Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina)

Doctor Octopus
Name:	Otto Gunther Octavius
Alias(es):	Science Squid Doc Ock Doctor Octopus
Affiliation:	Oscorp Technologies
Rank:	Villain
Spouse(s):	Rosalie Octavius
Portrayed by:	Alfred Molina
First appeared:	Spider-Man 2
Last appeared:	Spider-Man 2
Appears in:	1 Film

"Intelligence is not a privilege, it's a gift, to be used for the good of mankind."

―Otto Octavius's most famous line

Doctor Octopus (Dr. Otto Octavius) is the main antagonist in Spider-Man 2. He is supervillain character that appears in the Marvel Comics since his creation by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1963. He was portrayed in the 2004 film Spider-Man 2 by Alfred Molina. The character was originally planned to appear in the trilogy's first film though was written out of the final script as to keep the plot less complicated.

History

Spider-Man 2

Otto Octavius is a scienticst by profession who studied science together with Curt Connors. It was at university that he met his future wife Rosalie who was studying English Literature at the same time. Otto dedicates his life towards researching and building a sustainable fusion power reactor with his wifes help. He finds funding for his project from Oscorp under the leadership of it's new head of research development, Harry Osborn. Harry also introduces Otto to Peter Parker who was writing a paper on him for a university class, ironically taught by his colleague Dr. Curt Connors.

Octavius upon first meeting Peter Parker.

To help him perform a sustained fusion experiment, Octavius developed a set of artificially intelligent mechanical arms, which are impervious to heat and magnetism. Though the experiment overloads and becomes unstable, Octavius refuses to halt it, with devastating results: his wife is killed; the neural inhibitor chip which prevented the advanced AI of the arms from influencing Octavius's own mind is destroyed; and the arms are fused to his spine. Unconscious, he is taken to a hospital to have the appendages removed, but the tentacles develop their own ability to move at will and brutally kill the surgeons, and Octavius escapes. Octavius' failed experiment left Oscorp bankrupt causing Harry much anger.

Uncontrolled, the tentacles begin to corrupt Octavius' mind, playing on his vanity and ego, and he decides he must complete his experiment at any cost. J. Jonah Jameson names him "Doctor Octopus" or "Doc Ock". In an effort to finance his experiments, Doc Ock attempts to rob a bank where Peter Parker and his Aunt May happen to be present. After a short glitch in his powers, Spider-Man manages to recover and soon the two take their fight outside the bank, but Doc Ock takes Aunt May hostage. After Spider-Man rescues her, she revises her former opinion of him and realizes that he is a hero. Octavius escapes unscathed.

Octavius planning his rebuilding of the reactor.

After accuiring funds from his bank robbery, Doctor Octopus has completed rebuilding his fusion reactor, but is still in need one final item: the tritium which fuels the reactor. He goes to Harry Osborn's penthouse for it, where Harry calls Octavius a hack. After threateningly dangling him over the edge of the Osborn mansion balcony Harry proposes a deal. Harry agrees to give Octavius all the tritium he needs in exchange for capturing Spider-Man and bringing him back to him alive. He tells Doctor Octopus that Peter will tell him how to find him, but urges him not to harm Peter.

Doctor Octopus destroys a coffee shop where Peter and Mary Jane Watson were meeting. Peter, through his spider-sense throws Mary Jane and himself out of the way of a thrown taxi, but Doctor Octopus abducts Mary Jane in a plot to lure Spider-Man into a trap. Spider-Man engages Doctor Octopus in a battle, which starts off at the top of a clock tower at 3 O'clock and then battle down on top of a train. During the battle, Octavius destroys the brakes of the train, forcing Spider-Man to rescue the runaway train so he can escape.

Spider-Man manages to stop the train before it can plunge over the end of the track, but at great physical exertion. He nearly falls, but the people in the train catch him and pull him up. Doctor Octopus arrives and the passengers defend Spider-Man, but his mechanical arms are too powerfull for them. Doctor Octopus captures Spider-Man and delivers him to Harry as arranged. He then takes the tritium for his own. Spider-Man awakens and convinces Harry to reveal Octavius' whereabouts so he can rescue Mary Jane, learning that Octavius is rebuilding his machine and threatening the world.

Spider-Man finds Doctor Octopus in an abandoned warehouse on the waterfront, where he's restarted his fusion experiment. After battling with Doctor Octopus, Spider-Man manages to stun him with an electric shock. Peter then reveals his true identity to Octavius and pleads with him to stop the machine. Returned to his senses by the shock and determined to end his doomsday experiment before it causes more harm, Octavius uses his mechanical arms to collapse the floor of the building, successfully drowning the fusion device at the cost of his own life. He drowns in the river along with the fusion core.

Spider-Man 3

Doctor Octopus was never mentioned in Spider-Man 3. However in the films intro credits, scenes with Octavius and his ultimate death were seen.

Production

David Duchovny, Liev Schreiber, Robert De Niro, Sam Neill, Ed Harris, and Chris Cooper were all considered for the role of Doctor Octopus. Apparently Sam Raimi decided to cast Alfred Molina as Octavius after his wife watched the film Frida which Molina had starred in. Molina was a huge fan of the Marvel Comics since childhood. Cooper would later be cast as Norman Osborn in 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Trivia

• The mechanical tentacles were each made up of 76 individual pieces. Each one of them were controlled by four people, who rehearsed each scene with Alfred Molina to get a more natural sense of movement. The sound designers chose not to use servo sound effects, to complete the illusion that the tentacles are a part of Doctor Octopus' body.
• Molina actually gave names to his four mechanical tentacles (Larry, Harry, Flo, and Moe). Flo was the top right tentacle, because it was operated by a female grip and that particular tentacle was the most motherly, which removed his sunglasses and gave him sips of his drink.
• Altough that Doctor Octopus is his alias in the comics and the TV shows ,Octavius never adopted this alias or mentioned by him. The alias was given to him only by the Bugle following that he has four tentacles and him being a scientist and wreaks havoc in the city.