Which Tornado Movie Is Better

WARNING: Major spoilers for Twisters ahead!After 28 years, the Twister franchise is finally continued the 2024 disaster blockbuster Twisters, naturally inviting comparisons between the two movies. Twisters is a sequel to the 1996 original, but makes very little mention of the original movie outside the storm-tracking technology used and its naming conventions. Twister is considered a benchmark movie in special effects, and it earned Academy Award nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound. That ground-breaking moviemaking helped make Twister one of the highest-grossing movies of the 1990s.

To truly compare the two movies, they need to be viewed through an objective lens with regard to the massive time gap between their release dates. For example, Twisters of course had more impressive CGI than Twister, but only because CGI has evolved so much in the last 30 years. It’s better to look at the less technical elements of each film, and compare them based on the merits of those elements. The ending of Twisters echoes that of its predecessor, and there are enough common threads in the stories to warrant a truly fair comparison between the two movies.

Twister vs. Twisters: Which Has The Better Story

Both Deal With State-Of-The-Art Weather Technology

In terms of story, Twisters essentially begins as a continuation of the mission laid out in Twister. While Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton’s Jo and Bill Harding aim to collect never-before-seen data from inside a tornado to enable a better warning system, Daisy Edgar-Jones’ Kate Carter aims to use that very same data to potentially disrupt a tornado. Both stories are also comparable in that they feature a main character who has lost loved ones to tornadoes, although where that drives Jo Harding in Twister it’s a source of fear and hesitation for Kate Carter in Twisters.

Twisters also revitalizes the idea of two competing storm chasing teams, pitting Tyler Owens’ experienced group of guerrilla storm chasers against Javier’s highly-educated military-grade storm chasers. Twister reflected this dynamic with the Hardings’ upstart homemade science and technology against Cary Elwes’ Jonas Miller and his corporate-funded team. Finally, both stories involve their main characters battling multiple deadly tornadoes before ultimately succeeding in their respective missions; Jo is able to collect the data she sought and Kate successfully breaks up a tornado.

While the stories are comparable, Twisters has the more well-rounded and complete narrative. There are more fully realized characters in the modern movie, as Glen Powell’s Tyler Owens and Daisy Edgar-Jones’ Kate Carter simply have more depth than Helen Hunt’s Jo Harding and Bill Paxton’s Bill Harding. The twist (no pun intended) that Tyler Owens’ team has pure intentions while Javier’s Storm PAR team is working for a corrupt land baron provided an interesting shift in the movie’s second half, and helped both Tyler Owens and Kate Carter’s characters show some true growth.

Twister vs. Twisters: Which Has The Better Cast

The Top Stars For Each Movie Are Household Names

Helen Hunt may not have returned for Twisters, but her influence was still felt in the continued use of the Wizard of Oz-related names for the scientific equipment used by Kate and the Storm PAR team. Hunt was at the head of a memorable cast that was part of why Twister was such a big hit at the box office. It acted as a star-making turn for both Hunt and Bill Paxton, and included a number of other big-name actors and actresses early in their careers, including Jami Gertz, Jeremy Davies, and future Academy Award winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Twister also included some true A-listers, even if they weren’t quite at legendary status at the time of the movie’s release in 1996. Cary Elwes was already an icon thanks to his leading roles in The Princess Bride and Robin Hood: Men In Tights, Alan Ruck was famous for his portrayal of Cameron in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Lois Smith had four decades of filmography under her belt at that time. In retrospect, it was a truly impressive cast that helped make the movie a huge success.

Twisters appears as if it will have an eerily similar impact for its cast. Just as Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton were in 1996, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell are right on the cusp of being household names, and Twisters could push them over the top. The supporting cast is also filled with talented up-and-comers like Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Sasha Lane, Katy O’Brian, and David Corenswet. Time will tell if this cast achieves the heights of its predecessor, but for now Twister has the superior cast.

Twister vs. Twisters: Which Has The Better Action

The Action And CGI For Twister Hold Up Surprisingly Well

The talented crew behind the practical and special effects of Twister changed the game as far as disaster films are concerned. Thanks in part to a gargantuan budget, they were able to put massive funnels and waterspouts, explosions, and storm damage onto the screen that still hold up 28 years later. The storm-chasing sequences are exhilarating, and the tornadoes feel truly dangerous as they rip across the screen.

