Yahoo Movies The Twisters kiss backlash shows viewers want grand Hollywood romance
Twisters dominated the box office last weekend, but fans were disappointed that a kiss between Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones didn't make the cut.
Note: This article contains spoilers for Twisters and the TV series The Acolyte.
Twisters is in the process of establishing itself as one of the biggest box office hits of the summer, with a $123m (£95m) global opening weekend certainly the financial equivalent of a whirlwind. But the movie's final scenes have proven controversial — and it's because of something they don't include.
Much of the movie rattles along on the chemistry between stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell, but this does not lead to a romantic kiss in the final act. This is a contrast to the 90s film Twister, in which Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt's estranged couple sealed their reunion with a kiss at the end.
It turns out that Twisters director Lee Isaac Chung did shoot a scene in which Edgar-Jones' storm chaser Kate and Powell's brash internet personality Tyler shared a romantic moment together. In an interview reflecting on the film, Chung said: "I feel like audiences are in a different place now in terms of wanting a kiss or not wanting a kiss."
He added: "I actually tried the kiss, and it was very polarising — and it’s not because of their performance of the kiss. This [no-kiss shot] was the other option that I had filmed on the day, and I’ve got to say, I like it better. I think it’s a better ending. I think that people who want a kiss within it, they can probably assume that these guys will kiss someday. And maybe we can give them privacy for that. In a way, this ending is a means to make sure that we really wrap things up with it in a celebratory way."
Read more: Glen Powell says hanging out with real storm chasers on Twisters was ‘infectious’ (USA Today)
This is very much in keeping with the received wisdom in Hollywood over the last few decades. Gone are the days in which every major blockbuster had to end with a passionate kiss and a swelling crescendo of musical score. In fact, it has become far more common for directors to eschew this cliché.
The belief shift has been clear. Romance wasn't the be-all and end-all of storytelling, with characters — particularly female characters — deserving a more complex ending than simply snogging the face off the other hero. In Mission: Impossible — Fallout, for example, a kiss between Ethan Hunt and Ilsa Faust hit the cutting room floor.
Edgar-Jones very much made this argument about the Twisters kiss, telling Yahoo that cutting the kiss "stops the film from ever sinking into kind of cliché". Instead, the focus is on Kate's journey with her real true love — massive, destructive storms. In a separate interview, the film's stars revealed the note about the kiss came from exec producer Steven Spielberg.
Chung put it clearly, telling EW: "If it ends on the kiss, then it makes it seem as though that’s what Kate’s journey was all about, to end up with a kiss. But instead, it’s better that it ends with her being able to continue doing what she’s doing with a smile on her face.”
Read more: Which famous movie kiss was just voted the best ever? (Digital Spy)
Something, though, has shifted in audience desire. Hollywood has become increasingly sexless in the last few years, powered by decidedly non-romantic superhero movies. In that context, people are starved of a bit of romance on the big screen and viewers on social media are devastated at the missing Twisters kiss. Suddenly, having two thirsty characters express their desire to rip each other's clothes off after a traumatic event doesn't feel cliché — it feels radical.
This same restriction seemed to apply to Star Wars series The Acolyte, which concluded last week. In the finale, Manny Jacinto's incredibly hot Stranger and the show's hero-turned-possible-villain Osha (Amandla Stenberg) hold hands in defiance against the world. But Jacinto told Vulture that they filmed a kiss. "We felt that it may have not been too earned at that moment. I think it was just too early on," he explained.
Given the undeniable sex appeal of Jacinto's character and the social media sensation around him — including a nude scene that launched a million TikTok fancams — plenty of viewers would have been much happier if they'd seen a kiss.
Read more: The Acolyte defies the haters by celebrating the female gaze (Yahoo Entertainment)
The tone has shifted. Suddenly, the old-fashioned Hollywood kiss is exactly what cinemagoers want to see. Twisters star Glen Powell knows this more than most, having ascended to superstardom off the back of his sizzling chemistry — including plenty of kissing scenes — with Sydney Sweeney in the throwback romcom Anyone But You.
Anyone But You is far from the only recent example, with Luca Guadagnino's tennis-based love triangle movie Challengers essentially building its marketing around a three-way kiss. There is certainly something to be said for deploying young, beautiful movie stars in romantic moments on screen.
Read more: This Explosive ‘Challengers’ Debate Is Tearing the World Apart (Daily Beast)
From a narrative perspective, it's true that movie kissing can often be little more than window dressing — especially in big blockbusters where romance isn't the story's main focus. Characters are more than their romances after all. However, we're surely past the times when a screen kiss erases everything else that's happening. It's possible for characters to have their other needs met, while also getting to lock lips with someone gorgeous.
When Hollywood seems so determined to keep sexuality out of its biggest movies, there's plenty to be said for embracing the primal desires of fans. And the fans want the pretty people to kiss each other. Is that too much to ask?
Twisters is out now in cinemas, The Acolyte is available to watch in full on Disney+.
