Dead Ringers

Dead Ringers Movie Poster

"Two bodies.  Two minds.  One soul".  Dead Ringers, released in 1988, was a Canadian psychological drama/thriller that defies categories, so we included it here.  The movie starred Jeremy Irons as Beverly Mantle and Elliot Mantle (both males).  The movie received mostly positive reviews, but ultimately it was not a financial success.

In this movie, twin gynecologists, who are portrayed as two halves of a whole (one cannot psychologically live without the other), go about the business of changing roles at a whim.  Both roles are played by Jeremy Irons as both Beverly Mantle and Elliot Mantle.  After the more aggressive Elliot was finished with the women he seduced at his clinic, they were unknowingly passed to his more shy brother, Beverly (yes, we know this is a girl’s name).  As they both get involved with the same destructive woman, named Claire, one twin heads down a drug induced downward spiral, and the other twin soon follows.  Beverly begins down a route of insanity, ultimately getting both brothers barred from practicing medicine based on his delusions.  Beverly returns to sanity, but finds his brother is now unstable.  Claire goes about the business of nursing Elliot back to health, falling in love with him in the meantime.

In the end, Elliot volunteers to be killed in order to separate the psychological tie between him and his brother.  Beverly then kills his brother and calls Claire to report the incident, presuming they can be together now.  Claire then puts the phone down, goes to Elliot’s body, and dies in his dead arms.