Genre: Action/Superhero
Director: Damien Chazelle
Writers: D.R. Cobb & Chad Taylor
Based on Marvel Comics characters
Cast: Lucas Hedges, Elle Fanning, Matthew McConaughey, John Cho, Sissy Spacek, Ansel Elgort, Ana de Armas, Ron Perlman, Kiefer Sutherland, Xolo Mariduena, Greg Germann, Craig T. Nelson
Plot: In Queens, Peter Parker (Lucas Hedges) and his Aunt May (Sissy Spacek) are packing up his belongings. After he packs the last box, Aunt May recommends they take a break. They sit down on the stoop of their home and Peter can sense that May is about to cry. He tries to tell her he won’t be far away, and promises to visit every weekend. Crying like he knew she would, May says that she is just so proud as she knows that a college education will only validate what she's always known: that Peter Parker is the smartest boy in the Five Boroughs and beyond. Peter shows slight embarrassment, particularly at the "boy" line. She then says that his uncle was also so proud and already picking out his suit for graduation. This brings a melancholic smile to Pete's face. "I can't believe it's already been two months," he says. Now Peter, against all his might, has a tear as well as he puts an arm around Aunt May and gives her a hug. "I'm ready to make him proud."
Peter arrives at his dorm at Empire State University with excitement in his eyes. He makes it to his dorm room and is sure to take a picture to send to Aunt May. He begins to unpack his things when his new roommate Vin Gonzales (Xolo Mariduenña) enters. He tells Peter that he hopes he doesn’t mind that Vin took down the upper bunk and moved it to the other side of the room so they could have their own space. Before Peter can even respond, Vin points to some of Peter’s belongings on Vin’s side of the room and requests they be moved. Peter apologizes before obliging and tells Vin that he looks forward to getting to know him.
Peter wakes up and realizes that he is late for his first class. He grabs his text books and runs across campus and into the University Science building. Peter races up a stairwell and crashes into another student, Harry Osborn (Ansel Elgort). Peter's text books go flying into the air alongside Harry's cup of coffee. Peter apologizes as he collects his coffee-soaked text books. Harry tells him not to worry about it, but by the end of his sentence Peter is already running down the hall to his biology lecture.
Peter tries to sneak into the lecture, but the door makes a loud creaking sound as he opens it. The professor, Dr. Miles Warren (John Cho), tells Peter that there is a seat up front. Peter walks toward the front of the class, apologizing for being late. Peter sits next to the beautiful Gwen Stacy (Elle Fanning) and begins wringing coffee out of his books. Warren asks the class to define biotechnology. Peter, still trying to dry his expensive textbooks, responds that it is the exploitation of biological processes. Gwen smiles at Peter's effortless response, then adds in that it involved the genetic manipulation of microorganisms for various purposes. Warren commends Gwen and Peter for having clearly done the pre-class reading he had assigned. Peter looks to Gwen and cluelessly asks her "What reading?"
After class, Dr. Warren leaves campus and rides his bicycle into the heart of Manhattan to the impressive OsCorp Tower, headquarters of OsCorp Industries. He enters the building and goes through several security checkpoints until he makes his way into a high-tech laboratory. Warren then turns his attention to his main area of interest: cloning. An expert in the field of biogenetics, he is currently in a phase where his test subjects are insects like flies and spiders. As he works on this, one of the genetically mutated spiders escapes the cage and enters into Warren's briefcase (unbeknownst to him).
The next time Peter has Dr. Warren's class, he arrives on time. It is a lab day with Peter and Gwen being paired together. She jokes that it must be fate. Once again, Peter and Gwen are the best in the class. As they clean up, Peter spills some of the chemicals. Gwen offers to help but Peter says he’ll take care of it. The rest of the class leaves as Peter cleans up his mess. Time stands still as Peter feels a sharp and sudden pain. He looks down to his hand to find a small spider that has bitten him. He shakes off the momentary pain and finishes up the cleaning, thinking nothing more of it.
