Somejack - Jack Of Some Trades

We make it all this way, so far out into the darkness…why couldn’t we have brought more light? THE EXPANSE • 1.01 ’Dulcinea’

Twister (1996) is the greatest ensemble action movie of all time

 I know that is a very strong point to try and make in the age of superhero team-ups, but I’m right and I should say so. Before I rant, it is worth noting that the movie does suffer from a real diversity problem, but that is a topic complicated enough to deserve a second post.

Now, how in Bill Paxton’s good name do I intend to defend this point? Simply put, there are three scenes in this movie that give it more earnest heart and charm than any other ensemble movie in the last few years.

(I’m gonna cut it here so that I don’t clog up your dashboard)

1. Lunch with Aunt Meg. This is everything the farmhouse scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron could have been. This is ten people showing up unannounced at the Team Mom’s house and her welcoming them in because they are all her kids and they need to eat. This is the high school band raiding a Waffle House after a concert or the monthly dart night with the office. There is constant crosstalk at the dinner table, Aunt Meg herself vanishes into the team like something between an honorary member and a de facto leader. In these 7 minutes we get character development for each of the two main leads, we get humor, and we get the setup for one of the most tense action scenes of the entire movie when Meg’s house comes down around her later, and the entire goddamn team does not hesitate to run in after her.

2. F4 at the Drive-In. This scene happens right after the bombshell break between acts 2 and 3. Bill is still in love with Jo, everybody knows, and the narrative weight of that punch is carried in the general silence from the whole cast. There are probably four lines spoken in the setup before the tornado arrives, and three of them are between Jo and a waitress. The cast is scattered and everyone perfectly nails the physical cues of tension and anxiety. Then the tornado hits.

In a lesser movie (I’m looking at you, every Fast and Furious movie ever made), this would be a breaking point where the team is finally pushed to the limit and breaks apart, different groups going different ways only to collide again gloriously in the finale. But no, not here. The team sees imminent danger, a danger they are trained to handle, and they snap back into action like only the best of the best. They go from dazed and disoriented to high-functioning team under pressure like only a well-oiled and loving group can.

3. Where’s Jo? That’s right, the first scene of the entire team together is the real winner here. There is no tension here, there are no stakes. This is the team in it’s natural state: working together. We see the map brothers bantering like my college roommate and I over laundry detergent. We see people fixing equipment and relaxing in the sun, giving advice and shouting comments casually back and forth. The repeated “Bill’s back!” motif doesn’t feel artificial, it feels like welcoming back a friend you haven’t seen in ages. All of this culminates in the big break, with none other than Patty Haynes giving the movie’s only meteorologically accurate line (”we’ve got supercells forming up the dryline!”) before the team snaps into action, and we’re off.

all scott bakula did was fuck around on this show huh