Ethan Bardoe ’26
Major summer blockbuster “Twisters” follows a team of meteorologists attempting to collect data on tornadoes ravaging Oklahoma. Among the scientific jargon of Fujiwhara effects and sodium polysulfate, a scientific term is clearly missing from the movie. Not once in the movie’s two hour runtime is the concept of climate change mentioned. This was the decision of the film’s director, Lee Isaac Chung.
Chung explained in a CNN interview, “I just wanted to make sure that with the movie, we don’t ever feel like [it] is putting forward any message…I just don’t feel like films are meant to be message-oriented.” Chung’s thought process paints climate change as a political ideology instead of an agreed-upon scientific fact and implies that any mention of it is a tool to push a political agenda.
While the connection between climate change and tornadoes is not especially clear, there is ongoing research to determine their relationship. The quality of research and models on tornado data currently hampers the ability of scientists to make predictions.
As the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says on its webpage: “The observational record is not consistent and relatively short, models remain inconclusive as to replicating tornado activity and our understanding of how global warming and climate change will influence the different atmospheric processes that produce tornadoes.”
However, global warming will increase the amount of warm wet air needed to produce conditions for tornadoes and may change the areas they affect. A fifty-year study of tornado frequency indicates that the United States’ Tornado Alley is shifting east, away from the film’s setting of Oklahoma. It is unclear what the cause of this shift could be or how permanent it is.
Regardless of the direct scientific connection between tornadoes and climate change, disaster movies could easily use this connection to explain rising stakes or the importance of collecting data on storms. By attempting to take no stance, Chung depicts climate change as an issue that should not affect any meteorological research conducted today.
Aside from its refusal to engage directly with the topic of climate change, “Twisters” shows a concerning amount of techno-optimism. Techno-optimism is a response to climate change that assumes that new technology will be able to mitigate any of the long-lasting effects of environmental degradation. Techno-optimism often comes with significant costs — overshadowed by a veneer of an innovative solution, it turns a blind eye to the behaviors causing the problems.
The rag-tag band of cowboy meteorologists making up the heroes of the “Twisters” cast seeks a method to chemically nullify a tornado. However, they do not consider any of the side effects of this rushed cure. The solution the crew settles on is to do cloud seeding directly into a tornado, dispersing silver iodide into the sky and creating artificial rain clouds. This process would have much bigger consequences to humans and the environment than the film presents. Cloud seeding is still a very experimental technology, but it can degrade the ozone layer and cause uneven precipitation patterns, leading to heavy erosion on the ground below. Furthermore, the chemicals used increase risk for lung cancer, birth defects and a myriad of medical maladies.
“Twisters” is a fun movie overall with some very charismatic performances from a somewhat generic script, but its plot falls apart if the viewer thinks about it for a little too long. Not every movie needs to be a perfect depiction of environmental policy, but a film that attempts to be scientifically grounded needs to have a better understanding of basic environmental science.