In this episode, we discuss the beloved 1996 film Twister and its 2024 sequel, Twisters, with Destiny from *Closeted History* and Nathan of *Schizophrenic Reads*. We celebrate the original’s legacy, exploring its emotional depth, character dynamics, and humor. The sequel's contemporary themes, particularly regarding climate change and character backgrounds, are examined as well. Nathan calls for a revival of disaster films focused on authentic storytelling, while Destiny shares her nostalgia for both films. This conversation offers insights into their cultural significance and the evolution of disaster narratives.

Closeted History

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Evan: Nathan and Destiny, thank you both for being here today.

Destiny: Yeah, thanks for having me on.

Nathan: Thanks so much for having us.

Evan: Yes, yes. And as I was mentioning in the opening, we were talking about the

Evan: 1996 film Twister and by extension the 2024 sequel, remake, something from this year, 2024.

Evan: And I have back on the show, I have Destiny from Closet History.

Evan: And I have Nathan, the host of Schizophrenic Reads.

Evan: Do you want to maybe tell us about your podcast briefly before we talk about

Evan: storms and weather and wind?

Destiny: All right. Sure. Thank you. So, yeah, as Evan mentioned, I have a podcast.

Destiny: It's called Closeted History.

Destiny: And we talk about queer and trans history from a leftist perspective.

Destiny: Perspective, just trying to, you know, build more awareness and share some of

Destiny: our stories with the rest of the community.

Nathan: And my podcast is called Schizophrenic Reads. It is just a nonfiction book podcast

Nathan: where I talk to authors and readers of nonfiction books that I really like.

Nathan: It's temporarily on hiatus, but there's a bunch of back catalog and it'll be

Nathan: coming back someday, maybe at some point.

Nathan: I'm still reading books, but just trying to find time to record.

Nathan: And so I'm never going to stop talking about books. So eventually you'll see

Nathan: more episodes in the feed.

Evan: Yes. But you can also check out, you know, both of your your content aside,

Evan: as you said, from from the podcast.

Evan: And it's funny, I was just looking at your story about a book that I guess is

Evan: from this year that you're about to start.

Evan: And I'm like, oh, man, I have not heard of that book. And I just wrote it down.

Evan: It was when the clock broke that you just posted about. I was like,

Evan: oh, man, that sounds really awesome.

Nathan: Yeah, it's about like conspiracy theories in the 1990s. And it's it's like it's

Nathan: it's amazing so far. I've only been through the introduction,

Nathan: but I'm already like completely fixed. I had to drop it to get on this call.

Evan: That sounds like my exact kind of kind of thing.

Evan: But for the purposes of this podcast, we'll be talking about the Twister movies, as I mentioned.

Evan: And I thought as a, you know, fun joke to start, I was I like I don't usually do this.

Evan: I was reading the tagline that IMDb give, which is different from the actual

Evan: movie tagline, I think. and then whatever there was on the poster. And so...

Evan: I actually rewatched it just before we came on the original from 1996.

Evan: And it says that the tagline is two storm chasers on the brink of divorce must

Evan: work together to create an advanced weather alert system by putting themselves

Evan: in the crosshairs of extremely violent tornadoes, which I suppose is pretty accurate.

Evan: And I'm curious if the studio hired you to write one for the sequel.

Evan: I guess we'll call it a sequel. It is a sequel, but loosely based on the original

Evan: with some nods. you know what would you uh what would you come up with and it

Evan: could be a terrible version.

Nathan: Well i think my tagline for the first movie if

Nathan: i have to rewrite the tagline for the first movie i would just

Nathan: simply ask does wind make you horny because

Nathan: i think that's really like the essence of twister you

Nathan: know the the the original movie but if i had

Nathan: to um i had to do the tagline in

Nathan: the same respect for twisters the the

Nathan: new sequel I would probably ask you know a respectably are you horny for cowboys

Nathan: because I think really this it goes beyond just like the phenomenon of wind

Nathan: this is really a this is a southern epic story I think in some sense and cowboys are kind of the crux of,

Nathan: the whole machinations of what's happening in that film so i think it changes

Nathan: slightly but i think those are really that's really the heart of the issue of

Nathan: of why we watch these movies i think horny.

Destiny: Weather uh i don't know if i can top that um maybe for the first one just we've

Destiny: got cows And then for the sequel, quote unquote,

Destiny: what's the line that Tyler says?

Destiny: You don't face your fears, you ride them.

Evan: Yeah, I hadn't considered it as being like such a hard on the cowboy thing,

Evan: but we'll definitely we'll talk about that.

Evan: And I guess we'll also talk about whether it's actually a sequel or it's just

Evan: kind of like, I don't know, like a reimagining in modern times.

Evan: I guess it doesn't really make much difference.

Evan: But I guess to start on the first movie, given it's been, let's see,

Evan: 30 years. Is this the 30-year anniversary?

Evan: I guess that was the way they did it, bringing out 30 years.

Evan: Do you think the original... Let's forget about the CGI and some of the ridiculous

Evan: goofs and things that turn and spin the wrong way.

Evan: Do you think that the first one holds up as just a classic 90s disaster era film?

Destiny: I mean, yeah, I think so. I'm as I already shared with both of you.

Destiny: I'm very partial to the movie, but I think that it holds up.

Destiny: I think that it has like a pretty solid story, really great side characters

Destiny: that become part of the movie.

Destiny: And it's just like a summer blockbuster disaster movie definitely represents its time as well.

Destiny: So I feel like it holds up today.

Nathan: I feel like it's almost aged better than you would kind of expect.

Nathan: And we'll talk about some of the visual aspects of this movie, but it's grimy.

Nathan: It's heartfelt. It's interesting. It's sexy.

Nathan: It's got basically this often compelling character like moments throughout the

Nathan: film that it never like lends itself to just being a disaster movie.

Nathan: It's very much like a humor, human centered story.

Nathan: And I think throughout it, you can like wildly cheer for the characters as much

Nathan: as you can cheer for the like the storms to tear shit up.

Nathan: So So I think it's just like a perfect summer blockbuster in some sense.

Nathan: And yeah, I think it's one of those, you know, one of those 90s kind of movies

Nathan: that I would still rewatch, you know, 10 years from now.

Nathan: And it's definitely like in, I would say, kind of the pantheon of best disaster

Nathan: movies of all time, because I think disaster movies, by and large,

Nathan: have often been, you know, phenomenons of the moment, and then they are,

Nathan: they are completely forgettable.

Nathan: And so this one is just one that I think like has it stuck.

Nathan: It stuck the landing in such a way that it's still watchable,

Nathan: you know, almost 30 years later.

Evan: Yeah, I don't think you can say that about like Armageddon or something like

Evan: that. I'm not a Armageddon.

Destiny: 2012.

Evan: Yeah, like there was so many of those movies. I actually had forgotten that

Evan: there was a made for TV movie by Fox called Tornadoes that was released the

Evan: same year as Twister as, you know, some attempt to just, I don't know, run off of that.

Evan: I couldn't find it online in my like two minutes of looking.

Evan: I'm sure that exists somewhere.

Evan: I don't remember watching, but I remember them promoting it. And yeah,

Evan: I mean, I think that the talking about the first one being like kind of grimy and very,

Evan: I don't know, it's like all of the scenes as you know, the it starts off like

Evan: both films have kind of like the first similar opening in the sense of having the main character,

Evan: you know, have a tragic event from their childhood of losing their case of Twister, her father,

Evan: and then the case of Twister is like a bunch of her friends.

Evan: And actually, this is a fact that I just learned that I have to share because it was crazy.

Evan: So do you know who plays her as a child in the movie? I just learned this.

Destiny: Alexa Vega?

Evan: Alexa Vega, who is the, so you already know this. So she was in all the Spy

Evan: Kid movies, but her father was a CIA informant.

Destiny: Oh, shit.

Evan: That was a little nugget that I learned today that I don't know.

Evan: Not that it makes any, that makes no difference to this conversation other than

Evan: I just thought that was an interesting fact.

Destiny: I mean, that makes Spy Kids a little bit weirder.

Evan: That would be a perfect nugget to bring up if I ever discuss Spy Kids,

Evan: which I know the perfect person would.

Destiny: You got to bring Thomas on for.

Evan: Yeah, you're in my mind. He's the Spy Kid expert. But yeah, so I mean.

