Ok so Spider-Man 2 is filled with easter eggs, hidden details and things you missed. The
movie is almost 20 years old now but with No Way Home bringing Tobey Maguire And Alfred
Molina back you know that we had to revisit it.
There’s even possible callbacks in the Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness trailer
and though there’s been tonnes of breakdowns made on the film I guarantee there’s a lot
in here that hasn’t been found before.
Now Molina’s Doc Ock pulls from several of the classic stories he’s been included
in over the years. However at the time they somewhat wanted to modernise the version of
him and at the time they looked at the Ultimate Spider-man run which had released just four
years prior.
In that Doc Ock ends up trying to turn Norman Osborn into a super soldier but it backfires
and turns him into the Green Goblin.
In the explosion Ock is blinded and the operating arms he wears are fused to his body. Raimi
cribbed massive bits from his recovery and in the comics several surgeons stand around
him about to operate. They place a bandage over his eyes which is too mirrored in the
movie just before they begin. Ock ends up killing them in a violent and bloody massacre
which is too brought into the film in a scene that Raimi is really allowed to dig into his
horror roots with.
It’s reminiscent of the Evil dead franchise and there even features a mini surgical powered
saw which is of course a nod to Ash’s chainsaw.
Much in the same way that Ock is possessed Ash’s hand was possessed in the second film
which he replaced with the weapon. We should get our own mechanical arms to help with reaches
like that but you might not know that one of the surgeons is John Landis, a fellow horror
director behind Thriller and American Werewolf In London.
Now the Ultimate comic might even somewhat explain why Ock wears sunglasses throughout
the movie as we learn the explosion damaged his eyes to the point that they were extremely
sensitive to the light.
Standing in front of the minature sun may have also potentially caused him in the film
to walk around like he’s Arnie in the Terminator though he does remove the glasses in the more
humanising moments.
Either way there are way more callbacks to the comics in this movie and this is showed
early on in the intro.
As we watch the credits roll in we can catch several pieces of artwork by Alex Ross that
tell the story of the previous movie. Like Mary Jane’s fiance Ross was somewhat jilted
at the alter in the prior movie as he actually designed his own version of the suit for the
movie but this was scrapped in favour of the one that was finally used.
To make good on dropping him at the last minute Sony reached back out to Ross and asked him
to make the title sequence for the film. It features 15 pieces of artwork and work by
Ross also pops up later in Harry Osborne’s documents on Spidey.
We end with the scene in which Peter walked away from MJ like she walked away from John
Jameson (ohhhh) but it’s clear Peter still thinks about her alot.
The opening scene has her face blown up on a perfume advert for Emma Rose. In the comics
Mary Jane of course worked as a model but beyond that Emma Rose is actually the name
of Sam Raimi’s daughter.
Now in Spider-Man 2, Mary Jane is clearly a very important character and her relationship
with Peter looms over the movie which is established in the opening shot. However the reason it’s
used here is symbolic on a number of levels. The movie actually ends with an opposite to
this and just in the way we open with Mary Jane, we close out on her too.
There are definitely parallels here and whereas in the opening Peter is the one looking over
Mary Jane and all her success, MJ watches him swing through the sky, leaving her to
go off and be Spider-man.
Both moments reflect one another really well and the intro shows Mary Jane as an established
model but come the end of the movie she trades it in to be with Peter. The ad for MJ is prestigious,
white and pristine whereas Peter Ditkovitches door has the white paint cracking away, and
that’s why I’m refusing to pay rent this month.
MJ also looks somewhat sad in this final shot because she’s now confronted with the reality
of how life will be but in the beginning she’s smiling due to the manufactured ad that she’s
part of.
It’s really good storytelling from Raimi and if you’re enjoying the video so far
we’d massively appreciate the thumbs up.
If this is your first time here then welcome to the heavy spoilers show, I’m your host
Paul aka the guy who holds the power of the pun in the palm of his hand. The real crime
would be not to finish what we started so with that out the way let’s get into the
rest of the video.
Now after the intro we see that Peter is late for his job at Joe’s Pizza.
Located on 233 Bleeker Street you might know this famous road from being the same place
where Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum is. Sam Raimi is of course the director for
In The Multiverse Of Madness and there’s another Doctor Strange easter egg in the movie.
Later on Raimi’s brother Ted Raimi suggests the name Doctor Strange to J Jonah Jameson
when they’re brainstorming ideas for Otto.
Jameson says it’s taken and as I’ve been saying for years now it’s all connected.
