for a film that doesn’t mention climate change, the latest disaster flick is both nuanced and effective

For decades, the “disaster” film genre has been critically overlooked yet perennially popular.

These movies, which usually depict some kind of global catastrophe, deal with a number of social and ecological issues. But they’ve historically done so in socially conservative ways, veering away from politics.

The latest disaster blockbuster, Twisters, has also omitted any explicit mention of climate change. Some outlets have called this a missed opportunity.

But I’d argue the movie still gets the climate message across in other ways. Director Lee Isaac Chung’s take on the genre updates the old formulaic approach, adapting it – with notable nuance – to suit the current climate crisis.

Disaster movies and the environment

Quite often, disaster movies will feature catastrophic scenarios with tenuous scientific plausibility. Nonetheless, these rich melodramas tap into complex social tensions relating to gender, race, class and environmental and climate issues.

The environment has been a core theme of disaster movies since the 1970s. Films such as The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Towering Inferno (1974) and Earthquake (1974) showed the forces of nature as out-of-control, threatening the advancement of human society.

During the 1990s, natural disaster movies such as Volcano (1997) and the original Twister (1996) came alongside apocalyptic sci-fi spectacles including Independence Day (1996) and Armageddon (1998).

Blockbusters in the 2010s upped the ante yet again with the likes of San Andreas (2015) and Independence Day: Resurgence (2016), in which parts of Earth are literally turned upside down.

The disasters in these films set the stage for contests of human bravery and ingenuity. Macho heroes played by men such as Charlton Heston, Bruce Willis, Will Smith and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (with his equally earth-shattering muscles) emerge to save the citizens from doom and display their mastery of the natural environment.

The less worthy candidates perish spectacularly, like the cowardly property developer in San Andreas who is crushed by a shipping container on the collapsing Golden Gate Bridge.

Since disaster movies are incredibly formulaic, their heroes conform to particular archetypes: they are men, usually white, who are frequently either ex-military or scientists. In this way, disaster movies consolidate the idea that major ecological threats can be overcome with a gung-ho attitude, brute strength and military and scientific power.

How Twisters is different

Twisters joins the disaster movie canon by partly conforming to these norms, but also departs from them in key ways.

The film’s male leads, Tyler (played by Glenn Powell) and Javi (Anthony Ramos), reflect the masculine heroes of previous disaster movies. Tyler is a maverick, tornado-wranglin’ YouTuber and former cowboy. Javi is an ex-military tech entrepreneur backed by a disaster capitalist.

The hero, however, is a young woman marked by traumatic loss. Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) retired from storm chasing after her hubristic early scientific ambition led to the deaths of her friends. But her desire to save the people of Oklahoma (her home state) from increasingly devastating tornadoes pulls her back into the fold with Tyler and Javi.

While Tyler and Javi use scientific equipment, drones and data to predict the appearance of tornadoes, Kate relies on intuitive genius – the film repeatedly shows her gazing perceptively at imposing clouds.

As a character, Kate reflects certain stereotypes about women and the environment, including the notion that women are caregivers. That said, in a genre that is so patently chauvinistic, her inclusion at the heart of Twisters is significant.

She is motivated not by vainglorious self-promotion like Tyler, or monetary gain like Javi’s financier, but by a sincere care for the people and communities she grew up with. The film seems to suggest scientific and technological solutions to environmental problems are futile if they don’t come with genuine human empathy.

Focusing on maternal care also leads the film to point towards climate change, albeit not by name, but still rather overtly. Later in the plot Kate retreats to her mother’s house, where her mother (Maura Tierney), a farmer, attests very clearly to a recent increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events.

Hollywood and climate change: a way forward?

Since the 2000s, disaster movies have been linked in various ways to climate action efforts and awareness campaigns.

The 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth (2006) was partly inspired by producer Laurie David viewing The Day After Tomorrow (2004). Don’t Look Up (2021) – a film about an approaching comet – is widely understood as allegorical of the climate crisis. And the film’s star, Leonardo DiCaprio, is a notable climate activist.

Behind the scenes, various international initiatives are addressing how the theme of climate change can be incorporated into filmmaking. Locally, for instance, Sustainable Screens Australia encourages Australian filmmakers to embed sustainable practices and storytelling.

There’s no shortage of ways through which cinematic storytelling might deal with the climate crisis and related issues.

Twisters director Lee Isaac Chung has spoken about not wanting to make the film “message-oriented”. Instead, he posits that films “should be a reflection of the world”. While criticism of various approaches is valid, reckoning with an issue as significant and severe as climate change will require a full array of approaches.