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.