It’s sam Raimi’s brother saying Doctor Strange, got Bleeker Street and he’s directing
Multiverse Of Madness.
Stop.
It’s pizza time!
Now we watch as Peter zips through the city trying to deliver Joe’s Pizza in a moment
that made some of the best missions in the Spider-man 2 game.
–
Cameoing in this scene is Donnell Rawlings, a comedian that you might recognise from Chapelle’s
show. There’s also a slice that lands on a guys balcony and this man is actually Scott
Spiegel, the co-writer of Evil Dead 2.
Peter delivers the pizza late and gets fired from his job. He gets fired by Jameson and
ends up giving him photos of Spider-man against his better judgement.
Later on in the movie Jameson is given the Spider-man suit by someone who finds it in
the trash. The guy talks about how he could sell the suit on Ebay and this is actually
a nod to the real life story about the suits that got stole from the set of the first film.
The thief managed to nab three of them and he tried to sell them on ebay which calls
back to this line.
Spider-Man’s suit being left in the trash is actually a reference to Spider-man No More,
a storyline in which Peter stepped away from being the web head. The mask was dumped in
rubbish along with all my jokes and it could be seen hanging out of it as Peter walked
down an alley way much like how he does in the movie.
No Way Home would somewhat give a nod to this too and when Norman Osborn seemingly quits
being the Green Goblin he smashes the mask at a dumpster before fleeing down an alleyway.
At this point he asks for money from Betty Brant played by Elizabeth Banks.
In the comics she worked as a secretary for the Daily Bugle, however in Brand New Day
she became a reporter. In a neat touch showing the different realities and timelines, the
Betty Brant of the MCU became a reporter for The Daily Bugle during Spider-Man No Way Home
which is also based on the Brand New Day storyline.
Now Peter being late for things is pretty much a running joke in the movie. At one point
he misses Dr. Connor’s lecture at Columbia University and Connors is of course the Lizard
from the comics. Sam Raimi’s fourth Spider-man movie was cancelled by Sony and Dylan Baker
later confirmed to IGN that he was supposed to play the scaly beast in that movie.
Sony of course rebooted the entire franchise and though they got rid of the entire cast,
they kept the Lizard as the villain. Lizard of course appeared in No Way Home and though
we didn’t get the snout version from the comics, it’s probably unlikely that we would
have in the fourth movie anyway.
Heard from my uncle, you know the guy, works at Sony, sent me a copy of Spider-man Home
Alone 2 Lost In New York.
Well he said that animal mouths are more difficult to animate with a convincing human voice so
they purposely made the face more human looking so it wasn’t too weird. Probably would’ve
ended up looking like Rex from Toy Story so it does make sense why they kept the design
in that movie instead of making him more like a talking T-Rex.
Now at this point Peter goes to his birthday Party.
We discover that he no longer lives with Harry and if you cast your mind back to the first
movie you might remember that Peter lived with him in an apartment.
This was paid for by Norman but after he ended up stabbing himself in the balls, Peter now
has to live in Mr. Ditkoviches.
(oh)
Mr. Ditkovitch is actually named after Steve Ditko who co-created Spider-man with Stan
Lee.
Aunt May gives Peter $20.
$20 the ad said $3000.
Shortly after Peter gets introduced to Otto by Harry. Connors has already told him about
him and that he’s brilliant but Lazy. Peter’s response to this is trying to do better.
Cut to No Way Home when the pair interact once more at the statue of liberty and Peter
says the same thing.
–
Now shoutouts Canadian Lad for pointing out that Before Peter and Otto duel using their
tech and powers, they first engage in a battle of wits. Peter mentions Bernoulli and the
curves of quickest descent a theoretical . In the simplest explanation, it is an equation
that explains the quickest point between A & B is a curve as on a curve you generate
more speed. This is something that Spidey does to get around by swinging in an arc,
that’s probably why it’s in his head.
At this point Otto explains how he and Rosie met explaining that she attempted to help
him understand TS Elliot, the famous poet.
Elliots most famous line is arguably
“This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper.”
Appearing in The Hollow Men it’s is often used to describe humanity’s ending.
However this line actually foreshadows Otto’s death at the end of the movie in which he
drowns the minature sun along with himself in the Hudson.
Shout out to Erik Voss at New Rockstars for spotting that and shoutouts MT, Filup Molina
and the rest of the team for being just generally great blokes.
Unlike that bloody, that bloody Ryan Arey.
See ya chump.
Otto of course arrives from a river in No Way Home and this is actually the same one
that he died in during this movie. There’s also a nice line in which Otto hints towards
his final scene after his experiment has failed.
