Why Are There So Many Spider-Man Movies?

Spider-Man appeared on the big screen (counting only his solo movies) eight times. Tobey Maguire played Spider-Man three times, Andrew Garfield two times, and Tom Holland appeared three times as Spider-Man in solo movies. But why so many? Why are there so many Spider-Man movies?

Spider-Man has appeared on film on so many occasions because Sony wanted to capitalize on one of its largest assets. Spider-Man is a very popular character and it only makes sense for Sony to continue making Spider-Man movies because they are exceptionally successful at the box office.

Saying that, there is still a lot more to be said about why are there so many Spider-Man movies. Let’s dive into the article and see the reasons why they keep making more and more Spidey movies.

Why Are There So Many Spider-Man Movies?

As I’ve already said, Spider-Man is an exceptionally popular and, with that, lucrative character. The fans love the comic books, they loved the animated series and the video games, so it was only logical that they would love the movies. And they did, despite all the shortcomings some of the movies had.

And with a lot of fans comes a lot of money for the studio, in this case, Sony. It only really makes sense for Sony to keep pushing for more Spider-Man movies, as it is sure to bring them a lot of money in the box office. That is why Sony has been constantly revitalizing the franchise each time it was on its knees.

A total of three Spider-Man films were shot by director Sam Raimi with Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man. Each of them was a financial success, and a fourth Spider-Man film was scheduled for development.

However, director Sam Raimi reportedly ended his collaboration because of his doubts that he could meet the scheduled release date of May 6, 2011, while, at the same time, giving a creative upgrade to the whole series. Raimi reportedly read four scripts by four different authors but hated each and every one of them, which is why he left.

After Sam Raimi’s departure, Sony hired Marc Webb to produce a new series of Amazing Spider-Man films with Andrew Garfield in the lead role.

Although Sony originally intended the film to kick off an expansive Spider-Man cinematic universe to compete with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Sony decided to cancel that series because of the disappointing box office results (which were still great, if you ask us) and poor critical reception (with which we don’t really agree), and because both Webb Garfield wanted to commit to just one more movie, rather than a whole cinematic universe.

Sony then reached an agreement with Marvel Studios to produce a new series of Spider-Man films starring Tom Holland; the films were supposed to connect Spider-Man with the Marvel Cinematic Universe films. In the meantime, Sony continued its original plans to create a “Spider-Man Cinematic Universe” with various characters from the Spider-Man comics.

The first of those Spider-Man films that actually doesn’t feature Spider-Man was 2018’s Venom starring Tom Hardy; the two characters are expected to have a cross-over in the near future.

How Many Spider-Man Movies Are There?

There are eight stand-lone Spider-Man movies in total; we’re not counting the MCU movies where Spider-Man was just a cast member, rather than the main character. Sam Raimi made three, Marc Webb two, and Jon Watts likewise three.

What follows is a brief overview of all the Spider-Man movies:

THE RAIMI TRILOGY

Spider-Man (2002)

Director: Sam Raimi
Screenwriter(s): David Koepp
Release Date: April 29, 2002
Running Time: 121 minutes

Starring: Tobey Maguire (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane Watson), Willem Dafoe (Norman Osborn/Green Goblin), James Franco (Harry Osborn), J.K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson)

Synopsis

Peter Parker is a brilliant, but socially frail teenager. He has had a crush on his neighbor Mary Jane Watson (M.J.) for years, but is too shy to admit it. His only friend is Harry Osborn, but their friendship is interrupted by the fact that Harry’s father Norman Osborn considers Peter superior to Harry. During a trip to a laboratory, Peter is bitten by a genetically engineered spider. He arrives home that evening and is only just able to reach his bedroom.

The next morning, Peter is surprised to discover that he no longer needs his glasses, and that his muscles have grown. During lunch at his school he discovers, among other things, that he can shoot a kind of web from his wrists, and that he has extra strength and extra fast reflexes. Peter trains to better control his powers, and eventually decides to enter a $ 3,000 wrestling match for three minutes in a cage fight with Bonesaw MacGraw. Peter manages to beat him easily, but because he finished the match within two minutes, the organizer refuses to pay him.

