Summary
Twistersleaves out the stars of the original 1996 movie, but one detail teases what happened to Helen Hunt’s Jo and Bill Paxton’s Bill afterTwister. The sequel movie, released in 2024, picks up decades after the events of the first film and recenters the story around a new group of characters. Bill Paxton andHelen Hunt not returning forTwisters, albeit for very different reasons, means that the movie left significant questions about Jo and Bill’s fate after they survived an F5 tornado and finally got the Dorothy technology to work.
While this is mostly a standalone sequel to the original movie, there are still plenty ofTwistersEaster eggs and referencesto the original for audiences to catch. One of the most direct connections comes in the earliest portions of the film.Kate’s team has Dorothy V inTwistersas they test her experimental formula to tame tornadoes. Seeing the familiar tornado machine seems like just a fun callback to the original movie at first. However, its presence is actually a major clue to Jo and Bill’s life afterTwister.
How Dorothy Really Works In Twister
The device at the center of the action in the 1996 disaster-action classic Twister sounds scientifically plausible, but how did it actually work?
Dorothy V’s Existence Hints At Jo & Bill’s Success After Twister
Their Experiments Continued
The fact that Dorothy V exists duringTwisters' opening scenesuggests that Jo and Bill went on to find some success after Oklahoma’s devastating tornadoes from 1996.Twister’s ending is where they finally managed to make the device work, which was a major development for the scientific community. Bill designed the Dorothy devices to get better readings of tornado activity so there is more data on how they work, with the hope being that they could make warnings happen 15 minutes before a tornado begins.
The original Twister used Dorothy 1 through Dorothy IV
Once Dorothy finally worked during the F5 tornado, Jo and Bill began talking about the future, including getting grants, finding a bigger lab, and starting to analyze the data. Since another movie about the rekindled couple did not happen, whether they achieved these dreams was unclear.The presence of Dorothy V inTwistersindicates that Jo and Bill did continue their researchand built the fifth iteration of Dorothy. This provides a minor glimpse into their lives after surviving the tornado.
Why Twisters Doesn’t Fully Explain Jo & Bill’s Life After The Original
This Wasn’t Their Story
Dorothy V’s creation is the only updateTwistersprovides about Jo and Bill’s lives, with the movie otherwise opting to ignore the franchise’s original leads. Bill Paxton’s tragic passing in 2017 ruled out the chances of seeing Bill again in the sequel. Without him, Helen Hunt was also left out, potentially because this would only raise more questions about Bill’s status. This helpedTwisterskeep its focus on the new characters: Diasy Edgar-Jones' Kate, Glen Powell’s Tyler, and Anthony Ramos' Javi. Since they are not directly connected to Jo or Bill, updates on their lives were not natural to include.
It would have been possible for the sequel to include some off-hand remarks about Oklahoma’s previous well-known storm chasers and how they paved the way for the technology and science on display. But those potential connections might have felt cheap to audiences and only remind them further of Jo and Bill’s absences. Director Lee Isaac Chung did explainwhy Helen Hunt isn’t inTwisters. He did not like the idea of bringing Jo Harding back in any role that did not include her being an active storm chaser, so she was left out entirely.
I Know The Perfect Way For Helen Hunt To Return For Twisters 2
Helen Hunt’s Jo Harding doesn’t appear in Twisters, but the film does feature a perfect setup for her to return in a potential Twisters 2.
Twisters' Dorothy Connection Is Good For Jo’s Franchise Future
Jo & Kate Could Have A History
Twisters' connection to Jo and Bill through Dorothy V could be a good sign of what is to come, though. There could be many other versions of Dorothy that Jo and Bill created and lent to aspiring scientists like Kate.It is possible that Kate met Jo in the pastwhen it came time to use Dorothy V for her attempt to get a grant for her research. Although Kate ultimately loses Dorothy V, the success of her new tornado-taming formula could help bring the two back together.
Twisters' endingincludes Kate about to go to New York to try and get grant approval for her research. There is a chance thatJo could board Kate’s new projectto help fulfill her life-long desire to help people be safer from tornadoes. This could mean that Helen Hunt will return as Jo in aTwisterssequel to join Kate, Tyler, and Javi in their partnership. Putting her back in the field would be the best way to bring Jo back, especially if it meant working alongside the new cast of characters.
