SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains massive spoilers for Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse and several other Spider-Man movies. If you have not yet seen the film, read on at your own risk!
With great power comes great responsibility, and with great Spider-Man movies come great Spider-Man plot twists. Though each of the main Web-Slinger movie series – three live-action and one animated – are unique in their own ways, they all have a few things in common, and it’s not just the titular hero or shared villains. We’re talking about great plot twists that leave our mouths agape and us ready to see what comes next for our “friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.”
Throughout the Spider-Man movie timeline, we’ve experienced life-changing, world-changing, and even multiverse-changing revelations by heroes, villains, or villains pretending to be heroes (a common theme, we should add).
Following the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ending, now seems like a great time to swing back and look at some of the best plot twists involving Peter Parker and Miles Morales… especially as we look forward to the 2024 release of Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.
Miles Is The Prowler In Earth-42 (Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse)
In the final moments of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Miles Morales thinks that he’s made it back to his family’s Brooklyn apartment early enough to save his parents from The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), only to discover that he’s not in his universe of Earth-1610, but instead on Earth-42, the dimension of the spider that bit him in the previous movie. If the fact that he’s far from home, and that his mother doesn’t recognize Spider-Man is bad enough, the hero soon learns of an even darker fate.
Soon after, Miles learns that in this alternate universe, his dad died instead of his uncle, but still, that’s not the worst of it. No, that moment comes shortly after when the hero discovers that his Earth-42 variant is not the “Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” but instead the Prowler. Shivers…
Peter Finds Out Vulture Is Liz's Dad (Spider-Man: Homecoming)
Though Spider-Man: Homecoming is mostly remembered for its countless funny moments and the great father/son relationship shared by Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), the 2017 live-action movie also features one of the best, and tensest scenes in all of comic book movies. Oh yeah, we’re talking about THAT sequence where Peter learns that his homecoming date, Liz (Laura Harrier), is the daughter of his nemesis, Adrian Toomes, a.k.a., Vulture (Michael Keaton).
This is a scene we still think about, and discuss quite often, more than a half-decade after the film’s initial release. The entire drive to the dance is brilliant, with Adrian slowly picking up on the fact that his daughter’s date is the same superhero who has been thwarting his plans throughout the movie, but it really picks up when Adrian says he’s going to give Peter the “Dad talk.” Seriously, Keaton is absolutely terrifying in a scene that sets up the wonderful second half of an already great movie.
Green Goblin Is In Control The Whole Time (Spider-Man: No Way Home)
One of the best Marvel movies to date, the epic-as-all-hell Spider-Man: No Way Home gave die-hard comic book fans and general moviegoers something they never thought they’d see on screen, including some badass moments rivaling that of the Avengers: Endgame final battle. But, there is a different time and place to talk about the three Spider-Men working together, that eye-popping Mirror Dimension fight, and the movie’s bittersweet ending, because we just have to talk about that big twist about halfway through.
Yeah, we’re talking about the scene where Green Goblin reveals he’s in control of Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) before bringing a major shift to the story and tone of the movie. Peter’s Spidey Sense tingling, the fear and trepidation on the faces of the other villains, and that quick shot of webbing before the reveal of Goblin’s signature smile and laugh is by far one of the most intense moments of the movie, which is saying something.
Peter's Dad Used His Own DNA In Oscorp's Spiders (The Amazing Spider-Man 2)
Not only does The Amazing Spider-Man 2 feature one of the best live-action Spidey costumes, an all-time emotional gut-punch of a scene with the death of Gwen Stacey, and some great world building that sadly never came to fruition, it also has some great twists and turns along the way.
The most notable of these is the scene where it is revealed that Peter’s (Andrew Garfield) dad, Richard (Campbell Scott), wasn’t just one of Norman Osborn’s (Chris Cooper) partners and a brilliant scientist who designed the radioactive spider that would later bite his son, he implanted the spiders with his own DNA as a way to prevent Osborn from using the tech without him. That wasn’t the only shocker, as a deleted scene would later reveal that Richard faked his death.
Quentin Beck Isn't An Interdimensional Superhero (Spider-Man: Far From Home)
One of things that works best about Spider-Man: Far From Home is how the movie builds towards the future while also adding another layer to the MCU’s past, especially when it comes to the 2019 film’s big reveal about halfway through its European vacation-centric narrative. And yeah, it was pretty clear from the jump that Quentin Black, a.k.a., Mysterio, (Jake Gyllenhaal) wasn’t a superhero from Earth-833, but the revelation that he was a disgruntled former Stark Industries employee adds another dimension to the wild story.
Mysterio’s gaslighting and manipulation of Peter throughout the movie is as terrifying as it is enchanting, and leads to that great moment in the bar that is akin to Thanos using the Reality Stone in Avengers: Infinity War that really sets up the second half of the movie. Plus, his big revelation leads to that wild and bonkers Far From Home end credits sequence where a deceased Mysterio reveals Spider-Man’s identity from the grave.
Flint Marko Killed Uncle Ben (Spider-Man 3)
Yeah, there is a lot about Spider-Man 3 that doesn’t really work, including that infamous Peter Parker dance scene, but there’s also a lot that is great about Tobey Maguire’s final time leading a Spidey movie. One of the best aspects of this 2007 comic book film is the story of Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), which brings on the twist that the man who would become Sandman was the one who killed Peter’s Uncle Ben, and not the robber who he let escape after the whole wrestling fiasco.
Marko was already the emotional crux of the movie, with his story of redemption and attempts to save his sick daughter, and this addition to his journey made it even stronger. On top of that, it adds another dimension to Peter’s hero’s journey, as he learns to forgive and let go of the past, becoming a better hero, and person, in the process.
Though we know what followed most of these major twists, turns, and revelations in the various live-action stories, we’ll have to wait a little longer to see how things shake out for Miles Morales in the upcoming Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, which is already one of the most highly-anticipated movies on the 2024 movie schedule.