Destiny: Yeah, they love that movie.

Evan: But I think you're right, Nathan. And I think it's like very kind of,

Evan: um, it feels like very much like trapped in that mid nineties kind of,

Evan: uh, like nineties magic of summer blockbuster.

Evan: Like the, the new one just didn't have that same feeling.

Evan: It was like very polished and shiny.

Evan: And I don't know, like everyone, no, no one is like sweating,

Evan: you know, in the original, you see everyone kind of like the first instance

Evan: when you see, um, what is the actor's name? I would, we were just talking about this earlier.

Evan: Uh, Philip Seymour Hoffman, like he's just dressed in like grimy clothes.

Evan: Like it fits his character perfectly his name's dusty like everything about

Evan: the original is just um just perfect i love it i'm.

Destiny: Glad that you agree.

Evan: Yeah i mean i watched it maybe a few weeks ago when we first talked about doing

Evan: the episode maybe it was right around when i saw the the new one and then i

Evan: watched it earlier today i'm like man this is um i've also watched a bunch of

Evan: bill paxton movies recently and i also just love bill paxton too such a good yeah that's.

Destiny: Actually that's It's my Hollywood dad. My dad used to look like him whenever

Destiny: he was younger and not overweight and going bald.

Destiny: But yeah, he used to look just like Bill Paxton. So I used to call him my Hollywood dad.

Evan: I don't know. I don't know if there's other things about the first one that...

Evan: I mean, I guess we can talk about it in general.

Evan: But one of the things I was thinking about too is the beginning of the film

Evan: after the kind of the opening when you know it flashes to the

Evan: modern moment and you have you know bill paxton's character

Evan: you know going to see you know helen

Evan: hunt did i say helen hunt that's not who i meant to say that's her

Evan: helen hunt yeah i yeah helen hunt and that like goes to the tagline of like

Evan: you know he needs to have her sign the divorce papers he's with his new you

Evan: know his new uh fiance or whatever and like the music in the background i like

Evan: i wish i had i didn't do any real research into the soundtrack other than who had written it.

Evan: But it's like, it's I don't know, it's like very light rock sounding.

Evan: I don't know, it just the score was really, was really awesome.

Evan: And it fit perfectly with all like the slow kind of building of the movie.

Evan: So maybe I'll stop talking and let you both talk about the original movie.

Nathan: I think the soundtrack from both of these movies is something like that I have come to really enjoy.

Nathan: I think the I think there's something about like the tonal shift between these two projects.

Nathan: And there is more of kind of this like

Nathan: ambiance that has set with the the original twister

Nathan: movie that i think like lends itself to kind of the more horror

Nathan: aspects of what this movie is because i think it is

Nathan: it's certainly a blockbuster but i think it like probably blends into

Nathan: the horror genre a little bit neater than the twisters sequel does however the

Nathan: twister sequel very much falls in line with like the cowboy essence of it because

Nathan: it is almost essentially the entire album is uh made for the movie songs from

Nathan: like the up and comers of the new wave of country music.

Nathan: And so it kind of puts this perfect, you know, tonal like shift into this pop

Nathan: kind of country, like country rock, like festivity in some sense.

Nathan: And so you have like the rodeo scenes, but you also have like quieter moments with ballads playing.

Nathan: And so these soundtracks are very different and distinctly unique to each individual

Nathan: movie, which I absolutely love.

Nathan: And so I think for me, I've really fallen in love with the new wave of country music.

Nathan: So I was ecstatic when we had some like, unique songs from Tyler Childers and

Nathan: things like Charlie Crockett blasting at the very end of the movie.

Nathan: And so that was something that just like, I think, amps the audience up where

Nathan: in Twister, to the movie, the first movie, it's more about like setting you

Nathan: kind of tonally back from the movie.

Nathan: And so I think like, both serve their purpose, because I think these movies,

Nathan: while being sequels, I think are much more of just like IP sequels.

Nathan: And they're not really like, I think even I would call into question like the

Nathan: idea of spiritual sequels, because I think they have like different kind of

Nathan: tonal focuses of these projects.

Destiny: Yeah, yeah, I really like the the score for the first one.

Destiny: I think that it's like, almost like a character of

Destiny: its own within the movie because it like it really does

Destiny: help tell the story um and

Destiny: van halen did some of the songs for the movie so you know you can obviously

Destiny: see the the rock influence there with the second one the sequel that i i don't

Destiny: even personally really like country all that much i i feel like i'm really picky

Destiny: about the kind of country that i

Destiny: like to listen to and like i enjoyed it it felt very um very like indicative

Destiny: of like the the region and the message that like they were trying to send and

Destiny: definitely with like the cowboy uh imagery i i thought that it was really well done as well i.

Evan: Saw just now that it reached the number three on the country billboard charts

Evan: the the um the album i guess or the soundtrack of the new one And the first

Evan: one, the soundtrack from the original sold over, it went gold.

Evan: It sold 500,000 copies, which that.

Evan: Now it doesn't surprise me. I feel like in other episodes, Nathan,

Evan: we've done, I think it was when we were talking about the original Twilight

Evan: movie, we always end up getting into the soundtracks.

Evan: I had also looked at the main song, the Van Halen track was recorded for this,

Evan: which I didn't realize, I guess, that they were recording music in 1996.

Evan: Maybe I don't remember when. I don't know my Van Halen history, I guess.

Evan: But looking through the people on this, it has Van Halen, Lisa Loeb,

Evan: Goo Goo Dolls, Shania Twain, Stevie Nicks.

Evan: It has a lot of classic Soul Asylum.

Evan: It has a lot of albums or bands you would expect to see.

Evan: And it fits perfectly with everything that happens, like the songs that are

Evan: playing when they're in their car driving and when they're in the town and everything. It's all perfect.

Evan: And I think that actually brings me to a point that I was going to mention that

Evan: you said, Nathan, is that it's not really a sequel.

Evan: It's really just kind kind of going off of an IP, you know, and I think that's,

Evan: I think we discussed this in one of our other episodes too.

Evan: Maybe I don't remember which one, but just about how movies nowadays are either

Evan: like a sequel or from an IP, their remakes, which I guess is,

Evan: this is not a remake, you know, superhero movies.

Evan: And then, you know, some other movies that kind of the, whatever is left after

Evan: those three are completed.

Evan: And I don't know, I don't, I didn't really like any of the little nods they

Evan: tried to put for the original,

Evan: twister in twisters and i didn't feel like calling it kind of just like its

Evan: own separate movie about twisters i think it's a better way to do it than say

Evan: it's a sequel because it's just not.

Destiny: Well i think that like i was watching some behind the scenes stuff for the the

Destiny: new movie and that's kind of the way that they're like pitching it is that it

Destiny: is an entirely different movie that they've you know like given their nods by

Destiny: adding in some of the easter eggs but that sorry i'm gonna let

Destiny: that car go by but they said that

Destiny: you know it is a separate movie and they have some of the easter eggs that you

Destiny: know kind of nod to the first one but at least from my understanding is that

Destiny: you know they're trying to pitch it as like a different movie which i guess

Destiny: technically it does have a different title so it works but i don't know yeah.

Evan: What will the third one be called because i hear they're already thinking of

Evan: another one is it like twister sisters.

Destiny: Are you serious yeah.

Nathan: I'm sure it'll It'll be like Twister's Doomsday or something,

Nathan: you know, it'll be a one word title with a one word subtitle is kind of what I guess.

Nathan: But this is my like best case scenario for what the the genre of spiritual or IP sequels can be.

Nathan: Honestly, not to say this is like a perfect movie, but this is not a movie that

Nathan: is solely focused on being produced in order to cater to the crowd of people

Nathan: wanting just Easter eggs.

Nathan: Like there's a couple in there but they're minor and they're

Nathan: like not huge parts of the plot you can go into

Nathan: this movie without seeing the first it doesn't really matter so not

Nathan: everything in this movie hinges on the success of the first one I think really

Nathan: this is just like in economics simply put it's just like the fastest way they

Nathan: could ensure that people would go watch this movie like they were just ensuring

Nathan: their audience more than they were like doing anything in order to you know

Nathan: control the audience expectations and and really

Nathan: what you have is this is ultimately like whatever

Nathan: plot lines that you would say are like similar in some

Nathan: fashion are also basically just similar across the

Nathan: disaster movie pantheon like i i think it's more so that a lot of these man

Nathan: versus nature like lineages have kind of a similar storytelling method and so

Nathan: there yeah there you can talk about the similarities all you want but i think

Nathan: these are um i think tonally and also just like.

