".

[65] Donald Clarke of The Irish Times gave it a rating of three out of five, explaining that "A sequel, while no masterpiece, feels perfectly serviceable in the era of lore-addicted trash such as Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire".

[67] The producers of Twisters consulted with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during development, with the federal agency contributing logos and props.

[71] Writer Margaret Renkl criticized the film for not mentioning the link between climate change and the increasing frequency and intensity of tornadoes.