TwitView: Cool FX! Lukewarm characters. Boom! C*
Into the Storm deals with a Big Bad tornado, what would be called an EF-5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale (which in and of itself is fascinating stuff) Originally called a “Category 6” tornado film — a wording snafu as the Fujita scale goes from 0-5, making the sixth category E-5 — other titles were bandied about ‘til Into the Storm stuck. Don’t worry though, there’s plenty of damage and destruction in this film. But Twister still stands as the #1 tornado film, thanks to it’s deeper look into the lives and motivations of it’s characters. Those things felt tacked on and hollow in Into the Storm.
Welcome to Kansas. Home of Dorothy, sunflowers and badass tornados. Into the Storm focuses on that last one, in case you haven’t seen the “plane-nado” trailer that’s been in heavy rotation of late. But this film has no trailer park, but instead focuses on how the middle class struggles with having no cell phone reception…and no roof over their heads. Okay, there are a few yahoos here for comic relief, but mostly this deals with two groups; a local kid and his brother prepping for the year’s HS graduation ceremony that they’re filming for their Vice Principal dad, and the scientist stormchasers that are looking to make a ton of money documentary of a superstorm.
The elder brother Donnie (Max Deacon) decides to ditch his filming responsibilities and instead help his crush Kaitlyn (Alycia Debnam Carey) re-film her summer eco-internship film, which got corrupted because technology sucks. So they head out to the abandoned, decrepit old paper mine to get footage. What could go wrong? Younger bro Trey (Nathan Kress) sticks with dad (Richard Armitage, taller and less hairy than he is in The Hobbit). Dad tries to talk the Principal out of holding the graduation ceremonies outside; looks like there’s a storm coming. But the Principal poo-poos him. What could go wrong? Meanwhile, storm-nerds Allison, Pete, Daryl, Jacob (Sarah Wayne Callies, Matt Walsh, Arlen Escarpeta and Jeremy Sumpter) desperately try to find a storm before their financial backing gets pulled. When Allison sees that a storm is building in Silverton Kansas, which is where the HS graduation/abandoned paper mill happen to be. But don’t worry, their TARDIS Titus tank of a car can lock down in winds up to 170 MPH; only E-5 tornados go faster than that. What could go wrong? Yop, you bet’cha.
