Ram Trucks Will Go for Another Spin in ‘Twisters’ Sequel

A summer of vehicular mayhem approaches, but recapturing the chemistry of the original film’s leads will require more than CGI.

The 1996 disaster movie Twister was easily one of the biggest box office hits of the mid 1990s, arriving just before a duo of doomsday asteroid flicks and Tommy Lee Jones’ Volcano.

The film also opened during an incredibly busy year for big movies that included some all-time explosion-filled Hall of Famers like Independence Day, Mission Impossible, and The Rock all opening within weeks of each other. And somehow, Twister managed to walk out of 1996 in second place at the box office, beaten only by Will Smith’s charming bravado, Bill Pullman’s July 4th speech as US President, and plenty of miniature buildings getting zapped.

Almost 30 years later, it seems almost implausible that a single summer movie season could serve up so many hits just weeks apart.

The original Twister debuted just as CGI was getting vaguely close to replicating a tornado convincingly, but the on-screen chemistry between Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton smoothed over some of the technical limitations of the time.

Twister gave us a deliciously smug Cary Elwes playing the nemesis Jonas, while Alan Ruck’s Rabbit plotted the quickest course through cornfields. Philip Seymour Hoffman also had a few memorable moments as Dusty.

It also starred a red 1995 Dodge Ram, whose trip up the stairs of a house being flipped by a tornado became perhaps the disaster film moment of the decade. That Dodge Ram’s exact spec was also difficult to pin down because the movie, ahem, had some continuity issues when it came to the hero trucks.

Now that everything from millennials’ childhoods is either getting a reboot or a sequel, it is finally the turn of Twister. And if the trailer is any indication, automotive mayhem will be turned up a few notches.

The four-wheeled star this time around will be a Ram truck once again, but already tricked out with a lot of storm chaser equipment including an external roll cage and drills that will attach it to the ground. Or at least it works like that in the Twister Cinematic Universe (TCU).

The trailer gives away a surprisingly big chunk of the sequel’s setup, including the two leads who seem very different yet will obviously fall for each other after a period of initial antagonism—and will be forced to survive more than one tornado in proximity to each other.

As for us, we would not have guessed that a dually would be the main truck of the film, given that things like the Ram Rebel exist, but we’re willing to give the movie a chance to explain itself.

A Ram 1500 TRX will also be in the film along with even more Rams, we’re sure.

Dorothy will also make an appearance, or rather the concept’s descendant that launched hundreds of tiny sensor spheres into the tornado in the first film. If the trailer is any indication, the latest tech deployed by the storm chasers will be attempting more than research of a tornado—they will try to disrupt it.

We’ve got our popcorn ready for Twisters to serve up our second major helping of vehicular mayhem after the release of Furiosa later this month.

Twisters opens July 19, 2024.