Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is blowing away audiences worldwide with its many dimension-hopping, joke-slinging, and heart-filled moments. It’s no surprise that this movie has already broken multiple box office records, and it’s safe to say that this sequel has surpassed its predecessor in every conceivable way.
Just about every scene in this film is incredible, but atop this mountain of animated gold, these five moments shine the brightest. Note: the following article contains major spoilers from the movie.
The opening fight scene
The film starts things differently by following Gwen Stacy as she fights crime in her universe while struggling with her civilian life. This scene also takes the time to explore how she unknowingly killed her universe’s Peter Parker when he became the Lizard, with her cop father branding Spider-Woman a murderer as a result.
Gwen’s life becomes even more hectic when she battles the Vulture from a Renaissance-themed universe alongside Miguel O’Hara and Jessica Drew. It’s a glorious and vibrant piece of animated action that introduces the story and the new Spider-People in spectacular fashion. And when Gwen reveals her identity to her father, the film establishes its darker tone when he tries to arrest her and drives her to leave with Miguel and Jessica.
Touring the Spider Society base
When Miles and his team travel to Nueva York to speak to Miguel, both he and the audience are amazed by the Spider Society’s mind-blowing headquarters. Countless web-slingers of all creeds, nations, and species are seen walking through this futuristic building, filling frame after frame with references to all forms of past Spider-Man media.
The film even squeezes in a cameo from Donald Glover as the MCU’s Prowler. Fans could have a field day deconstructing this scene alone, showing how much this animated Spider-Verse has evolved since the first film.
The Spider War
In sheer defiance of his rumored fate, Miles flees from the Spider Society to try and stop the Spot from killing his father. Thus, Miles finds himself pursued across Nueva York by hundreds of webheads, including a Spider-Cat, a T-Rex Spider-Man, and a Spider-Cowboy with a masked horse. There are so many moving parts in this chase scene that it sends the audience’s brains into overdrive.
The web-slingers eventually take this high-octane battle to the top of a train speeding toward the Moon, turning this war into a full-on roller coaster. It all comes to a head when Miles and Miguel battle face-to-face, with the latter telling Miles that he was bitten by a spider meant for someone else. But this doesn’t rattle Miles, as he chooses to ignore what others say he should be and escapes, becoming a Spider-Man unlike any other.
Gwen comes into her own
After getting kicked out of the Spider-Society, Gwen returns home and confronts her father, who reveals that he resigned from the police so he can better support her as a father. His resignation finally gives Gwen an uplifting moment of closure while proving that her fate can be changed, so she decides to help Miles change his and save his father’s life from the Spot.
The film ends with Gwen becoming the leader of her own band of Spider-People, including some who already fought with her in Into the Spider-Verse. The final shot of Gwen with Peter B., Peni, Hobie, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Ham, Pavitr, and Spider-Byte leaving through the portal promises an exciting Avengers-style team-up in the third Spider-Verse film coming next year.
That double twist ending
It was already revealed that this film would end with a cliffhanger, but no one could’ve expected this would happen. When Miles finds himself back in his room in Brooklyn, he gathers the courage to reveal to his mother, Rio, that he is Spider-Man. But after a beat of suspenseful silence, Rio throws blows everyone away by asking, “Who is Spider-Man?” Miles then realizes that he teleported to the wrong universe by mistake, ending up in the one that the spider that gave him his powers is from, a universe where Spider-Man doesn’t exist.
From there, Miles has a shocking encounter with a variant of his late Uncle Aaron, and he learns that his father, Jefferson, already died in that reality. Miles is then kidnapped by Aaron and strung up in his apartment. But when it seems like Aaron is about to go all Prowler on Miles, the film delivers one more twist and reveals that the Prowler of this reality is actually … Miles Morales. The film leaves Miles with him staring at what he might have become had he not become Spider-Man, which leads the audience to believe that he was bitten by the spider meant for this evil variant and that he took what should’ve been the latter’s life. Such a thought only makes audiences more anxious to see how he’ll get out of this mess in his third movie.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now playing nationwide.