“And these monstrous things should be at the bottom of the river a long with me.”
Now Otto tells Peter that the way to get girls to like you is through poetry, which is like
the worst advice ever.
Peter ends up reading The Song of the Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Ladies get ready because the line reads: Day by day he gazed upon her,
Day by day he sighed with passion…
That’s the sound of a thousand women leaving their man for Daddy Kevin Spoilers.
Just kidding no women watch this channel.
Anyway this parallels the relationship between Peter and Mary Jane. Much like the poem he
loves her from afar and she is always just out of reach.
Peter ends up late for MJ’s play where she is acting in The Importance of Being Earnest.
Originally created by Oscar Wilde the piece is about double live’s and in a bit of an
on the nose metaphor she is asked about forgiving as she looks at Peter’s vacant seat.
65 minutes Later in the movie when Peter rejects his life as Spider-Man he goes to the play
and puts MJ off. The line in this scene is discussing living double lives, something
Peter has for now at least stopped by walking away from the role.
At the Theatre is an usher played by Bruce Campbell who appears in all three movies.
Much like the Lizard, Campbell had a role lined up Spider-man 4 and he was actually
supposed to be playing none other than Mysterio. Kinda makes sense that he had all these different
roles as hes the master of illusion but I just kinda like to think he’s like a Stan
Lee sort of figure.
I’d love to see him pop up In The Multiverse Of Madness at some point and potentially he’s
one of the members on the Illuminati Council.
We want Thor.
Outside licking his emotional wounds, Peter hears a god awful violinist playing the Spider-Man
theme song. This appeared in the first film as well when a busker busted it out and it
was the theme song for the 1967 cartoon Spider-Man.
Peter’s heart is ripped in two when seeing Mary Jane with her new boyfriend but ignore
all that and instead focus on the poster that is praising the play saying “J Frazier is
especially effective”.
J Razier or John Frazier worked on the special effects which is the category the first movie
won an Oscar for. This easter egg is particularly effective because it says effective and special
effects yeah you get it you punk.
After seeing the love of his life with another man, our boy loses his mojo. He has performance
issues with his web fluid which, we’ve all been there and he also loses his sight.
This is very much psychosematic and brought on by the feeling of inadequacy he feels in
general. He sees MJ everywhere but can’t be with her and this is quite literally shown
when Peter carries his trashed bike past a wall of the same advert we saw at the start.
While Peter is grovelling on voicemail, we also see a poster for A Midsummer’s Night’s
Dream which is a Shakespeare play that is all about Four Athenians who have a trick
played on them as two couples who end up getting together.
This is fitting as Peter and MJ while apart at the start, do end up with each other at
the end of the movie.
Not long after we get Otto’s experiment and the classic joke about the money in a
rubber band.
Nah seriously though if you’ve seen the money please get it.
Otto is unable to stablise the sun and Rosie ends up dying.
If you have seen the trailer for Multiverse of Madness, you will know that we see a cool
shot of Wanda’s eyes and visions of multiversal characters in glass.
When Rose dies, we see her reflection in shattered glass and the glass hit her eyes which may
be Raimi linking back to this movie.
Otto also says the power of the sun in the palm of my hand which he drops on the bridge
and later on in No Way Home, Tobey finishes the line, linking back to this moment.
Now at the bank, Aunt May and Peter come face to face with Joel McHale. She lies and says
she is giving piano lessons once more and shoutouts bp8r07 for pointing out that this
explains why Peter is so good at playing piano is Spider-man 3.
Probably taught him to dance as well and it’s at this point that Otto robs the place. You
might notice that the eyes on the tentacles turn red when in attack mode but when Otto
is in control they turn white.
This is later referenced in No Way Home during the bridge scene.
At one point in the fight Ock goes to crush Peter’s head with the arms and this moment
would also be referenced on the bridge when he also tries to do the same to Tom Holland’s
version.
The late great Stan Lee also appears outside of the bank near a taxi when Otto and Peter
fight and he moves someone out the way of falling debris which he also does in the first
Spider-man Movie.
At the special gala that Peter is asked to cover for the society pages, we get a glimpse
at Jonah’s son and MJ’s fiancee, John Jameson. Chump.
In the comics he became Man-Wolf after coming back from the moon which is somewhat referenced
when we learn he’s an astronaut. In the opening Venom we discover that one of the
returning astronauts is called Jameson which is likely the same character just in a different
universe.
Peter fully loses his mojo, he crashes down and then sees a Daily Bugle headline.