When the man is later robbed, Peter makes no attempt to stop the thief in revenge. Later that night, Peter passes the scene of a crime and is shocked to discover that his uncle Ben has been shot. When he hears on a police radio where the shooter is, he gives chase. Peter eventually catches the culprit in a warehouse and finds out that it is the same thief he had let walk earlier that night. The thief eventually dies when he falls through a window. A few months later, Peter graduated from high school and left for New York to continue his education. However, his uncle’s death made him realize that “great powers come with great responsibilities.”

He decides, with his newfound powers, to become the superhero Spider-Man and fight crime throughout the city. Peter even manages to make money by taking pictures of himself (as Spider-Man) and selling them to the Daily Bugle newspaper. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn is also undergoing a change. To save his company from the threat of losing an important military contract to a competitor, he decides to test the still-experimental formula for a power amplifier on his own. The drug increases his strength and intelligence, but drives him insane. He develops a second, evil personality that eliminates anyone who gets in Norman’s way. Armed with the military weapons that Oscorp was developing, Norman attacks his competitor Quest Aerospace.

His first public appearance is at the World Unity Festival, where Norman gets rid of all members of Oscorp’s board of directors because they wanted to fire him as director. This also yields his first conflict with Spider-Man. Norman’s costumed alter ego is later dubbed Green Goblin by Daily Buggle editor J. Jonah Jameson. Norman tries to get Spider-Man to fight on his side, but he refuses. Through a wound on Spider-Man’s arm, Norman discovers Spider-Man’s true identity and uses this knowledge to attack Peter’s loved ones, starting with his aunt, May Parker. In the movie’s climax, Norman kidnaps Mary Jane and takes her to Queensboro Bridge. He gives Spider-Man a choice: save Mary Jane, or a cable car cabin full of kids. Spider-Man manages to save both with the help of bystanders, before he and the Goblin battle it out in an abandoned building on Roosevelt Island. During this fight, the Goblin is exposed.

He tries to attack Spider-Man from behind with his Glider. However, Spider-Man jumps aside at the last minute, causing Norman to be pierced by his own Glider. With his last words, he asks Peter not to say anything to Harry. Since Peter does not tell Harry anything about his father being the Green Goblin, Harry thinks Spider-Man killed Norman and vows revenge. The film ends with Spider-Man swinging his web threads through New York.

Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Director: Sam Raimi
Screenwriter(s): Alvin Sargent
Release Date: June 22, 2004
Running Time: 127 minutes

Starring: Tobey Maguire (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane Watson), Alfred Molina (Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus), James Franco (Harry Osborn), J.K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson)

Synopsis

Two years have passed since the end of the previous film, and Peter Parker is increasingly struggling to lead a double life. He is unable to hold any job, has financial difficulties and becomes estranged from his friends Mary Jane Watson and Harry Osborn. Harry, now in charge of Oscorp, is still unaware that his father was the supervillain Green Goblin and is still out for revenge on Spider-Man. In fact, Peter Parker’s busy life is starting to take its toll on his superpowers, which he seems to be slowly losing.

Mary Jane dumps him after Peter is unable to attend a play in which she has a leading role for the umpteenth time (despite his promises), and says she will be married to John Jameson, the son of Peter’s boss, J. Jonah Jameson. Peter attends a demonstration of his idol, the brilliant scientist Otto Octavius. Dr. Octavius seems to have found a way for a new kind of nuclear fusion. To work with the device, Otto has developed four mechanical arms that he can control mentally. The arms also have artificial intelligence, but a special chip ensures that Otto keeps control of the arms. However, the experiment goes wrong and in the accident the chip on the arms is destroyed. Not long afterwards Otto Octavius ​​starts committing crimes under his new name, Doctor Octopus.

