The original Twister from 1996 is one of the best Blockbusters of all time. It’s a Universal Studios ride of a movie that’s filled with great performances, genuine heart, and so much sex appeal. Legacy sequels are often bad, but with the director of Minari behind the camera and a cast with a deep bench, I was very excited for Twisters.

Rather than a mindless good time at the movies, I found this sequel to be quite moving and even upsetting. During horror movies, my girlfriend is usually the one squeezing my hand as we push her limits, but this time I was squeezing hers. Natural disasters on-screen really upset me! And Twisters doesn’t shy away from portraying the grief and genuine fear these disasters wrought. It also asks questions about how we move past youthful idealism, how we continue to fight for a better world after setbacks, and how we work toward our big picture goals without losing day-to-day humanity. My cold Capricorn heart does not usually cry in movies and I was sobbing! To be fair, did you know our world is very challenging and a lot of people are suffering and our climate crisis is making natural disasters more frequent without the government intervention needed to either prevent this increase or take care of people after?

Anyway, all these big feelings didn’t mean the movie wasn’t also fun. Without even a kiss, Twisters was not as horny as the original. I was still horny. No, not for our central love interests — Challengers inspired me to embrace my bisexuality but Glen Powell still doesn’t do it for me, Normal People endeared me to Daisy Edgar-Jones but not in that way — I’m talking, of course, about Sasha Lane and Katy O’Brian.

I’ve been a fan of Sasha Lane since American Honey. The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Hearts Beat Loud, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, and her coming out as queer only solidified my crush — talent crush and otherwise. Meanwhile, Katy O’Brian is a new fave due to a movie you may have heard about and we may have written about a few times titled Love Lies Bleeding. Both actors play members of Glen Powell’s ragtag group of tornado wranglers. Sasha Lane is Lily, the drone expert, and O’Brian is Dani, the… well, I’m not sure her official title, but I think it’s Hot Masc In Cowboy Hat.

Neither character has their own arc nor even scenes where they’re the focus per se, but they are very charming and enhance every scene they’re in. They also hint at the reveal that Glen Powell’s cocky asshole is actually just an ethical sweetheart with bravado. I’m not saying straight guys with two dyke friends can’t still be assholes, but, hey, it’s at least a green flag.

While I was trying not to rip my girlfriend’s hand off in panic as the tornadoes were swirling around threatening the lives of everyone on-screen, my mind did start to wander about Lily and Dani. Have they hooked up? Are they just friends? Are they just friends who hooked up once and then decided it was only due to the adrenaline rush of surviving disaster? How often do they frequent the two remaining lesbian bars in Oklahoma?

Maybe a few years ago I would’ve begged for a Twist3rs focusing on these two. But I am no longer filled with the youthful idealism of someone who thinks Hollywood would put a hundred million dollars behind a couple of storm-chasing queers. Instead, I’ll ask the queer community to do their thing: Who will be the first to write Twisters fanfic about Lily and Dani? I have no plans to do it formally, but I have started thinking up scenarios. It just goes to show, even bare minimum, surface level queer inclusion can be a lot of fun with the right performers.

I hope Lane and O’Brian got to cash some big checks so they can afford to do more great work in very gay indies. And I hope Lily and Dani are somewhere in our imaginations having a post-tornado hangout at Frankie’s.

Twisters is now playing in theatres.

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