How Twisters is connected to the original 1996 Twister

Key Takeaways

• Technically it's a direct sequel but with only slight continuity from the original Twister.
• Lots of praise, including ragtag sky racers vs corporate storm, red truck and more.
• Easter eggs include a cameo by Bill Paxton's son, as well as a sneakier cameo from a flying cow.

Twisters has taken the box office by storm. As audiences flock to theaters for the latest Hollywood blockbuster, people may be wondering how the new movie is connected to the 1996 blockbuster Twister. We're rounding up all the ways Twisters connects to the original movie, along with its rewards and cool easter eggs for fans to take home as they head into round two against the twisters.

Coming nearly 30 years after the original Twister, from director Jan De Bont and stars Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, the sequel kicks things up a notch or two with even bigger twists and new characters.

Directed by Lee Isaac Chung—whose previous film Minari was nominated for multiple Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won Best Supporting Actress—Twisters does not feature the cast of the original film, instead introducing fans to a small group of chasers storms are played. by Daisy Edgar Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, and others.

Twisters are technically straight sequences

Although there are completely different characters

The twisters are almost self-contained, so anyone can get into them without seeing the original, and they won't miss anything clever in the story. But there is one direct continuity between the 1996 film and its sequel. In Twister, Jo (Hunt) and Bill (Paxton) try to get their tornado detection device Dorothy—a nod to the greatest movie of all time, The Wizard of Oz—to work. They ended up going through four Dorothy units before they were finally able to send their little data collection spheres into the twister to collect all that data.

At the beginning of Twisters, the ragtag crew led by Kate (Edgar Jones) still uses the same technology, although now they have entered Dorothy V. According to Business Insider, production designer Patrick Sullivan explained, “Our version is Dorothy V, because there were four Dorothys in the film the first.”

The film is also inspired by the Wizard of Oz, with the Storm Par team led by Javi (Ramos) operating under the code names “Scarecrow,” “Tin Man,” and “Lion” as they discover their new radar system. collect even higher quality data than the original film crew could have imagined.

All that respect

While not direct references, there are plenty of homages to the original Twister style that you can find in Twisters, including the following:

Ragtags compete with corporate storm chasers

The original Twister was largely about a ragtag group of storm chasers going up against a group of corporate-sponsored chasers led by Jonas Miller (Cary Elwes). Twisters keep the same flexibility, but mix things up a bit. Although she initially starts from the same humble beginnings as a storm chaser, after going through a terrible tragedy and losing several of her friends, Kate starts a new life in New York. He was wooed by Javi, who received a large grant to do the kind of data collection on hurricanes he had always wanted.

When she arrives in Oklahoma, Kate finds herself on the business side, while the antagonists seem to be a moxie group of YouTubers who sell t-shirts and shoot fireworks during storms, all led by Tyler Owens (Glen Powell). It's only later that Kate discovers she may be on the wrong side, and must find a way back to her Oklahoma roots.

Philip Seymour Hoffman style

1996's Twister features an amazing supporting cast, including fan favorite Dusty Davies, played by the late, Philip Seymour Hoffman. With a wonderful nod to Hoffman's character, as well as some of the original supporting cast, the sequel has its own group of storm-chasing freelancers heavily stylized in the fashion set by Dusty. With dyed shirts, colorful fabrics and lots of personality. Finally, Kate's look is very reminiscent of Jo's appearance in the first movie.

“I'm not back”

The plot of the original Twister involved Bill returning to Oklahoma to get divorce papers signed by his ex, Jo, when he was pulled back from chasing tornadoes that hit one day. Throughout the film, the characters keep happily welcoming Bill into the fold, and he has to constantly remind them, “I'm not back.” That is, until he finally agrees to make his permanent stay at the end.

The Twisters follow suit, with Kate returning to Oklahoma for just one week, as she repeatedly tells Javi. And just like in the beginning, when the characters suggest that “you're back,” he reminds them, “I'm not back!” You can guess what happens at the end.

Movie theater chaos

One of the most iconic episodes of 1996's Twisters takes place at night, when a tornado sneaks up on the crew as they gather outside a movie theater. In a performance of the Stanley Kubrick horror classic The Shining, a tornado comes from behind and literally tears through the screen while the audience flees. Twisters honors in two ways. The first is at a night rodeo, interrupted by a giant twister, but the second is even clearer. As the massive EF5 tornado barrels toward the small town, the workers and most of the town take shelter in an old single-screen movie theater showing the 1931 classic Frankenstein. At one point, a screened wall is torn away to reveal a tornado behind it.

That red van

One of the most iconic images from the original Twister is Bill's shiny new red Dodge pickup truck, which is used by stormtroopers, and is seriously damaged in the process. In Twisters, Tyler drives his own red Dodge pickup truck, decked out with all kinds of gear to protect it from storms, and even clever technology that allows the truck to protect itself from the ground in order to go into the middle of nowhere. in one.

“Naked like the day they were born”

In Twisters, Kate and Tyler end up at her childhood home, where Kate's mother regales them with the embarrassing story of her daughter, at a young age, running out of the house, “naked like the day she was born,” to see a movie. a big storm. The story is an homage to a similar scene earlier, when Bill's old friends tell his new fiancée how they first met him “naked” watching a tornado.

Easter Eggs

Aside from the stylistic similarities to the first film, these blinking easter eggs are direct references to iconic moments from Twister, but you'll have to know where to look:

Bill Paxton's son, James

Perhaps the sweetest Easter egg for fans of the late actor Bill Paxton gets a nod to the appearance of his son, James Paxton. Little Paxton appears as a motel guest who gives the clerk a hard time while a tornado approaches just outside. “It's really a cameo, so it's an Easter egg for my dad's fans and the original,” James told Entertainment Weekly. “I did this, father.”

Flying cows!

One of the most famous moments in the original Twisters was when the team watched a cow being pulled through a tornado. While fans who watched the sequel may have missed another flying cow, Chung assured everyone in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that there is in fact one present during the storm's final sequence, although viewers may have to look very closely. The visual effects team managed to sneak a cow in there. “It's the hardest thing to see…I only saw it because I saw a strange mark on a piece of flying debris,” Chung said.

Baseball bombs

At the end of the original Twister, a small boy who survived the storm can be seen wearing a white t-shirt with the logo of a local baseball team called the Bombers. In the new film, Kate is seen wearing a red version of the same shirt.