You won’t hear about climate change in ‘Twisters.’ Here’s why

Like its titular tornados, “Twisters” blasts through a lot in its 122-minute runtime. A summer blockbuster with a surprising amount of brains to match Glen Powell’s brawn, it features subplots that are signs of the times – disaster capitalists; the Faustian bargain between scientists and financiers – and a deluge of imagery portraying lives and livelihoods threatened by nature’s awesome power. But two words you won’t hear from any of its characters are “climate change.”

“I just wanted to make sure that with the movie, we don’t ever feel like (it) is putting forward any message,” director Lee Isaac Chung explained in an interview with CNN. “I just don’t feel like films are meant to be message-oriented.”

To his credit, there is some scientific justification for the omission, too. Generally, scientists are the least certain about the connection between tornadoes and climate change as it’s unclear how warming temperatures are changing storms themselves or the outbreaks.

However, evidence is growing of the potential impact of planet-warming pollution. Recent studies have shown rotating, supercell thunderstorms that produce tornadoes are becoming more frequent in parts of the US outside so-called Tornado Alley, including in the Southeast and Midwest. They are also becoming more frequent in seasons that aren’t the traditional severe storm season, and recent December outbreaks have proved particularly deadly.

“We’ve never seen tornadoes like this before,” says Javi, Anthony Ramos’ entrepreneurial storm chaser, in one scene. He goes on to convince old friend Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) to join his research team, promising “We can save lives.”

In the film, ever-more destructive tornados carve up increasingly urbanized areas of Oklahoma.

“I think what we are doing is showing the reality of what’s happening on the ground … we don’t shy away from saying that things are changing,” Lee added. He name-checked Maura Tierney’s character Cathy, the mother of Kate, as a voice for all this. Cathy, a local farmer, gripes that storms and floods are becoming more frequent, and the price of wheat more expensive while stopping short of citing climate change.

“I wanted to make sure that we are never creating a feeling that we’re preaching a message because that’s certainly not what I think cinema should be about,” said Lee. “I think it should be a reflection of the world.”

If it is cinema’s M.O. to show not tell, then Lee has the prerogative to show us what he wants – like a tornado ripping through a power station, sucking up the ensuing fire, and setting the sky ablaze. However, for a film populated by scientists and clued-in citizens to not mention climate change is a little like the twisters themselves: there’s a hole at the center.

Nevertheless, this was a personal and earnest endeavor for the director, who built upon a screenplay by Mark L. Smith (“The Revenant”) and a story by Joseph Kosinski (“Top Gun: Maverick”).

Lee was raised on a farm in western Arkansas, just across the border with Oklahoma. His upbringing (which he drew on for 2020’s “Minari”) included an early run-in with a tornado when he was forced to seek refuge in a car as his family didn’t have a storm shelter. “When you have brushes with extreme weather as a child, anything that feels larger than life and dangerous … (leaves) a very big imprint,” he said.

“That sense of awe and wonder was something that I really wanted to preserve in this film – that it’s not just a summer blockbuster about running from tornadoes and hiding away,” he added. “I wanted to make sure that we’re also revering and honoring the beauty of that power.”