He has conceived the plan to repeat his experiment, whatever the consequences may be. Unable to balance his private and professional life, Peter Parker decides to call it quits. He throws his Spider-Man costume in the trash and starts living a normal life again. He also finally confesses to aunt May that he was in some way responsible for the death of his uncle, Ben Parker (since he could have stopped Uncle Ben’s killer before). After a while, however, Peter starts to doubt whether he had made the right choice.

Dr. Octopus makes a deal with Harry Osborn: if he catches Spider-Man and hands him over to Harry, Harry will give him the last tritium for his experiment. Dr. Octopus attacks Peter and Mary Jane while sitting in a restaurant. He kidnaps Mary Jane and orders Peter to track down Spider-Man. The shock of it all makes Peter regain his super powers. He confronts Dr. Octopus, but the villain forces Spider-Man to stop a runaway train first. Spider-Man succeeds, but becomes so exhausted from his rescue that Dr. Octopus can easily take him to Harry.

When Harry unmasks the unconscious Spider-Man, he is shocked to discover that his enemy is none other than his friend Peter Parker. Peter wakes up just in time and escapes. He finds Dr. Octopus in an abandoned warehouse just as he powers up an even bigger version of his nuclear fusion experiment. Peter manages to get through to Octavius, allowing him to overcome the mechanisms of his hands. To prevent his experiment from doing more damage, Octavius ​​uses the mechanical arms to throw the entire device into the water. Octavius ​​himself falls into the water and seems to be drowning.

During all of this, Mary Jane also discovers that Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. Peter tells her they will never be able to be together because as Spider-Man he will always have enemies. Meanwhile, Harry discovers a secret room behind the mirror in his apartment. In it, he finds the Green Goblin’s weapons and equipment, as well as a pair of glass cylinders containing the serum that gave Norman his powers. Harry finally learns the truth about his father. At the end of the film, Mary Jane decides not to marry John Jameson. She visits Peter and announces her decision to live with him from now on, despite the risks.

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Director: Sam Raimi
Screenwriter(s): Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi, Alvin Sargent
Release Date: April 16, 2007
Running Time: 139 minutes

Starring: Tobey Maguire (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane Watson), James Franco (Harry Osborn/New Goblin), Thomas Haden Church (Flint Marko/Sandman), Topher Grace (Eddie Brock/Venom), Bryce Dallas Howard (Gwen Stacy), J.K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson)

Synopsis

Peter Parker intends to propose marriage to Mary Jane Watson, who has just made her debut in a Broadway musical. Meanwhile, a meteorite falls near them in Central Park, and an alien symbiote attaches itself to Peter’s scooter. Meanwhile, the police are chasing a runaway bandit named Flint Marko, who climbs a security fence and falls into an experimental particle accelerator, which fuses his body with sand and allows him to morph at will as Sandman. Peter’s best friend, Harry Osborn, after discovering that Peter is Spider-Man, blames him for the death of his father, Norman Osborn. He attacks Peter using new weapons based on Green Goblin technology. After a battle, Harry injures his head in a pipe, and suffers from partial amnesia, making him forget his revenge and Peter’s secret identity.

During a festival that honors Spider-Man, Marko steals an armored car. New York police captain George Stacy tells Peter and Aunt May that Marko was Ben Parker’s real killer, and that the late Dennis Carradine was just an accomplice. While Peter sleeps, the symbiote merges with his body. He wakes up hanging from a skyscraper and finds that his costume has changed and his powers have been extended, but the symbiote brings out Peter’s dark side. Wearing the new black suit, Spider-Man locates Marko and fights him in a subway tunnel. He discovers that water is Marko’s weakness and uses a tube to reduce Sandman to the mud.

Peter’s aggressive personality mainly affects Mary Jane, whose career is on the decline, and she finds solace in Harry. Harry recovers from his amnesia, and influenced by a hallucination of his late father, forces Mary Jane to break up with Peter. After Mary Jane tells Peter that she loves someone else, Harry meets him and claims to be “the other guy”. Later, wearing the black suit, Peter confronts Harry and tells him that his father never loved him. Harry throws a bomb at Peter, but Peter deflects it back, disfiguring Harry’s face.

