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Fans are upset after a clip of Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones kissing in "Twisters" that leaked online didn't end up in the final cut.
But turns out the footage was scrapped after legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg saw the movie.
The three-time Oscar winner and creator of the summer blockbuster movie with "Jaws," is an executive producer on "Twisters" through his Amblin production company, which was also behind the 1996 original "Twister" movie.
"I think it's a Spielberg note, wasn't it?" Edgar-Jones told Collider about the kiss being cut. "I think it stops the film feeling too clichéd, actually. I think there's something really wonderful about it feeling like there's a continuation. This isn't the end of their story. They're united by their shared passion for something."
Powell and Edgar-Jones play storm chasers Tyler Owens and Kate Cooper as they try to find a way to stop tornadoes from wreaking havoc on Oklahoma.
Aside from the impressive spectacle of the devastating storms and tornadoes in "Twisters," Powell and Edgar-Jones carry the film with their romantic chemistry, as Owens and Cooper bond over their passion for meteorology.
After showing the citizens of a small town being saved from a tornado, director Lee Isaac Chung sets up a stereotypical Hollywood ending when Owens races through an airport to tell Cooper how he feels about her.
The tension between them is palpable, the music swells, and it feels like after nearly two hours of pining for one another the pair will finally kiss.
Think the ending of "Friends" but with bad weather.
But just when you think the kiss is about to happen, an airport announcement cuts the tension and says that all flights have been grounded because of the weather. Instead of finally embracing, Owens and Cooper leave the airport together hand-in-hand.
"I also think that this movie is not about them finding love," Powell added in the Collider interview. "It's returning Kate to the thing that she loves, which is storm chasing. So that's what you have at the end of the movie. They share this thing, and her passion is reinvigorated, and her sense of home is reinvigorated."
Powell added: "I feel like a kiss would be sort of unrepresentative of the right goal at the end of the movie. And it is a good Spielberg note. It's why that kid is still in this game. It's amazing."
However, fans were upset there was no lip lock from the star, and that frustration was heightened by the clip of the pair's passionate airport kiss emerging online before the film was released.
The scene, which does not appear in the film, shows Powell walking up to Edgar-Jones, and they passionately kiss in a way that would fit right in with some of Powell's previous crowdpleasers: "Top Gun: Maverick," and "Anyone But You."
It's not clear whether the moment was filmed by an extra, a bystander, or a member of the crew. But one thing's for certain, fans think "Twisters" missed a trick by not including it.
The online discourse certainly didn't hurt the movie's box office numbers.
Over the weekend, "Twisters" blew through its opening weekend projections taking in $80.5 million domestically (almost hitting the $82.4 million "Oppenheimer" brought in its opening weekend last summer), which nearly doubles the opening of the $41 million "Twister" had in 1996, according to Box Office Mojo.
