Why would they make a sequel to Twister? That was the resounding question when Lee Isaac Chung’s sequel to Jan de Bont’s 1996 disaster movie was first announced. Sure, the original Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton-led movie was good, dumb, popcorn fun that made particularly impressive strides in VFX, but it didn’t exactly lend itself to a franchise.

So it’s wise that Chung, in crafting his follow-up with screenwriter Mark. L Smith (based on a story by Joseph Kosinski), decided to forego any “legasequel” or “requel” nonsense by delivering a movie that has all the spirit and ‘90s energy of the original, but a wholly new story and cast. It’s that cast, plus Chung’s impressive handle on breathtakingly tense setpieces, that elevates Twisters into one of the best displays of blockbuster spectacle this year.

In the summer of 79 CE, Mount Vesuvius blew sky high. The fatal blast smothered the estimated 2000 inhabitants of Pompeii in ash. For centuries, the tale of Pompeii’s destruction was one of solely volcanic eruption. But that may not be the whole story. Recent findings in the heart of Pompeii paint a picture of even more catastrophe, one that may have permitted survivors — at least temporarily.

Volcanological, anthropological, and archaeological analysis, including two skeletons and one demolished building suggests that in addition to an eruption, Pompeii suffered a simultaneous earthquake, altering the narrative of volcanic destruction. Researchers from the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) and Pompeii Archaeological Park are the first to find evidence of this double whammy. Their paper, published Wednesday in the journal Frontiers in Earth Science, details the discovery.