The Main Characters of the Disney film, The Parent Trap (1998).
For their original 1961 counterparts, click here.
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Hallie Parker
Played by: Lindsay Lohan
One half of a pair of twins who were raised separately following their divorce, a tomboy brought up by her father in Northern California.- Big Eater: Unlike her sister, which gives Chessy an early clue that the twins switched.
- Brutal Honesty: Both twins can be spiteful, but Hallie (being accustomed to American culture) is much more likely to show it openly.
- Country Mouse: Hallie is from a vast vineyard in northern California.
- Crazy Consumption: She and Annie both love Oreos dipped in peanut butter.
- Daddy's Girl: She's very close to her father and tells Annie he's basically her best friend.
- Fiery Redhead: She has red hair, and can pull off pretty nasty pranks.
- Missing Mom: Hallie grew up without her mother.
- Separated at Birth: She and Annie were separated as babies.
- Shared Family Quirks: She and Annie are both allergic to strawberries and like eating Oreo cookies with peanut butter, the latter they point out most people find disgusting.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She is a tomboy, but she also likes nail polish and some other girly accessories.
- Youthful Freckles: She and her sister both have these.
Annie James
Played by: Lindsay Lohan
One half of a pair of twins who were raised separately following their divorce, a prim and proper girl raised in London, England by her mother.- City Mouse: To Hallie's Country Mouse. She comes from London. That said, she does adjust well to camping in the forest.
- Crazy Consumption: She and Hallie both love Oreos dipped in peanut butter.
- Disappeared Dad: Annie grew up without her father.
- Fiery Redhead: She's pretty good at pulling off pranks. Early on, she places Hallie's furniture on the roof, and later she and Hallie pull off pranks against Meredith, which include putting a lizard on her bottle (then on top of her head), and pushing her mattress out on the lake.
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: She is the more feminine of the twins, although she still loves sports such as fencing, and hiking in the woods.
- Gone Swimming, Clothes Stolen: After she loses the poker game, Annie dives into the lake naked. Hallie then steals her clothes.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: At the beginning of the movie, she is easily distinguished from Hallie by having longer hair and unpierced ears. Later, Hallie cuts her hair and pierces her ears, making her virtually indistinguishable. The best way to tell them apart after this is by their accents (although they're both very good at imitating the other's).
- Important Haircut: Hallie cuts Annie's hair to match her own.
- Long Hair Is Feminine: She is a girly girl and has longer hair than Hallie for the first thirty minutes of the film (until Hallie cuts it).
- Lonely Rich Kid: Mostly averted since she has a warm relationship with her mother, grandfather and Martin (plus her grandmother in the 1961 original).
- Nom de Mom: Annie has her mother's maiden name rather than her father's last name, as she grew up with her mother.
- Secret Handshake: She and Martin have a complex handshake that she later has to teach Hallie.
- Skinny Dipping: Annie does this after losing a poker game against Hallie.
- Shared Family Quirks: She and Hallie are both allergic to strawberries and like eating Oreo cookies with peanut butter, the latter they point out most people find disgusting.
- Youthful Freckles: She and her sister both have these.
Nick Parker
Played by: Dennis Quaid
The girl's father who runs a large wine vineyard.- Adaptational Nice Guy: Nick is a bit more mature than Mitch from the original.
- Has a Type: Blondes, apparently.
- Horrible Judge of Character: He is completely blind to how horrible of a person Meredith is until the camping trip.
- Nice Guy: He's generally a sweet guy and treats Chessy as a member of the family. He is also a gentleman to both Elizabeth and Meredith, to the point where he doesn’t call the latter out for trying to send his girls off to Switzerland.
- What Does He See in Her?: He is very civil with Meredith remaining unaware of how she behaves with other people in his life, until she gives him the ultimatum.
Elizabeth James
Played by: Natasha Richardson
The mother of the twins, a London native who works as a successful and well-known fashion designer for wedding dresses.- Adaptational Nice Girl: Elizabeth is less abusive and more mature than Maggie from the original.
- Can't Hold Her Liquor: She normally never has more than a glass of wine, but the one time she does, she gets wasted.
- The Chessmaster: We can assume that she basically manipulated Meredith into going on the camping trip as a means of having her break up with Nick.
- Manipulative Bitch: A heroic one. It can be interpreted that she is directly responsible for breaking up Nick and Meredith’s relationship by sending her on the camping trip.
- Nice to the Waiter: She treats the family butler Martin as a member of the family, viewing him like a big brother. And she still fondly remembers Nick's housekeeper Chessy when they run into each other despite not having seen her in over a decade.
Martin
Played by: Simon Kunz
The James family butler, who share a close relationship with them.- Canon Foreigner: Replaces Sharon’s grandmother from the original.
