The ‘Twisters’ Ending Is Perfect, Even If It Misses a Fan Fav Moment

Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters is here as the perfect summer movie, lending some more hot air to the rising adoration of Glen Powell and the ardent watchability of Daisy Edgar-Jones. It has everything—human vs. nature, hot and funny storm chasers, and chemistry between its leads.

It also has Powell in a white t-shirt getting wet in the rain. We’ve already won.

While Twisters is a standalone sequel to the 1996 film Twister, borrowing not much other than its spirit and a beloved gadget from the original, there’s something rather poetic about its ending, and the shift it makes from the ethos of the original.

Twisters is written by Joseph Kosinski, with a screenplay by Mark L. Smith, and based on characters created by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin. The cinematography is by Dan Mindel and editing by Terilyn A. Shropshire. Alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell, it also stars Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, Sasha Lane, Harry Hadden-Paton, David Corenswet, Daryl McCormack, Nick Domain, and Kiernan Shipka.

A tornado of spoilers ahead!

What Happens In Twisters?

In Oklahoma, college students Kate Carter, her boyfriend Jeb, and her friends Javi, Addy, and Praveen, are amateur storm chasers for Kate’s science experiment. Much like the sensors in the Dorothy doppler from the first film, they plan to release barrels full of a special chemical mixture into tornado, to reduce its intensity. Though successful at first in getting the mixture in, they underestimate the intensity of the storm, and three of them die trying to outrun it to safety.

Five years later, during one of the worst storm seasons in Oklahoma, Kate is working at a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office in New York City, when Javi, visits her, seeking her help for his company, Storm Par. They plan to use military grade devices, placed triangularly around a tornado, to 3D scan them and collect data that would eventually help people.

A reluctant Kate agrees, but is still traumatised by her inability to save her friends the last time, and feels guilty that her miscalculations led to their death. It puts her off her game, until she encounters Tyler Owens, a handsome, charismatic storm chaser who has a following of one million on YouTube, actual merch, and calls himself and his crew Tornado Wranglers. A journalist from London is part of their crew to profile them for a story.

Tyler challenges Kate, who is drawn to him, and soon realises, he is cocky but not a douche, and has a heart of gold. His team genuinely helps people affected by the tornadoes. Meanwhile, her own friend Javi’s company has some dubious arrangements that might not be benevolent after all. With the storms getting worse every day, and a possible solution lying somewhere in Kate’s old science project, it’s all about chasing something that can make a difference and feel worth it.

How does Twisters end?

After Kate and Tyler are caught in a bad storm and unable to save all lives, Kate feels her past trauma overwhelm her. She discovers that Storm Par helps a rich landowner take advantage of those who’ve lost property in the storms, and leaves Javi and Tyler to go to her mother’s in Sapulpa. Tyler tracks her down, and they stumble upon her science experiment, which he believes could work with some modified calculations. With her mother’s encouragement and Tyler’s enthusiasm, Kate decides to get back in the game.

After much dangerous trial and error, Kate discovers that their model might be wrong. Courtesy some data from Javi’s Storm Par, Kate, Tyler, and Tyler’s team are able to rig a concoction that might just work to mitigate the intensity of a tornado. They even encounter a dangerous fire tornado that almost kills Javi and his partner Scott, which makes Javi realise why he wanted to do this in the first place. He decides to leave Scott, and help out Kate. 

In El Reno, where a major tornado is about to develop, Kate, Tyler, and his team try to help evacuate people and take refuge inside a theatre, when Javi joins in to help. Unfortunately, the theatre has no storm cellar or basement and it looks like everyone could die as the building breaks down. That’s when Kate decides she needs to give her theory a shot, as a final Hail Mary.

She takes Tyler’s newly rigged truck and drives straight into the tornado, releasing the new mixture into it. The storm disperses just in time to save the people taking refuge in the theatre. Her truck is overturned, but she manages to survive and is rescued by her friends.

When Javi drops Kate to the airport, he assures her that they will continue research on how to more effectively implement her experiment and their findings. Tyler arrives too, and tries to get Kate to stay. But she tells him that she hopes, “if you feel it, chase it.” Tyler hesitates, but then runs inside after Kate. When he finds her, there’s an announcement that flights are delayed due to bad weather, and the two look ready to run the other way.

In the end credits, we see clippings of the journalist’s article that talks about the storm chasers, and how Kate, Javi, and Tyler are going to partner up on the project.

The Twisters ending feels perfect, even if a fan favourite scene was edited out

On the eve of the film’s release, fans saw footage of Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell filming an airport kissing scene for the end of the film, which was then not included. And honestly, while I would’ve loved to see this kiss happen, I think the decision goes perfectly with what the movie is trying to be about.

Sure, Twisters feels like a rom-com fused with a disaster movie. Kate and Tyler’s crackling chemistry and whip-like banter beautifully keep pace with the tornado-like pacing of the film. It’s all about the chase and it’s what seems to fuel their relationship too. In a scene where the two nerd out over the science of it all, or when Kate calls a tornado “she’s beautiful” and Tyler’s looking at her with that look of love, those are the moments that define what they have.

But Twisters doesn’t want to be about Kate and Tyler alone.

Both Twister movies begin with a tornado-caused trauma in the life of two young girls, where they lose loved ones to it. Twister’s Jo Harding is practically angry at this natural phenomenon, and obsessed with defeating it. The ultimate goal may of course be noble and about saving lives with the data they collect, but the treatment of the first film almost personifies the tornado as an enemy, and Jo and Bill’s chase becomes a personal vendetta for closure. They almost lose their lives trying to make it happen.

In Twisters, Kate is like a balanced mixture of the original’s Jo and Bill. Like Jo, she has a tragic tornado story in her past. Like Bill, she has a sixth sense about the weather. It is Kate’s personal trauma that takes her away from tornado chasing, and it is Tyler Owens and his team’s relief efforts that bring Kate back into the field. On several occasions, we see her realise that helping these people takes precedence over her personal issues, or that storm chasing cannot be done at the cost of personal life. It has to mean something.

In keeping with all the above themes, it feels like avoiding that kiss and letting the two chase after a tornado keeps alive both the excitement in their relationship for us, and the twisters as the main focus.

Besides, we would love to see Tyler and Kate again, and we need to keep the storm brewing until then!