Top 10 movie twins

5. Alex and Chad Wagner in Double Impact



The first of two films in which Van Damme took on the challenge of playing twins (although Maximum Risk, which was released 5 years later, started with the death of one the twins so the challenge was short-lived), Double Impact 'cleverly' paired up the conflicting fighting styles of gun-wielding smuggler Alex and martial artist fitness instructor Chad, who team up to enact revenge on the gang that killed their parents.

It's an obvious vehicle to show off Van Damme's own action credentials (he even co-wrote the story) and the scenes with both twins are occasionally clunky (you can almost see the 'join'), but who can argue with that much testosterone? Like the bad guy in the trailer says: "Dere's two of dem!"

4. Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa in the Star Wars saga



It's not quite ever going to rival "No, I am your father" as far as Star Wars revelations go, but when it was revealed in Return Of The Jedi that Leia was Luke's twin sister, audiences were still left gobsmacked.

Okay, so the twin sibling storyline may seem slightly shoe-horned in (or forced, if you will) on George Lucas' part when you consider the infamous kiss between the two siblings in the original film, but it adds further mythology to the Star Wars lore and handily resolves any issue of the Luke-Leia-Han love triangle. We hope. Nobody mention the word 'twincest'.

3. Twin #1 and Twin #2 in The Matrix Reloaded



Although a disappointing sequel riddled with obvious CG and badly-spouted pseudo-philosophy, Matrix Reloaded can still be enjoyed for its awesome kung fu fighting scenes, and these ghostly twins provide some of the best.

Armed with cut-throat razors and an ability to become incorporeal, they inject this middle component of the Matrix trilogy with the brutal action, awe-inspiring effects and deft touches of humour that remind us why we loved the first film so much. Last seen exploding over a motorway someplace. Wait, can ghosts even explode? Bah, it was all bullshit, wasn't it?

2. Grady Twin Daughters in The Shining



Trust Stanley Kubrick to tap into a deeply-rooted fear that none of us knew we had: ghostly twin young girls that persuade Danny to play with them... forever and ever and ever.

While Jack Nicholson is busy typing about 'all work and no play', the nightmarish young girls spookily offer the exact opposite to Danny as he has visions of the horrors that lie behind the door at room 237. A precursor to the terrifying scenes still to come, this is the first real spine-shivering moment in a film that re-invented horror conventions.

1. Julius and Vincent Benedict in Twins



Schwarzenegger and DeVito win top spot by starring in a film that sends up the entire concept of twins. When an experiment to produce the perfect human goes wrong, Julius is sent to an island to be raised by philosophers as he develops an outstanding intellect and Arnie's athletic stature, whilst Vincent is sent to an orphanage and doesn't grow much at all until he becomes Danny DeVito.

Pitching Schwarzenegger's naivety and idealism against Devito's cynicism and street-smarts, Twins is a still a surprisingly funny film, despite being the first of the Terminator's many attempts at 'comedy'.