‘Twisters’ Proves We Need To Bring Back More ’90s Disaster Movies

Growing up a child of the ’90s means that I love a good disaster movie. One of my favorite bits of Hollywood lore is that after the release of Twister in 1996, two movies about volcanoes were released the next year. Let’s bring that energy back.

Twisters, starring Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones, is the 2024 followup to the 1996 film. The difference between that film and Twisters is that this new movie focuses a lot on the destruction that these storms can cause and the people affected by them—not that the original Twister didn’t, but it was also about some divorce papers. And, to be fair, Twisters is about a cowboy falling in love with a smart girl.

However, with our current climate crisis, I do think that bringing back these disaster movies with a purpose could really do some good. As director Lee Isaac Chung told The Hollywood Reporter, “[W]e want to inspire people to embrace the natural world. That can go quite a long ways toward influencing people to make good choices in their relationship with nature, to study what’s happening on this Earth and to figure out how can we become better caretakers of the planet.”

That wasn’t necessarily a lesson I needed to learn but maybe that is because I spent my childhood in the ’90s obsessively watching movies about people running from some kind of storm or weather-related incident. Have I always had a fear of lava because of Dante’s Peak and Volcano? Yes. Thank you.

But I do think there is something special about the “disaster” genre, as it were. You can find your cheap thrills there, but I don’t think anyone leaves a movie like Twister or, now, Twisters, and thinks “I just wish a tornado would destroy my home.” If anything, movies like this inspire people to take up meteorology.

They’re both entertaining and important

While a lot of action movies can captivate an audience, there is nothing quite like the thrill of a movie about a natural disaster to frighten you and make you think. The genre has fallen off after the ’90s, with only a couple of movies popping up here and there. Most of those movies focus more on the action of it versus the aftermath of these situations.

What I love about both Twister and Twisters is that these characters know firsthand what it means to lose someone to a storm like this. That’s what made the disaster movies of the ’90s so important. It wasn’t just about flashy CGI work, but it was about the pain that natural disasters can cause people. So yeah, I do hope that Twisters finds so much success that we have the same wave of disaster movies like we did in the ’90s, but I hope that they have the heart that Twisters does.

We need these movies

I know it sounds silly, but (Twister cowriter) Michael Crichton’s work has inspired generations to get into science. So many women looked at Jurassic Park’s Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and went into paleontology. Women were inspired by Dr. Jo Harding (Helen Hunt) after the original Twister came out, and I am sure the same will be said for Edgar-Jones’ Kate.

But more importantly, disaster movies have the ability to make you think about the natural world and how can can best interact with it. Right now, our climate crisis is so bad that we are having record heat waves every summer. We are struggling, and this genre has the opportunity to wake people up.

If Twisters inspires someone to make other disaster movies that focus on the victims, we’re all the better for it.