There are certain movie tropes that are classics for a reason, like the hero walking away from an explosion or running after a love interest in an airport. But there’s one that stands above the rest, a Murphy’s Law of sorts that’s been in place since 1896: If you put two hot people onscreen together, they have to kiss. Twisters, which opened to over $80 million at the box office this weekend, could have had all of this and more—and yet, director Lee Isaac Chung ultimately took the two hours of powerful sexual tension that built between stars Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones and simply let it evaporate.
Knowing what could have been makes the disappointment worse. There was another version of the film’s ending—in which Tyler (Powell) finds Kate (Jones) in, yes, the airport for a final goodbye—that rightly delivered a 10-second, uninterrupted smooch between two people who look like the Barbies I had as a child (who I also made kiss). And yet, it was abandoned in favor of an alternate blockbuster universe in which a smile stands in for sex.
When asked about the decision to cut the kiss, Chung told The Hollywood Reporter that “I think it’s a better ending†(No.) “And I think,†he continued, “ 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.â€
Absolutely not. This is a movie in which viewers are asked to suspend their disbelief about a tornado that’s taken down by diaper filling and Maura Tierney as Kate’s mom (obviously they should have brought back Helen Hunt). And yet when it comes to Powell walking into the rain in a white t-shirt, he only gets a little wet, and only briefly at that.
“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,†Chung told THR. “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.â€
If not kissing Glen Powell is the culmination of decades of feminism, then I don’t want it. It didn’t even need to end with a kiss. The entire fourth act was punctuated with very clear kissing opportunities, two of which had Anothony Ramos standing so comically close to the couple that I was certain it was a bit that we were going to be rewarded for enduring.
Instead, we were punished. The only logical conclusion I can come to is Hollywood saw how weird the press was being about Zendaya and Timothée Chalament’s Dune 2 kiss—repeatedly asking them what is was like, and how they prepared—that they decided to exact Seinfeldian justice in Twisters: No kiss for you.
The hope, at least, is that this kiss-hanger paves the way for a(nother) sequel, one in which amends are made. This will also be an opportunity to right another wrong: Next time, include Brisket.