Spider-Man (2002 film)

Spider-Man is a 2002 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Directed by Sam Raimi from a screenplay by David Koepp, it is the first installment in Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel Enterprises and Laura Ziskin Productions, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film stars Tobey Maguire as the titular character, alongside Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, and Rosemary Harris. The film chronicles Spider-Man's origin story and early superhero career. After being bitten by a genetically altered spider, outcast teenager Peter Parker develops spider-like superhuman abilities and adopts a masked superhero identity to fight crime and injustice in New York City, facing the sinister Green Goblin in the process.

Development on a live-action Spider-Man film began in 1975. Filmmakers Tobe Hooper, James Cameron, and Joseph Zito were all attached to direct the film at one point. However, the project would languish in development hell due to licensing and financial issues. After progress on the film stalled for nearly 25 years, it was licensed for a worldwide release by Columbia Pictures in 1999 after it acquired options from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) on all previous scripts developed by Cannon Films, Carolco, and New Cannon. Exercising its option on just two elements from the multi-script acquisition (a different screenplay was written by James Cameron, Ted Newsom, John Brancato, Barney Cohen, and Joseph Goldman), Sony hired Koepp to create a working screenplay (credited as Cameron's), and Koepp received sole credit in final billing. Directors Roland Emmerich, Ang Lee, Chris Columbus, Barry Sonnenfeld, Tim Burton, Michael Bay, Jan de Bont, M. Night Shyamalan, Tony Scott, and David Fincher were considered to direct the project before Raimi was hired as director in 2000. The Koepp script was rewritten by Scott Rosenberg during pre-production and received a dialogue polish from Alvin Sargent during production. Filming took place in Los Angeles and New York City from January to June 2001. Danny Elfman was hired to compose the film's score, while Sony Pictures Imageworks handled the film's visual effects.

Spider-Man premiered at the Mann Village Theater on April 29, 2002, and was released in the United States on May 3, 2002. The film received positive reviews from audiences and critics who praised Raimi's direction, the story, the performances, visual effects, action sequences, and musical score. It was the first film to reach $100 million in a single weekend, as well as the most successful film based on a comic book at the time. With a box office gross of over $825 million worldwide, it was the third highest-grossing film of 2002, the highest-grossing superhero film, and the sixth-highest-grossing film overall at the time of its release. The film garnered nominations for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects at the 75th Academy Awards, among numerous other accolades. Spider-Man is credited for redefining the modern superhero genre, as well as the summer blockbuster. After its success, the film spawned two sequels, Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007). Maguire and Dafoe later reprised their roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), which dealt with the concept of the multiverse and linked the Raimi trilogy to the MCU.

## **Plot**

On a school trip, high-school senior Peter Parker visits a Columbia University genetics laboratory with his friend Harry Osborn and his love interest Mary Jane Watson. There, a genetically engineered "super-spider" bites him, and he falls ill upon returning home. Meanwhile, Harry's father Norman Osborn, a scientist and the founder and owner of Oscorp, tries to secure an important military contract. He experiments on himself with an unstable performance-enhancing chemical and goes insane, killing his assistant.

The next day, Peter finds he is no longer near-sighted and has developed spider-like abilities: he can shoot webs out of his wrists and has quick reflexes, superhuman speed and strength, and a heightened ability to sense danger. Brushing off his Uncle Ben's advice that "with great power comes great responsibility", Peter considers buying a car to impress Mary Jane. He enters an underground wrestling event to win the money for it and wins his first match, but the promoter cheats him out of his earnings. When a thief robs the promoter's office, Peter allows him to escape. Moments later, he discovers Ben was carjacked and killed. Peter pursues the carjacker, only to find out it was the thief he let escape. The thief attempts to flee but dies after falling out a window. Meanwhile, a crazed Norman interrupts a product test by Oscorp's rival Quest Aerospace and kills several people.

Upon graduating, Peter begins using his abilities to fight injustice, donning a spandex costume and the masked persona of Spider-Man. J. Jonah Jameson, publisher of the Daily Bugle newspaper, hires Peter as a freelance photographer, since he is the only person providing clear images of Spider-Man. Upon discovering that Oscorp's board plans to oust him to sell the company to Quest, Norman assassinates them. Jameson dubs the mysterious killer the "Green Goblin."

The Goblin offers Peter a place at his side, but he refuses. They fight, and Peter is wounded. At Thanksgiving dinner, Peter's Aunt May invites Mary Jane, Harry, and Norman. During the dinner, Norman sees the wound and realizes Peter's identity. Thinking the only way to defeat Peter is to attack those special to him, Norman later attacks May, forcing her to be hospitalized. While visiting Aunt May at the hospital, Mary Jane admits her infatuation with Spider-Man, who has rescued her on two occasions. Harry, who is dating Mary Jane, sees her holding Peter's hand and assumes she has feelings for him. Devastated, Harry tells his father that Peter loves Mary Jane, unknowingly revealing Spider-Man's biggest weakness.