Nathan: Aesthetically these are very distinctly different movies and i

Nathan: think a lot of us that are big movie fans are so sick

Nathan: and tired of sequels we were just like

Nathan: kind of fed up like maybe we went and saw i went and saw the wolverine uh deadpool

Nathan: movie and i just i couldn't get myself to fucking care about it at all but twisters

Nathan: you know it's a 30 year sequel but it was actually like fun and unique And they

Nathan: told an interesting story with interesting characters that are like unique to this plot.

Nathan: And so, yeah, I think as long as Hollywood is transfixed on needing IP,

Nathan: this is how I would want them to use IP.

Nathan: Like if you're going to use it, at least, you know, invent characters,

Nathan: invent a story, invent situations that are not just pulled exactly thread by

Nathan: thread from the original.

Nathan: And luckily, I think that's what we got. And so I, I mean, at least in some

Nathan: sense, I just appreciate it that they did try to be original,

Nathan: because a lot of movies, a lot of sequels out there aren't even there's really almost no attempts.

Nathan: It's like some things are almost shot for shot what they were 30 years ago.

Nathan: And this is, you know, this is people at least making an attempt at reintroducing

Nathan: the like disaster genre into, I think, a more serious thing,

Nathan: because we had the Roland Emmerich movies of like the 2010s.

Nathan: And those were just like schlock to the

Nathan: extent that uh roland emmerich i don't know

Nathan: is even directing anymore like i i can't tell you

Nathan: the last thing he did and i think it's just because he made like

Nathan: seven movies in a row that like fucking nobody cared about and so it's nice

Nathan: to see um especially like the genre of climate fiction or climate change movies

Nathan: uh which we can get into like the philosophy of that which i think you're gonna

Nathan: have a point on but um i think we just need more of those. I think we need more nature stories.

Nathan: And so I was fucking pumped to go to this. I had like the highest expectations possible.

Nathan: And for the most part, like I walked away like, yeah, it was fucking cool.

Nathan: Like movie of the summer. Like I was glad I saw it.

Nathan: Encourage my friends to go see it because ultimately, like, you can have a lot

Nathan: of interesting conversations about like, how we like conceptualize and talk

Nathan: about climate change and nature and all that type of stuff. But you can also

Nathan: just like enjoy this because it's a silly thing.

Nathan: Kind of fun time with uh seeing some sexy people uh really try their hardest

Nathan: not to get blown over in the wind

Nathan: and i like that's that's good enough for me too as a as a moviegoer do.

Evan: You think this the second one was going for a different audience

Evan: being that it kind of had this more country tone to

Evan: it than the original which i think was just you know

Evan: summer blockbuster it made 500 million dollar 500 million dollars the first

Evan: one the new one made 350 but still not you know it didn't make quite as much

Evan: on the original budget but do you think it's like a different audience or you

Evan: think they're still just going for anyone who will see summer blockbuster trying

Evan: to bring that back i don't know i think like in a demographic.

Nathan: Sense no it's kind of like the both of these and often summer movies are are

Nathan: solely situated on the backs of like late teenagers and early 20 year olds like

Nathan: that that's just like kind of the prime demographic for these types of movies

Nathan: um but i think like Specifically,

Nathan: this movie is speaking more to the interests of the teenagers.

Nathan: So it's not just about retaining the audience that was built with Twister.

Nathan: It's about telling the story that young 20-year-olds now and not the 50-year-olds

Nathan: that would be that would have loved the first one.

Nathan: It's about still finding that young audience for this one.

Destiny: I think also that the director definitely had kind of a hand in that.

Destiny: Lee isaac chung he also directed minari

Destiny: um and so which i've never seen but i have heard really good things about and

Destiny: the score is beautiful but i think that because that movie is also about oklahoma

Destiny: as well right yeah so i think that like just in the way that he represented oklahoma both

Destiny: in Minari and in this movie that like,

Destiny: you know, it did kind of speak to, um,

Destiny: to an audience that may not have

Destiny: been necessarily like really targeted previously, if that makes sense.

Nathan: When I think even by like putting the story like in Oklahoma and obviously tornado

Nathan: alley, you can't really like tell your story really beyond the borders of that.

Nathan: But it's a like, it's a movie that feels like it actually is shot there.

Nathan: Like, and I know a lot of it was so, So but it's like one of those movies that

Nathan: I mean, I think you watch a lot of big blockbusters and they're like,

Nathan: we're in New York City and you're like, you're in nondescript city.

Nathan: This city has no character.

Nathan: You're on a soundstage or if you're

Nathan: not on a soundstage, you're in fucking Toronto like we we know you are.

Nathan: And this one was like, oh, this like especially the kind of the nature shots

Nathan: of like the plains of Oklahoma.

Nathan: And I think they used a lot of like Northwest Texas in it as well.

Nathan: But it actually feels like they took the time to film on location.

Nathan: And I know it's like silly and pedantic but that's like a high mark of blockbuster cinema.

Evan: It never happens anymore.

Nathan: Yeah, it never happens anymore. They're not on whatever the Disney plus people are using. They're like

Nathan: your fucking tube thing or whatever and they're not green screening every fucking

Nathan: shot in the movie like it's like oh they they spent some time literally outdoors

Nathan: and it's like i gotta give them a hand for that because so many other movies

Nathan: are are just ignoring the like the beautiful part of filmmaking i.

Destiny: Think that that kind of like is a a nod to the first movie because there was

Destiny: so much practical, like use of practical effects in the first movie.

Destiny: And I really, really enjoyed the balance that they had in this movie,

Destiny: because I was afraid that, you know, because of today's climate in Hollywood,

Destiny: that it would they would rely too heavily on CGI.

Destiny: But I was very pleasantly surprised that they did film a lot of it on location as well. Yeah.

Evan: And part of that was, I think, I know that the director you mentioned,

Evan: And the original movie was filmed mostly on location, even though they didn't

Evan: want to because it was obviously cheaper to film it somewhere else.

Evan: And that was the same thing.

Evan: I think they filmed most of it just, you know, of it was doing all the driving

Evan: scenes through over a dozen different, you know, towns in Oklahoma.

Evan: Like, I have to also agree.

Evan: I think you don't see that kind of thing anymore. Like everything is filmed

Evan: in, you know, British Columbia or Georgia or, you know, in a studio.

Evan: And to actually do it that way, I mean, it gives the movie more of a – you actually

Evan: feel like you're in Oklahoma during the movie as opposed to it just being nonsense.

Evan: And I wonder actually if the only parts that wasn't filmed on location were

Evan: like the New York scenes at the beginning of the movie when they go to her –

Evan: she's working at, I guess, NOAA in New York City.

Evan: And I wonder if that was actually just filmed in a set or something.

Evan: But the Oklahoma scenes all were pretty good. Good. And I actually,

Evan: unlike you, Nathan, I went in with like really, really low expectations and

Evan: they were actually, I would say they were exceeded because they were low, but I'd,

Evan: would say like it's a fun movie and i think it's um you know that brings me

Evan: back to you know 16 seeing a movie like this in the theater in the summer it

Evan: was just just that's what i want to see in the summer i.

Nathan: Also want to give like a little bit of a disclaimer because the trailer for

Nathan: this movie i think is way way misleading because i think it makes it seem like a uh,

Nathan: otherworldly disaster film like especially because they've got that line about

Nathan: like the two tornadoes combining and you think it's going to become this like

Nathan: thing that like is so far beyond the pale of reality.

Nathan: And that's not to say it doesn't like break the barrier of reality at some points,

Nathan: but it never gets into a point of like, we created an EF like 85 tornado.

Nathan: No, it's like, no, it's still, it's still pretty like grounded in like what

Nathan: could conceivably happen or probably like what will inevitably happen in our era of climate change.

Nathan: So that was something I really appreciated because the trailer makes it seem like it's like,

Nathan: yeah, they might take a rocket to space at some point it's like kind of like

Nathan: tonally how they represented like the craziness of tornadoes and it's like no

Nathan: it's actually like they did like a fairly decent job with the science and like it's.

Evan: Not sharknado or something like that.