Peter arrives at a party on campus and finds Harry holding court around a group of young women hanging at his every word. Peter looks around the room and his eyes light up when he sees Gwen. Peter goes up to talk to her, but he throws up in a potted plant. Peter apologizes and says that he thinks he needs to go lay down. Gwen tells him to feel better so that she has a lab partner in Warren's class. Peter walks down the street toward his dorm. A taxi comes speeding toward Peter, who senses the taxi coming his way and leaps up into the air. The taxi crashes into a fire hydrant as Peter lands on his feet 20 feet away from the accident. Peter stands on the sidewalk in confusion. He glances down at the spider bite on his hand.
The next morning, Peter wakes up and realizes he has overslept and is late for class as his alarm beeps away. Peter gets ready, too distracted to notice that he had slept in a large spider's web above his bed. Peter grabs his books and runs out of the door. As he runs through campus, he nearly runs right into Harry again, but manages to avoid him at the last second. Peter stops and apologizes to Harry and says that he still owes him a coffee from last time.
After class, Peter arrives back at his dorm and he finally sees the webbing from the night before. He starts to panic as some of the web is on Vin’s side of the room and he wants to clean it all up before his roommate arrives. As he is wrapping it all in his arms, he feels a sudden tingle and can acutely hear footsteps approaching. He presses his foot against the door as the doorknob turns, preventing Vin from getting in. He asks through the door for Peter to let him in and Peter scrambles with what to say before settling on “um...I’m busy?”. After a beat, Vin gags and tells Peter to do that in the bathroom. He says he’ll wait in the common room.
On his way out, Peter tells Vin that the coast is clear. He pulls out his phone and pulls up a playlist titled “Ben’s Favorites”. He presses shuffle and “The Seeker” by The Who blasts into his ears. In the streets of Manhattan, Peter begins to explore his new abilities. After knowing that he can produce webs from his wrists, he shoots a web to the side of a building and uses it to pull him up to the side of the building. He finds that his fingers and feet stick to the building. He is scared at first but then learns that he can use it to climb up the building. Peter makes his way to the top and he is in awe of the new view of the city that he has. The song plays over a montage of him testing out his web-slinging and wall-crawling abilities.
Peter's alarm goes off, but he’s already awake. He goes to a coffee shop and orders one of every kind on the menu. Peter expertly balances the cups of coffee across campus until he finds Harry, who asks why he has so many cups, and Peter says that he didn't know what kind of coffee his text books soaked up so he just got them all. Harry laughs and takes one. Harry comments on all of Peter's science text books and asks him if he's some kind of nerd. Peter admits that he is a nerd. Harry offers Peter a couple of passes to a big OsCorp tech demonstration that he got from his dad, but he isn't really interested in that sort of thing and offers them to Peter. Peter excitedly looks at the passes and asks Harry who his dad is. Harry is surprised that Peter doesn't know and says that his dad runs the company: Norman Osborn. Peter is starstruck and starts asking a bunch of OsCorp questions, Harry stops him and suggests he just ask his father those questions himself at the demonstration.
Dr. Warren is in his lab working on strengthening the structure of a single-celled organism, with the hope of creating a kind serum that could increase the strength of a normal human subject. The cell continually rejects his attempts, so he then decides to try adding foreign DNA strands. He scans through a database of available samples that may work and stops when he comes across Project Jackal, an experiment that successfully cloned a jackal years before Dolly the Sheep. Warren searches a labyrinth of refrigerated shelves until he finds a sample of the DNA from Project Jackal. Warren injects the jackal sample into the organism. The organism expands until it bursts into a cloud of green smoke. Warren begins coughing from the smoke before passing out on the floor. He is awoken by his superior, Anthony Serba (Greg Germann), who wants to know what happened to the lab. Confused, Warren stands up and sees that the lab is trashed. Warren notices the time and tells Serba that he'll fix up the lab as soon as he's done teaching his class.
