Twisters’ ending confirms Kate’s formula for diffusing a tornado is a success. Nearly 30 years after the original Twister released in theaters, the new sequel, directed by Lee Isaac Chung from a screenplay by Mark L. Smith, brings audiences back to Oklahoma, this time during a twister outbreak that has gotten more deadly and devastating. Twisters’ reviews have been mostly positive, and the Twister sequel’s cast is a star-studded one. The film’s ending sees an Oklahoma town nearly devastated by a powerful tornado.
While Javi, who quit his job with Storm Par, and Tyler are helping people to safety and shelter, Kate decides to take Tyler’s car in a bid to release the formula she perfected into the tornado to disrupt its path of destruction. Kate’s truck tips over and the button to release the formula jams, but she’s finally able to do it and it helps dissipate the tornado faster, preventing further damage and death. At the end of Twisters, Kate is on her way back to New York when severe winds delay her flight, and she rejoins Tyler and Javi.
Kate Stays In Oklahoma To Partner Up With Tyler & Javi
Kate Changes Her Mind About Flying Out
Kate decides against returning to New York. She was going back, not to her office job, but to pitch her formula and its abilities to someone who’d be willing to invest in it for further research. Having been competitive before, Kate and Javi work together with Tyler and his team to better Kate’s scientific advancements to disrupt incoming tornadoes in the area. In Twisters’ credits scenes, meteorology reports and publications track Kate, Tyler and Javi’s progress as they become the face of meteorology and twister destruction prevention.
By the end, the now business partners have made a lot of headway in their field and continue to improve their research.
While it’s unclear if Kate ever returned to New York, Twisters’ ending confirms her research and the team’s work together continues to progress. Perhaps Tyler’s YouTube channel made their work well-known, and they were able to get money that way. Tyler has millions of subscribers, and his appeal to them is likely heightened, knowing he can help Kate disrupt tornadoes. Kate also becomes the primary subject of Ben’s story, and he continues to follow the storm chasers around. By the end, the now business partners have made a lot of headway in their field and continue to improve their research.
How Kate’s Formula Disrupts Tornadoes Explained
There's A Lot Of Science Involved
Image via Universal Pictures Kate’s formula required the launch of silver iodine into the tornado to produce rain, after which sodium polyacrylate is released to absorb the water (it’s also cooler because of its evaporation), disrupting the twister’s system and essentially cutting off its fuel. This specific formula helps to choke out the tornado, upsetting it and causing it to ultimately disperse.
With Kate's formula, the way scientists and meteorologists interact with tornadoes will be different.
A big part of the reason Kate’s formula didn’t work at the start of Twisters was because it was used on an unanticipated F5 category tornado. But with updated technology and models, Kate was able to better predict how it’d disrupt tornadoes.
Are Tyler & Kate In Love After Twisters?
The Expectation Of An Airport Kiss Was There
After bidding him goodbye, Tyler asks when he’s going to see Kate again. She doesn’t know, but tells him that if he feels it, he should chase it. That’s what he does, heading into the airport to find her before they leave together. While Kate and Tyler don’t kiss — though Twisters had me questioning if they will — the pair flirted with each other throughout the film. Kate and Tyler really seemed to like each other from the start and, with the pair now business partners with Javi, it’s likely they’re growing closer and falling in love.
Despite the lack of physical affection, Tyler and Kate had a connection and Tyler was especially mesmerized by Kate and her ability to track tornadoes. She was clearly intrigued by him as well, and came to rely on him to help. Tyler could have let Kate go to New York, but he didn’t want to; Kate, too, didn’t really want to go back. By the end of Twisters, the two had grown close. If they weren’t falling for each other, Kate wouldn’t have asked Tyler to chase her if he felt something, and he wouldn’t have immediately obliged.
Why Javi Officially Leaves Storm Par At The End Of Twisters
Javi Genuinely Felt Guilty
Image via Universal Pictures Javi felt just as guilty about the deaths of his best friends five years prior, and he primarily joined Storm Par as a misguided way for him to help. It would’ve been hard for him to use updated technology to track twisters if not for Riggs providing Javi and the company a much-needed financial boost. At the end of the day, though, Javi realized he wasn’t really helping people; he was only helping Riggs capitalize on people’s pain. He wasn’t helping prevent or disrupt tornadoes, nor was he aiding the people hurt by the destruction of the natural disaster.
Every Notable Character Who Died In Twisters |
Addy (Kiernan Shipka) |
Jeb (Daryl McCormack) |
Praveen (Nik Dodani) |
Cody (James Paxton) |
Javi leaves Storm Par because he realizes he could be doing a lot more to aid others. Just like he encouraged Kate to storm chase again, Javi reconnected with his own past and desire to help people before making a firm decision to put Storm Par behind him. Javi saw a way out thanks to Kate’s research and use of the formula to dissipate twisters. It made him hopeful that something could still be done to genuinely help, and he could be a part of that. Money for research was different from working for someone who preyed on helpless people.
