The trailer for the remake of “Twisters” dropped Sunday during the Super Bowl, and it proves that the weather is way more interesting than most people give it credit for.
No one asked for a remake of the Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton 1996 classic “Twisters,” but we’ve got one anyway. And the trailer doesn’t make it look totally terrible. The story is apparently a “current-day chapter” of the original, and stars everyone’s current heartthrob, Glen Powell.
It starts in the thick of it, a group of storm chasers dealing with an absolutely massive (if totally scientifically ridiculous) “twister” (tornado). Things only get more crazy as the trailer progresses, but I have the strangest feeling this movie could reignite an entire generation’s interest in meteorology. And you might think that’s boring, but it’s way more important than you might realize.
We’re in a moment of scientific revolution. No one is talking about it, but it’s happening. Ideas and paradigms within all areas of academic and scientific exploration we’ve held for decades are being questioned. And the gatekeepers of Big Science are trying to stop seemingly all new discoveries — especially those that upend the current narrative — from becoming part of the mainstream.
The ignorance of said gatekeepers is nothing new. Oligarchs of so-called intellect have shouted down good ideas since the dawn of history. But the anarchy of revolutionary explorers is slowly but surely changing the status quo. And when it comes to weather, there might not be anything more important than reassessing our relationship with the natural world. (RELATED: A 27,000-Year-Old Pyramid Is Causing Much Debate For Big Archaeology)
Take, for example, Al Gore’s waffling in “An Inconvenient Truth” about how our last ice age (glacial maximum) ended through natural cycles, and how we might inadvertently cause another one to start. Well, it turns out an asteroid (maybe multiple) may have ended our last cold snap, and there is seemingly nonstop direct and proxy data supporting this new line of thinking.
Similarly, the human species in North America does not have a grip on shorter-frame weather events. And most of our infrastructure, including our goods and foods supply chain, is at its mercy. Just look at what happened in California over the last two years: back-to-back extreme weather events that could’ve threatened America’s ability to feed itself.
California was in a drought just a few years ago, which was its own type of threat. So, how do we break through the gatekeepers of modern science and reshape our understanding of the natural world in a more meaningful way? By inspiring the next generation, of course! (RELATED: ‘Expect Disruptions To Daily Life’: Hellishly Massive Storm System To Blanket US)
My hope is that millions of children head out to see “Twisters” in the theaters. It doesn’t even have to be a good movie. It just has to have great action and cause enough of an adrenaline rush to inspire a handful of kids to pursue storm chasing and the science of meteorology in their career. It might take a decade, or two, or maybe three, but I guarantee kids who first found their love of weather within movies like this will change the nature of the game in academic and scientific research.
From their passion will come new ideas, new means of reinventing how humans interact and understanding the natural world. And it can’t come soon enough.