Nathan: Yeah exactly.

Destiny: The filmmakers actually they said that they

Destiny: made adjustments to like you know the um the destruction that the tornadoes

Destiny: would create the winds um that they made adjustments based on um like climate

Destiny: change and how the environment has really changed and made these storms a lot stronger.

Destiny: And that, you know, a lot of it was shot in Oklahoma, but Tornado Alley has

Destiny: actually grown significantly in the last, you know, 30 years since the first movie was made.

Destiny: And so I really love that they kind of like held true to that and showed weather accurately.

Destiny: You know, the trailer does kind of like play it up a little bit,

Destiny: but I think that increasing the destruction and showing the way that climate

Destiny: change has impacted our storms was a really important point in the movie that I enjoyed.

Evan: I guess that's a good time to talk. I didn't know that.

Evan: That's interesting because one of the criticisms, I guess, like the online criticism,

Evan: even for people who hadn't even seen the movie or just heard about it,

Evan: was that there was no references at all in the film about climate change,

Evan: about increasing of tornadoes because of climate change.

Evan: None of those things were mentioned.

Evan: But then in part, because that conversation happens and everyone's complaining

Evan: that there's no mentions of climate change, it ends up bringing up the conversation

Evan: of weather and climate change.

Evan: So I guess you end up getting the conversation in some sense.

Evan: But I don't know what you both make of the lack of doing that.

Evan: And especially given what you said, at destiny of the director that the movie

Evan: minari so apparently when he pitched the the sequel he,

Evan: took scenes from the original Twister and his own movie, Minari,

Evan: which apparently had like a tornado watch scene in Oklahoma.

Evan: And that was like his pitch to get the movie made.

Evan: And then I think Spielberg helped, you know, push it across the finish line.

Evan: But that's, do you think that these studios just said like, you can't do this?

Evan: Because it doesn't seem like it's the kind of thing that Lee Isaac Chung would

Evan: avoid unless he just figured, I don't know. I don't know. What do you think?

Nathan: Well, I think like one of the important points of this is like,

Nathan: to me, I've had this same kind of feeling about Civil War and Twisters is both

Nathan: like essentially these directors set out to make an a political movie.

Nathan: And that's like what they've talked about in the press.

Nathan: And it's just not possible. It's not a feasible endeavor to make a political

Nathan: art, no matter how you frame it.

Nathan: And in doing so you just make yourself

Nathan: seem silly uh and and that's ultimately

Nathan: i think where we found ourselves where i think the director

Nathan: is being told by shareholders in the you know production companies of like this

Nathan: isn't a political movie and whether the director like believes that or not and

Nathan: whether you know the director of uh civil war believe that or not they they

Nathan: have to go out and say like this is not political and you're like okay okay

Nathan: i'm gonna going to watch the movie. Oh, it is political.

Nathan: And there is a moment in Twisters where Daisy Edgar Jones's mom makes reference

Nathan: to the fact that storms are getting bigger and they're coming more frequently.

Nathan: So there is kind of like a subtle nod to the actual scientific nature of tornadoes.

Nathan: But in every real sense, the bad guy of Twisters, to spoil it for people,

Nathan: is private property ownership.

Nathan: It's investment firms that are buying up damaged lands.

Nathan: And if you know anything about what is happening in the climate landscape of

Nathan: this country, that's literally also what is happening.

Nathan: It takes a real life situation and buries it in some... They're not talking

Nathan: about Maoist politics with land reclamation or anything like that.

Nathan: But it really is very much situated on the realities of what these devastating

Nathan: effects of climate change are doing.

Nathan: And it's devastating people's equity by tearing up their home,

Nathan: insurance companies dropping out of these regions, and then buying the land

Nathan: for cheap, and then you're left with absolutely nothing.

Nathan: And so sure, it doesn't have a YouTube video essay five minutes in where it

Nathan: explains the politics of climate change. But if you just watch the movie...

Nathan: It is political. It talks about the realities of climate change.

Nathan: And I think also, I think what people want is this forward and very obvious

Nathan: political message where I think if anyone actually does any research into climate change,

Nathan: climate change is a subtle thing. It's a long-term thing.

Nathan: It's a thing that spans over decades and decades, and it happens in the most

Nathan: mundane and uninteresting ways.

Nathan: And sometimes when you pair a disaster story with that, what you have is the

Nathan: effects of climate change is just people losing their houses.

Nathan: And that's as serious as it can get.

Nathan: And those are the stories that I think are also important because those are the very human stories.

Nathan: So I take a lot of offense to the like, it's not political, because I think

Nathan: that's a lot of people's way of just shifting the conversation away from the

Nathan: like, the really kind of boring ways that this is political.

Evan: Oh, so I was just going to mention briefly is In talking about the villain of

Evan: Twisters, Anthony Ramos' character, I believe his name is Javi in the movie,

Evan: he's working for this company or this person who's the one buying up all the land.

Evan: And the only point I was going to make is it's also very realistic in a sense

Evan: of someone who's just trying to get by.

Evan: This is a job he's able to get from this company, having served in the military,

Evan: and this is what job he's able to get.

Evan: And he's just kind of looking the other way because this is livelihood for him too.

Evan: So I think it's very real in the sense that people will work for these companies

Evan: because they have nothing else. They have no other option.

Evan: Then the same thing goes with they're going to take advantage of these people.

Evan: And I think one of the major upcoming issues and problems related to climate

Evan: change is the loss of land where people can live in, especially in Asia and

Evan: other places and islands.

Evan: And there's going to be mass migration. People are going to lose their homes.

Evan: So the fact that losing their homes is like the thing that they're taking advantage

Evan: of is actually, as you said, it's like the perfect thing, but it's not like

Evan: a sexy thing, you know, to talk about.

Evan: It's not like a, I don't know, I can't think of a better, better thing, but yeah, that's all.

Destiny: I think that the climate change aspects of the movie kind of speak for themselves.

Destiny: That, like you said, Nathan, it doesn't necessarily have to be like an in-your-face kind of thing.

Destiny: And I think that lots of really good political movies subvert these themes.

Destiny: And that's what makes them fun to analyze and talk about on podcasts.

Destiny: But visually, I think that,

Destiny: It's being represented in the way that the storms are much more destructive

Destiny: and the iconic line from the second movie of, we got twins.

Destiny: The storms are bigger. They are destroying more square miles.

Destiny: Like you know that like just from a

Destiny: scientific perspective like they are larger and so

Destiny: i think that it's well represented in the movie um and i i too share your sentiments

Destiny: about um civil war that i i really don't think that there is a way to make uh

Destiny: art not political and you know even even as we're talking about all of this,

Destiny: that like, I think about our own intersections,

Destiny: like as people and that it is now and is going to continue to be an issue.

Destiny: And especially like you said, Evan, like for folks that are more on like islands

Destiny: or in the global South that they're experiencing the brunt of that right now, unfortunately.

Nathan: And I think with like the climate change thing, it's also, So there's like a

Nathan: really subtle line in the movie where like the town has kind of been destroyed.

Nathan: It's like the third town in the movie or whatever, but it's kind of been destroyed.

Nathan: And someone just like kind of exclaims, like, I don't know how we build back

Nathan: again. And that's what climate change does.

Nathan: It's just like this repetitive action. And I mean, it's not the tsunami that takes out the house.

Nathan: It's like the constant flooding that makes you have to leave the area.

Nathan: And like, I think people want the disaster story to be just like this profound

Nathan: act of nature. Instead, it's just these small...

Nathan: Iterative things that continuously happen uh but

Nathan: i also want to draw like a little bit of connection to i think uh

Nathan: something that i loved about this movie and it's a really like

Nathan: silly thing to love about this movie but about like how um how the material

Nathan: lives of the characters are like hyper realistic in some sense like you have

Nathan: daisy edgar jones who's just like this flourishing academic who then just gets

Nathan: stuck in like an office space of like the national weather services And you're like,

Nathan: oh, yeah, that's kind of like the kind of collectively it like culture subsumes you.

Nathan: And then you have Javi, who's just like, he wants to do actual science and he

Nathan: wants to do actual research.

Nathan: But like, at the end of the day, he's got to take like whatever money he can get.

Nathan: And then you have Tyler, the male protagonist, Glenn Powell's character,

Nathan: who is making it as an actual storm chaser, but he's only doing so because he's

Nathan: a fucking influencer and he's selling his whole essence.

