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Disaster movies like Twister have been dominating the box office for the better part of a century. These disaster movies usually depict major natural disasters, incoming asteroids, or man made problems. Usually they are a flash in the pan, but in the case of films like Twister, some have stood the test of time as truly great cinema. With the sequel Twisters starring Glen Powell on the way, it seems we haven't lost our love for disaster movies.
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Where's my truck
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There it is. Too often, there is an intellectual divide about serious, earnest, quote-unquote, art
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How folks levy expectations regarding what can be thoughtful provocation, and what is
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simply genre schlock. But genre films have always been about more. Art about politics, science and economy, environmentalism, societal anxieties, and fear
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One movie from the disaster film genre, Twister, shouted about all those things
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but when did that genre slow down, and more importantly, will it continue
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This is crazy! Forget it! There's still time! We can still do this
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Come on, come on! For many people, 1996's Twister is the archetypal disaster film
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The story centered around two sets of storm-chasing scientists, one an altruistic team led by Dr. Joe Harding
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and another corporate-backed group led by Dr. Jonas Miller. He's in it for the money, not the science. He's got a lot of high-tech gadgets
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but he's got no instincts. Director Jan Dubond wanted to reinvigorate a genre almost as old as
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film itself, going back as far as 1901 with the silent film Fire. Aside from being one of the
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first instances of a filmmaker using editing to cut multiple scenes together in order to tell
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a complete narrative, the short film also highlighted what would become a defining
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characteristic of the disaster movie, humans triumphing over nature. In Twister, Dr. Harding's
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main motivation to understand this weather phenomenon is due to her family's farm being
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destroyed and her father dying in a tornado when she was a child. With her new tech
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called Dorothy, she hopes to revolutionize early storm detection. So nobody knows how a tornado works. We have no idea what is going on inside because nobody's ever
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been able to take scientific measurements from inside the funnel. The plot is more or less a
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scientific revenge story That focus on human revenge can be traced back to the disaster movie genre golden era of the 1970s In what many would call the blueprint for the disaster film The Poseidon Adventure
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Gene Hackman famously shouts to God, What more do you want of us? We've come all this way, no thanks to you
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We get it on our own, no help from you. And these movies are very much about normal people carrying on against all odds
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The 70s were a decade marred by political upheaval, One obvious and impossible-to-ignore example being the Watergate scandal and President Nixon's inevitable resignation
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There was a sense of distrust across the country, and it inevitably bled into the public consciousness and informed our art
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Mrs. Rosen is dead. We can't bring her back, but what we can do is keep moving and be strong. That's what she would have wanted
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In Twister, there was a layer of political commentary in its exploration of gender dynamics within the field of STEM, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
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Harding is played as a passionate meteorologist and forerunner in the male-dominated field
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Her character challenges traditional gender roles, addressing the challenges women face, like being underestimated and constantly having to prove their credibility again and again
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Time for deployment, guys. Let's do it. Oh, man. This is the fun part, sweetheart
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That sort of questioning on whether our country treats folks on a level playing field
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goes all the way back to 1977's Black Sunday. The film tells the story of an ex-Vietnam pilot who suffers from PTSD after being held as a POW
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With the government incapable of taking care of him upon his return, he inevitably has a nervous breakdown
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He later wants to hurt himself and as many people as possible by flying a blimp into the Super Bowl
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This sense of unease and paranoia wasn't just regulated to political turbulence
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The 70s also saw a rise in environmental consciousness. Earthquake, released in 1974, played on the public's fear of natural disasters
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The idea was exacerbated by urbanization and environmental neglect. These movies showed us as small and pitiful in the face of a world that wanted to destroy us
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because we had been destroying it for centuries. It shows a distrust in what corporations have been telling us something evident in Twister as well It coming It headed right for us It already here The contrast between Joe and Jonas teams really reflects corporate versus grassroots work
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Joe's team operates on a shoestring budget, relying on creativity, passion, and working together against all odds. Jonas' team, on the other hand, is a much more buttoned
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down corporate approach where problems are solved by throwing money at them. The disparity between
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the two works as a ragtag group of underdog misfits against giant corporations we've seen
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play out for years. While there was a lull of disaster films in the 80s, there was an absolute
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resurgence in the 90s. Aside from the environmental fear and personal triumph of Twister, there was
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the aliens as metaphor film Independence Day. Released in 1996, the film used the concept of
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an alien invasion to explore themes of global unity and resilience in the face of an external
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threat. The film's portrayal of disparate nations coming together to fight a common enemy
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resonated with audiences in a world where the internet was becoming more prevalent. The not
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at all subtle political subtext suggested a need for international cooperation to address global
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challenges like climate change and terrorism. Mankind, that word should have new meaning for
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all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. The 90s also marked a return
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to Cold War fear from The Peacemaker. The movie brought the specter of nuclear disaster
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back into the public consciousness. In the post-Cold War era, the film addressed the dangers of nuclear attack
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and the idea of rogue states acquiring nuclear weapons. The plot involving stolen Russian nuclear warheads
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and a race against time to prevent a catastrophic explosion played on fears of geopolitical instability
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and the potential for nuclear terrorism. You don't do that unless you're trying to make a very profound statement
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Do you know how much a functioning nuke is worth on the open market? Minimum $200 million cash
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$200 million makes for a very profound statement. And the successes of these films
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paved the way for future disaster movies to incorporate political themes. The template first established in the 70s and carried through the 90s can be seen in more recent films like The Day After Tomorrow or 2012 which really leaned into humanity responsibility in regards to the environment and the disasters it can spawn
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Your job is to figure out when this is all going to fall apart. My job is to figure out how to retain some type of government after it falls apart
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But why does it seem that the movies have fallen into a rut? They're still being made, but there's something that just feels off
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There's a lazy reliance on spectacle. And these movies have always had spectacle
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It is part of the genre, but due to the increase in technology, it seems like over-the-top action and the latest special effects are all some of these movies seem to want anymore
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When you watch something like San Andreas or Geostorm, the end result is just something kind of nice to look at, but has no sense of real storytelling
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By playing God. Ask Max. He knows science is all about playing God
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Nostalgia also plays a huge role with how we watch disaster movies
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We started this video saying Twister was the archetype disaster film for a certain generation
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and that's true for those who grew up with it. Same with folks who grew up on Earthquake
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or younger fans who first saw San Andreas because they liked Dwayne Johnson. Fans will always have fond memories of the emotional journeys and innovative effects
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that define their favorite childhood movies. Good storytelling will always ring true
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It just needs to be present. So, what now? Now we rebuild
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The upcoming Twisters has the potential to reignite the genre by returning to its roots
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With today's heightened awareness of climate change and natural disasters, there's a chance for disaster films to crawl their way back into the public lexicon
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Twisters serves as a reminder that even mainstream entertainment can engage with
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and reflect societal issues. The movie works in a way movies haven't since because it had the comfort of genre to wrap itself in
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There's an everlasting appeal that lies not only in its ability to captivate audiences with its depiction of nature's fury
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but also in its subtle exploration of the political and social currents of its time
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all told through the very clever Trojan horse of spectacle and flying cows. Cow
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I gotta go, Julia. We got cows
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