“Twisters” opens with a team of storm chasers in Oklahoma testing out a new method of dissipating tornadoes. The test fails, leaving Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Javi (Anthony Ramos) the only survivors of the storm. Five years later, Kate has moved to New York, where she works as a meteorologist, but Javi convinces her to return to Oklahoma to help his “StormPar” team track an extra intense tornado season.
As they track storms, Kate, Javi, and his business partner Scott (David Corenswet) develop a rivalry with a team of storm chasers led by the YouTube celebrity “Tornado Wrangler” Tyler Owens (Glen Powell). Tyler takes an interest in the “city girl” Kate, and she eventually agrees to go with him to a rodeo. Alas, a violent tornado ruins this date, destroying the rodeo and much of the town. In the tragic aftermath, Kate and Javi get in a fight, and Kate leaves the team to return to her childhood home.
Kate wants to destroy all her old research, but her mother (Maura Tierney) dissuades her, saying, “I’m still waiting for you to save the world.” Tyler finds Kate, realizing he knew about her from reading about her award-winning middle school science project simulating tornadoes in a model town. She tells him about her traumatic past. Talking about how tornadoes are classified by the damage they leave behind, he encourages her to minimize that damage by not giving up her dreams.
