When I was 10 years old, I rode my first “4D ride” at Universal Studios Orlando. Simply titled, “The Simpsons Ride”, riders strap into a cartoonish, garishly colourful Simpsons-themed roller coaster train. However, there are no tracks to be found, riders instead wear 3D glasses and a mini Simpsons episode is projected in front of you, with the train violently shaking in response to Krusty’s horrific new attraction at Krustyland. 4D rides have escaped their containment at theme parks, however.
When I saw viral clips of moviegoers being jostled around in a Cineplex with the new disaster film Twisters playing in front of them, I began investigating. Outrageous claims like “the most fun I’ve had at the cinema in decades” seemed outrageous when I had just watched Longlegs a few days before. The footage of CTE-inducing thrashing in my local movie theatre chain made my cinephile antennas perk right up. Is this really what the cinema has turned to bring in new patrons? A decades old technology found at every trashy Six Flags around the US? The spectre of Martin Scorcese’s warning of “Amusement Park Cinema” flashed in front of my eyes. Now, we literally have amusement park cinema. So I went to see Twisters 4DX, despite my apprehensions and pretensions.
Twisters is par for the course for a disaster flick: Scientific jargon thrown around at lightning speed, smoking hot cowboy turned expert in the field (brought to screen via emerging star Glen Powell), and endless, catastrophic destruction. Daisy Edgar-Jones plays a preeminent Tornado expert, haunted by her days as an amateur Cyclone chaser and enjoys her cushy life in the big city. She’s thrust back into the Tornado-chasing scene by her former amateur tech-expert played by Anthony Ramos of Hamilton fame. Back in her hometown and in the midst of Tornado season, she finds the aforementioned Glen Powell, playing an unhinged, roughneck Twitch streamer who also chases Tornadoes. Seemingly unable to escape environmental disaster films, How to Blow Up a Pipeline star Sasha Lane is also there (who I’ve included as that was the first film I ever saw at TIFF).
The film throws you into the action immediately, and the sounds of jet-powered fans and turbines filled the cinema, almost overpowering the audio from the film. Wind blowing in line with the growing Tornado on screen, there is also an opt-in option for water effects, which I graciously turned off as I had just been soaked from head to toe by the third squall Toronto had been hit within a week (fitting?). Our seats began to jostle as promised, and I was shocked that there weren’t seatbelts as I had to hold onto my cup holders. When the action died down, the entire cinema burst into nervous and surprised laughter. I think we were all expecting something a lot tamer, as previous theatre gimmicks have proved to be rather lackluster (the hit 3D film of last year, Avatar 2, gave me motion sickness and forever cemented my hatred for that particular experience). There are two main elements the 4DX effect feeds off of throughout the film: the titular Tornadoes and off road driving. You’re pretty much always embedded in the effects of the motion coaster experience throughout the entirety of Twisters’ 123 minute runtime, as there aren’t many scenes that stray from the aforementioned categories.
I’m left wondering if Twisters could stand on its own wind-powered legs without support from 4DX technology. I certainly don’t see myself rewatching Twisters outside of the cinema unless I’m doing a Glen Powell completionist-rewatch. That’s not to say it was a bad film, in fact, Twisters avoids many disaster tropes and keeps things fresh. The stakes at play during the film are relatively localized, which actually helps create an environment where characters feel personally responsible for the people they’re trying to save. Unlike other disaster movies where the destruction is global, and the hero requires godlike levels of technology to stop the world from exploding, Twisters is somewhat level headed and only mildly stupid with its pseudoscience (which is, I think, done ironically rather than earnestly). Not to mention, the chemistry between the two leads is fantastic, and the rivalry is immediately palpable despite the characters having been separated in the story for years, or having just met amidst the chaos of the Tornado season. A few too many “swag rock” songs makes the soundtrack feel unbelievably commercial and forgettable however, along with hilariously obvious Ram product placement to rival the literal car commercial stuffed between the scenes of Barbie.
4DX was a welcome shakeup to the disaster genre, adding to the high-octane action of Twisters in an invasive but enjoyable way. Unclear whether the film could survive without 4DX makes me question if Scorcese was right, and whether I should go back and log The Simpsons Ride or the Shrek Ride to my Letterboxd account (which you can follow here).
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