Twisters

Last week in Chicago, it was 72 degrees. Walking home from work with a winter coat, it was hot. Everyone was holding their coats on the train platform, generally perplexed. It’s the end of February. Why is it warm out?

Later that night, as I waltzed from Equinox to Cilantro Taco Grill, the atmosphere said hello with some thunder rumbles. And perhaps a flash of light. Blue skies and warmth hugged us earlier in the day, and although you couldn’t see the sky later that evening, you felt and heard the storm a brewing. It warranted a jog back with 3 tacos, no sides, to my building. Only ten minutes later, it was hailing. Absolutely pouring.

So I naturally checked the weather for the evening and next day given there were some texts about a tornado. It was 72 that afternoon. The low for the evening was 26. I texted my cousins and we had the following brief exchange.

Michael to Sara and Jonathan:

‘Also wow. 72 high today

26 low tonight

The world is getting extreme.’

Sara to Michael and Jonathan:

‘I get that something is wrong but I find it to also be a fun adventure.’

Looking back now, given people move too fast when texting, I see that significant analysis could both go into that weather report and Sara’s response. Chicago is not a desert where 30-degree shifts are par for the course. Extreme was the right adjective.

That set the tone for the rest of the week, straight through walking into AMC Theaters Friday night for Dune 2. The theater was prepared for a good movie. It was people who could have been at dinner or getting fancy drinks at a place with notoriety. Instead, they were in their movie gear, with their friends, excited for an event.

The theater was too loud. It may have been because our seats were the closest to the loudest speaker, or it could have been that the sound technicians decided to let all hell break loose given it’s Dune 2 and there are no rules. My ears were plugged by my fingers for half the movie. My eyes were only covered for a matter of minutes that could be counted in seconds.

I watched Dune on the couch. It was a great movie. It left you wanting more. And I’m not going to say Dune 2 wasn’t a good movie – it was just intensely intense. It wasn’t just a tiger, it was a male hunter looking for its first kill.

I wasn’t alone in these thoughts. My friend Steven who tagged along agreed that it was a little ‘over the top’ while I exclaimed on the way out of the theater, loudly enough so other theatergoers could hear – “Okay, do you mind if I go spend several minutes in heaven; I would like to spend some time there.” I did an 180-degree swivel and could see at least one woman smiling in agreement.

Whether or not people want to agree, you can feel a dynamic pulse out there. Vices are legal – pot shops are everywhere and young people are addicted to online gambling, a significantly new phenomenon that only five years ago was such an easy no-no. Now it’s a promotional constant thread by some of the biggest brand aware companies out there with a disclaimer for those who have a gambling problem. I’m not a politics person, but oh my god. The Trump vs. Biden rematch? That might even be more extreme than 72 degrees, into a tornado warning, into hail, into 26 degrees for a coastal Midwestern city.

I totally forgot about the title of this post. The intensity of Dune 2 started in the previews. There was one scary movie trailer that truly was so mysteriously frightening I had to look away (all minutes and seconds of that preview except for the first ten). Then there was another preview. And then, Twisters.

We all remember the movie Twister right? Dennis Quaid? Helen Hunt? A love story twisted up in chasing tornados in the Midwest. True shots of great plains; machines that actually looked realistic for gauging tornado speeds and specs, and a tornado crew that fit the bill for a tornado crew. Who doesn’t love Dennis Quaid in boots and a denim jacket.

This trailer featured that new hot blond guy from Top Gun. And who is in that movie with that new hot blonde girl whose name is an alliteration and has two S’s. It could be Sydney Sweeney. So they basically just said this guy is good looking – let’s go have him chase tornadoes.

This is a side note, but the obsession with looks is becoming so uncomfortable that rather than producers zooming in on fans during games, they are magnifying in on the best looking people in the building. Just stop. Do you realize it makes the viewers uncomfortable. Don’t zoom in on a cheerleader for ten seconds while the commentators are talking about the game. Leave the Zoom world behind.

So back to the trailer. In the movie Twister, they chased a couple tornadoes here and there. Some were big, some were medium and chaseable and changed gears in an instant to become dangerous. But the plot was there. And the tornadoes were there. In this trailer, the tornadoes looked like CGI generated typhoons. 2 at a time. 3 at a time. 4 converging on the one truck with the hot blonde guy. It feels like they are trying to create snappable moments, not one good movie. And then, after all the buildup of the Sexnado, they flash the title, one letter at a time.

T W I S T E R … DELAY… S

And you know what, I f***ing loved the delay. And the title. I bought it. But the trailer? Absolute train wreck of the extremes we are reaching for, living through, and fighting on a day-to-day basis. People are meaner, bolder, more disrespectful. The moral code has absolutely left the building. I feel it. And I worry about it. And I see some others writing about it. Much better than me and published in the Atlantic.

But let me tell you, there has been a MAJOR shift in the past five years. There are no rules and everyone always has their phone out and camera on. And for what?