Norman holds Mary Jane and a Roosevelt Island Tram car full of children hostage alongside the Queensboro Bridge. He forces Peter to choose whom he wants to save or drops them both. Peter saves both Mary Jane and the tram car. Norman then throws him into a nearby abandoned building and brutally beats him. Peter gains the upper hand, and Norman reveals himself and begs for forgiveness while subtly getting his glider ready to impale Peter from behind. Warned by his spider-sense, Peter dodges the attack, and the glider impales Norman instead. Norman tells Peter not to reveal his identity as the Goblin to Harry before dying. Peter takes Norman's body to the Osborn house and is confronted by Harry, who pulls a gun on him, but Peter escapes.

At Norman's funeral, Harry swears vengeance on Spider-Man, whom he falsely holds responsible for his father's death. Mary Jane confesses to Peter that she loves him. Peter, however, feels he must protect her from the unwanted attention of his enemies, so he hides his true feelings and tells Mary Jane that they can only be friends. As Peter leaves, he recalls Ben's words and accepts his new responsibility as Spider-Man.

## **Cast**

* Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker / Spider-Man:

An academically gifted high school student who is socially inept. After a genetically engineered spider bites him, he gains spider-like powers, including super-strength, enhanced reflexes, a "spider sense" that warns him of incoming danger, and the ability to climb walls and shoot spiderwebs (in a departure from the comics, where he utilizes web-shooters). Following a personal tragedy, he decides to use his newfound powers for good, and begins fighting crime and injustice as Spider-Man.

* Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn / Green Goblin:

A scientist and the CEO of Oscorp who tests an unstable strength enhancer on himself and develops a crazed alternate personality. He later becomes a costumed villain using advanced Oscorp armor and equipment, such as a weaponized glider and pumpkin-shaped explosives; the media dubs his alter-ego the "Green Goblin". Norman develops animosity for Spider-Man after the hero refuses to join him, and makes constant attempts to get back at him. Ironically, he quickly takes a liking to Peter, and sees himself as a father figure for the boy, while ignoring his own son, Harry.

* Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane "MJ" Watson:

Peter's love interest ever since he was six years old. Mary Jane has an abusive father, and aspires to become an actress, but gets a job as a waitress at a run down diner, a fact she hides from her boyfriend Harry. She later develops feelings for Peter as they spend more time together, and for his alter-ego, after he saves her on multiple occasions.

* James Franco as Harry Osborn:

Peter's best friend and flatmate, Mary Jane's boyfriend and Norman's son who is envious of his father's apparent closeness with Peter. Before being cast as Harry, Franco had screen tested for Spider-Man himself.

* Cliff Robertson as Ben Parker:

May Parker's husband and Peter's uncle, a laid off electrician who is trying to find a new job. He is killed by a carjacker whom Peter had earlier refused to stop, and leaves Peter with the message, "With great power comes great responsibility."

* Rosemary Harris as May Parker:

Ben Parker's wife and Peter's aunt.

J. K. Simmons portrays J. Jonah Jameson, the grouchy publisher of the Daily Bugle newspaper who considers Spider-Man a criminal. Ron Perkins portrays Mendel Stromm, Osborn's head scientist, while Gerry Becker and Jack Betts play board members Maximillian Fargas and Henry Balkan. Stanley Anderson plays General Slocum and Jim Ward plays the Project Coordinator. John Paxton portrays Bernard Houseman, the butler to the Osborn family. Joe Manganiello portrays Parker's bully and rival Flash Thompson, while Sally Livingstone portrays Liz Allan. Jason Padgett portrays Flash's Crony. Bill Nunn, Ted Raimi and Elizabeth Banks portray Daily Bugle editor Robbie Robertson, Daily Bugle employees Ted Hoffman, and Jameson's secretary Betty Brant, respectively. Michael Papajohn appears as "The Carjacker", the robber who kills Ben Parker. Bruce Campbell, a long-time colleague of director Sam Raimi, cameoed as the announcer at the wrestling ring Parker takes part in. Raimi himself appeared off-screen, throwing popcorn at Parker as he enters the arena to wrestle Bonesaw McGraw (played by former professional wrestler "Macho Man" Randy Savage), while Jack Murdock (played by former professional wrestler Scott L. Schwartz) is carried off on a stretcher. Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee briefly appears in the film to grab a young girl from falling debris during the battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin at the World Unity Fair in Times Square. Raimi originally thought Stan Lee doing a cameo in the film was a bad idea.

