Twins (1988 film)

For other uses, see Twins (disambiguation).
Twins

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Ivan Reitman
Produced by Ivan Reitman
Written by
  • William Davies
  • Timothy Harris
  • William Osborne
  • Herschel Weingrod
Starring
Music by
Cinematography Andrzej Bartkowiak
Edited by
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release dates
  • December 9, 1988 (1988-12-09)
Running time
 107 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $18 million[2]
Box office $216.6 million

Twins is a 1988 American 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 (Edelman would score three more films for the director, whereas this was Delerue's only work for him).

The film was a commercial success, earning $11 million on its opening weekend, and going 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.[3]

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. 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 while Julius was taken to a South Pacific island and raised by Professor Werner (Tony Jay). On Julius' 35th birthday, Werner tells him that he has a twin brother.[4] Julius leaves the island to find him. In Los Angeles, with no one but himself to rely on, Vincent escaped from the orphanage and became an indebted, small-time crook.

Julius discovers Vincent lives in L.A. and eventually tracks him down in jail for unpaid parking tickets. He bails Vincent out, but Vincent does not believe his story and abandons him in the car park. Julius pursues Vincent to his workplace and finds him being beaten up by Morris Klane, a loan shark enforcer. Julius subdues Morris, earning Vincent's trust and respect. He later meets Vincent's girlfriend Linda Mason (Chloe Webb) and enters a romantic relationship with her sister Marnie (Kelly Preston). Over dinner, Vincent shows Julius a document he stole from the orphanage that shows their mother is actually still alive, but believing that she abandoned him at birth, he shows no interest in finding her. Julius tracks one of their six fathers to the address on the document, who directs Julius to Mitchell Traven in New Mexico (Nehemiah Persoff), the other professor who headed the experiment.

Vincent steals a late-model Cadillac Sedan de Ville for his chop shop contact and finds a prototype fuel injector in the boot, which was to be delivered to an industrialist, Beetroot McKinley, in Houston for five million dollars. Vincent poses as the delivery man, Mr. Webster, and decides to deliver it to collect the money and pay off his debts, reluctantly allowing Julius, Linda and Marnie to accompany him to New Mexico to find Traven. In New Mexico, Traven reveals the truth to the twins and directs them to Santa Fe, where their mother lives in an art colony. On the way to Santa Fe, the twins are accosted by the Klane brothers, but they fight them off for the last time. Meanwhile, Webster (Marshall Bell) begins pursuing Vincent.

Julius and Vincent arrive in Santa Fe, but a painter informs them that their mother has died. They leave the art colony, unaware that the painter was in fact their mother, Mary Ann, who didn't believe their story. Vincent bitterly leaves Julius and the girls in New Mexico to deliver the prototype to McKinley alone for their safety. Julius gives pursuit and finds Vincent as he is being pursued by Webster, who killed McKinley and has set his eyes on Vincent seconds after the exchange. They agree to give Webster the money, but he prepares to kill them anyway for seeing his face. Vincent kills Webster by unloading a heavy chain onto his head and burying him, and they return both the prototype and money, and use the reward money to start a consulting firm. Their publicity reaches the art colony and Mary Ann discovers her sons are alive. She violently confronts Traven for concealing the truth and tracks Julius and Vincent down to their workplace.

Sometime later, Julius and Vincent marry the Masons, each have twin children and form a family with their wives, their mother and Werner.

Cast

Filming

The bridge that Vincent crossed was the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge near Taos, New Mexico.

Reception

Twins received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 34% based on reviews from 29 critics.[5] 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."[5]

Sequel

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. Reitman will co-produce.[6][7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "TWINS (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. December 12, 1988. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Schwarzenegger Interview – Interview/Podcast". nerdist.com. Retrieved 2014-03-31.
  3. ↑ "Schwarzenegger Interview – Interview/Podcast". nerdist.com. Retrieved 2014-03-31.
  4. ↑ "Twins Script - Dialogue Transcript". Script-o-rama.com. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
  5. 1 2 "Twins". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
  6. ↑ Kit, Borys (March 29, 2012). "'Twins' Sequel 'Triplets' in the Works for Arnold, DeVito...and Eddie Murphy (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  7. ↑ "RedCarpetNewsTV:Arnold Schwarzenegger Confirms Terminator 5, Conan and Twins Sequels". Retrieved 2013-01-22.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, March 26, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.