Lots of people come to Las Vegas for this sort of thing, but I had it done for free. I’m talking about stepping into the new theatrical standee for Universal’s upcoming film, Twisters. It’s a giant tube that you can stand in, lock the door, flip a switch, and then air blows all over you as if you are standing in a tornado.
The tube is on display at CinemaCon 2024 in Las Vegas, NV, a convention where movie and technology studios woo theater owners to show their movies or use their products. Later this evening, Warner Bros. will be dropping the first trailer for Joker 2 at the event. Later this week, Disney will surely show us new footage from Deadpool and Wolverine. And, yes, Universal will also unveil more about Twisters, the sequel to the 1996 hit starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt.
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Which brings us back to the tube. Let’s, first, just let a video do most of the talking. Thanks to my friend Umberto from The Wrap for the assist.
As you can see, you get in the heavy-duty tube, a latch locks you in, and then you flip what’s basically a light switch. That’s when the fun begins. Or, to be more specific, a little fun. The air blows towards your back, giving what I can imagine is barely a hint of what an actual twister would feel like. It’s more like standing in front of a really strong, large hand dryer. It blew up my shirt a bit. If I had long hair, that would’ve whipped around. And then, 10 seconds later, it’s over.
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And yet, that Universal actually gives a movie fan a chance to have wind whip around them in such a controlled environment is both clever and fun. The whole thing provides a good short clip for social media. It’s also kind of a wink back at a very memorable scene from the original.
Did the Twisters tube make me want to see the movie? Not really. But I’ve never been blown for a movie before, so that’s something.
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Twisters, directed by Lee Isaac Chung and starring Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, and Anthony Ramos, opens July 19.
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