Lee Isaac Chung, director of the upcoming blockbuster Twisters, a sequel to the 1990s smash hit Twister, said his film will avoid mentioning climate change because movies should not “preach a message.”
Twisters, which stars Glen Powell and has an 84 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, has been taking heat from some segments of the online left for being a movie about tornadoes without ever mentioning climate change. As The Hollywood Reporter (THR) noted:
THR lamented that perhaps Twisters should have at least contained a throwaway line about “global warming” to raise awareness about the issue, but Lee Isaac Chung believes otherwise.The one thing Twisters doesn’t have: A reference to climate change.
This is rather surprising. The possible impact of climate change on tornadoes is complicated and still being figured out, but scientists seem to agree tornado patterns are changing (with more tornadoes happening on the same days and more tornadoes happening outside of Tornado Alley, even if the number of tornadoes overall is unchanged). And, in any case, the American Red Cross recent told ABC News that “the climate crisis is forcing the American Red Cross to respond to nearly twice as many large disasters as we did a decade ago.”
“I just wanted to make sure that with the movie, we don’t ever feel like it is putting forward any message,” Chung told CNN. “I just don’t feel like films are meant to be message-oriented.”
Chung did say that the movie does not shy away from mentioning a “change” of some sorts in weather patterns. For instance, the movie has one scene where actress Maura Tierney, who plays a local farmer, says off-hand that storms and floods have been more frequent in the area without ever bringing up the big CC buzzword.
“I think what we are doing is showing the reality of what’s happening on the ground … we don’t shy away from saying that things are changing,” said Chung. “I wanted to make sure that we are never creating a feeling that we’re preaching a message, because that’s certainly not what I think cinema should be about. I think it should be a reflection of the world.”
Paul Roland Bois directed the award-winning Christian tech thriller, EXEMPLUM, which has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critic rating and can be viewed for FREE on YouTube or Tubi. “Better than Killers of the Flower Moon,” wrote Mark Judge. “You haven’t seen a story like this before,” wrote Christian Toto. A high-quality, ad-free rental can also be streamed on Google Play, Vimeo on Demand, or YouTube Movies. Follow him on X @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.
