The surprising connection between ‘Twins’ and ‘Pulp Fiction’
Following the success of his debut feature, Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino turned down some significant opportunities to direct Hollywood hits like Men in Black. Tarantino could have easily signed onto such projects and earned an insane amount of profit, but the filmmaker prefers to work from his own screenplays – valuing artistic integrity over the chance to earn lots of money.
Tarantino is in the business because of his intense love of cinema; thus, even early on in his career, he was willing to stand his ground and only work with material he’d written. To this day, the only screenplay he’s completed that was inspired by a pre-existing work was Jackie Brown, which was based on Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch.
Therefore, Tarantino opted to make another low-budget feature as his sophomore film, Pulp Fiction, which he penned with the help of Roger Avary. The filmmaker clearly had plenty of faith in his work, and his dedication paid off – the movie made $213.9million on a budget of just $8m. Even its screenplay became a bestseller in the United Kingdom, with fans clearly interested in seeing Tarantino’s witty, comedic dialogue in written form.
The movie starred a large cast of characters, featuring actors such as John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken and Tarantino himself. With iconic music moments, like Dick Dale’s ‘Misirlou’ and Dusty Springfield’s ‘Son of a Preacher Man’, the movie quickly became one of the most beloved movies of the decade.
There are many easter eggs and gags sprinkled throughout the film in typical Tarantino fashion, with other filmmakers also referencing Pulp Fiction soon after its release. For example, the 1995 film Die Hard With a Vengeance, also starring Willis, directly referenced a scene featuring his Pulp Fiction character, Butch Coolidge.
Pulp Fiction featured a nod to an unlikely film, Twins. Released in 1988, the film starred Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger as long-lost twins. While the film is incredibly different to Pulp Fiction, it shares something in common – the names of the protagonists. DeVito’s character is called Vincent, and Schwarzenegger’s is Julius, while in Tarantino’s film, Travolta’s character is called Vincent or Vince, and Jackson’s is Jules.
While this could’ve been a coincidence, the fact that DeVito acted as an executive producer on Pulp Fiction (via his company Jersey Films) suggests that Tarantino might have nodded to the protagonists of the beloved box-office success Twins on purpose.
While Twins, directed by Ivan Reitman, hasn’t endured like Pulp Fiction, Tarantino was likely a fan of the lighthearted movie, subtly acknowledging his producer by paying homage to one of DeVito’s most successful works.
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