Javier "Javi" Rivera is a storm chaser. Javi was portrayed by Anthony Ramos in the 2024 film, Twisters.
Biography[]
Javi was a college student, working alongside Kate, Addy, Praveen, and Jeb as a storm chaser team. Working with a Dorothy V doppler, the team attempted to launch barrels of sodium polyacrylate solution into a tornado with the goal of reducing its intensity. Working to collect the teams data, Javi remained back while Kate, Addy, Jeb and Praveen drove into the storm, aiming to launch the solution into the oncoming tornados path. While they were successful, the tornado intensifies unexpectedly, turning into what would be classified as an EF5. Praveen, Addy and Jeb are killed when attempting to seek shelter/safety under an overpass, leaving Kate and Javi as the only survivors.
Five years later, Javi, now a graduate and retired from recent military service, works for a mobile tornado radar company called Storm Par. He travels to New York to reconnect with Kate, offering her a one-week position with his team to test a new tornado scanning system using phased-array radar. Still haunted by the deaths of their teammates, Kate initially declines, but Javi persuades her by sending a news report about a town in Oklahoma recently devastated by a tornado.
Kate and Javi arrive in Oklahoma, where Javi introduces Kate to the rest of the Storm Par team, including his business partner Scott. While introducing Kate to the team several other storm chasing crews arrive, including the team of YouTube storm chaser Tyler Owens, known as the "Tornado Wrangler". As Tyler and his team pass by, they acknowledge Storm Par- suggesting a form of rivalry between them.
Following Kate's instincts, Javi leads the crew out to chase an EF1 forming nearby. Tyler's crew are close behind, chasing down the same tornado. A panic attack leads Kate to drive them away, and they are too far to place their scanner. Despite his frustration, Javi remains confident in Kate's abilities and reassures her that more storms will follow. He also defends her to Scott while on the phone, taking responsibility for the mistake.
The next day, Javi meets with Scott and Marshall Riggs, the investor behind Storm Par. Shortly after, their team tracks another EF1, which produces a satellite tornado. While Tyler’s team follows the EF1, following Kate's call Javi decide to track the satellite tornado instead, despite Scott's objections based on the data. Their decision proves correct as the Storm Par team successfully launches the scanning system into what quickly becomes an EF3 tornado, which destroys their third scanner. Unable to drive completely out of the storms path to safety in time, Javi and Kate barely escape as the tornado moves towards a nearby town.
Javi and Kate drive to the nearby town to offer assistance where they can. During this time, Kate observes Scott introducing Riggs as his Uncle to one of the victims who has lost his property. Javi lends Kate his truck telling her to head back to the motel to rest up, while he works on locating the missing third scanner via GPS.
That evening, an unforeseen EF4 tornado strikes while Tyler and Kate are at a rodeo, completely destroying their motel and half of the town. Kate and Tyler narrowly escape by taking shelter in an empty pool. Javi arrives in the aftermath with Scott, visibly relieved to find Kate unharmed. However, Scott immediately starts calculating "numbers" for Riggs. Kate, having learned that Riggs profits by buying storm-damaged land and reselling it, confronts Javi about Riggs' intentions. An argument ensues, with Kate implying that Javi doesn't understand the loss the victims are going through. Javi retaliates by reminding Kate he also lost his three best friends in the EF5, implying that Kate was to blame for it. Upset, Kate departs immediately, taking Javi's truck and heading to her mother’s farm in Sapulpa.
Kate reaches out to Javi the next day, after retesting the sodium polyacrylate theory with Tyler's assistance and failing. Javi arrives with Scott to collect his truck, apologising to Kate in the process. As a part of his apology, he gives Kate and Tyler the scanning data from Storm Par, despite Scott's disagreement. Kate attempts to convince Javi to join her and Tyler in their research, but he refuses, returning to work with Storm Par. Before driving away, Javi admits he once would have done anything for Kate, suggesting he'd had romantic feelings towards her. Using Javi's data, Kate and Tyler hypothesizes a change in the experiment, adding silver iodide.
Javi continues his work with Storm Par, while Kate and Tyler work with his team to test their new theory. Both teams chase a tornado forming near El Reno. Due to poor visibility, the teams find themselves in danger as the tornado intensifies, hitting a refinery and catching fire. During the chaos, Javi and Scott's truck is flipped, leaving them stranded directly in the tornadoes path. Tyler orders his crew to safety but reassures Kate that they are not abandoning Javi and Scott. A large piece of debris eventually flips the truck back onto its tires, allowing Javi and Scott to escape at the last moment.
Realising that the tornado (developing into an EF5) is heading towards the town, Tyler and his team race ahead to help. Javi also attempts to head into El Reno to help but Scott argues with him, demanding that they continue their mission for Riggs. Javi abandons Scott by the road and quits Storm Par. He arrives in the town just in time to help Kate free Tyler, who is trapped by a derailed streetcar. Javi then joins the team in ushering people into the movie theatre, right as the storm rips through. When the storm is subdued, Javi, Tyler and the rest of the team run to rescue Kate from the overturned truck before joining in their celebration over the dissipated storm.
A few days later, Javi drops Kate at the airport, promising to continue research in Oklahoma. They discuss their future collaboration. Javi briefly chats with Tyler, encouraging him to pursue Kate as she heads into the airport. As Tyler runs after Kate, Javi cheers him on.
A closing montage shows that Kate, Javi, and Tyler have joined together in a new business going forward, continuing on with their research alongside the team of Tornado Wranglers.
Trivia[]
- Javi tells Kate that he joined the military after the EF5 incident.
- When Kate returns home, her mother mentions Javi has recently stopped by the farm to see Kate.
- Javi has a similar role to Bill Harding and Jo Ann Harding, working on collecting more data.
- In a deleted scene, it is established that with the partnership between The Tornado Wranglers and Storm Par, Tyler and Javi also found a mutual ground with Kate.
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