Peter and Gwen are in their lab class as Warren guides the group through a dissection of a frog, where he explains how each section of the anatomy has evolved over time to survive in some of the least livable environments known to man. Peter whispers to Gwen, asking her if she would like to go to the OsCorp demonstration with him. She is surprised that he has tickets since they aren't available to the public and accepts. As Warren continues leading the dissections, a student answers his cell phone and begins talking to a friend. Warren glares at the student. His dark brown eyes suddenly turn a subtle shade of green. Warren charges over to the student, grabs the phone and crushes it with his bare hands. Warren then violently throws the student out of the lab. The class is stunned in silence. Warren smiles, then continues his lecture as if nothing happened. As he talks, Warren begins leering at Gwen, making her uncomfortable. At the end of class, Warren tries to stop Gwen in order to talk to her. Peter's spider sense begins going off. Peter instinctively blocks Warren's path and begins asking him very specific questions about the evolutionary responses of the frogs they dissected. Warren, annoyed, pushes him out of his way and tries to follow Gwen, but she's disappeared into a sea of students.
Peter begins trying to visualize what an outfit might look like for his alternate persona. He runs into a mental block in regards to how to actually assemble the costume until something sparks. On the weekend, he shows up at Aunt May’s doorstep - much to her surprise and delight. He tells her that he can go “swing” by their favorite restaurant but she insists on cooking dinner. While she does this, Peter begins to sift through a box of some of Uncle Ben’s belongings. He begins to get emotional as these still give off the scent of his uncle. He finally finds what he’s looking for: Uncle Ben’s old wetsuit from his younger surfing days. May walks in as he is looking and he stashes it away. She smiles at the sight of Peter with Ben’s things and tells him dinner is ready. As they talk, she asks if he has met any cute girls. He blushes before recovering by saying “Girls? Plural?! I'm a college freshman, not the Bachelor!” and they share a laugh. Upon returning to his dorm, Peter begins converting the wetsuit into his red-and-blue mock-up and pairs it with a mask.
Feeling invigorated and stronger since his lab accident, Dr. Warren steals more samples of Project Jackal to see if he can recreate the chemical reaction with lab rats. Just as he is about to inject the rats with the cloned jackal sample, Warren is stopped by Serba, who demands to know what on earth he thinks he's doing. Warren's eyes glow green and he reveals sharp claws at the ends of his fingers. He smiles before he attacks Serba, killing him.
Peter and Gwen take the subway to the demonstration at OsCorp Tower. On the subway, Peter witnesses a pickpocket steal an old woman's wallet from her purse. Peter bumps into the thief, and using his newly-heightened agility, steals the wallet. Peter gives the wallet back to the woman, suggesting she zip up her purse. Gwen is impressed by Peter's act and holds his hand as they continue their ride. When they arrive at OsCorp Tower, they are escorted to a large testing facility on the 50th floor of the impressive skyscraper. When they enter the demonstration room, they quickly see Norman Osborn (Matthew McConaughey), founder and CEO of OsCorp, schmoozing the important guests with his natural charisma. When Norman sees Peter and Gwen, he tells the mayor that he has to keep making the rounds. Norman then walks over to Peter and Gwen and thanks them for attending what will hopefully be an important event. Norman confesses to Peter that he had secretly hoped Harry had finally taken up an interest in his work when he asked for passes to the demonstration until Harry said they were for a friend. Norman has two glasses of sparkling cider and one glass of champagne brought over, and leads them in a toast, telling them that any friend of his son Harry is a friend of his and the OsCorp family. Norman excuses himself, telling them he has to run through some technical aspects before the demonstration begins, but that they should kick back and enjoy the party.
