Twins (1988)
Twins (rendered in its title sequence logo as TWiiNS) is a 1988 American buddy comedy film produced and directed by Ivan Reitman. The film is about unlikely fraternal twin brothers (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito) who were separated at birth. The core of the film is the contrast between the streetwise Vincent (DeVito) and the intelligent but naive Julius (Schwarzenegger). The film was a commercial success, grossing $216 million worldwide. Instead of taking their usual salaries for the film, Schwarzenegger, DeVito and Reitman agreed with the studio to take 40% of the film’s box office returns; this resulted in them receiving the biggest paychecks of their film careers.
Plot.
Julius and Vincent Benedict are fraternal twin brothers who were the result of a secret experiment carried out at a genetics laboratory to combine the DNA of six fathers to produce the perfect child. To the surprise of the scientists, the embryo split and the twins were born. Their birth mother, Mary Ann Benedict, was told that Julius died at birth, and not told about Vincent at all. Vincent was placed in an orphanage run by nuns in Los Angeles and believed his mother abandoned him. With no one but himself to rely on, Vincent seduced a nun, escaped from the orphanage, and later became an indebted, small time criminal. Julius was raised on a South Pacific island by Professor Werner, one of the scientists from the experiment, who put him through intense physical training and extensive study. Both believed Mary Ann died during childbirth. Each twin was unaware of the other’s existence. On their 35th birthday, Werner finally tells Julius about Vincent.[5] With Werner’s blessing, Julius proceeds to LA to find his brother. Eventually he tracks Vincent down in jail, where he is being held for unpaid parking tickets and driving with an expired license.
Julius bails Vincent out, but he does not believe Julius’ story and abandons him in a parking lot. He pursues him to his workplace and finds him being beaten up by Morris Klane, one of three loan shark brothers that Vincent owes $20,000. Julius subdues Morris, earning his trust and respect. He later meets Vincent’s girlfriend Linda Mason and enters a romantic relationship with her sister Marnie.
Over dinner, Vincent shows Julius a document he stole from the orphanage showing their mother is still alive, but believing that she abandoned him at birth, Vincent shows no interest in finding her. Believing that their mother may have also been lied to, Julius tracks one of their six fathers to the address on the document. The father directs him to Dr. Mitchell Traven, Werner’s colleague, in New Mexico.
Vincent steals a late model Cadillac from a parking garage run by his buddy (to sell to a chop shop) and finds a prototype fuel injector in the trunk that was to be delivered to industrialist Beetroot McKinley in Houston, for $5 million. Vincent decides to pose as the delivery man, Mr. Webster, and deliver the fuel injector himself to pay off his debts.
Production, Filming.
The original music score was composed by Georges Delerue and Randy Edelman. Edelman has scored three more films for the director (Ghostbusters II; Kindergarten Cop; and Six Days, Seven Nights) whereas this was Delerue’s only work for him. Notably, this was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first time starring in a major comedy. Because the studio viewed this as a significant risk compared with having Schwarzenegger make another profitable action film, Schwarzenegger voluntarily took no salary in exchange for a share of the film’s profits. Co-star Danny DeVito and director Ivan Reitman made similar deals. When the film was a major financial success – box office of $216M against an $18M production budget – the three together earned a significant share of the overall profits. In a 2016 interview with Graham Bensinger in which Schwarzenegger recounted this story, Schwarzenegger stated that the decision to “invest in myself” by trying comedy and forgoing the salary in exchange for a share of the film’s profits was one of the best decisions of his entire life. The bridge that Vincent drives across is the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge near Taos, New Mexico.