Summary

Twisters
director Lee Isaac Chung opts to avoid climate change messaging to focus on thrilling tornado action.
Chung believes films shouldn’t preach messages, instead aiming to reflect the reality of what’s happening.

Twisters
‘ avoidance of climate change discussion may be related to concerns about turning off the audience.

Twisters director Lee Isaac Chung explains why the upcoming summer action movie won’t preach a message about climate change as an explanation for mega-tornadoes. Jan De Bont’s Twister took viewers on a wild summer ride back in 1994, roaring its way to $495 million at the box office, and enduring status as a classic big-budget disaster film. Now thirty years after the first film became the Jaws of tornado movies, the long-awaited Twister sequel is finally headed to theaters, with Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones heading up the cast.

Twisters is indeed set to deliver tornadoes aplenty, but one thing it won’t serve up is a message about climate change as a cause for that tornadic activity, says the film’s director Chung, who explained why he doesn’t believe it’s his job to preach to his audience. Check out his remarks below (via CNN):

“I just wanted to make sure that with the movie, we don’t ever feel like it is putting forward any message. I just don’t feel like films are meant to be message-oriented. … I think what we are doing is showing the reality of what’s happening on the ground … we don’t shy away from saying that things are changing. I wanted to make sure that we are never creating a feeling that we’re preaching a message, because that’s certainly not what I think cinema should be about. I think it should be a reflection of the world.”

Why Twisters Might Be Avoiding Climate Change (And Why It Might Not Matter)

Climate change is indeed a polarizing issue in America, one that Twisters director Chung likely doesn’t want to get in the middle of, for political reasons. But the movie’s avoiding the climate change question might be motivated as much by commercial considerations as political ones. Twisters producers are trying to deliver a summer blockbuster that grips audiences with its intense visuals and pulse-pounding action, and might believe that any perceived preaching about climate change will turn off a segment of its target audience.

Avoiding potentially controversial messaging may have been a sound decision from a business standpoint, but it’s yet to be seen whether the move will actually enhance Twisters’ box office prospects. Tracking data sees the film taking in $45-$50 million domestically in its opening weekend, meaning it could have trouble making enough to justify its $200 million budget.

Original
Twister
director De Bont said recently he thinks
Twisters
comes 15 years too late, and should have been made in an era when VFX were less dominant.

The original Twister was under no pressure to add politically-charged messaging to its action movie mix, but it can be argued that times have changed, and Twisters should have addressed climate change as a potential cause of extreme weather events, if only fleetingly. Chung’s firm remarks about not wanting to preach make it seem that he never intended his film to be anything more than a thrill-ride for summer audiences, and perhaps in some ways this was the wise approach, even if it turns a blind eye to certain real-world debates.

Source: CNN

Twisters A follow-up to the 1996 original film Twister, Twisters is a sequel set years after the original, said to be fast-tracked by Steven Spielberg and Mark L. Smith, with Frank Marshal as producer. Little details exist about the film, but Helen Hunt is expected to reprise her role as Jo, with the film likely to pay homage to the late Bill Paxton. Director Lee Isaac Chung Release Date July 19, 2024 Studio(s) Universal Pictures , Warner Bros. Pictures , Amblin Entertainment , The Kennedy/Marshall Company Distributor(s) Universal Pictures , Warner Bros. Pictures Writers Mark L. Smith , Joseph Kosinski , Michael Crichton , Anne-Marie Martin Cast Daisy Edgar-Jones , Glen Powell , Anthony Ramos , Brandon Perea , Daryl McCormack Runtime 117 Minutes Expand