How Twisters’ Ending Sets Up A Sequel
There's No Word On A Sequel But The Film Was A Huge Success
Twisters’ ending saw Kate, Tyler, and Javi becoming business partners. Together, they found their calling. And while Twisters’ credits scene reveals their continued research towards advancing the disruption of a tornado’s destruction, a sequel could focus on the challenges the trio faces in the field. After all, Twisters established storm chaser influencers like Tyler, who went up against corporate storm chasers like Storm Par, while Kate represented the more traditional research side of things. The three may have merged in some way, but Twisters leaves the door open enough to see where the storm chasing takes the characters next.
What’s more, the sequel’s ending leaves Tyler and Kate’s romantic relationship unconfirmed. A Twisters sequel could follow the duo in the next stage of their relationship - perhaps exploring how they balance a romance with their scientific work. The last time Kate was in a relationship with a research partner, he died chasing tornadoes.
The Twisters sequel could delve into that aspect of her past and what it means for her relationship with Tyler. Kate may have solved how to disrupt tornadoes, but there’s potential for another chapter, especially as there will likely be more deadly tornadoes forming in the future.
The Real Meaning Of Twisters’ Ending
Science Saved Where Greed Harmed
Image via Universal Pictures Twisters’ ending highlights the importance of teamwork when doing scientific research, as well as the importance of research that isn’t tied to corporate and real estate greed. Kate wanted to genuinely help people, and though Tyler was initially more invested in storm chasing for the thrill and attention, he and Javi realized the significance and responsibility of the work on a more grounded level. Twisters acknowledges increasing destructive weather and the urgency to do something about it, as well as how money that isn’t being used for research and aiding people without exploiting them isn’t worth having.
What The Director Said About The Twisters Ending
Lee Isaac Chung Defended Tyler And Kate's Ending
While Kate and Tyler manage to tame the tornadoes and prevent some of the destruction, the real ending of Twisters has been talked about much more than the action-packed climax. The ending finds Tyler dropping Kate off at the airport to head back to New York City. After watching her head off to catch her plane, Tyler has a change of heart and goes after her. The two meet in the airport and are about to share a kiss before a weather warning interrupts and sends them on their next adventure.
This played into the romantic tension between Tyler and Kate that had been a big part of the movie. While they initially didn't see eye-to-eye, Tyler and Kate began to share a strong connection. While most people were expecting this final scene to cement that fact with the two characters kissing, Twisters subverted expectations by denying that. However, Twisters director Lee Isaac Chung defended the choice:
I feel like audiences are in a different place now in terms of wanting a kiss or not wanting a kiss. I actually tried the kiss, and it was very polarizing — and it's not because of their performance of the kiss.
This [no-kiss shot] was the other option that I had filmed on the day, and I got to say, I like it better. I think it's a better ending. And I think that people who want a kiss within it, they can probably assume that these guys will kiss someday. And maybe we can give them privacy for that. In a way, this ending is a means to make sure that we really wrap things up with it in a celebratory, good way.
If it ends on the kiss, then it makes it seem as though that's what Kate's journey was all about, to end up with a kiss. But instead, it's better that it ends with her being able to continue doing what she's doing with a smile on her face.
Indeed, it is easy to see Chung's point of view on the sequence. While audiences might think they want to see Tyler and Kate kiss to bring closure to that storyline, the movie wraps it up in a way that the kiss is not necessary and not having a kiss is more fitting for the characters. These are two people who, regardless of their mutual attraction, would put off their first kiss in order to chase a storm.
A Leak Caused Controversy With The Twisters Ending
Steven Spielberg Played A Role In Cutting Out A Memorable Moment
Director Lee Isaac Chung confirmed that the Twisters ending did film a version of Tyler and Kate's final moments that included the kiss, but that he felt he preferred it without the kiss. Not only did Chung like the scene without the kiss, but it was also suggested by none other than Steven Spielberg, producer of Twisters, that the kiss be omitted.
Unfortunately, the original Twisters cut scene with the kiss was leaked online and many fans expressed the opposite opinion. Seeing the moment when the engaging and entertaining romance between Tyler and Kate gets paid off with the kiss was viewed by many as a crowd-pleasing ending that the audience was denied in the theatrical cut. Not having the kiss works because it is ultimately unnecessary for the moment but the audience seeing the kiss that could have been suddenly makes its absence from Twisters more noticeable.
A follow-up to the 1996 original film Twister, Twisters is a sequel set years after the original, said to be fast-tracked by Steven Spielberg and Mark L. Smith, with Frank Marshal as producer. Little details exist about the film, but Helen Hunt is expected to reprise her role as Jo, with the film likely to pay homage to the late Bill Paxton.
Director Lee Isaac Chung
Release Date July 19, 2024
Runtime 117 Minutes
Studio(s) Universal Pictures , Warner Bros. Pictures , Amblin Entertainment , The Kennedy/Marshall Company
Distributor(s) Universal Pictures , Warner Bros. Pictures
Writers Mark L. Smith , Joseph Kosinski , Michael Crichton , Anne-Marie Martin
English (US) ·