Before you go on, if you are planning to watch Spider-Man No Way Home, please click off and read something else. You’ve been warned!

By Zaki Abbasi

Jan. 13, 2022

SAN JOSE, CALIF.– Marvel has been spending lots of time hyping up Spider-Man No Way Home, and it certainly was interesting to watch. All sci-fi and Marvel nerds (myself included) have been super excited for the movie. Let’s break down Spider-Man No Way Home, and hear the opinion of a sci-fi and Marvel nerd.

NWH starts off just at the end of Spider-Man Far From Home, the movie right before. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man’s secret identity has been revealed to the whole world by villain Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio, who had died to his own hands. Except, no one knows that. Mysterio has blamed his killing on Spider-Man. Peter Parker, now deemed as a murderer, has to deal with insane obstacles throughout the movie. 

The people Parker has been saving, turn on him. Parker’s closest friends are now in danger, and under constant fire of the media and the public. Even at school, he is verbally abused for actions he never took. The kids he used to be friends with now curse at him, and make fun of him. He was framed, and there’s no way to prove he didn’t kill Mysterio, or attack N.Y.

In the next 10 minutes of the movie, the FBI comes to investigate Parker, his friends, and his family. Parker is interrogated, and still pinned for doing the crimes. Here, we have a long-awaited Marvel crossover; Daredevil works as Peter Parker’s lawyer. Daredevil is a Marvel superhero who lost his eyesight. He’s a great lawyer by day, and a crime-fighter by night. I loved seeing this come up in the movie. Despite status though, Daredevil doesn’t have a large role in this movie, other than talking with Parker for a few minutes. 

At this time of the movie, I really enjoyed it, mostly because of the clear-cut structure. There is a problem our hero has to face; a hero that we’ve always loved. 

In the next 20 minutes of the movie, Parker gains the help of Doctor Strange. Parker wishes that nobody knows his identity, and asks Doctor Strange for a favor. Make everyone forget who he was, and stop this from happening. Parker doesn’t realize however, that all his friends and family would also forget his identity. 

In the first two Spider-Man movies, Parker is always trying to protect his identity, and it’s one of  his biggest obstacles (other than the villains of course). Now, after all those important to him know his identity, Parker risks re-starting his past life. 

Doctor Strange attempts to alter the spell, as he casts it for Spider-Man, until he cannot stop it anymore, and he has to contain it. Doctor Strange scolds Peter for risking the universe’s stability. 

It’s important to realize that Spider-Man No Way Home attempts bringing two main sci-fi concepts together that stem through Marvel superhero movies. One is magic, that is brought up in the first Dr. Strange movie, and the other is advanced technology, that has always been a main concept in the background of many movies, from Iron-Man, to Captain America. Spider-Man No Way Home does a good job in intertwining these ideas.

Continuing in the heat of the protests against Spider-Man, Parker, MJ and Ned all put in college applications for MIT. Despite their intelligence, they know that they won’t make it in, considering the fact that they are friends with Parker. 

Spider-Man tries to swing over to Paula Newsome, the administrative officer of MIT, while she is on her way to the airport. Peter meets her in her car on the road, in an attempt to at least get Ned and MJ into MIT, because they shouldn’t suffer for being friends with Parker. Just as he is about to start though, we meet Doctor Octopus. 

Doctor Octopus is the same from the 2004 Spider-Man 2. He attacks the highway, and Peter does his best to get everyone to safety. Peter and Doc Ock fight, and Peter tries to preserve his life. At the end of the battle, Peter beats Doc Ock, with his knowledge of his relatively primitive technology. Spider-Man saves Mrs. Newsome, and gains her trust. She lets Peter know that she’ll make sure that he and his friends will get into MIT.  

The good news doesn’t last long, as Parker learns that Dr. Strange was not able to completely contain the spell. Villains were now appearing from other, different Spider-Man universes. Soon, Parker has met The Lizard, Electro, Sandman and Goblin, all played by their original actors. 

Parker then fights Dr. Strange, who doesn’t believe that the villains deserve a second chance. Parker  is able to grab the box that Dr. Strange contains the botched spell in, and runs off, just as he temporarily traps Dr. Strange.

Spider-Man uses his knowledge of science and Stark Industry tech, to fix the problems of Doc Ock, Goblin, Lizard, Electro and Sandman. He’s able to bring Doc Ock back from the control of his robotic arms. 

As Spider-man works on curing the villains of their problems, the good luck wanes again. Goblin plants a grenade. The villains escape the apartment that Parker uses. In an attempt to save Aunt May, who was also present, Peter jumps in front of the grenade, taking the bulk of the damage, and breaking his ribs. Aunt May doesn’t get as lucky, and is badly injured. Peter repeatedly apologizes to Aunt May through tears. May assures him that he tried helping, and that it was the most important. Aunt May dies in Peter’s arms before telling Peter the famous words: “With great power, comes great responsibility.” 

I’ll personally say without shame, that I cried watching this scene. I always loved Marvel’s Aunt May, and I was sad to see her go. Not only was it an emotional scene, it was also an important part of Peter’s hero’s journey. Ever since, he hadn’t really lost anyone close, other than Iron Man, who wasn’t an actual family member. Now, he has greater resolve than ever before, and wants vengeance. 

We have the scene that all spider-men get, where the other Spider-Men find Peter, and tell him how they lost people they loved. Peter was at first aggressive, and rejected the advice of the other Spider-Men. But soon, he was able to focus, knowing that someone was out there that understood.

The Spider-Men make a plan to capture and help all the villains, hopefully undoing their wrong actions. The plan doesn’t go so well the first time, as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Men don’t have experience working in a team. Tom Holland’s “Peter Parker” explains that they need to think together, and focus on one target at a time, individually. The plan works, but the spell can’t be contained. Risking the stability of the multiverse, Peter realizes that he risks his friend’s lives by keeping his identity. He sends the outer-dimensional people, and finishes the spell. Now no one knows Peter’s real identity.