It’s often said that twins share a special bond that original recipe siblings don’t have. Famous for finishing each others
sandwiches sentences, twins have also been known to inhabit a movie or two – from a crusading galactic duo connected by the Force to super-powered beings created in a lab by Hydra.
Ahead of Twins Days Weekend, we’ve compiled a list of the best and most notable movie twins around. Sometimes these characters are secret twins who don’t even know of each others’ existence while other times the two are inseparable warriors who always have each others’ backs when battling evil. In rare occasions, the twins are mortal enemies, with one determining the other must die.
From Star Wars to Austin Powers to burgeoning Avengers, here are the best movie twins ever…
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Luke and Leia (Star Wars Skywalker Saga)
Perhaps the most famous cinematic twins of all time are Luke and Leia (Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher), the children of Anakin and Padme who were spirited away from their home, and each other, to protect them from the sinister clutches of The Galactic Empire. One raised a princess, the other a farmer, these two would be drawn together by fate, and the Force, long before even knowing they were related.
Philippe Bourbon and King Louis XIV (The Man in the Iron Mask)
Leonardo DiCaprio played the identical twin roles of King Louis XIV and his brother, Phillippe, who was purposefully raised separately so he’d know nothing of his royal heritage and therefore never start a war for the throne. Once Phillippe was discovered, the corrupt and cruel Louis imprisoned his brother and kept him inside an iron mask to conceal his identity. It fell to the Four Musketeers to help right this wrong.
Wanda and Pietro Maximoff (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
In the comics, Wanda and Pietro — played by Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the MCU — were the mutant children of Magneto (and Pietro/Peter still is in the X-Men movie franchise) but Marvel Studios had no access to mutants so instead these two, who were introduced fully in Avengers: Age of Ultron, were Sokovian protestors who volunteered to to be a part of Wolfgang von Strucker’s Hydra experiments. They were the only two to survive the Scepter/Mind Stone’s meddling, and came out on the other side with incredible abilities.
Hallie Parker and Annie James (The Parent Trap)
Whether we’re talking about the 1998 Parent Trap starring Lindsay Lohan, or the 1961 original starring Hayley Mills, this story, based on the 1949 German novel Lottie and Lisa, is one of the most famous twin stories ever as two identical young girls, who’ve been raised apart since birth never knowing they had a sister, meet up and cutely conspire to get their divorced parents back together.
Dr. Evil and Austin Powers (Austin Powers Trilogy)
In a groovy homage to Luke and Leia’s plot twist twineage, or even the Vader “I am your father” reveal, the Austin Powers movie franchise eventually revealed that Dr. Evil was Powers’ long-lost twin brother. With both characters played by Mike Myers, of course, this was an example of twins being on opposite sides of the law and/or global conflict and/or laser sharks.
Fred and George Weasley (Harry Potter Franchise)
Ah, the Weasley Twins. Two identical brothers, played by James and Oliver Phelps in all eight Harry Potter movies. Smart enough to drop out of Hogwarts to pursue their true calling – pranks! Opening the thriving Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes joke shop, the twins were called back to action and, as part of Dumbledore’s Army, battled Voldemort and his Death Eaters as they assaulted their old school. The war would cost Fred his life.
Charlie and Donald Kaufman (Adaptation)
If you thought Nicholas Cage would miss out on the whole “acting opposite yourself” phenomenon, you’re sorely mistaken. In Adaptation, Cage played a meta-version of writer/director Charlie Kaufman, as a sad and self-sabotaging artist, as well as his fictional twin brother, the confident and together Donald.
Kit and Jiff Ramsey (Bowfinger)
Eddie Murphy, who’s no stranger to playing multiple roles in one movie, got to do the twin thing in Bowfinger, where he played a hugely successful, and paranoid, movie star named Kit as well as Kit’s dorky brother Jiff who Steve Martin’s character uses to double for Kit in a film he’s shooting “around” Kit to make it seem like Kit’s starring in his new movie.
