Spider-Man Strikes Back | |
Directed by: | Ron Satlof |
Produced by: | Robert Janes Ron Satlof |
Screenplay by: | Robert Janes |
Based on the Characters by: |
Stan Lee & Steve Ditko |
Starring: | Nicholas Hammond Robert Alda Robert F. Simon Joanna Cameron Michael Pataki |
Music by: | Stu Phillips |
Distributed by: | Colombia Pictures |
Release Date: | 21 December, 1978 |
Preceeded by: | The Amazing Spider-Man |
Followed by: | Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge |
Spider-Man Strikes Back is a 1978 made-for-television film directed by Ron Satlof and starring Nicholas Hammond as the tile character. It combined both parts of the two-part episode of the conteporary TV show The Amazing Spider-Man shown on TV in 1978, "Deadly Dust".
Plot[]
The film begins with people in the street watching in horror, as the NYPD, FDNY and ambulances cover a street. A woman who has recently been dumped is threatening to jump off a high rise while a man in the window is attempting to convince her not to do this. Spider-Man is crawling on the side of the building, and covertly manages to grab the woman and get her to safety, to which the crowd applauds Spidey's rescue.
At the New York State University, Peter Parker is attending a science class which is talking about the Manhattan Project. The well-meaning professor has indirectly taught the class how to make an atomic bomb, which is taken advantage of by three of Peter's classmates who are activists bent on making a political statement. The students use the plutonium to try build a bomb in order to illustrate the dangers of nuclear power. While Peter Parker tries to find out what's happened, the police suspect him of the crime, and Peter has to deal with an attractive journalist named Gale Hoffman, who is determined to get an interview with Spider-Man following his rescue of the jumping woman.
In order to make their point the students steal some plutonium oxide from the university lab. Spider-Man appears on the scene in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the theft. The robbery triggers an alarm which alerts campus police, but the activists are gone by this time. Spider-Man is still there, and flees. However, as he was the only one spotted at the scene of the crime, he gets blamed. Meanwhile, in Switzerland, villain Mr. White reads a newspaper report of the theft and deduces that it was the students rather than Spider-Man who stole the radioactive material. He plans to relieve the students of their ill gotten gains. He departs immediately for the United States with his monstrous henchman, Angel.
White has his henchmen steal the plutonium so that he can obtain his own version of the weapon. Spider-Man is forced defeat this scheming villain in order to stop him blowing up the World Trade Centre. White kidnaps Peter, in an effort to locate the plutonium. While making the bomb, a female student faints, and the two male students realize she has radiation poisoning, and abandon their bomb in order to save her life. After seeing a report that one of the activists was admitted to a hospital for radiation poisoning, Peter changes to Spider-Man to track down the plutonium. But White and Angel beat Spider-Man to the punch. In the ensuing fight, Spider-Man is hurled off a twelve story building and plunges, seemingly to his death. He saves himself from his death dive by forming a net with his webbing. But in the confusion, White and Angel escape with the plutonium.
J. Jonah Jameson, owner of The Daily Bugle, discovers that White has fled to Los Angeles and arranges for Peter Parker and Gale Hoffman to travel to the west coast in search of White. While posing as a couple, Gale and Peter take a helicopter tour of L.A.. Peter has a small Geiger counter, and when it reacts over a small island, he deduces the plutonium must be hidden there. Mr. White demands $1,000,000,000 in return for not setting off the plutonium bomb in a heavily populated area. As White had earlier threatened to bomb the World Trade Center, the authorities chalk up his threat to mean he is going to detonate the bomb in New York City. In fact, White plans to set off the bomb in Los Angeles at the time the President of the United States is giving a speech there.
Spider-Man finally tracks White to his lair and learns of White's plans. He locates the bomb and defuses it at the last second. But White escaped, and vowed that he and Spider-Man will meet again.
Cast[]
- Nicholas Hammond as Spider-Man/Peter Parker
- Robert Alda as Mr. White
- Robert F. Simon as J. Jonah Jameson
- Michael Pataki as Captain Barbera
- Joanna Cameron as Gale Hoffman
- Leigh Kavanaugh as Linda
- Lawrence P. Casey as Angel
- Sidney Clute as Inspector DeCarlo
- Emil Farkas as Karate Thug
- Ron Hajak as Motorcycle Salesman