Twins (1988 film)

For other uses, see Twins (disambiguation).

Twins
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ivan Reitman
Written by	William Davies William Osborne Timothy Harris Herschel Weingrod
Produced by	Ivan Reitman
Starring	Arnold Schwarzenegger Danny DeVito Kelly Preston Chloe Webb Bonnie Bartlett
Cinematography	Andrzej Bartkowiak
Edited by	Donn Cambern Sheldon Kahn
Music by	Georges Delerue Randy Edelman Frank Fitzpatrick (Supervising Music Editor)
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	December 9, 1988 (1988-12-09)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$18 million
Box office	$216,614,388

Twins is a 1988 comedy film, produced and directed by Ivan Reitman about unlikely twins (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito) who were separated at birth. The core of the film is the relationship between DeVito's streetwise character and Schwarzenegger's intellectual persona. The original music score was composed by Georges Delerue and Randy Edelman. It grossed $11 million on its opening weekend, and went on to gross $216 million worldwide. Schwarzenegger and DeVito rather than taking their usual salary for the film, both agreed with the studio to take 20% of the film's box office, which resulted in them receiving the biggest paychecks of their movie careers.

Plot

Julius Benedict (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Vincent Benedict (Danny DeVito) are fraternal twins, the results of a secret experiment carried out at a genetics laboratory to produce the perfect child. To the surprise of the scientists, the embryo split and twins were born. One twin, Julius, is seemingly "perfect", exhibiting all the traits the scientists were hoping to achieve, while the other, Vincent, is much more "average", to the scientists' dismay. The mother, Mary Ann Benedict, was told that Julius died at birth, and not told about Vincent at all. Julius was informed that his mother died in childbirth. Vincent believed his mother abandoned him. Each twin is unaware of the other's existence.

Vincent was placed in an orphanage run by nuns in Los Angeles (where he lost his virginity to one of the nuns when he was 12) while Julius was taken to a South Pacific island and raised by Professor Werner (Tony Jay), growing into a handsome, muscled Adonis, receiving tutelage in art and intellectual pursuits. On Julius' 35th birthday, Werner tells him that he has a twin brother. Julius leaves the island to find him.

Julius discovers Vincent lives in L.A., and travels throughout the city. Though intelligent, he is extremely naïve about the real world his more streetwise brother inhabits; at one point he inadvertently foils an attempt by two thieves to mug him. He finds Vincent in jail. Vincent is scornful when Julius tells him they are twins, but lets Julius bail him out and then drives off. Julius tracks Vincent to his workplace, where he is being beaten by Morris, a member of a loan shark family known as the Klane brothers, for an unpaid debt. Julius rescues Vincent by easily overpowering Morris and earns Vincent's respect and trust. He meets Vincent's on-again-off-again girlfriend, Linda Mason (Chloe Webb). Knowing little about women, Julius is oblivious to the flirtatious advances of her blond sister Marnie (Kelly Preston) – who dislikes Vincent – but eventually falls in love with her. Vincent shows Julius a document he stole from the orphanage which proves their mother is still alive but, believing she abandoned him, he has no interest in finding her.

Vincent steals a Cadillac to sell to his chop-shop contact, and discovers a secret prototype fuel injector in the trunk, which was to be delivered to industrialist Beetroot McKinley in Houston for US$5 million. He decides to deliver it himself and collect the money. Webster (Marshall Bell), the original delivery man, begins ruthlessly searching for the person who stole the prototype. At Julius' insistence, the two couples go on a cross-country journey to track down Professor Mitchell Traven (Nehemiah Persoff), the scientist who oversaw the project which produced the twins and the one who named Vincent. Eventually they find him in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and after initially lying to them, an angry Julius kicks his office door in and forces him to tell them the truth. Traven tells them that their mother is living in an art colony near Santa Fe, with Julius telling him that if he is lying again "I'll be back". The Klane brothers and their two cousins find them again, with the intent of killing Vincent, but Julius and Vincent fight them off for the last time. Later on that night, Marnie swaps rooms with Vincent and she spends the night with Julius. At the art colony, a woman informs them that Mary Ann is dead and they leave. In reality, she is their mother but disbelieved their story because she was told her son had died during childbirth by the scientists. Meanwhile, Webster is also getting closer to finding Vincent.

While Julius accepts their mother's death, Vincent becomes bitter and storms off, leaving Julius and the girls stranded in New Mexico, to deliver the engine to Beetroot McKinley. Linda tells Julius about the engine and Julius once again sets off to find his brother. Vincent delivers the stolen property to Beetroot, but the man and his assistant are shot and killed by Webster, who then turns his attention to Vincent just as Julius arrives. A cat-and-mouse chase ensues and Julius intercepts Webster as Vincent flees, but Vincent, feeling his brother's presence, reluctantly goes back and gives up the money to Webster. Webster then plans to off the twins but is outsmarted causing him to end up being crushed to death by thousands of pounds of industrial chains. Julius and Vincent make their peace, and Vincent reluctantly agrees to return the money and the stolen engine to the authorities, but secretly skims off one million. Meanwhile, the twins' publicity reaches the art colony, and their mother realizes that the two "comedians" who visited her were her long-lost sons after all.

Julius and Vincent marry the Masons, and use the $50,000 reward money to start up a legitimate consulting business, using Julius' knowledge and Vincent's questionable business savvy. Some time later, both brothers' wives have given birth to twins and the entire family, including Mary Ann, is spending time together at an amusement park.

Cast

• Arnold Schwarzenegger as Julius Benedict
• Danny DeVito as Vincent Benedict
• Kelly Preston as Marnie Mason
• Chloe Webb as Linda Mason
• Bonnie Bartlett as Mary Ann Benedict
• David Caruso as Al Greco
• Trey Wilson as Beetroot McKinley
• Marvin J. McIntyre as McKinley's man
• Marshall Bell as Mr. Webster
• Tony Jay as Professor Werner, also the narrator
• Hugh O'Brian as Granger, one of the twins' fathers
• Jason Reitman as Granger's grandson
• Catherine Reitman as Granger's granddaughter
• Nehemiah Persoff as Professor Mitchell Traven
• Maury Chaykin as Burt Klane
• Tom McCleister as Bob Klane
• David Efron as Morris Klane
• Sven-Ole Thorsen as Sam Klane
• Gus Rethwisch as Dave Klane
• Richard Portnow as Tony, the chop shop owner
• Frances Bay as Mother Superior
• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Asian man
• Elizabeth Kaitan as Secretary
• Joe Medjuck as Photographer at the start of the film
• Nicolette Larson as Singer
• Jeff Beck as Guitarist
• Terry Bozzio as Drummer
• Heather Graham as young Mary Ann Benedict (uncredited)
• Robert Harper as Gilbert Larsen

Reception

Twins received mostly mixed and negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 38% based on reviews from 29 critics. However, Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, calling it "engaging entertainment with some big laughs and a sort of warm goofiness."

Sequel

In 1994 Reitman would direct Junior, again starring DeVito and Schwarzenegger. Although not a sequel, it shared a similar theme, this time an experiment about male pregnancy.

In March 2012, Universal announced the development of a sequel titled Triplets. Schwarzenegger and DeVito will return, with Eddie Murphy as their long-lost brother. Ivan Reitman will co-produce.

During a June 2013 interview, Schwarzenegger said that a sequel, calling it Twins 2, was still in the works however likely would follow Terminator 5, which is due for release on July 1, 2015.

See also

• List of American films of 1988

External links

• Twins at IMDb
• Twins at AllMovie
• Twins at Rotten Tomatoes