Similarities, differences and trivia from the 1996 Movie Twister and the stand alone 2024 sequel Twisters.

Daisy Edgar-Jones and  Glen Powell star in Twisters in what is being billed as “A stand-alone Sequel” to the movie Twister. Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton starred in the original 1996 movie Twister about a separated couple who chase Tornadoes to gain a better understanding of their make-up. It was the second highest grossing film of 1996 right behind the blockbuster Independence Day. The use of CGI was new at the time and still in it’s infancy, but Twister was nominated for two Academy Awards for it’s visual effects.

Bill Paxton wanted to make a sequel based on the Tri-State Tornado. The Tri-State Tornado touched down in Reynolds County, Missouri at 1:01 PM on March 18,1925. It moved through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana before dissipating in Pike County, Indiana at 4:30 PM. It completely destroyed the towns of Annapolis and Biehle Indiana, Gorham and Parrish, Illinois and Griffin, Indiana. It damaged the towns of Murphysboro, De Soto,  and West Frankfort, Illinois and Owensville and Princeton, Indiana. It crossed 219 miles in the space of 3 hrs and 29 mins, moving at 62 miles per hour. It killed 695 people, injured 2,027 and destroyed 15,000 homes and 85 farms. Bill wanted to use 3-D Technology to bring the tornado to life and really make the tornado experience completely immersive.

He had the idea for Jo and Bill to get back together after the movie and have a daughter. She would be a young woman and attend Muskogee University like they did and have a boyfriend. The two would be storm chasers with their own team of colleagues and would showcase newer technology in tornado chasing. The new Tornado kids. He never got the chance before his death in 2017 to make the sequel, but his son James Paxton has a cameo in the movie at the 1:04:13 mark, paying homage to his father and the Twister movie’s legacy. He plays the disgruntled customer talking to the front desk clerk. Helen Hunt had also expressed interest in a sequel but could never get any studio interested enough to have a conversation about it.

There are similarities and obvious nods to the original movie in the stand alone sequel Twisters. Bill Paxton drove a New Red Dodge pick-up truck in Twister and Glen Powell drives a beat up Red Dodge Pick-up truck in Twisters. In Twister, Bill Paxton kept telling Jo’s team, “I’m not back!”. In Twisters, Kate says the same thing to Javi’s team. (That was completely Daisy Edgar-Jones’s idea). She also had the idea to have the whole crew view the original Twister in a movie theater before they started filming Twisters. A lot of the film crew for Twisters also worked on the original film Twister.

In Twisters Kate attends Muskogee University, Bill and Helen’s Alma Mater in Twister. Kate also seems to combine both attributes of Bill and Jo. Bill would grab a handful of dirt and release it, paying attention to which way the wind was blowing it. He would look at the fields of grass and study the waves that the wind made. Kate does both of those things in Twisters, like Bill, a Tornado whisperer. She is also very well schooled in the science of Tornadoes, just like Jo. Having both of those attributes she could easily have been Bill and Jo’s daughter. Kate’s wardrobe in the movie also pays homage to the clothes that Helen Hunt wore in Twister. There is also a red t-shirt worn by a young boy in the end of Twister, Kate wears the exact same t-shirt in Twisters.

In Twister, Bill and Jo have to take cover under a bridge to escape a tornado. In Twisters, Kate and Javi have to take cover under an overpass to escape a tornado.  In Twister, Jo takes Bill and her team back to her Aunt’s farm where she grew up. Over dinner her Aunt tells a story about how one time Bill was drunk and taunting a tornado completely naked. In Twisters, Kate goes back to her Mom’s Farm where she grew up. Tyler shows up and Kate’s Mom insists on making lunch for them. Over lunch she tells the story about how when Kate was little and heard a storm coming, she raced outside naked to chase it.

In Twister there is a drive-in scene where a tornado rips through the screen just as Jack Nicholson is saying, “Here’s Johnny” in The Shining. In Twisters, there is a scene where a tornado rips into a movie theater that everyone had sought shelter in. The movie playing was the 1931 classic Frankenstien. In Twister, the device they used to launch into the tornado was named Dorothy, in Twisters the device was named Dorothy V (an homage to the original Dorothy and the four tries it took to get it right). There is a flying cow in both movies.

Some of the tornado scenes in Twister that featured large objects were real, not CGI. Like the farm equipment, tractor, carbine and the semi-truck. They used a helicopter and a crane to drop them into the scene. Realism, Baby!

During the closing credits of Twister, there is an instrumental playing written and performed by Eddie Van Halen entitled Respect The Wind. Stevie Nicks wrote the song Twisted specifically for the Twister Movie soundtrack. Most of the songs on Twisters  Movie Soundtrack were specifically written by a specific Artist for a chosen scene.

You might also like:

Twister

Twisters