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Glen Powell Pays Tribute to Twister OG Bill Paxton: "A Great Friend"
Glen Powell is charming audiences everywhere in Twisters, but he wasn't the first great big-screen tornado wrangler.
Long before Glen Powell was chasing down tornadoes on the Oklahoma prairie as Tyler Owens in Twisters, he was rubbing shoulders with the OG Tornado Wrangler, Bill Paxton. And to celebrate the late, great star of 1996's Twister, Powell took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to pay tribute for Twisters' opening weekend.
“As we release Twisters into the world today, I just wanted to look up and tip my hat to the legend that is Bill Paxton,” Powell wrote. “A great friend of mine who saw poetry in the natural world. His boots are impossible to fill, but this life is all about chasing the greats."
RELATED: Twister Star Bill Paxton Had an Idea for a Sequel — Years Before Twisters
In Twister, Paxton played Bill Harding, a lapsed storm chaser with a near-mythical ability to interpret weather patterns and chase down the gnarliest of tornadoes. He's joined by Helen Hunt as Dr. Jo Harding and their ragtag team of instantly endearing tornado chasers (a cast that included Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alan Ruck, and more).
Twisters gives us a similar — if not exact — group of chasers: Powell's Tyler Owens leads a different but equally scrappy crew who, at first glance, only seem motivated to chase storms to boost their YouTube views. Daisy Edgar-Jones' Kate Cooper enters the fray as the Bill Harding of the group: a lapsed chaser who's dragged back into the fray against her will and possesses that similar, unexplainable connection to the natural world.
Paxton passed tragically at the age of 61 in 2017 after a prolific career; not only was he known and beloved for his work in Twister, but he also starred in hits such as Aliens (1986), Tombstone (1993), Apollo 13 (1995), and Titanic (1997).
How did Glen Powell and Bill Paxton meet?
Alongside the kind words for Paxton, Powell also posted a photo of the pair posing together and smiling on the set of Red Wing, a 2013 romantic Western that also starred Luke Perry, Frances Fisher, and Joelle Carter.
RELATED: Turns Out Steven Spielberg Is Responsible for Changing Twisters' Ending
In the film (available on Peacock), Powell plays Francis Riley, a quiet young man who was abandoned as a child and taken in by a young mother (Breann Johnson) and her husband (Perry). After leaving the couple's farm behind after a massive misunderstanding, Francis stumbles upon a ranch owned by Jim Verret (Paxton), who takes Francis on as a ranch hand after he proves his mettle. Francis and Verret develop something of a father-son relationship, and clearly, the mutual love translated offscreen as well.
Directed by Oscar nominee Lee Isaac Chung (Minari), Twisters is now playing exclusively in theaters everywhere. Click here to suck up tickets with all the force of a raging tornado.