However, Twisters manages to match the action of Twister, and take it to the next level. While it does have the advantage of advances in CGI, the concepts of the dual tornadoes, the massive fire tornado that forms over the oil refinery, and the tornado sequences that take place at the rodeo and in the small town in the movie’s finale are all superior to what was seen in Twister. Simply put, Twisters took the best parts of the action in Twister and made them better.

Why Twisters Is Better Than Twister

It’s A More Complete Summer Blockbuster

There is no denying that Twister is an iconic movie in the disaster film genre, and a landmark in the development of special effects in American cinema. It has aged particularly well, and still stands as one of the top disaster films of all time. However, the 28-year gap between Twister and Twisters gave director Lee Isaac Chung time to get every little detail right when it comes to elevating what made the first movie so great.

Twisters includes a strong and engrossing narrative anchored by an extremely talented cast of young actors (and Maura Tierney, who elevates just about anything she appears in). It has heart-stopping action sequences built upon very strong modern CGI techniques. It has characters with true depth, who truly grow and change over the course of the movie en route to satisfying character arcs. Perhaps most importantly, it honors the original Twister without ever feeling like a simple remake; Twisters is a tremendous stand-alone disaster film that nails every part of what’s expected from a strong summer blockbuster.

The Argument For Twister Being The Better Movie

The Legacy Of The Original Can’t Be Ignored

Following the footsteps of other modern sequels released decades like the original such as Top Gun: Maverick, Twisters managed to surpass 1996’s Twister in many ways. The effects were better, the story felt more coherent, and even the sountrack to Twisters felt more carefully selected and memorable (opting for plenty of bluegrass and country instead of the alternative rock themes that Twister and dozens of other 90s movies had). However, while Twisters is seen by most viewers as an improvement, it’s still far from difficult to argue that Twister is the superior movie.

Firstly, there’s the obvious point that, without Twister, Twisters wouldn’t exist. It’s due to the popularity of Twister that the 2024 sequel was highly anticipated. Even with the advanced CGI, there’s every chance that Twisters would have simply been disregarded as yet another disaster movie were it not for the fact that it was a follow-up to the 1996 hit.

There have bene plenty of tornado movies since Twisters, such as 2014’s Into The Storm, 2011’s Take Shelter, and 2023’s Supercell.While Twisters was a hit, it arguably doesn’t do much that other tornado movies don’t. Its success at the box-office can’t be said to be because of its special effects or story, as impressive as both were. It owed an incredible amount to the legacy of Twister, which surpassed all expectations when it was released in 1996. The reason so many viewers flocked to theaters wasn’t to go and see a new film about tornadoes – it was because they wanted, specifically, to see the sequel to Twister.

Another reason Twister can be seen as the better film is that it was more innovative for its time. The CGI in Twisters is impressive, and its tornado scenes are genuinely jaw-dropping, though they also aren’t necessarily groundbreaking. The same isn’t true for Twister. While technologically simpler, the tornado moments in Twister delivered something that 1996 audiences simply hadn’t seen before, and it deservedly received Academy Award nominations for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects as a result.

Twisters, as well as other tornado and disaster movies that followed, such as 2004’s The Day After Tomorrow or 2021’s 13 Minutes, all owe a great deal to Twister. The 1996 original arguably wrote the blueprint for how to best depict the thrill and danger of tornadoes effectively on the big screen. For innovation, Twister beats Twisters with ease, and it’s almost impossible to argue otherwise. While Twisters may be seen as the superior viewing experience thanks to its modern glow-up, it’s impossible to ignore that it still has a long way to go to top the legacy of Twister.

A follow-up to the 1996 original film Twister, Twisters is a sequel set years after the original, said to be fast-tracked by Steven Spielberg and Mark L. Smith, with Frank Marshal as producer. Little details exist about the film, but Helen Hunt is expected to reprise her role as Jo, with the film likely to pay homage to the late Bill Paxton. 

Director

Lee Isaac Chung

Release Date

July 19, 2024

Studio(s)

Universal Pictures , Warner Bros. Pictures , Amblin Entertainment , The Kennedy/Marshall Company

Distributor(s)

Universal Pictures , Warner Bros. Pictures

Writers

Mark L. Smith , Joseph Kosinski , Michael Crichton , Anne-Marie Martin

Runtime

117 Minutes

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