The front page appears for a split second but if you pause the film you’ll see that
the article says: “Can Chronic Back Pain EQUAL BRAIN…”
Now I’m sure many of you know the story but just incase you don’t, Tobey Maguire
actually sustained a major back injury after filming Seabiscuit. This led to him almost
departing the film and Jake Gyllenhall was poised to over as Spider-Man.
This is referenced again when he fails to jump across buildings. He says I’m back
then falls saying my back.
We know this is due to his lack of focus and he lands next to a Ford Focus….which…yeah…got
gotta get all the Easter Eggs.
Now this back injury was also referenced by Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man in No Way Home.
Andrew Garfield and Tobey actually ad-libbed a lot of that scene and it’s such a cool
callback to this movie.
Peter imagines talking out his problems with Uncle Ben. It’s pretty much the same look
with the same set and clothes as the original car scene in Spider-Man 1.
This car is a 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 which has appeared in every Sam Raimi film ever.
It showed up in the Evil Dead at several points, Darkman, Drag me to hell and it was of course
what Ben had in the first movie.
I love that most of Spider-man 1 was about Peter’s regret over this conversation and
how he wanted to very much live up to the lesson Uncle Ben instilled in him. Then, then
right, he creates an imaginary purgatory where he has a conversation with him and still dunks
on him.
Bully Maguire don’t stop.
He even lets someone get beat up down an alley and doesn’t call the police.
What a d**khead.
Now In a neat bit of returning extras, the guy who is next to peter when the building
is on fire is the same guy who was on the bridge when Peter was saving the kids in the
first movie.
This scene very much calls back to the original Spider-man movie in which he came face to
face with the Green Goblin in a building fire. However, Peter has no superpowers at this
point so it’s way more difficult for him. This scene somewhat follows the trope that
a hero loses their powers in a second movie and it was used in Superman 2 and more recently
Venom Let There Be Carnage.
In an interesting moment when discussing if they should invite Peter to their wedding
or not, MJ asks John to put his head back and they kiss.
It’s similar to when Peter kisses MJ as Spider-Man and she tests it to see if she
gets the same feeling as back then. It’s unclear whether MJ knows if Peter is Spider-man
or not but there’s definitely suspicion there. At the end of the first movie she very
much touched her lips like she recognised the kiss and she seems slightly let down that
he’s not spider-man.
Now in another bit of foreshadowing, when the newspaper flashes saying He’s Back,
there is a mention of the El-Train safety.
This is the same train peter fights Otto on later in the movie.
During the train fight, when Peter is given his mask back by two kids, they are actually
played by Tobey Maguire’s real life half brothers
Add to this he guy who first stands up to Otto is legendary comic and Joe Rogan bestie,
Joey Diaz making for some really cool cameos.
Otto hands Peter over to Harry who has the same delusions as his father showing that
maybe the tech that turned Norman crazy simply exacerbated his craziness. Throughoutmost
of the runs involving Harry he very much ends up following in his father’s footsteps by
becoming the green goblin.
Ultimate Spider-man had him become The Hobgoblin and in the recent Spider-man games it looks
like he’s gonna become Venom after his father’s experiments. The legacy of the family is somewhat
of a dark one and in Amazing Spider-man 2 we hear of the Osborn curse that eventually
leads to him becoming The Green Goblin.
I definitely think the movie is teasing that Keeping Up With The Osborns means you’re
gonna get some kind of monster eventually and that he was potentially always destined
to go this way.
After finding his father’s hideout and items, he appears at MJ’s wedding wearing a green
bow tie, signifying his fall to the dark side
The movie ends just as it began with a shot of MJ’s face showing that the characters
had some full circle. She says Go Get Em Tiger which is a catchphrase of the character that
has appeared multiple times in the comics and films.
She’s had a pretty wild journey in the movies and dated an Astronaut, a billionaire and
also a superhero.
Plus she was seeing Flash Thompson in high school.
I respect that she was about to get married to a who had to get degrees in several sciences,
trained for years so that he could be an astronaut and then went to the moon just so that she
could be with a guy who lived in one of Mr. Ditkovich’s shittiest apartment.
It shows that she has true love for the character and maybe to help pay the bills she can star
in the broadway show Rent.
Thank you good night, much love, that’s all we’ve got time for and I hope you enjoyed
the video.
On screen right now is some more stuff for you to watch, or you can just let this play
out and see what video Youtube chooses for you. You’ve been a terrific audience and
I hope you had as much fun as we did. Take care of yourself, goodnight.