The film opens in Oklahoma, where a group of storm-chasing college students are gathered for a tornado watch. Led by Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and joined by her friends Javi (Anthony Ramos), Praveen (Nik Dodani), Addy (Kiernan Shipka), and boyfriend Jeb (Daryl McCormack), their goal is to release barrels of sodium polyacrylate in the middle of a tornado to cause it to cool down and collapse, using their Dorothy V doppler.
The team excitedly drives toward the storm, with Javi monitoring the tornado’s trajectory while the other four head into it. As they get closer, their barrels get knocked over by the intensifying winds, but they get it back upright and continue. They drive away as the tornado comes closer, but they successfully release their sodium solution along with a series of drones to get inside. However, instead of collapsing, the tornado increases to an EF5. The four abandon their truck and run toward an overpass. Praveen is the first to get sucked into the tornado’s path. While trying to climb up with Kate and Jeb, Addy gets hit by flying debris. Jeb tries to protect Kate while she grabs onto a bar, but he is also pulled away from her into the storm. Kate gets a nasty gash on her leg and is later recovered, shell-shocked, by authorities after the storm settles.
Five years later, Kate now lives in New York, working at a NOAA office. She is surprised to see Javi appearing at her job with a proposal. He works for a company called Storm Par, which has been testing a new system to scan for tornados in Oklahoma in the hopes that it can prevent them from causing further damage to any areas hit by tornados. Kate, still reeling from the loss of her loved ones, turns down Javi’s offer to work for one week with the group. However, after Javi later sends Kate an article on a neighborhood in Oklahoma that was hit badly, Kate changes her mind.
Kate joins Javi at a Storm Par base in Oklahoma, alongside teammates Scott (David Corenswet), who is working closely with their employer Marshall Riggs (David Born), and British reporter Ben (Harry Hadden-Paton). They are joined by celebrity storm chaser and self-proclaimed “tornado wrangler” Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) and his team – Boone (Brandon Perea), Dani (Katy O’Brian), Lily (Sasha Lane), and Dexter (Tunde Adebimpe) – coming from Arkansas. After making a show for his fans, Tyler approaches Kate, who dismisses him as a showboater.
The teams head off to chase a tornado that has touched down on a nearby farm. Kate and Javi drive together and lead their team while Tyler and his crew burst in with his truck and race toward the tornado. The Storm Par crew sets up their scanners, but Kate has a panic attack when setting up the last one, causing them to miss the tornado’s path. Kate and Javi then witness Tyler’s crew driving into the path of a second tornado and using drills in his truck to plant themselves into the ground without being blown away, before releasing fireworks up into the tornado. They later return to their motel where the tornado wrangler crew is also set up.
The next day, Javi introduces Kate to Riggs before they head out for the next tornados. Lily launches a plane drone to find their target as everyone starts to head back out. They find themselves driving towards two tornados at once. Kate notices specific wind patterns and has the Storm Par team drive in the opposite direction of Tyler’s crew. While he and his buddies think they are about to catch one of the tornados, it quickly dissipates before it reaches them. Meanwhile, Kate and Javi get their scanners all set up, but the tornado starts to make its way toward them, wrecking one of the scanners and forcing the two to hightail it out of there, just narrowly avoiding getting blown away.
The teams arrive in a nearby town that has been hit badly. As they make efforts to help the locals, Kate discovers that Tyler and his crew use profits from their merchandise to help locals by providing them with free food. She also learns from Tyler that Riggs is profiting off the misery of the locals by purchasing the damaged land and reselling it to them after they have already lost so much.
Later that night, Tyler invites Kate to the local rodeo. In the middle of the show, they notice heavy winds picking up before everyone gets an alert about the tornado warning. The sirens start blaring and people begin to evacuate. Some are trampled by horses in the chaos. Kate and Tyler try to get others to safety. They find a mother and her child, plus a motel clerk, and try to get them into an empty pool, while a rude couple try to drive away and get sucked into the vortex. The clerk also gets killed after trying to walk toward Tyler instead of crawling like he was told. The others latch onto the pool ladder until the tornado passes.
In the aftermath, Kate sees Scott going to survey the damage purely to gather numbers for Riggs. She argues with Javi over what it is that they are really working for. Javi snaps and blames Kate for the deaths of Praveen, Addy, and Jeb, causing her to drive away from the scene.
Kate drives to her mother Cathy’s (Maura Tierney) farm in Sapulpa. She watches an old video recorded by Jeb and goes to an old school science project of hers. Tyler arrives, having followed Kate and being invited by Cathy to stay for dinner and to sleep for the night. He finds her notes on her tornado experiment, but she breaks down over her guilt in watching her friends get killed over a bad call. Before Tyler leaves the next morning, Kate catches up to him and talks about his proposed idea to get a new model running.
Using Tyler’s truck, the two use the sodium solution to release into the path of a new tornado, but it doesn’t collapse as expected. Javi later shows up to apologize to Kate and provide scanning data. They rejoin their teams and start tracking another tornado.
The teams follow a new tornado heading toward El Reno. Javi and Scott’s truck tips over but gets blown back onto its wheels just before the tornado strikes a power plant and catches fire, forcing everyone to retreat. The teams head toward the town to try and get people to safety. Javi tries to follow, but Scott orders him to stay behind for the sake of their job. Javi tricks Scott into getting out when he demands to pull over, and Javi drives away, spraying Scott with mud and declaring he quits working for Riggs.
After making it into town, Kate, Tyler, and Javi narrowly avoid getting crushed by a falling water tower. They guide people with the teams inside the movie theater for safety. Kate then takes Tyler’s truck and drives toward the tornado with the solution, while the storm rips the roof off the theater and sucks some people up. Kate struggles with the controls for a bit but manages to drill herself into the ground and launch the solution. Lily is almost pulled away, but the solution starts to work, and the tornado dissipates. The team then heads to Kate’s location to rescue her.
Later on, Javi brings Kate to the airport back to New York before promising to continue working together. Tyler shows up to say farewell before she repeats his slogan to him – “If you feel it, chase it”. Applying this to his feelings toward her, Tyler drills his truck into the ground despite an airport employee telling him to move. Tyler catches up to Kate, just as they see clouds incoming and overhear the PA announce that there will be flight delays. They grin and return to the truck.
The credits show that Kate and Javi have teamed up with Tyler and his crew for more work.
