Because every generation deserves their own “Twister.”
Somewhere today, Jan De Bont is sitting in front of YouTube, pressing “play” over and over again and saying to himself, “Look at what they did.” I remember talking to producer Todd Garner not long before he left to go start work on this film, and he was giddy about what they were planning to do. Looking at this first trailer, it's obvious that they have spent their time and money planning massive set pieces in which tornadoes are pushed to a place that nature's never subjected us to, and if you're a fan of chaos and destruction, “Into The Storm” is the summer movie for you.
It makes perfect sense to hire Steven Quale as director. After all, directing a “Final Destination” movie is basically an exercise in juggling mayhem. The film is a found-footage movie, and while I'm tired of that device in general, it makes a certain sense here.
Hasn't YouTube ushered in a whole new world of disaster videos? I've seen some genuinely crazy nature footage thanks to amateur photographers who were in the right place at the right time, although it feels wrong to phrase it that way. Thanks to reality, you can't just say, “Well, wouldn't that character put the camera down at some point?” We've seen repeatedly that the answer to that question is “Nope, probably not.”
As cameras get smaller and more durable, and as they are embedded into every other type of device that we use all the time, people are shooting everything, and this film is built on the conceit that one town in one day gets hammered by one tornado after another, with storm trackers descending on the town trying to get the most amazing footage possible. Richard Armitage, Sarah Wayne Callies, and Matt Walsh head the ensemble cast, and many of Quale's collaborators from “Final Destination 5” are back behind the camera.
It's an effective trailer, and that crazy money shot at the end of full-sized jets being lifted off of an airport runaway and all thrown together is completely bananas. If the film can offer thrills of that magnitude al the way through, it could be a big crazy late-summer hit for New Line. We'll see.
“Into The Storm” sweeps into theaters on August 8, 2014.