Under the influence of the symbiote, Peter exposes Eddie Brock, through the presentation of manipulated photos that show Spider-Man as a criminal. Furious at having to publish a retraction, J. Jonah Jameson dismisses Eddie. Without a competitor, Peter keeps the job and is more arrogant due to the influence of the symbiote, at the same time that Sandman recovers from the battle.

To make Mary Jane jealous, Peter takes Gwen Stacy to the nightclub where Mary Jane works. Upon learning of this, Gwen apologizes to her and leaves. Peter fights with security guards, and after involuntarily assaulting Mary Jane, he realizes that the symbiote is changing him. Fleeing to the church’s bell tower, he discovers that he cannot remove the costume, but that the alien weakens with the sounds of the bell. Peter throws the symbiote away and it attaches itself to Brock, turning him into Venom. Brock finds Sandman and together they intend to destroy Spider-Man.

Venom hijacks Mary Jane’s taxi and places it in a web hundreds of feet from the ground, on top of a sand-filled construction site. Peter asks Harry for help, but Harry rejects him. While Peter struggles with Brock, Harry finally learns the truth about his father’s death and goes to help Peter. Harry fights a giant Sandman while Peter fights Venom. Brock tries to kill Peter with Harry’s glider, but he throws himself in the front and ends up impaled in his place. As Peter frees himself, he remembers how the church bell weakened him. He takes tubes and makes a ring around the symbiote, creating a wall of sound vibrations. The weakened alien tries to free Brock, and Peter uses his web to separate the two.

Peter throws a Green Goblin bomb at the symbiote, but Brock jumps to reunite with him, and both are destroyed by the explosion. Marko finally tells Peter the truth: he never intended to kill Ben because he just wanted his car and shot accidentally when Dennis Carradine grabbed him by the arm. He says that Ben’s death has haunted him ever since. Peter forgives Marko, who disintegrates and flies away. Peter and Harry, on his deathbed, forgive each other, and he dies with Mary Jane and Peter by his side. Days later, Peter visits the jazz bar, where Mary Jane is singing, and they dance.

THE WEBB DUOLOGY

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Director: Marc Webb
Screenwriter(s): James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent, Steve Kloves
Release Date: June 30, 2012
Running Time: 136 minutes

Starring: Andrew Garfield (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy), Rhys Ifans (Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard), Martin Sheen (Ben Parker), Denis Leary (George Stacy)

Synopsis

As a child, Peter Parker discovers that the office of his father, Richard, has been broken into. Shortly afterwards, his parents leave to an unknown destination and leave Peter with his uncle Ben and aunt May. Years later, Peter is now at Midtown Science High School, where he is an outsider. Flash Thompson, the school’s bully, in particular often targets him. Peter secretly has a crush on fellow student Gwen Stacy.

One day, he finds a briefcase containing documents from his father, showing that Richard Parker was working with Dr. Curt Connors at the Oscorp company. Peter pretends to be an intern to enter Oscorp in the hope of meeting Dr. Connors. During his stay at Oscorp, Peter ends up in a laboratory with genetically modified spiders. One of them bites him, after which Peter develops super powers. Ultimately, Peter finds Dr. Connors, and it turns out that Connors and Richard Parker were working together on a way to apply the regenerative power of reptiles to humans, to regrow lost body parts (Connors himself is missing an arm, and wants to restore this). Connors is also working on a cure for Norman Osborn, the head of Oscorp. Peter gives Connors his father’s papers, from which Connors gets the missing information to complete his project.

While working with Dr. Connors , Peter forgets to pick up his aunt in town that evening, which leads to a heated argument with his uncle. Peter leaves angrily, and when Ben tries to find him he is murdered by a robber. Enraged, Peter begins a search for the murderer, thus starting his career as Spider-Man. As Spider-Man, he charges multiple criminals, but the police, led by Gwen Stacy’s father George, are not happy with his antics. Peter shares his secret with Gwen.

