Diksha Sundriyal
Directed by Lee Issac Chung, 2024’s ‘Twisters’ puts the audience right in the middle of a tornado with its protagonists, who are in the business of chasing storms. The story begins with Kate Carter, whose dream of taming a tornado is dashed after she loses her friends while chasing a tornado. Years later, she is pulled back into the game and meets Tyler Owens, who has made a name for himself as a stormchaser and has fans wherever he goes. On the surface, they appear very different, but the more time they spend together, the more they seem to have in common. But how much do they have in common with reality? SPOILERS AHEAD
Kate Carter and Tyler Owens Are Mostly Fiction
‘Twisters’ is the sequel to the 1996 hit ‘Twister,’ and, like its prequel, it has an entirely fictional storyline. The movie taps into real research and facts about tornados and the profession of chasing them, but it also fabricates a lot of stuff to keep the plot moving. The characters and their backstories factor into the made-up part of the movie, except one thing.
At one point in the movie, Tyler tells Kate about the first time he saw a tornado and how it inspired him to chase after the thing he was the most afraid of. It turns out that something like that actually happened to Glen Powell when he was nine years old. He had been on the way to his aunt’s ranch with his aunt and cousins in Jarrell, Texas when an F5 tornado hit the city. Everyone made it out safe from that incident, but it did give Powell the same feeling of fascination mixed with fear that incites Tyler to become a storm chaser. Powell, however, chose a different path.
Meanwhile, Daisy Edgar-Jones, who plays Kate, had never seen a tornado in real life, but she got to learn a lot while preparing for the film. She and the other members of the cast were sent on a trip to the National Weather Center Office, where a meteorologist taught them a few basics about clouds and storms. The film’s set also had weather consultants around to answer any questions from the cast and crew and to make the film as scientifically accurate as possible. Apart from this, Edgar-Jones found similarities between her character and Bill Paxton’s Bill Harding in the original film to draw upon the emotional value of coming back to something you thought you’d left behind. She also watched documentaries, like ‘Fire of Love,’ to help her better understand the subject matter. The actress also referenced 90s movies like ‘Thelma & Louise,’ ‘Jurassic Park’ and the original ‘Twister’ to prepare for her role.
A Real Meteorologist is the Unofficial Inspiration Behind Kate
While Kate and Tyler are fictional creations, they do have some roots in reality. The filmmakers looked towards real meteorologists and storm chasers to craft a journey for the characters in the movie. Dr. Jana Houser, a meteorologist and Associate Professor at Ohio State University, who “specializes in radar analysis of tornadoes and the supercell thunderstorms,” may have served as a partial inspiration for Kate. If not for the character, then for the movie, at least, the multi-award-winning scientist and her work served as major influences.
Houser spent some time on the film’s set with the crew, where she was told by Kevin Kelleher, the scientific consultant on the film, that they were “actually following [her], and wanted to kind of loosely base [Kate] on some of [Houser’s] work.” She confessed that while watching the movie, there were several points where she thought that her work had been referenced, including the 3D image capture part by Storm PAR. In real life, she revealed that she has seen a total of around 40-50 tornadoes in real life.
Tyler’s Character Has Similarities with a Real Storm Chaser
Tyler’s character wasn’t exactly based on a particular person, but one could draw similarities between him and real-life storm chaser Reed Timmer, whose dog, Gizmo, is known to have accompanied him on the chases. An alumnus of the University of Oklahoma and a recipient of a PhD (like Dr. Jana Houser), Timmer’s first brush with filming a tornado came in 1998 in Oklahoma, and he hasn’t looked back since. He has chased all sorts of tornados of differing levels, including 2005’s Hurricane Katrina and Category 5 Hurricane Ian in 2022. Like Tyler in the movie, Timmer has catered to a wide audience by appearing on TV shows like Discovery Channel’s ‘Storm Chasers,’ the documentary ‘Tornado Glory,’ and a TV series, ‘Tornado Chasers.’ He has also written a book called ‘Into the Storm,’ narrating his journey as a stormchaser.
Having chased over a thousand tornadoes in a career that has spanned almost three decades, he has seen all there is to see in storm chasing. Like Tyler in the movie, Timmer has a custom-built truck called the Dominators, in which he races after the storms. Apart from this, he is a regular in university halls for his lectures on how to be prepared in case of a tornado and how to master the art of storm chasing. In the movie, Tyler invites a British journalist named Ben to tag along; Timmer also has an article written about him in the New York Times after he brought journalists Natalie Ivis and David Gelles on one of his storm chases.
Considering all this, it is clear that the filmmakers looked toward some of the most significant and accomplished people in the field of storm chasing to build the characters’ professional backgrounds. However, when it comes to their personal journeys, they are all entirely made up to serve the plot, keep the drama going, and keep the audience hooked on the journey that the film presents to them.
Read More: Twisters (2024): Where Was the Movie Filmed?