As Peter and Gwen awkwardly wander through the crowd, Gwen ducks behind Peter. She points out her father, NYPD Captain George Stacy (Kiefer Sutherland). Peter laughs about the situation and suggests they go talk to him. As Gwen mulls that over, Norman tells the party that the demonstration is ready to begin. Everyone watches as a man enters the room in a large mechanical exosuit. Norman calls the suit the latest and greatest in defense technology, and the best hope the citizens of New York have to feel protected from the crop of super-powered criminals that are starting to take over. The suit's thrusters are enacted, allowing the man in the exosuit to fly above the crowd. Norman tells the audience to picture a world where every soldier and every police officer in the great country of the United States has access to the OsCorp exosuits, allowing them to contend with villains who use their abilities for harm. As the crowd begins cheering, one of the guns mounted to the exosuit begins firing wildly above the crowd. Norman orders the tester to power down, but it doesn't shut off. Everyone in the crowd gets low to avoid the fire. Peter slips under a table and changes into his Spider-Man outfit. He then uses his webs to clog the exosuit gun, ending the barrage of bullets. Norman is furious about the malfunction and demands to know who messed up such an important moment.
In his dorm, Peter is listening in to a police scanner app for the neighborhood to see if there are any crimes. He hears something that catches his ear - a reported burglary at the luxury department store Gerald's. Peter grabs his backpack with the suit in it and rushes out before Vin can even ask where he's heading. Peter changes in the communal bathroom before sneaking out the window to race to Gerald's in an attempt to be the first on the scene.
He arrives at Gerald's and makes his way to the jewelry floor where the alarm is going off. He does not see anyone there but finds several high-priced items missing. His spider senses suddenly alert him to someone making their escape and webs his way to that vicinity. Spider-Man realizes that it is the Black Cat (Ana de Armas). As she tries again to escape, Spider-Man shoots a web to tie her hands together as make-shift handcuffs. This doesn't matter much as he discovers that she is able to use her legs to engage in combat with him. He is able to knock her down once again, this time her head hitting on a display case. Spider-Man rushes to check on her as she winces in pain. However, she pulls him down with her and mounts him. She places her hands behind his head and tells him that it was actually kind of sweet that he was concerned about her. She then yanks her wrists against the back of Peter's head, able to break off the webbing holding them together. With her free hands, she begins to pull up the mask as she comments how she can feel his heart beating. She is only able to get it as high as his chin before the police finally arrive. She hurries up to her feet and grabs her loot. She points to Spider-Man on the ground and tells the police to look at what the cat dragged in before leaping out of her initial escape route. Spider-Man panics as the police approach. He apologizes and says that he tried to help but failed. They tell him to stay where he is but he says he's got to get going - using Black Cat's escape route to swing out of the building. When he finally finds a rooftop to rest at, Peter takes off his mask and is visibly angry with himself for how that went down. He questions whether or not he’s getting himself in over his head.
Realizing there is no going back now, Dr. Warren injects himself directly with all of the remaining Project Jackal samples. His eyes glow greener than before, his claws get longer and his teeth grow sharp. He breaks through the window and leaps down to the ground, 20 stories below, landing easily. He begins running toward the Empire State University campus at an alarming speed, knocking over any cars that are in his way with newfound strength. Warren begins looking around until he sees Gwen. He howls like an animal and grabs Gwen against her will. Campus police try chasing after him, but they are no match for Warren’s strength and speed.
Warren’s kidnapping in broad daylight of Gwen quickly makes the news rounds, with even J. Jonah Jameson (Ron Perlman) commenting on his news show that this is just the latest crime involving super-powered villains. He then gives a not-so-subtle plug for the OsCorp exosuits.
Norman and Harry Osborn are in the middle of an awkward family dinner. The two have never felt comfortable around each other since the death of Harry’s mother and Norman’s wife. As Norman struggles to ask Harry about school, they are interrupted by pounding on the door of the Osborn penthouse. Norman answers it to find Capt. Stacy and a group of detectives. Stacy tells Norman that the NYPD needs his exosuits. Norman asks why the urgency, and Stacy frantically explains that some monster took his daughter and his officers are no match without the OsCorp technology.