Dr. Connors manages to bind reptile DNA to mice, after which he is ordered to test the drug on humans as well. Connors refuses because it is too early for that, so Oscorp fires him and Raya, the head of the lab, decides to search for human test subjects himself. In an act of desperation, Connors uses the drug on himself. The drug works and Connor’s missing arm regenerates, but the Doctor then mutates himself into a human-lizard hybrid and goes insane. He becomes convinced that he can help humanity by turning everyone into lizard men. This puts him in conflict with Spider-Man.

The two confront each other for the first time on the Williamsburg Bridge, and later again in the sewers and at Midtown Science High School. Peter discovers Connors’s plan and rushes with Gwen Stacy to Oscorp, where Connors plans to unleash a cloud of lizard DNA on the town. At Peter’s direction, Gwen creates an antidote, after which Peter, George Stacy and Connors face off on the roof. Connors is overpowered and Peter uses the antidote to bring both Connors and the people he already mutated to normal. George, however, dies in the fight, but makes Peter promise before his death that he will protect Gwen. In a post-credits bonus scene, Connors is visited in prison by an Oscorp spokesman, who asks Connors if Peter knows the truth about his father.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

Director: Marc Webb
Screenwriter(s): Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner
Release Date: April 18, 2014
Running Time: 142 minutes

Starring: Andrew Garfield (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy), Jamie Foxx (Max Dillon/Electro), Dane DeHaan (Harry Osborn/Green Goblin), Paul Giamatti (Aleksei Sytsevich/Rhino)

Synopsis

The film opens with a flashback of scientist Richard Parker recording a video message revealing the reason for his sudden disappearance. Moments later, he and his wife Mary are seen on board a private jet, which is hijacked by a hitman who must kill Richard. The plane crashes shortly after.

In the present day, Peter Parker continues to fight crime as Spider-Man. He catches, among others, the criminal Aleksei Sytsevich, who wants to steal a truck with plutonium. During his fight with Sytsevich, Spider-Man rescues Max Dillon, a mechanic employed by Oscorp, who promptly considers himself a friend and big fan of Spider-Man. Peter ends his relationship with Gwen Stacy because he promised her father to leave her out of his superhero life. In addition, Gwen will soon be leaving for England for further study at Somerville College (University of Oxford).

Meanwhile, Peter’s old friend Harry Osborn returns to New York to visit his terminally ill father, Norman Osborn. Norman tells Harry that his illness is hereditary, and that Harry will soon get it. He gives Harry a small device that would contain his life’s work. Shortly after this, Norman dies and Harry becomes the new CEO of OsCorp. He soon discovers that OsCorp has been engaged in secret biogenetic projects for military purposes for years. He also discovers that Spider-Man’s blood could potentially cure his illness. He wants Peter, who takes pictures of Spider-Man for work, to put him in contact with Spider-Man, but Peter refuses.

While doing maintenance work, Max Dillon has an accident in which he falls into a tank of genetically modified electric eels. This mutates into a living dynamo. With his newfound powers, he accidentally causes a major power outage in Times Square, drawing Spider-Man’s attention. When the police attack him too, Max goes after them and forces Spider-Man to stop him. After their fight, he is locked up in the Ravencroft Institute for the criminally insane. Fearing a scandal, OsCorp’s board of directors blames Harry for the accident that made Max what he is and dismisses him as CEO. In revenge, Harry helps Max, who now calls himself Electro, to escape. Electro then helps Harry break into OsCorp, where Harry finds a battle suit and other weapons made by Norman. He also finds a poison made from the spiders that gave Peter his powers in the first movie. Harry ingests this poison hoping it will cure him, but instead it turns him into a goblin-like creature.

Peter finds the video message from his father, and discovers that his parents had fled because they wanted nothing more to do with Norman Osborn’s projects. The video also shows that Richard used his own DNA to create the genetically modified spiders. This means that only someone from the Parker bloodline can benefit from the bite of such a spider, which explains why it gave Peter super powers while Harry became a monster. When Peter receives a voicemail from Gwen announcing that she will be leaving immediately, he visits her again, declares his love for her, and decides to take her to England.