Nathan: He's selling himself as a brand. And what you have is this really interesting

Nathan: thing where, you know, Kate or Daisy Edgar Jones's character doesn't like the

Nathan: fact that he's a he's an influencer.

Nathan: And then you realize, like, no, he's like he puts on a show for people,

Nathan: which is like also what influencers do.

Nathan: And so I think it's just like the beautiful portrayal of like people living

Nathan: like actual economic lives within this universe.

Nathan: And like, that's not that's not even something that I would say is a.

Nathan: Super practical part about the first movie like they're all just kind of slightly

Nathan: well-funded researchers and

Nathan: you're like i don't were they in the 90s i don't i don't know for a fact.

Evan: That's true.

Nathan: But like i'm gonna guess it probably.

Evan: Wasn't yeah that is that yeah that goes off of like the the part of javi and

Evan: yeah the i thought was also interesting is uh glenn powell's character also

Evan: you kind of when you when when daisy acre joe's kind of sees like peels back

Evan: that they're actually helping the towns they're in.

Evan: They're not just doing it simply to sell t-shirts.

Evan: They're selling t-shirts so they can also inevitably give water and supplies to the towns.

Evan: They actually do care and it shows that his persona might be different,

Evan: which I don't know. You could probably... I don't know if that's the case with all influencers.

Evan: Some of these influencers, that might just be... I know there's a show they're

Evan: putting on, but in some sense, it could be they're also maybe not great people,

Evan: but it does seem like he is, you know, actively trying to help his, uh, his community.

Evan: And, and it's actually a good thing you mentioned the, the first move.

Evan: I don't think we mentioned it that much, but one of the, I think the best parts

Evan: about the first movie, one of the things I love is just the, the cast,

Evan: which as you said, it's just like kind of a bunch of very nineties,

Evan: early two thousands people that were in, you know, lots of things as small parts

Evan: with the exception of maybe Philip Seymour Hoffman, who became a,

Evan: you know, fairly big, big, big star,

Evan: but it's all just a bunch of people who are friends that I think they mentioned

Evan: at some point early on, like their grant money was going to run out, but it seems like they.

Evan: Can do a lot with their grant money.

Evan: You know, I don't know. They're, they've, they're filling up tanks of gas for,

Evan: you know, RVs and cars and they're building this scientific,

Evan: you know, the Dorothy container.

Evan: I don't know. It seems that almost seems a little weird.

Evan: More unrealistic than the uh the sequel which is for the sequel in quotes which

Evan: i can't believe i'm saying but i think it's true.

Destiny: Yeah before we move like onto the characters kim

Destiny: i just want to say that like the villain in the

Destiny: new one he looks like the guy

Destiny: from fairly odd parents um dale

Destiny: demodone like i laughed the entire time when every like scene that he was in

Destiny: the movie and i i just wanted to clarify like for hobby is it his business or

Destiny: like evan you said that like it was just like a job that he got i i thought

Destiny: it was his business right was.

Evan: It his business.

Nathan: No he like he like works for someone because he remember he has to like go off

Nathan: frequently to like make calls and like talk to the to the you know the boss

Nathan: man but i think uh that that character might have been in the movie or it might

Nathan: have been like an off-screen character but it's it's hobby is working for

Nathan: someone hobby's just making a paycheck and this is the only way he can make

Nathan: the paycheck doing the the stuff that he wants to do i.

Evan: Think he meets him at one point like in a in a restaurant like he's sitting

Evan: at a like a table with him and then that's when i maybe i'm making that up.

Destiny: Yeah the dale dimadone guy yeah right so he.

Evan: Does he does it a couple times.

Destiny: Yeah so he like he's like the boss but that like i thought that hobby was the

Destiny: one that like started the company because you You know, he was,

Destiny: like, really ambitious.

Destiny: He was able to, like...

Destiny: You know get some shareholders like money from

Destiny: the military and then he started the business which like

Destiny: he's still being exploited don't get me wrong but that

Destiny: yeah like i think that it shifts the dynamic a little

Destiny: bit because he's like almost like petty bourgeoisie um and like kind of loses

Destiny: his roots a little bit like because in the beginning of the movie he seems very

Destiny: different from like the person that he's at least trying to personify later on in the movie yeah.

Evan: It says that it says like his business partner is that guy scott it doesn't i don't remember his.

Destiny: Oh fake jonas fake.

Evan: Yeah fake jonas yeah.

Nathan: Also that's not the character he's the next superman uh david cornstrat is superman yes.

Evan: That's right so yeah the um.

Destiny: Okay i just wanted to clarify like before we We got too much into it.

Evan: No, but I agree with you. I mean, he's still being exploited.

Evan: I don't think he realized when building this company or going into partnership

Evan: that he's going to be doing this to essentially help a real estate mogul swindle

Evan: people out of their land so they can build.

Evan: He thinks he's doing it to help them in some way.

Evan: And maybe he doesn't ask the right questions to really look into that.

Evan: He's just like well you know i now have this business it's uh you know it's

Evan: going well i'm going to accept that but yeah no i think that's a good it's a good.

Destiny: Point the other guy doesn't give a fuck i don't know i just keep calling him

Destiny: fake jonas the upcoming superman i can't remember what his name is in the movie

Destiny: but yeah he he doesn't care like at all i i feel like i was

Destiny: not cheering for him at any point in the movie um i was actually other than the fact that he had.

Nathan: Like a big death scene in the in the final.

Destiny: Part of.

Nathan: The movie i really wanted that and we didn't get it and that was to me that

Nathan: was more disappointing than not getting the kiss at the end of the movie.

Destiny: Spoiler alert but everyone's talking about it.

Nathan: It's just a big talking point.

Destiny: Uh yeah it was kind of low-key disappointed that like they didn't do like an

Destiny: homage to the first movie and like also have him die in the car and like get

Destiny: into the blown into the tornado from the first one.

Evan: Oh yeah. That would have been nice. Well, I actually forgot.

Evan: I didn't, it's funny when I look at picture of him, like I can't now unsee like

Evan: him as Clark Kent Superman.

Evan: It's like, it's, he just looks like him. Then I also forgot he was in Pearl

Evan: as one of the, um, he was the, the guy who worked at the movie theater in Pearl too.

Destiny: So he just looks like a guy.

Evan: He just looks like a guy.

Destiny: Yeah. Yeah, it just looks like a guy like Jonas, like Clark Kent.

Destiny: So we can go back to the characters of the first one.

Evan: The cast. Yeah, speaking of like that, like Jonas, you know, he's...

Evan: What is his name? Cary Elwes. Is that how you pronounce his last name?

Destiny: I think so. Yeah. He's from the Princess Bride. Yep.

Evan: Princess Bride, Robin Hood, Men in Tights, Saw series.

Evan: But yeah, it has Bill Paxton. It has Jamie Girtz. He's like Bill Paxton's new fiance.

Evan: And it has Lois Smith, who I think she was in, what, The Spider-Man,

Evan: plus lots of movies, Fatal Attraction. And I can't think of any other movies now.

Evan: Philip Seymour Hoffman had Alan Ruck from News Radio, Ferris Bueller's Day Off,

Evan: all like all those not not newsreader i meant spin city um who else is in it zach reiner you.

Nathan: Got jerry babies and uh patrick fishler

Nathan: who are like kind of really big character actors in

Nathan: the early 2000s as well that's kind of like the story

Nathan: of this movie is outside of helen hunt and bill paxton who

Nathan: have not had like long lasting careers i think

Nathan: in some sense or like they're not like still part

Nathan: part of like a huge zeitgeist but everyone else is like you

Nathan: know your standard uh character actor from from that

Nathan: time period so it's one of those things that like you compare and contrast these

Nathan: two films i i think i probably like the cast of characters uh in the first movie

Nathan: better because they're just a little bit more vivid and realized in some sense

Nathan: however i think there's almost more

Nathan: character arcs in the second movie, like there's more kind of involvement within

Nathan: the characters themselves.

Nathan: But in the in the first movie, there's just so much character chemistry between

Nathan: the teams in between, especially Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt that they're just

Nathan: the chemistry between them is wild.

Nathan: So it's a really fun mixture of how you know, you differentiate between like

Nathan: the two different casts because I mean, while they are going for slightly different

Nathan: things in their productions.