Peter walks with his headphones in and face to the ground. In the background, we hear someone shouting his name. He turns around to see his Uncle Ben (Craig T. Nelson). Ben invites over to a nearby bench. He asks Pete if he is looking forward to college next year. He says yes but admits that he feels a bit in a pickle right now. He can tell Aunt May prefers him to live with them and commute but he wants to live on campus. Ben says that he’s right about May’s wishes but that he should follow his own heart. Peter is getting ready to enter an important transitional point in his life and moving out gives him an opportunity to prove that he can make something of himself out in the world. “So, don’t tell your aunt I told you this, but I say go, do it. Seize the power over your own future. But as I always say...with great -” Peter stands up with a big grin and says he knows the saying, he's been hearing it since he was a kid. They give each other a fist bump, their customary greeting, and Ben reminds Pete how much he loves him.
In the present, Peter’s eyes flash open and he hears fire trucks and cop cars whiz by his windows. His gut immediately tells him this is something to do with Dr. Warren so he grabs his suit and rushes out.
“The Jackal”, with Gwen in tow, begins to scale the Chrysler Building. Spider-Man furiously swings through the busy streets of Manhattan to catch up. When he reaches the observation deck of the building, he is stopped by two police officers in OsCorp’s exosuits, telling him to stand down. One of the officers uses the suit to shoot a taser beam at him but he is able to evade them and begins climbing to the building's needle (where Jackal has Gwen held captive). Jackal screeches at Spider-Man, who tries to talk through to Dr. Warren. One of the officers uses the suit’s flight capability to rise to their level and again orders Spidey to stand down. He begins eyeing a way to rescue Gwen while also needing to avoid the attention of the officer. Jackal starts to tear off pieces of the building and throw the debris at his enemies. Spider-Man’s attention is diverted when the exosuit once again fails and the officer loses his flight capabilities and starts to drop. Spider-Man webs on to the suit and redirects the officer’s fall to the observation deck. However, during this distraction, Jackal hurls a piece of steel debris towards Peter and knocks him off the building.
Spider-Man begins a free fall from the building, seemingly motionless. As he falls, time slows down and he slowly regains consciousness. Before he hits the ground, he is able to shoot webs to the building's famous gargoyles. Using the forward momentum, he begins to run up the side of the building at full speed. When he reaches the top, he shoots up into the air and comes back down with a hard fist to Jackal’s face. Upon seeing the creature’s deformed look, Spidey asks “why the long face?” Jackal, provoked, attacks his foe but Peter is quick on his feet and uses this as an opportunity to web Gwen into his arms. He quickly takes her down to the observation deck for safety but the Jackal follows. Spider-Man tells the officers that he can use his webs to confine the Jackal to the building until it turns back to Dr. Warren. However, the police officers don’t want to take that risk and shoot the creature using the exosuit. The bullet strikes his chest and he begins to plummet while slowly transforming back to human form. Spider-Man yells “no!” and begins running down the side of the building, eventually setting up a webbed landing pad at the bottom to break Warren’s fall. He instructs the officers at the bottom to treat his injuries immediately.
Meanwhile, Spider-Man goes back to the observation deck to check on Gwen. She thanks him for showing up. He tries to come up with something witty but fails in the moment. She then says “Now this...this is fate. Wouldn’t be a bad spot for a first kiss, don’t ya think?”. He freezes before she whispers that she knew it was him. He lifts his mask up halfway and they kiss while overlooking the New York skyline. They are interrupted by loud footsteps and stop as Capt. Stacy breaks up their moment. He is relieved to see his daughter safe and tells her to come with him. He isn’t sure what to say to Spider-Man, who gives a farewell gesture and web slings away into the night sky.
Mid-Credits: A heavily-restrained Miles Warren howls like an animal as he is wheeled into a high-security cell at the Ravencroft Institute, a facility to house New York's criminally insane. A doctor welcomes Mr. Warren to his new home, but Warren refuses to answer to any name other than "The Jackal".
Post-Credits: Peter looks at the cover of the Daily Bugle newspaper featuring a poorly photoshopped picture of him in action as Spider-Man. The headline announces big money for pictures of the villainous Spider-Man in action. Peter looks up from the newspaper, revealing that he's standing in front of the Daily Bugle Building.
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