In Memory of That Time Rami Malek Was in "Twilight"
As the second season of everyone's favorite hacker conspiracy drama Mr. Robot premieres on USA, now seems like as good a time as any to revisit everyone's favorite teen vampire series. Specifically the parts featuring Rami Malek, who before he was tortured coding whiz Elliot Alderson was Benjamin, an Egyptian vampire who comes to the Cullens' aid in 2012's The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2. Recall that Bella, after giving birth to a half-human half-vampire named Renesmee, must prove to the Volturi (the vampire government) that her daughter is actually chill and not a danger to others. The Cullens decide the best way to do this is by summoning all their foreign vampire friends to Forks, where everyone may observe that Renesmee is as normal as a half-human half-vampire child can be, then serve as witnesses to Aro. Benjamin is one such vampire!
When we meet Benjamin/Rami in the movie, he's just hanging out in his coven leader's house making tidal waves out of fountain water, as you do when you're a couple hundred years old and sick of being inside all the time because the Egyptian sun makes your skin sparkle. As Edward explains later, Benjamin's special vampire power is influencing the elements, which seems a lot cooler than Jasper's dumb "making people calm with his mind" thing, but that's just one woman's opinion.
Benjamin, being a chill guy who likes to help his fellow vampires, accompanies them back to Forks, where he meets Renesmee and does one of his cool nature tricks for her to prove that he's a friend. He seems way more into it than she does:
Later, he has a bonfire with some other vampires and Jacob, and by "has a bonfire" I mean he starts the bonfire with his fingers, because he can influence the elements, remember?
Near the end of the movie, Benjamin also gets to participate in the climactic battle scene where the Cullens and friends face off against the Volturi. Before it's revealed that - spoiler alert - this entire sequence is a vision happening inside Alice's mind, Benjamin gets quite a lot to do. First he reacts to Carlisle's head getting ripped off like this:
Then he uses his nature powers to make a giant crack in the ice, which sucks in a bunch of Volturi and gives Team Cullen a slight advantage over their red-eyed nemeses. If only Elliot could use this cool ice trick to make Evil Corp fall into a big ditch!
So what does Benjamin have in common with Elliot, besides being played by Rami Malek? Well, pretty much nothing except reclusiveness, unless you consider Benjamin's dependence on human blood an addiction on par with Elliot's dependence on morphine. Just switch to animal blood, Benj. It'll make your eyes a way less terrifying color.
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