Twisters

Twisters looks—and sounds—as squarely focused on its subject matter as the original 1996 blockbuster hit, albeit this time of course incorporating the impact of climate change. Throughout the trailer, sound design comes to the fore, with what one might typically consider music taking a back seat to the proceedings.

The first seventeen seconds of the trailer are purely driven by sound effects—clearly, the editors want you to feel totally immersed in the moment of driving through a tornado. After an audiovisual blackout, at 0:18 we hear an entirely different soundscape, with a lo-fi voice over a radio and muffled sounds; even though the camera is outside the vehicle, it’s apparent the sound is from the vantage point of a crash victim inside. This doesn’t last long, however, as the camera cuts to the survivors running outside.

At 0:27 we get a repeated, even more pronounced audiovisual blackout, and as the scene returns again at 0:29 we get our first musical instrument—banging, insistent percussion serving to emphasize the fury of the storm. At 0:31 we get the title card for the date and a blaring siren as the percussion settles into a steady and militant rhythm. As of 0:45 there’s nothing resembling melody (let alone harmony)—it’s all epic percussion and blaring sirens. Notice how at 0:55 there’s the faintest chord held by upper strings as the characters on screen witness the tornado before devolving again into noise.

At 1:08 we get our first melodic motif in an oscillating melodic line, sounding a bit detuned at the end. It’s faint and relatively subtle, but definite—even then, the percussion takes the forefront of the arrangement.

Clearly, as in the trailer for the original, the star here is the sound design. If anything, the dearth of melodic or harmonic material serves to underscore the all-consuming experience of survival in the heart of a tornado—multiple, even.

Twisters storms into theatres July 19th.

— Curtis Perry