Nathan: It also is, it really speaks to like, I don't know, I think there's a lot more

Nathan: ensemble, like big moments in blockbusters from the 90s.

Nathan: And, you know, in the like, in the like, our modern era, like the ensemble cast

Nathan: are pretty much only reserved for animated movies and superhero movies,

Nathan: you know, like, that's just not something that you get a whole lot of outside

Nathan: of your two, like, starring roles in like a fucking Jurassic Park arc movie,

Nathan: which has kind of been, you know, in some way, like redone with twisters.

Destiny: That's so true. I didn't think about that, that like they are kind of exclusive

Destiny: to hero movies and animated movies.

Destiny: The crews were both, you know, very good in each movie. And I think in different ways.

Evan: Yeah, like in the first one, you have so many people that are part of,

Evan: you know, Helen Hunt's team, and they all seem to fit like a different,

Evan: you know, they all have their their,

Evan: i think you said did you say like they're kind of like fleshed out in a sense of they

Evan: have personality like especially you know philip seymour

Evan: hoffman is like his you know his very first scene where

Evan: he's talking to uh the uh the doctor the new fiance and he's talking about like

Evan: what the like the the suck zone it's just like it's just it's i mean it's very

Evan: philip seymour hoffman early in his career and like they all have like their

Evan: nice little parts to play and And the scene,

Evan: like when they're at the Aunt Meg's apartment or house, you know,

Evan: eating and making the giant steak.

Evan: And that, you know, I was watching that. I'm like, man, I had dinner,

Evan: but I could go for like a steak that's just like cooked in whatever they're

Evan: making. I don't know what it was.

Destiny: Meg, where'd you get all this beef? Oh, you see my cows out front?

Nathan: I do think if we're going to get a star coming out of, you know,

Nathan: like we did with Philip Seymour Hoffman out of Twister. If we're going to get

Nathan: a star coming out of Twisters, I really hope it's the character of Dexter.

Nathan: I think it's Tunde Ndimbeke, who was the scientist for the crew.

Nathan: I thought he had a bunch of funny one liners and was just like a really,

Nathan: I don't know, kind of weirdly energetic character for the second movie that

Nathan: he was kind of like my star small performance art for that one.

Nathan: So that's, that's my hope.

Nathan: But yeah, I think Philip Seymour Hoffman, honestly, might be kind of the standout of,

Nathan: or he's kind of the glue that holds the whole movie together,

Nathan: because he's certainly a character that kind of instigates the chemistry kind

Nathan: of re happening between Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton.

Nathan: But he's also just this through line for this for the movie that you're just

Nathan: like you want to hang out with this crew That's why you fall in love with these characters.

Nathan: It's not just like oh, they've got some cool leading man and

Nathan: taking charge and and you know helping people understand the science like no

Nathan: it's just these guys seem like they'd fucking chill like i'd go storm watching with them.

Destiny: They like genuinely seem like they're friends like the the dynamic between them

Destiny: like it it seems like they've spent a lot of time together like you're fully

Destiny: convinced that they've they've gone on you know storm chases with each other yeah.

Evan: Yeah and i was gonna say about like to agree about the you know philips more

Evan: often being the main person that kind of makes everything work.

Evan: I mean, Bill Paxton has been in, especially in the 80s and then to the early

Evan: 90s, he was in tons and tons of movies.

Evan: But this is definitely... A lot of them were action movies and maybe thriller type thing.

Evan: I guess this is kind of like a thriller action horror-ish kind of movie.

Evan: But it's more like he's playing it more straight, I guess you could say.

Evan: He's not making one-liners like he does in Aliens or like Predator 2.

Evan: It's not that same kind of role. He's kind of like the straight laced guy.

Evan: And so you needed Philip Seymour Hoffman to have some kind of like,

Evan: not just comedic relief, but just to, I don't know, liven it up.

Evan: And he's just, he was an incredible actor. I mean, I love Philip Seymour Hoffman,

Evan: anything he ever did. Yeah.

Destiny: He was one of the greats.

Evan: Seriously.

Destiny: I miss him so much. And yeah, he definitely makes like the whole movie.

Destiny: But I do think I think that even like, you know, some of the smaller roles are

Destiny: still good roles like Alan Ruck playing Rabbit.

Destiny: He does a really great job. Like, you know, the even though there are smaller

Destiny: roles, it feels like like each person.

Destiny: Person has their part on the team and that they there's a lot of like synergy

Destiny: and you know good dynamics between the group none.

Evan: Of them mailed it in right like they're all like they were doing like they were

Evan: doing a great job that's not a really good way to put it but they weren't just

Evan: you know there just to kind of fill in a spot on the screen they were like they

Evan: they played their part perfectly it.

Nathan: Felt like each of them actually had like a character sheet too like there was

Nathan: something about their character that made them like unique and not just like

Nathan: you know a nondescript part of team you know there's there.

Evan: Was something there yeah exactly.

Destiny: Yeah and i think the first one for me like not only stands out as far as characters

Destiny: are concerned but also the plot i think that like they followed a much simpler

Destiny: plot and they were able to execute it a lot better than the fake sequel.

Destiny: The fake sequel kind of seemed like it had a lot of different plot points that

Destiny: weren't fully explained or given the attention that I think that it deserved,

Destiny: especially the whole real estate option.

Destiny: I think that the three of us, we know that there's not

Destiny: going to be anything that comes out of hollywood that's you know

Destiny: anti-capitalist or that is

Destiny: going to read that way because you know hollywood

Destiny: is what it is but that i think that some of the plot lines in the second one

Destiny: got kind of lost um where isn't it whereas in the first one that like they stuck

Destiny: to a much simpler plot and i

Destiny: feel like they were able to to pull it off um Because you had the storms,

Destiny: but then you're also telling the story of Joe and Bill and, you know,

Destiny: as their relationship grows.

Destiny: Changes and ultimately grows together.

Evan: That's true i mean i the the second

Evan: one definitely is more of a complex movie whereas

Evan: a lot of those 90s you know action kind

Evan: of movies and disaster ones

Evan: like they're not they're not like you know reinventing i

Evan: mean they're reinventing something but it's very straightforward and

Evan: i think yeah i i could i agree i could agree with you

Evan: about the real estate thing not being kind of realized as much

Evan: as it could have been and some of the you know would it

Evan: be nice to get more insight into like glenn powell's character

Evan: you got a little bit about you know him but you kind

Evan: of got more about daisy edgar jones and kind of her past because you know she

Evan: opens the movie with that traumatic event losing her friends and then you know

Evan: overcomes her fear to you know go drive out with this crazy rigged out truck

Evan: that has like spikes in it like that was

Evan: the coolest but also craziest truck that i guess could not exist or could it

Evan: exist i don't know is that possible i also want.

Nathan: To give a little bit of a shout out to glenn powell's character um because i've

Nathan: seen a lot of uh online discourse about how glenn powell plays like the perfect

Nathan: himbo which i think is like a misreading of the character of tyler in this movie like he is very

Nathan: explicitly not a himbo.

Nathan: And like, sure, he is hot.

Nathan: But he is like, the whole kind of motion of his character is that he is like

Nathan: misunderstood as a himbo. And that is not who he is.

Nathan: Like he is actually a very smart and caring and thoughtful person,

Nathan: where those are not like the typical attributes of a himbo.

Nathan: And so it's like the unhemboification of his character is what makes him like,

Nathan: endearing and lovable and also like where you want to have a sequel.

Nathan: Like I think people are asking for a sequel to this movie because you're like,

Nathan: oh, I would watch the continuation of these two characters' storyline.

Nathan: Not specifically Javi. I think he's probably the most,

Nathan: you know misused character and like all are

Nathan: of the two movies but um tyler and

Nathan: kate's chemistry is really good it's really fun there's an interesting story

Nathan: that's happening between them but yeah i've just uh this is just a thing for

Nathan: the haters that uh have like really been mad at me for calling people out for

Nathan: calling tyler himbo because you're wrong and i want you to know that you are wrong yeah.

Destiny: I don't think he's a himbo i like if anything i think that he He displays a

Destiny: really healthy level of masculinity that like, like,

Destiny: you know, typically in movies, like the the more masculine character is usually

Destiny: someone that you're pitted against,

Destiny: you know, they're the villain of the story.

