“Twisters” doesn't feature any characters from the first film, but one main plot point remains exactly the same – the innocents living in Tornado Alley still have no early warning system to give them advance notice when a devastating tornado is approaching, and it's up to our main characters to rush headlong into danger so that their research can one day be used to save as many lives as possible. Though the sequel mostly ignores this and treats it as a sure thing, it seems a little odd when you stop to think about it. In nearly thirty years of scientific advancement, we've come a long way in realizing that the world is a little better than the rest of the world. In fact Are we better off than we were in 1996?
As it happens, putting climate change at the forefront of the film would have easily solved this little puzzle. As various characters talk about upcoming “once in a generation” tornadoes and how the destruction they cause is worse than ever before (a key aspect of the film's opening scene is that Daisy Edgar-Jones' Kate Carter greatly underestimates the power of the tornado, which leads directly to the tragedy), it becomes almost distracting that no one ever addresses the elephant in the room. Just as a warming planet is correlated with more powerful and more frequent storms, There is growing evidence that climate change is altering tornado behaviourEven a line of dialogue explaining how tornadoes have become more deadly over the last few decades due to humanity's actions and how our usual methods of detecting tornadoes have become outdated (or completely useless) could have fixed a potential plot flaw, while also raising the stakes for the action.
Without acknowledging this, it is clearly stated in “Twisters” that Joe and Bill's accomplishments in “Twister” were in vain.
