Making action movies is serious business. It's also very physical work. Tom Holland learned these lessons first hand on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming when he was accidentally punched in the face. Apparently, the Spider-Man costume that Holland had to wear on set was fairly restrictive when it came to his own visibility. This meant that when he got the choreography of a fight scene slightly wrong, he didn't see the fist coming at him and he was unable to get out of the way in time. According to Holland...
I was supposed to dodge it and I just didn't see it coming. He cracked me in the head. He had this massive gauntlet in his hand, a big metal fist type thing, and he punched me in the face so hard, like you wouldn't believe. But it looks great! I hope they use it. It's one of those things where you stand up and you're angry, like, 'What the hell, man? You punched me in the head!' Then you realize it's entirely your fault.
First off, we have to appreciate Tom Holland's enthusiasm and hopes that, since the shot of him being punched in the face turned out so well, he hopes it gets used in the final cut of Spider-Man: Homecoming. Also, we're not sure it's entirely Holland's fault that he got punched in the head. He says that the way his vision was restricted in the mask, he could only see about five feet in front of him and had zero peripheral vision. At that point, you basically have to have your fight choreography memorized because you're not going to be able to react to your co-star very well. You also have to hope that the co-star does his part perfectly.
Based on the description of the fight scene that Tom Holland gives to GQ, we're guessing that the sequence in question is a fight with the character of Shocker, as he's the villain that we know is in the movie that would likely have large gauntlets, unless he's fighting Thanos and somehow that's been kept a secret. The film will see a small group, led by Michael Keaton, who procure alien tech from locations where superheroes like the Avengers have been fighting. Keaton's character will use the tech to build a set of wings and become the Vulture. Bokeem Woodbine will become the Shocker, who traditionally fires electrical pulses from his hands via a pair of large gauntlets.
While action movie choreography is usually good enough to make a punch look real, even when it's not, we'll be watching to see if we can tell if Tom Holland actually gets punched in the head at some point during Spider-Man: Homecoming. We'll all be able to watch for it when the film arrives July 7.