Destiny: And so it was really refreshing to get to see someone who is masculine,

Destiny: but like you said, being vulnerable and is intelligent and overall became this

Destiny: really great character.

Destiny: So I think he did a great job too.

Evan: You well there's also the idea that like

Evan: i think there's like the stereotype of like oh you know attractive guy

Evan: from the south like he's not a smart guy and

Evan: he actually is extremely smart in

Evan: this movie i mean you're not building this entire empire of

Evan: the social media presence with hundreds of thousands of followers

Evan: by being an idiot like that takes a lot of

Evan: work to do that so yes he's an attractive

Evan: uh person in the you know attractive but i don't think i i would agree with

Evan: you nathan i don't think he is and i think his character does have depth like

Evan: it could have had more maybe you know but that if they wanted to but i thought

Evan: it was uh you know like you you do see like layers to him and you know if they

Evan: made a sequel to this with the two of them again i would go see it i.

Nathan: Do know um you had some questions uh specifically pertaining to the cgi because

Nathan: i would love to get into that and.

Evan: Uh i'll.

Nathan: Let you ask your question but i i basically already have my pre-prepared answer

Nathan: because i have a very strong opinion on uh outdated cgi.

Evan: Well okay so yeah so the i guess

Evan: the question i mean if you look at people online especially

Evan: the first the first movie twister a lot of folks will say you know the cgi that

Evan: they use and some of the like there's lots of like goofs like if you go to the

Evan: imdb page and go to like the goof section there's like 40 or 50 things where

Evan: something like a sign is blowing the wrong way and this and all these you know,

Evan: these very specific things.

Evan: But I guess just the question is like, do you think that the CGI from the original still...

Evan: Like looks okay i know that there were some practical effects they used and

Evan: those like i think hold up but what do you think generally about it.

Nathan: I think it's great i think we need more movies that

Nathan: look like this i think there's like a realness to

Nathan: what is happening and sure if you want to hyper focus on the

Nathan: goofs like you know maybe some of those things could have been corrected and

Nathan: stuff like whatever i'm not really a stickler for goofs and movies like unless

Nathan: it's like part of like an integral part of the movie but like um i think what

Nathan: they did well in this This movie was specifically the lighting just made Twister a horror movie.

Nathan: Like it very much is set at night where Twisters is mostly a daytime story.

Nathan: And so it's like when you're watching everything happen, it's a lot less scary

Nathan: than when you don't know what's going to happen.

Nathan: And so a lot of that probably has to do with like the practicalness in which

Nathan: like you have the technology to film these things.

Nathan: And, you know, in the modern era, you can make a daytime tornado pretty easily.

Nathan: I'm not saying it doesn't take a lot of like man hour to do those projects and

Nathan: a lot of money to, you know, have those computers.

Nathan: But Twister gets by on a really incredible aesthetic because it leaned into

Nathan: the grittiness and it leaned into like the kind of unknown terror of Mother Nature.

Nathan: And I think like both of those two things combine into a movie that,

Nathan: you know, while being expensive, wasn't like ungodly, you know,

Nathan: in its budget. And so it made a ton of money.

Nathan: And that's like, ultimately, like what I hope for most what I hope for most

Nathan: things, because I think we talked about like a lot of the blockbusters being

Nathan: like heavily CGI focused.

Nathan: And I think probably all three of us are like, yeah, we care more about intricate

Nathan: stories with good characters and fun and interesting ways in which to tell a story.

Nathan: And we care very little about, does the blue beam coming out of the sky look perfect?

Nathan: I don't give a fuck. I genuinely don't care. And I have been slowly trying to

Nathan: shift myself into like watching and finding myself being more entertained by

Nathan: like Bollywood films and movies coming out of like South Korea and stuff because

Nathan: it's like they really have a I think a concrete.

Nathan: Answer towards the cgi thing and being like yeah like maybe we'll use it and

Nathan: maybe we'll just like make a character jump 35 feet in the air for fun you're

Nathan: like that's what i want like i don't i don't care anymore.

Evan: Yeah i mean i think the cgi and the first one is pretty good especially when

Evan: i think of some other movies from that era that or even i said this before this

Evan: podcast a bunch of times there's lots of movies from the early 2000s or even

Evan: like 2010 where it looks like absolute Absolute. It just looks really bad.

Evan: You think of the Transformer movies where, I mean, part of this has to do with,

Evan: I mean, this is also in the news

Evan: now with James Gunn, since we're talking about the new Superman movie.

Evan: He said they intentionally finished filming early to give the visual effects

Evan: people a year to actually make the visual effects look good.

Evan: And so a lot of that has to do with just making people, the visual effects people

Evan: do a lot of hard work in a very short period of time.

Evan: And so you get, you know, a lot of these movies with bad CGI,

Evan: but I don't know, the Twister movie, it's just like, it's still, it looks cool.

Evan: Like I was watching it and I'm like, never at one point did I think,

Evan: man, like this is like, this looks really bad. Like I thought it all looked, you know.

Nathan: Yeah, and it's not like an anti CGI movement. I mean, I really love the Avatar,

Nathan: especially the sequel to Avatar, The Way of the Water, I thought was fabulous.

Nathan: But it's like, yeah, I'm glad he took what fucking 10 years to make that movie

Nathan: because you can actually like put in the time and dedication it takes to like

Nathan: make something the visual medium that you want.

Nathan: And I think that's a really beautiful thing. But I also think like working within

Nathan: their limitations, Twister also makes itself a more longer lasting movie than

Nathan: Twisters does because you have that horror element that is interesting to watch.

Nathan: And also, like, I think puts more like emotion into the experience of watching the movie.

Nathan: Like I watched this movie as a kid and it terrified me.

Nathan: And I have rewatched it over the years and slowly become less scared of the

Nathan: movie until like I watched it this summer. I was like, man, this is just a fucking fun time.

Nathan: Like, I'm just so glad like I you get to like enjoy it. And you also get to

Nathan: like perceive how you enjoyed it in the past. And I think like,

Nathan: that's, that's like what a movie can do for you and should do for you,

Nathan: it should change and meld over time.

Nathan: And I think Twister is one of those, I think, honestly, probably,

Nathan: you know, it's not I wouldn't say like favorite movies.

Nathan: But as far as like, just throwing on a movie in the heat of the summer,

Nathan: like I'm going to go to Twister more times.

Nathan: And I'm going to go to like, a lot of other movies that I think are even better.

Destiny: Yeah, I think the CGI definitely holds up in Twister.

Destiny: I think the only scene that maybe it's a little bit questionable is the cow scene.

Destiny: But like otherwise, because they relied so heavily on practical effects,

Destiny: I think that that is part of why it has held up.

Destiny: But, you know, just for that era, like the visual effects that they used were

Destiny: revolutionary for that time. They were using technology that had never been used.

Destiny: And I think that they were really smart about how much of it they used.

Destiny: They didn't indulge too much, which can be a problem in today's climate of movies.

Destiny: But Evan, I think that you did bring up a good point that, unfortunately,

Destiny: a lot of visual effects artists are exploited and overworked and,

Destiny: you know, not given enough time to put the time and the effort and the dedication

Destiny: that it does take to do really good visual effects.

Destiny: Um so you know i think

Destiny: that like you said nathan i think that twister holds

Destiny: up and will continue to hold up a little bit longer than twisters um i think

Destiny: in their final cut they relied a little bit too heavily on cgi in the second

Destiny: one from for me personally um and especially in comparison to the the first one.

Evan: Yeah and the first one i was just looking the budget for the first one was

Evan: it says 88 to 92 million and especially given you know i think they like put

Evan: that to good use where you see movies now they get you know get 150 million

Evan: dollar budgets or whatever and you know they've rushed through it it just doesn't

Evan: look the same like they clearly were going,

Evan: for something that they you know they achieve what their work they set out for

Evan: and i actually saw a note in wikipedia it said that the cgi cow was built from

Evan: a cgi zebra that they use in the the movie Jumanji from the year before,

Evan: which a little note that I thought was interesting. But yeah, they-

Destiny: The CPI in Jumanji is really bad. It does not hold up.

Evan: No. The animals charging through in those scenes are like, yeah,

Evan: it's very... I guess it's funny because you said that the cat was the one time

Evan: where the movie didn't look as good and there it's because it's from Jumanji. Yeah.

Evan: They had to do that. But yeah, I mean, I think, I don't think I had any more

Evan: direct questions about either ones.