It doesn’t get that far, because Electro turns up again and Peter has to fight him. Together with Gwen, he kills Electro with an explosion. Afterwards, Harry arrives, now as the Green Goblin and armed with Norman’s inventions. He wants revenge because Peter refused to help him. He kidnaps Gwen Stacy and lures Spider-Man to a clock tower. There, Peter defeats Harry in combat, but Gwen is killed when she falls dead.

Five months later, Peter has given up his life as Spider-Man. Harry is now also at the Ravencroft Institute, where he is recovering from his transformation. He is visited by an acquaintance (the same man who visited Dr. Connors in the previous film), who informs him of the plans to form the Sinister Six. To begin with, he frees Sytsevich from prison and gives him a special armored suit and code name Rhino. When Rhino leaves a trail of devastation across town, a recording of Gwen Stacy’s graduation speech motivates Peter to become Spider-Man again and stop Rhino.

THE MCU SPIDER-MAN

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Director: Jon Watts
Screenwriter(s): Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Jon Watts, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers
Release Date: June 28, 2017
Running Time: 133 minutes

Starring: Tom Holland (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), Michael Keaton (Adrian Toomes/The Vulture), Jon Favreau (Happy Hogan), Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man), Marisa Tomei (May Parker), Zendaya (MJ)

Synopsis

After the Battle of New York, Adrian Toomes and his salvage company are hired to clean up the city, but their operation is taken over by the Department of Damage Control (D.O.D.C.), a partnership between Tony Stark and the US government. Enraged at losing his job, Toomes persuades his employees to keep the Chitauri technology they have already collected and use it to create and sell advanced weapons, including a wing-shaped suit and metal claws called the Vulture.

Four years later, Peter Parker is recruited into the Avengers by Stark to help with an internal dispute, but continues his studies at the Midtown Science High School when Stark tells him that he is not yet ready to be a full Avenger. Parker resigns from his school’s academic decathlon team to spend more time focusing on his crime-fighting activities as Spider-Man. One night, after preventing criminals from robbing an ATM with Toomes’ weapons, Parker returns to his apartment in Queens where his best friend Ned discovers his secret identity. Another night, Parker comes across Toomes’ associates Jackson Brice and Hernan Schultz selling guns to local criminal Aaron Davis. Peter saves Davis before Toomes catches him and throws him into a river, nearly drowning after becoming entangled in a parachute built into his suit. He is rescued by Stark, who is monitoring the Spider-Man suit he gave Parker and warning him about getting more involved with criminals.

Toomes accidentally kills Brice with one of his weapons, and Schultz becomes the new Shocker. Parker and Ned study a weapon left by Brice, removing its power core. When a tracking device on Schultz leads them to Maryland, Parker rejoins the decathlon team and escorts them to Washington, D.C. for the national tournament. Ned and Parker deactivate the tracker that Stark implanted in Spider-Man’s suit, and they unlock its advanced features. Parker tries to stop Toomes from stealing weapons from a D.O.D.C. truck, but gets trapped inside the truck, causing him to lose the tournament. When he discovers that the power core is an unstable Chitauri grenade, Parker rushes to the Washington Monument, where the core explodes and traps Ned and his friends in an elevator. Evading local authorities, Parker saves his friends, including his partner and love interest Liz.

Back in New York, Parker persuades Davis to reveal Toomes’ whereabouts. Aboard the Staten Island Ferry, Parker captures Toomes’ new client Mac Gargan, but Toomes escapes and a faulty weapon cuts the ferry in half. Stark helps Parker save the passengers and takes away his suit because he deemed him reckless. Parker returns to his school life, eventually asking Liz to go to the homecoming dance with him. On the night of the dance, Parker learns that Toomes is Liz’s father. Deducing Parker’s secret identity from Liz’s description of him, Toomes threatens retaliation if he interferes with their plans. During the dance, Parker realizes that Toomes plans to hijack a D.O.D.C. Transporting weapons from the Avengers Tower; donning his old homemade Spider-Man costume, he heads to Toomes’ lair.

