Twisters Director Reveals Inspiration Behind the Final Tornado

Following the reason behind the kiss scene being cut in the Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell-led disaster movie, Twisters director Lee Isaac Chung also revealed what movie inspired the final tornado called “The Monster.”

In the film, the massive EF-5 — referred to as “The Monster” — terrorizes the small town of El Reno and completely destroys the movie theater, which is showing Frankenstein. But it wasn’t a coincidence at all, according to the director. The movie, which is a staple of Universal’s collection of monster movies, was a necessary choice for the standalone sequel to 1996’s Bill Paxton-starring Twister.

How did Frankenstein inspire Twisters’ final tornado?

“I thought of this film in many ways as a monster movie. Universal has had quite a history of monster films, in which Frankenstein is probably the key,” Chung told Variety. “Once I had that in mind, I also thought about the way that tornado is born and formed — even the refinery is meant to mirror what happens in ‘Frankenstein.’”

In the last part of the interview, the director also revealed that Edgar-Jones’ character inspired him during filming.

“This project felt like I was chasing a tornado. But on the flip side, what Kate is doing is pretty much what it’s like to be a filmmaker: to chase after something and to go through difficulties, then come back to it, and then ultimately, to find joy in it. I certainly had a lot of joy making this movie,” said Chung.

What is Twisters about?

Twisters centers on Kate, Javi, and Tyler as they battle to survive multiple storms and tornadoes that are converging over Central Oklahoma.

In addition to Edgar-Jones as Kate and Powell as Tyler, the film also stars Anthony Ramos as Javi, Maura Tierney as Cathy, Brandon Perea as Boone, Daryl McCormack as Jeb, Sasha Lane as Lily, Kiernan Shipka as Addy, Nik Dodani as Praveen, David Corenswet as Scott, Harry Hadden-Paton as Ben, Tunde Adebimpe as Dexter, and Katy O’Brian as Dani.

Twisters is now playing in theaters.