Twisters

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Short takes

Not suitable under 13; parental guidance to 13 (scary scenes, themes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Twisters
  • a review of Twisters completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 16 July 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 13 Not suitable due to scary scenes and themes.
Children aged 13 Parental guidance recommended due to scary scenes and themes.
Children aged 14 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Twisters
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Sense of peril
Length: 122 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones) studied tornados as a college student and tried to devise a method to disrupt their power and intensity by inserting chemicals inside. Unfortunately, while testing her hypothesis, three of her college friends perished. After that, Kate moved to New York to study storm patterns on safer screens. Five years on, however, Kate is contacted by Javi (Anthony Ramos), another former college student, who persuades her to come back to the field in Oklahoma, to test out his groundbreaking research in tracking tornados with more sophisticated equipment.

Kate soon discovers that Javi and his ‘STORM PAR’ crew are in competition with the ‘Tornado Wranglers’, headed by Tyler (Glen Powell) and his more reckless crew. Tyler has a strong following on social media and is fearless in the face of danger. As the tornado season intensifies, the chasers run into several tornados and are often found fighting for their lives. Kate comes to realise that STORM PAR has unethical reasons for its research and that not all is as she was led to believe.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Tornados; Natural disasters.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • The violence of the tornados is quite intense, with objects flying and hitting cars, cracking windscreens, debris swirling and towns completely destroyed.
  • Cars are badly affected by the strength of the tornados, forcing them off the road and crashing through fences. A trailer tips over at one point.
  • A man gets badly hit by a horse that is running in panic.
  • People are evacuating a rodeo arena when a tornado smashes into the stands and smashes nearby windows.
  • A tornado causes a gasworks plant to go up in flames with a loud explosion.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Many scary scenes of severe storms, with very dark skies, lightning and heavy rain.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Kate and her boyfriend are sheltering under a bridge, when he is sucked up by the tornado.
  • Scenes of devastation, with houses completely destroyed, cars on their roofs and distraught people.
  • Tyler gets his leg trapped under a tram rail.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Several people are sucked up into tornados and lose their lives.
  • Kate is hit by flying metal and has a long, bleeding gash on her leg.
  • Kate screams when she sees her friends being swept up in the tornado.
  • Kate dreams her boyfriend is in bed with her, but then wakes up with a start and realises he’s not there.
  • People running in panic when a tornado hits, not knowing where to go.
  • Kate hides in another tornado, sheltering a mother and her child. One of the group is taken by the storm and a car smashes to the ground in front of them.
  • People try to shelter in a movie theatre but the roof starts to collapse and the screen opens up to the outside. Many people are injured.
  • Tyler holds onto a girl who is being sucked into the tornado.
  • Kate drives by herself into a tornado to try and disrupt it. She is seen trapped in an upside-down car and covered in blood.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • iPhone.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Kate kisses her boyfriend.
  • Kate dreams about her boyfriend being in bed with her.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • There is some drinking, mainly beer out of bottles at various venues.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Holy shit
  • For God’s sake
  • Screwed up
  • What the hell?
  • Arse
  • Shithole
  • Oh God
  • Damn.

In a nutshell

Twisters is a thrilling adventure movie about people who chase tornados for scientific research or just for fun. The destruction caused by the intense power of a tornado is devastating and several people lose their lives. The film is therefore not suitable for under 13’s and parental guidance is recommended for 13-year-olds. It is more suited for older teens and adults.

The main messages from this movie are that helping to protect people from natural disasters is a good reason to study tornados and to try and lessen the impact of their destruction.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Scientific research
  • Bravery
  • Respect for nature.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • The dangers involved in trying to tame the forces of nature.
  • Being a good person is more important than being a social media influencer.