Chad and Alex Wagner (Double Impact)
By 1991, Jean-Claude Van Damme had been a kickboxer, an undercover cop, and a cyborg – so why not twin brothers? Separated at birth to protect them from a crime lord, both Chad and Alex grew up to be martial arts experts. Chad as a laid-back instructor in Los Angeles and Alex as a gruff smuggler in Hong Kong.
Connor and Murphy MacManus (The Boondock Saints)
After killing two Russian mobsters in self-defense, fraternal twins Connor and Murphy (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus) become bullet-blasting vigilantes on a mission to rid Boston of its criminal element. The Boondocks Saints became a sleeper hit and cult favorite, warranting a sequel, The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, 10 years later.
Milo and Maggie Dean (The Skeleton Twins)
Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig played suicidal siblings in the 2014 indie dramedy The Skeleton Twins. As Milo and Maggie, Hader and Wiig played a depressed and despondent duo who turn to each other during severely low points in their adult life.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (The Social Network)
Though not the star of The Social Network, Armie Hammer’s dual portrayal of real-life entrepreneurs, the Winklevoss Twins, was a standout element from the Oscar-winning David Fincher film. The gig essentially put Hammer on the map, helping him land lead roles in big genre films like The Lone Ranger and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Elias and Lukas (Goodnight Mommy)
This psychological horror flick featured two twin boys, Lukas and Elias, played by twins Lukas and Elias Schwarz, who begin to suspect something is strongly and strangely amiss with their mother when she returns home from having cosmetic surgery with a fully wrapped and bandaged head. Filled with twists, turns, and rug-pulls, Goodnight Mommy is a must-watch for fans of the macabre.
Julius and Vincent Benedict (Twins)
Ivan Reitman’s 1988 box office hit Twins played off the size discrepancy between stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, making their characters twins created by a secret genetics lab experiment. DeVito played the streetwise Vincent while Schwarzenegger took a then-rare shot at comedy by playing the naive and goofy Julius.
Ronnie Kray and Reggie Kray (Legend)
While the 1990 film The Krays featured Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp and his brother Martin as British gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray, 2015’s Legend, from director Brian Helgeland (A Knight’s Tale, 42), had Tom Hardy playing both identical twin roles.
Beverly and Elliot Mantle (Dead Ringers)
Jeremy Irons played twins in David Cronenberg’s demented 1988 classic, Dead Ringers. As gynecologists Elliot and Beverly, Irons navigated a dysfunctional interdependent relationship filled with debauchery and delusion. The role(s) would garner Irons so much acclaim that he was essentially launched him into stardom. Irons would later thank Cronenberg in his speech when he won the Oscar for 1991’s Reversal of Fortune.
Bob and Walt Tenor (Stuck on You)
Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear portrayed conjoined twins Bob and Walt in The Farrelly Brothers’ Stuck on You, where the two would leave their small town (where Bob was content as a diner owner and cook) for Hollywood in pursuit of Walt’s dreams of becoming a movie star.
Angela and Isabel Dodson (Constantine)
In 2005’s Constantine, starring Keanu Reeves as DC/Vertigo demon-defeater John Constantine, Rachel Weisz played Detective Angela Dodson, a cop investigating the death of her twin sister, Isabel. Funnily enough, Weisz would play a third role in the film, as Mammon, the son of Lucifer who takes over Angela’s form.
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Alfred Borden (The Presitge)
Seriously though…super spoilers for The Prestige. Stop reading if you haven’t seen it.
Christian Bale plays twin brothers who occupy one life, going by the name Alfred Borden. We’re never sure which is Alfred or if the name is made up entirely, but the secret allows Borden to do a pretty meat magic trick.
The Grady Twins (The Shining)
Okay, so the Grady Twins apparently are not twins. Still, their specific place and iconography in horror is undeniable. They’ve been called twins because of their similar look and identical dress, but Overlook manager Stuart Ullman clearly states that one is eight and the other is ten. That being said, their ghostly arrival in Kubrick’s The Shining, and the subsequent invitation to an eternal playdate extended to young Danny, will be forever (and ever) known as “The Grady Twins.”
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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