Evan: I mean, we guess we talked about both generally, but I don't know if either

Evan: had any last thoughts on the movies or if you had any last thoughts on sequels

Evan: or any of these things or, you know, what they're going to call the sequel.

Destiny: Did you want to talk about the Helen Hunt?

Evan: Oh, yes. Equal part. That's, that's true. So I didn't get a chance to look beyond

Evan: the article that was linked in the Wikipedia,

Evan: but helen hunt did try and make a sequel i think for

Evan: a while she had tried to like she couldn't even get

Evan: them to agree to a meeting which is really kind of

Evan: speaks to the fact that you know her i don't know if this is intentional like

Evan: her career definitely didn't go that great after into the early 2000s but she

Evan: wanted to make a movie that was a direct sequel that would have mostly black

Evan: and brown people as the storm chasers instead of it being an all-white cast

Evan: and they basically told her to fuck off well.

Destiny: What i like saw from that was that like i heard parts of the interview and it

Destiny: was basically like it was just performative she was like oh you know this is

Destiny: in 2020 when it's all about dei but.

Evan: Like not.

Destiny: In a way that was genuine or like you.

Evan: Know so she was saying it just to say it to get them to make it basically oh

Evan: yeah i mean because like Like you said.

Destiny: Her career was and is not really doing that well.

Destiny: So, you know, she wanted to capitalize on that.

Evan: Well, that's a bummer to hear that that's how she saw the sequel.

Evan: I don't know what her politics are, but that's definitely...

Destiny: I think it's obvious.

Evan: Yeah, I was trying to say it gently.

Nathan: I also just, I think I really, I come out of this really wanting the resurgence

Nathan: of disaster movies. I think we found ourselves probably on this like precipice

Nathan: in some sense of like the end of the superhero arc.

Nathan: Era uh and and that's not to say like disney and

Nathan: uh you know marvel and whatever they're

Nathan: not gonna like stop making these movies like i don't mean that at

Nathan: all but them holding the most like basically a grip on hollywood uh i think

Nathan: is is maybe slipping a little bit especially with like the mcu movies of recent

Nathan: being mostly bad um and i think people are clamoring for like big budget blockbusters because,

Nathan: you know, like we want we still want something like within culture to talk about.

Nathan: And so this is my like my personal pitch to to Hollywood has been to just like

Nathan: bring back disaster movies and and not so much in like the sci fi genre,

Nathan: which is like some of those like the moon falling apart things.

Nathan: It's like, no, I would I would love a lot more survivalist stories

Nathan: or natural disaster stories um i i

Nathan: would even you know i would i would go see on opening weekend

Nathan: if they redid um the day

Nathan: after tomorrow like i i'd go see a sequel that's almost

Nathan: a shot for shot remake of it because i think

Nathan: these are just like these are the stories that i i personally care

Nathan: about and then also i think break from uh

Nathan: you know like the the exhaustion that i

Nathan: have out of like major hollywood at this point i think there's a

Nathan: lot of you know i'm never gonna stop repping like indie

Nathan: films in general but um as far as like big

Nathan: blockbusters go i i just i can't find myself caring about any more fast and

Nathan: furious movies or jurassic park movies or marvel movies and that's not to say

Nathan: i'll never see any of them but i just like i would rather spend my time talking

Nathan: about twisters three than literally any other you know any other movie so.

Evan: It basically just recreate you know i think in the 90s there must have been

Evan: like six or eight disaster type movies.

Evan: So, you know, I mean, it doesn't seem like that farfetched given that like the

Evan: nostalgia to bring back so many of the 90s IP and kind of style movies and remakes

Evan: and sequels. So I don't know, I could see it.

Nathan: Also, just my last bit of advice to Hollywood.

Nathan: I'm sorry, I keep doing this. But you need to make movies with good soundtracks.

Nathan: Last time I was on the podcast, I was here to talk about Twilight.

Nathan: And here again with Twisters, like a

Nathan: soundtrack is an integral girl part of the movie experience

Nathan: and it should be very intentional not

Nathan: only through like the cinematic scores but also like what music

Nathan: you're going to use and if you're going to get you know original music for it

Nathan: but it truly does make a movie experience like like out of a five-star rating

Nathan: it makes it two stars better if you have good and interesting music to go along

Nathan: with the story because that's what a movie is it's not simply just a visual

Nathan: medium and so i am really kind of,

Nathan: uh blown away by the fact that you know

Nathan: some of our biggest movies go back to like the marvel movies have just

Nathan: like the most non-script soundtracks imaginable and so

Nathan: it's like i really wish people would just put a focus on getting

Nathan: like some good songs out there and if you want to fucking help some

Nathan: music artists fucking pay them to write some good songs for this stuff because

Nathan: it's ultimately like we want to see those we want to have that experience and

Nathan: it seems like a lot of At least big budget movies don't seem to have any care

Nathan: or concentration put into the soundtracks at all at this point.

Evan: They probably are saying, if we're going to have something in this movie,

Evan: this $150 million budget movie, we have to get big name artists.

Evan: And they can't pay them then because they've already blown the budget on everything else.

Evan: But yeah, get some small artists to do it. I'm sure they'd be happy to make

Evan: a song for a movie than getting paid like 11 cents from Spotify residuals,

Evan: you know, that they're basically getting now or even less now or God knows, you know, fuck Spotify.

Evan: But anyway, yeah, no, you have any last thoughts, Destiny?

Destiny: Well, about the soundtrack, yeah. I mean, you know, those are the things that

Destiny: bring folks back to the movie,

Destiny: you know, year after year that like, I can't tell you how many times I've rewatched

Destiny: Twilight because I love the color palette and I love the soundtrack.

Destiny: The movie sucks, but I enjoy revisiting it because of aspects that they really

Destiny: thought about carefully in the filmmaking.

Destiny: But in regards to Twister and Twisters, I would say that,

Destiny: I was really afraid that they were going to fuck up my favorite movie,

Destiny: and I was pleasantly surprised that they didn't.

Destiny: I feel like there were just enough nods and Easter eggs to the first one that

Destiny: they kind of like paid their homage to it,

Destiny: but that it does almost stand out on its own.

Destiny: You don't have to see the first one to to really be

Destiny: able to enjoy it and that it is just a fun

Destiny: summer blockbuster disaster movie um

Destiny: with a great soundtrack with really great visual effects um and i i i think

Destiny: that it it did really really well and i'm pleased with the way that the sequel

Destiny: came out and the first one if you haven't seen it please please watch it because

Destiny: it's probably one of my favorite movies ever.

Destiny: It's in my top five on Letterboxd.

Destiny: I love Twister. I could say the entire movie from memory. That's how many times I've seen it.

Destiny: But it just draws me in every time because the characters, the movie,

Destiny: the plot, there are so many really good and carefully calculated decisions about

Destiny: the movie that really just make it a classic.

Evan: Yeah. And I think of just in just the last note on the soundtrack and then we can we can go.

Evan: But like the but I think of like movies that I've seen this year,

Evan: like recent just from just recent from 2024 in the ones that were were better.

Evan: As you said, Nathan, like two stars goes towards the soundtrack.

Evan: I can remember them even better, even more.

Evan: And I actually enjoyed them more because, you know, they had something compelling

Evan: besides just, you know, like if it's a horror movie, like a jump scare,

Evan: it actually had interesting sound behind it.

Evan: And so I, you know, I, no reason for me to go on, but I would agree with that.

Evan: And, um, yeah, Twister has an insanely good soundtrack.

Evan: So if you haven't seen Twister, also see it doubling down on

Evan: your destiny and then i think twisters is also worth your

Evan: time if you enjoy the first one and haven't seen it yet i think it's uh

Evan: worthy of a good you know before summer ends

Evan: you should watch this uh summer blockbuster but

Evan: that's all i got anyone else nothing no more

Evan: no more well ip movies if they're if they're

Evan: good and they're related to uh to twister so you can

Evan: make twister three twister twister four twister five whatever but you've You've

Evan: been listening to Nathan and destiny and you can listen to their podcasts on

Evan: the links down below and you can listen to this podcast as well as theirs on

Evan: the internet where you can find them all. And thank you both for being here today.

Nathan: Thanks so much. Yeah.

Destiny: Thank you.

Evan: And we'll catch you next time.