Twisters, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell, is a standalone sequel to the 1996 Twister and doesn’t really borrow much from the original. But the film did find a way to pay tribute to Bill Paxton, the star of Twister, and it’s actually kind of sweet!
In Twister, Bill Paxton played storm chaser-turned-TV weatherman Bill Harding, who arrives in Oklahoma to get his ex-wife Jo (Helen Hunt) to sign divorce papers, so he can remarry, but ends up returning to his passion for chasing tornadoes along with his old team and, well, Jo. Similar to what Jurassic Park did for paleontology, Twister’s release caused a major upswing in the number of people opting to study meteorology in the United States. When Paxton passed away in 2017, storm chasers even paid tribute to him by spelling his initials using the Spotter Network.
And now, Twisters has tipped its cowboy hat to the actor and filmmaker by featuring his son James Paxton in a small role in the film!
In one scene from Twisters, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell’s characters Kate and Tyler are out watching a rodeo when a tornado hits the area. They run to a nearby motel to seek shelter and help other people, when they encounter a motel guest fighting with the manager over some issues with his room. And he’s played by James Paxton! While what happens with this dissatisfied motel guest might not be the most important character arc, it was a nice way for the late actor’s spirit to be present in the sequel!
This isn’t the first time James Paxton has paid tribute to one of his father’s works. Back in 2014, Bill Paxton starred in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as the bad guy, John Garrett. After Paxton’s death, the show’s final season in 2020 had James reprise the younger version of his father’s character.
Fans of Paxton and Twister received another treat when actor Glen Powell posted a picture of him and Paxton to mark Twisters’ release day. Powell called Bill “A great friend of mine who saw poetry in the natural world,” and added, “His boots are impossible to fill, but this life is all about chasing the greats.”
Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for Twisters promotions, Powell talked about how Paxton had helped with the research for his character in Apollo 13, and taught him an acting trick to avoid squinting when shooting outdoors, that he has been using all his career since then.
Bill Paxton and Glen Powell worked together on the 2017 Western Red Wing, which also starred Breann Johnson, Joelle Carter, Frances Fisher, and the late Luke Perry. But let’s not forget their Spy Kids history too! Paxton played Dinky Winks in Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams and Spy Kids 3D: Game Over, with his son James Paxton playing Dinky Winks Jr in the third film. Powell starred in it too as Long-fingered Boy!
Twisters is the perfect summer film and Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones’ chemistry is already a hot topic, with fans unhappy that the film’s ending changed a little scene that they really wanted to see.
Published: Jul 19, 2024 02:33 pm