Tornado Review: Lean, Mean, Straight to the Point

John Maclean’s Tornado is thin on plot, but handsome production design, stylish action sequences, and strong performances ensure it is a scintillating ride.

Despite its obvious flaws, this Tarantino-esque 91-minute thriller is a journey worth taking.

In the gloomy, windswept British highlands of 1790, a gang of criminals led by Sugarman (Tim Roth, Pulp Fiction, Bergman Island) cross paths with a travelling Samurai show, which consists of father Fujin (Takehiro Hira, Shōgun) and his daughter Tornado (Kōki, Touch). Dissatisfied with their nomadic lifestyle across the bleak backwaters of Britain, Tornado senses an opportunity when a large bag of gold is left unattended by a careless gang member (he later gets his throat cut in brutal, deadpan fashion by Sugarman). Tornado begins with Sugarman and his minions stalking Tornado through forests and then into a manor house, before zipping back to the events that led up to this chase. It’s a play on the film’s chronology that is intriguing, but ultimately just serves to paper over the flimsy plot.

The ensemble of Tornado sparkle, and even more enjoyably, none of them are ever really safe. Maclean, who wrote the screenplay from a story by himself and Kate Leys, is never afraid to kill off big characters in the blink of an eye. Roth is pitch perfect as the vile gang leader; his eccentric delivery and off-kilter energy meshes superbly with the character. His son, Little Sugar, is brought to life by an equally magnetic Jack Lowden, who is a brooding, mean youngster with great ambitions. And as the lead, Kōki is sensational, capturing the brutal coming-of-age journey that her character is forced into, as she becomes Tornado in real life, not just in the performances with Fujin.

These actors and their characters are let down by some truly baffling character decisions in Maclean’s screenplay, as the film itself becomes increasingly silly and preposterous. Some of the lines, aiming for dramatic, cool effect, are instead laughable. This undoubtedly cool and sleek tone of Tornado is one of its strengths, but it also amplifies its greatest weakness: that ultimately, there is just a lot of atmospheric posing without anything underneath it. The result is generally exciting to watch, but also facile and, on further reflection, underwhelming.

Despite these shortcomings, Tornado boasts many excellent elements. Aside from the terrific ensemble performance, Ryan’s visuals are superb, adding a nightmarish and violent tinge to the film and its rural surroundings. Jed Kurzel’s (Monkey Man) aggressive string-based original score adds to this inescapably dangerous atmosphere further, whilst there are some scenes with terrific blocking in play, perfectly capturing the many characters and their motives. These impressive parts make the film’s flaws that much more frustrating, but even if Tornado won’t live long in your memory, it is absorbing enough to demand your attention.

Tornado (2025) will be released in UK & Irish cinemas and in US theatres on June 13, 2025.