Octavia Spencer appears as a staff member at Parker's wrestling match. Tig Notaro was offered the role by Raimi and auditioned, but lost it to Spencer. R&B/soul singer Macy Gray appears as herself performing at the World Unity Fair. Lucy Lawless also appears as a punk rock girl who says "Guy with eight hands... sounds hot." She did the appearance as a favor to her husband, Xena: Warrior Princess creator Rob Tapert, on which Raimi had served as an executive producer alongside Tapert. One of the stunt performers in this film is actor Johnny Tri Nguyen. Kickboxer Benny "The Jet" Urquidez has an uncredited cameo as a mugger who attacks Mary Jane. Comedian Jim Norton shows up in one scene as a truck driver who has an unfavorable opinion of Spider-Man. R.C. Everbeck was intended to play Eddie Brock, but his scenes were unreleased; Brock eventually appeared in Spider-Man 3, portrayed by Topher Grace. Sara Ramirez appears as a police officer at Uncle Ben's death scene. K. K. Dodds plays Simkins, Scott Spiegel plays a Marine Cop, while Larry Joshua plays a promoter who cheats Parker out of his winnings. Hugh Jackman, who played Logan / Wolverine in Fox's X-Men film series was planned to have a cameo appearance as the character, with Jackman even arriving in New York to shoot the scene, only for it to be scrapped after the production team realized they did not have the character's suit.

## **Production**

### **Filming**

With Spider-Man cast, filming was set to begin November 2000 in New York City and on Sony soundstages. The film was set for release on May 3, 2002, due to an expected extended post-production schedule.

Principal photography officially began on January 8, 2001, in Culver City, California. After the September 11 attacks happened that year, certain sequences were re-filmed, and a shot of the Twin Towers was removed from the film which can be found on the Sony Stock Footage website. Sony's Stage 29 was used for Parker's Forest Hills home, and Stage 27 was used for the wrestling sequence where Parker takes on Bonesaw McGraw (Randy Savage). Stage 27 was also used for the complex Times Square sequence where Spider-Man and the Goblin battle for the first time, where a three-story set with a breakaway balcony piece was built. The scene also required shooting in Downey, California. On March 6, 45-year-old construction worker Tim Holcombe was killed when a forklift modified as a construction crane crashed into a construction basket that he was in. The following court case led to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health to fine Sony $58,805. Raimi rented out a Warner Bros. Studio lot for the set to use to film the upside down kiss scene. Kirsten Dunst said that filming the upside down kiss scene was not so romantic, she said that Maguire could not breathe as water was pouring down into his nose while hanging upside down. Dunst also called shooting the scene "awful". Maguire also said that he was gasping for air. He and Franco had tension on set due to Franco's infatuation with Dunst, who was dating Maguire at the time. Randy Savage refused a Stunt Double to do a mid-flip so Savage did the stunt and injured himself.

In Los Angeles, locations included the Natural History Museum (for the Columbia University lab where Parker is bitten and receives his powers), the Pacific Electricity Building (the Daily Bugle offices) and Greystone Mansion (for the interiors of Norman Osborn's home), the latter of which was the set that was used for Batman. In April, 4 of the Spider-Man costumes were stolen, and Sony put up a $25,000 reward for their return. They were recovered after 18 months and a former movie studio security guard and an accomplice were arrested. Production moved to New York City for two weeks, taking in locations such as the Queensboro Bridge, the exteriors of Columbia University's Low Memorial Library and the New York Public Library, and a rooftop garden in the Rockefeller Center. The crew returned to Los Angeles where production continued, filming wrapped on October 28, 2001. The Flatiron Building was used for the Daily Bugle.

### **Design**

The Green Goblin's original headgear was an animatronic mask created by Amalgamated Dynamics. Dafoe described it as a "Halloween mask" and "kind of silly-looking", and the designers instead came up with a modern, angular helmet. Dafoe also wanted the costume to be flexible enough to allow him to do splits.

To create Spider-Man's costume, Maguire was fitted for the skintight suit, being covered with layers of substance to create the suit's shape. One concept costume designer James Acheson became fond of was the idea of having a red emblem over a black costume. Another, which would eventually lead to the final product, featured an enlarged logo on the chest and red stripes going down the sides of the legs. In early development, Acheson experimented with a potential helmet-like design for the suit, which was then scrapped. It was designed as a single piece, including the mask. A hard shell was worn underneath the mask to make the shape of the head look better and to keep the mask tight while keeping the wearer comfortable. For scenes in which Spider-Man would take his mask off, there was an alternate suit where the mask was a separate piece. The webbing, which accented the costume, was cut by computer. The mask eye lenses were designed to have a mirror look.

### **Visual effects**

Visual effects supervisor John Dykstra was hired to produce the film's visual effects in May 2000. Dykstra met with Raimi while he was filming The Gift (2000). He convinced Raimi to make many of the stunts computer-generated imagery, as they would have been physically impossible. