Twisters: Did you notice the hidden reference in the movie’s car names?

SPOILER ALERT! This article reveals plot elements from “Twister” (1996) and “Twisters” (2024).

Although Lee Issac Chung’s Twisters is a standalone story from Jan de Bont’s 1996 classic about an eccentric group of storm chasers led by Helen Hunt and the late Bill Paxton, it still pays homage to its predecessor.

In TwistersDaisy Edgar-Jones stars as Kate Cooper, a retired tornado chaser who returns to work with an old college friend, Javi (Anthony Ramos), on a new team. Glenn Powell plays Tyler Owens, a storm chaser known on social media as the “Tornado Wrangler.” So there are no characters connected to the first movie.

Instead, the film’s cast and crew—some of whom had worked on both films, such as visual effects supervisor Ben Snow, production designer Patrick Sullivan, and former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) analyst Kevin Kelleher, who served as technical advisors. Pay homage to Twister with some can’t-miss Easter eggs, starting of course with Tyler’s rust-red Dodge Ram truck, which echoes Bill from the first movie, and more. But there’s also a tribute to a certain Wizard of Oz that goes almost unnoticed…

Return of Dorothy

plot Twister (1996) revolves around Dorothy, a piece of technology used by the film’s main characters, tornado-obsessed meteorologist Dr. Joe Harding (Helen Hunt) and her ex-husband, Bill (Bill Paxton), designed to study these phenomena. The narrative spans just one day, when Bill agrees to join the team on Dorothy’s maiden voyage. It takes four tries—each attempt to throw the sensors into a tornado more deadly than the next—but Dorothy IV finally flies.

In Twisters (2024), Rav’s Team (Anthony Ramos) operates a four-car fleet named after Dorothy’s fantastical friends: three pickup trucks named The Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow, as well as a van with “Master” gear. These are direct references to The Wizard of Oz, knowing that the sensory project launched by Ravi in ​​the Tornado at the beginning of the film is called… Dorothy!

Indeed, in its opening order, Twisters Introducing Dorothy V, an improved version with modern technology. While we don’t know how Kate’s team got Dorothy V, it’s still an interesting way to pay homage to the original film.

The Dorothy V in the new film is also old and rusty, suggesting that it was built before the events of the standalone sequel. And Javi confirmed this fact: so it’s possible that the device was built by Joe’s old team, but wasn’t used until Kate and her team took it as part of their training. Kate and the others are indeed students at Muskogee State College hoping to receive a research grant. Given that Muskogee State is Joe and Bill’s alma mater and that their experiment was somewhat successful, it is likely that other Dorothys were built…

Lee Isaac Chung Also explained these references. diverse: “I always felt that Kate’s story was similar to Dorothy’s story.“, he explained. “He experiences this tornado, this thing that comes and carries him away, meets all kinds of crazy people like Tyler, and eventually he finds his way back.“

In addition to paying homage to the first film, Twisters That’s why he respects The Wizard of Oz, which will also be a metaphor for Kate’s journey. quite fascinating.

Twisters is currently in a cinema near you.