Spider-Man is a 2002 super-hero action film directed by Sam Raimi based on Marvel Comics Spider-Man character. The story, written by David Koepp, is based on the early Spider-Man comics particularly around his origin story. The profit of the movie was very high, critical reception was fantastic and the movie spawned two sequels and a video game.
Plot
As a High school senior Peter Parker lives in Forest Hills, a quiet neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. He is secretly in love with his next door neighbour Mary Jane Watson, a popular warm-hearted girl, though he is too afraid to speak to her. Peter's friend Harry Osborn is the son of Dr. Norman Osborn, president of the Oscorp manufacturing corporation, which is working to win a contract to supply weapons to the United States Army.
On a field trip to a genetics laboratory, Peter is bitten by genetically engineered Spider. He passes out in his bedroom at home, and the next day his vision is perfect, he no longer needs his glasses, he has become more muscular, his wrists emit web strings, and his reflexes are super-quick. At school, he saves Mary Jane from a split-second fall, Peter got a web on his arm to throws a web on his arm at lunch food and Peter accidentally throws a food lunch at Flash, and easily defeats her bullying boyfriend in a fistfight at school. Realizing that the Spider's bite has given him Spiderlike powers, he trains himself to scale walls, jump between rooftops, and swing through the city.
Peter enters a wrestling tournament, hoping to win $3,000 so he can buy a sports car to impress Mary Jane. On the day of the tournament, Ben tries to give him some fatherly advice, but Peter lashes out at him. At the tournament, the announcer presents Peter as "The Amazing Spider-Man". Peter defeats his opponent, Bonesaw McGraw but the man in charge only gives Peter $100 for winning the match early. When a thief robs the man, Peter takes his revenge by allowing the robber to escape, but he discovers later that a carjacker has shot Uncle Ben during the robber's getaway. Peter comes to the crime scene to find Uncle Ben dying and cradles him before he suddenly passes away. Peter hears of a pursuit from a police radio at the crime scene and pursues in his costume.
Peter swings through the city and eventually sees stolen Uncles Ben's car. He lands on top of it and causes the driver to crash. The thief then flees to an abandoned waterfront warehouse where he is confronted by a vengeful Peter. It was then when Peter realised that the thief was the man he could have stopped at the elevator earlier. The carjacker pulls a gun on Peter and the two scuffle causing the thief to lose his footing and causing him to fall out of the window to his death. Feeling responsible for Ben's death, and feeling guilty for rejecting his advice, Peter dedicates himself to fighting crime as Spider-Man. He makes money by selling pictures of himself as Spider-Man to The Daily Bugle newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson, who declares Spider-Man as a menace to the whole city.
Meanwhile, under pressure from the military, Norman tests Oscorp's dangerous new performance-enhancing serum on himself. The chemical manages to make him much stronger, but he quickly develops a maniacal alter ego. He immediately murders his assistant, then kills several of his competitor's scientists from the air, wearing an artificial exoskeleton and standing on a small flying platform called a "glider". After Oscorp's director's fire him, he flies to an Oscorp-sponsored fair and kills them before Spider-Man drives him away. Jameson dubs Norman's alter ego the "Green Goblin". Osborn wakes up and realizes what he had done, he was remorseful, but his evil side convinced him to trick Spider-Man into an alliance. He lures Spider-Man into an attack of the Daily Bugle where he knocks him out and takes him to a rooftop. Spider-Man disagrees to form an alliance. After he saves Mary Jane from alleyway thugs she gives him the iconic upside down kiss as a thank you. Then when he battles Goblin in a burning building, Norman discovers that Peter is Spider-Man and attacks Aunt May as an attempt in attaking Peter's heart.
As they watch over May in the hospital, Mary Jane tells Peter she loves Spider-Man, and Peter expresses his own feelings for her. Harry sees them holding hands, and in an act of jealousy tells his father about their love for each other, revealing that Peter has feelings for Mary Jane. Green Goblin lures Spider-Man to the top of the Queensboro Bridge by taking Mary Jane and a Roosevelt Island Tramway car full of children hostage. He drops both at the same time, but Spider-Man saves them all with help from the people on the bridge and a barge, forcing the Goblin to take Spider-Man to an abandoned atrium for a fight. However, he cheats by throwing a pumpkin bomb at Spider-Man, causing Peter to lose his sensible strength and is weakened, which the Goblin takes advantage of by beating him up, despite Peter's best efforts, but Green Goblin makes the mistake of threatening Mary Jane, which eventually angers Spider-Man and the anger gives Spider-Man his strength to brutally beat the Green Goblin, forcing Norman to reveal himself. However, Norman attempts to kill Peter by sending his glider flying towards him but Peter dodges it as his Spider sense finally kicks in, causing Norman to get stabbed a impale instead with his glider. Norman tells Peter not to reveal his true identity to Harry before dying.
Spider-Man delivers Norman's body to the Osborn's penthouse, but is spotted by Harry, who is now left with the impression that Spider-Man had murdered his father. At Norman's funeral, Harry swears to Peter that he will make Spider-Man pay dearly and avenge his father's death. Mary Jane confesses her love to Peter and kisses him, but Peter insists that they can only be friends, secretly afraid that she would suffer further harm if Spider-Man's enemies knew that he loved her. Walking away from Mary Jane, who is now in tears yet also finds the kiss familiar afterward, he recalls Ben's words, "With great power comes great responsibility," and accepts his new life as Spider-Man.
Cast
- Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man/Peter Parker
- Willem Dafoe as The Green Goblin/Norman Osborn
- Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson
- James Franco as Harry Osborn
- Cliff Robertson as Uncle Ben Parker
- Rosemary Harris as Aunt May Parker
- J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson
- Bill Nunn as Joseph "Robbie" Robertson
- Elizabeth Banks as Betty Brant
- Ted Raimi as Hoffman
- K.K. Dodds as Simkins
- Ron Perkins as Mendel Stromm
- Stanley Anderson as General Slocum
- Gerry Becker as Maximillian Fargas
- Jack Betts as Henry Balkan
- Joe Manganiello as Flash Thompson
- John Paxton as Houseman
- Bruce Campbell as Wrestling The Ring Announcer
- Randy Savage as Bonesaw McGraw
- Larry Joshua as Wrestling Promoter
- Michael Papajohn as Dennis Carradine/Carjacker
- Tim De Zarn as Philip Watson
- Gilbert Taylor as Madeline Watson
Gallery
Videos
Extended and Alternate Scenes
Video game
- Main article: Spider-Man (video game)
A video game based on the movie was released in 2002.
External Links
| Raimi Film Series | |
|---|---|
| Films: | Spider-Man | Spider-Man 2 | Spider-Man 3 |
| Characters: | Peter Parker/Spider-Man | Mary Jane Watson | Harry Osborn | J. Jonah Jameson | Uncle Ben | Aunt May | George Stacy | Gwen Stacy | Robbie Robertson | Betty Brant | Curt Connors | Flash Thompson | Dr. Stromm | Mr. Ditkovich | Ursula Ditkovich | Maximillian Fargas | Henry Balkan | Rosalie Octavius | Hoffman | Bernard Houseman | Mr. Aziz | Bonesaw McGraw |
| Enemies: | The Green Goblin | Doctor Octopus | The Sandman | New Goblin | Venom | The Carjacker |
| Locations: | The Daily Bugle | Oscorp Technologies | Quest Aerospace | Osborn Penthouse | Goblin Lair |
| Video Games: | Spider-Man | Spider-Man 2 | Spider-Man 3 |