He is first ambushed by Schultz, but defeats him with the help of Ned. In the lair, Toomes destroys the building’s support beams and leaves Parker to die. Parker escapes the debris and intercepts the plane, causing it to crash on the beach near Coney Island. He and Toomes continue to fight, ending with Parker saving Toomes’ life after Vulture’s damaged suit explodes, and leaving him for the police along with the plane’s cargo. Following his father’s arrest, Liz moves out, and Parker declines an invitation from Stark to join the Avengers full-time. Back home, he discovers that Stark has returned the suit to him, but just when he’s finished putting it on, Aunt May surprises him from behind. In a mid-credits scene, Gargan approaches Toomes inside the prison. He has heard that Toomes knows Spider-Man’s true identity, but Toomes denies it. In a post-credits scene, Captain America appears filming a public service announcement apparently breaking the fourth wall, about the importance of patience.

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Director: Jon Watts
Screenwriter(s): Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers
Release Date: June 26, 2019
Running Time: 129 minutes

Starring: Tom Holland (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), Jake Gyllenhaal (Quentin Beck/Mysterio), Zendaya (MJ), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Jon Favreau (Happy Hogan), Marisa Tomei (May Parker), J.K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson)

Synopsis

Nick Fury and Maria Hill investigate the effects of what appears to have been an abnormal storm in Mexico. They come face to face with one of the four Elementals (the one with power over Earth). Quentin Beck appears on the scene and uses his abilities to defeat the creature.

Peter Parker’s school year is over and there was a restart because some of his classmates and he had disappeared for five years after Thanos’ invasion. They then returned the same age, while those who did not disappear had aged by as much as five years. The school organizes a two-week trip through Europe. Peter plans to have fun with his friends during that time and not be Spider-Man for a short time. He also wants to declare his feelings to his classmate MJ. After they arrive in Venice, a second Elemental (water) attacks appear. While protecting everyone, Beck kills the second elemental. Fury visits Peter and gives him the glasses that Tony Stark left him. This allows him to communicate with a form of artificial intelligence called E.D.I.T.H. This gives Peter access to all databases and control of Stark Industries’ enormously advanced weapons arsenal.

Beck says that he comes from an alternate Earth that was destroyed by the Elementals. He wants to prevent them from destroying this Earth as well. Peter’s class has just arrived in Prague when the Fire Elemental attacks there. Beck returns to the rescue. Peter realizes that Stark gave him his glasses because he wanted him to succeed him as leader of The Avengers, but he just doesn’t think he’s ready for that. He sees in Beck a more suitable successor. Peter therefore hands him Stark’s glasses and thus control of E.D.I.T.H. It is then revealed what Beck was after that whole time.

He is not from an alternate Earth and the Elementals were holograms created by him and his team. Beck is actually a former Stark employee specialized in illusions. He wanted E.D.I.T.H. as the ultimate means to create false realities. With it, he can play the hero and as a result go through life rich and adored. MJ tells Peter she knows he is Spider-Man. She also found a strange piece of equipment after one of the attacks. This turns out to be a projector that simulates an Air-Elemental attack. This makes them realize that Beck is an impostor.

Peter wants to inform Fury, but finds himself in one of Beck’s illusions. He then accidentally reveals that MJ and his friend Ned also know the truth. Beck lures him in front of an oncoming train and leaves him for dead. Peter arrives by train in Broek op Langedijk, where he calls Happy Hogan on the phone of a market vendor. Happy picks up Peter in a tulip field and brings Peter back to his class, which is now in London. Beck creates an illusion here that consists of a huge composition of all Elementals. He wants to take this opportunity to silence MJ and Ned as well. This time, Peter battles Beck by relying on his spider sense, rather than his eyes and ears. This allows him to resist the illusions and to stop his enemy.