- Honorary Uncle: While never called Uncle, even as a butler he's treated like another member of the James family, and Elizabeth tells him she basically considers him "a dear brother who just happens to work for us".
- Inelegant Blubbering: When Hallie reveals to Elizabeth who she really is. Martin's sobbing makes Grandpa close the door to not ruin the mood of the reunion.
- Not So Above It All: Martin is a proper English butler most of the time. However, during the trip to America he's dressed in a leather jacket, black jeans, and steel-toed motorcycle boots with mirror shades, giving the impression that he is a middle-aged ex-greaser. And, of course, he has no issue with putting on a tiny Speedo to take a dip in the hotel pool.
- Secret Handshake: He and Annie share a complex handshake, which Hallie has to learn to impersonate her.
Chessy
Played by: Lisa Ann Walter
The housekeeper for the Parker household and Hallie's nanny who is a bit more on the uptake regarding "Hallie"'s strange behavior.- Deadpan Snarker:
- She quotes Lurch’s “You rang?” in front of Meredith when Meredith uses a bell to call for her.
- At the hotel when Sammy angrily barks at Meredith, Chessy whispers to him "Good doggy".
- Honorary Aunt: Like Martin, Chessy is Nick’s employee, but she’s treated more like a family member by Nick and Hallie and later Annie. She warmly welcomed “Hallie” back from summer camp and is overjoyed to see Annie after so long. She also remembers Hallie and Annie’s weights and lengths from when they were babies.
- Inelegant Blubbering: When Annie reveals herself, Chessy has a hard time keeping it together without revealing the secret when Nick comes in and asks her what's wrong.
- Parents Know Their Children: While she isn’t Annie and Hallie’s mother, she’s the only person to notice something was different about “Hallie”. She later confronts her about her sudden change in behavior, leading Annie to confess that it’s her and not Hallie.
- Secret-Keeper: She knew about Annie, but never told Hallie she had a twin sister despite living with her for eleven years. Once Annie reveals her identity to her, she keeps the Twin Switch a secret from Nick.
Meredith Blake
Played by: Elaine Hendrix
A woman whom Nick Parker meet and became engaged to while Hallie was away at camp.- Adaptational Villainy: Like Vicki in the original, Meredith’s personality is hardly on par with that of her Lottie & Lisa counterpart.
- Ambition Is Evil: She generally sees people as opportunities more than humans, and won't take "no" for an answer when it comes to Nick's money.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She acts saccharine sweet in front of Nick, but she is really a greedy, snobbish, and nasty woman who just wants Nick's money and bullies his daughter behind his back.
- Child Hater: She bullies the twins and bosses them around with no hesitation or remorse, as they're the only thing preventing her from immediately marrying Nick.
- Entitled Bitch: She's a greedy woman who becomes very strict and bossy when she can't get what she wants, and thinks she's better than others in her way.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Meta example.
Elaine Hendrix sees Meredith as a simple opportunist, someone who knew what she wanted and was afraid of failure, rather than a Card-Carrying Villain. - Fourth-Date Marriage: Given that Hallie didn't even meet Meredith before leaving for camp, it's implied Nick met her during the 8-week period his daughter was away. It only raises Hallie's concerns when Nick reveals his plans to marry Meredith.
- Gold Digger: She's more into Nick for his money and wine vineyard than anything else. In the beginning, only Hallie can see her for whom she really is.
- It's All About Me: Very clearly doesn't care about anyone but herself.
- Light Is Not Good: She first appears wearing a white dress, but as the film progresses, her clothes turn black.
- Maternally Challenged: It's clear she has no intentions of being a mother.
- Nice to the Waiter: Inverted. Viewers immediately know she's not a good person because she's rude to Chessy, Nick's housekeeper and Hallie's Parental Substitute.
- Rich Bitch: She’s rude and incredibly arrogant towards anyone she considers "below" her, including Chessy and Nick's daughters.
- Spoiled Bitch: While she's already a bossy and entitled person, these traits become even more aggressive when her plans are in danger of failure. ''Especially'' when Nick chooses the girls over her.
- The Vamp: Definitely one.
- Villain Has a Point:
- She may be a stuck-up Child Hater and gold digger, but she's understandably not happy finding out Nick never told her his daughter was also a twin nor that the other twin lived with the mother/his ex, nor when he invites said ex on a family camping trip despite not having seen her in 11 years.
- The final event before her Villainous Breakdown below is when the twins in the middle of the night pull her air mattress out while she's sleeping on it onto the lake, which could have had lethal results.
- Villainous Breakdown: Has one after she's pranked by the twins and dumped by Nick in quick succession.
- Wicked Stepmother: She makes herself out to be sweet and wanting to get along with Hallie, all while planning to ship her off to boarding school in Switzerland.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: What became of her after Nick called off the engagement is anyone’s guess. But one thing is certain, though; she has left Napa Valley for good.
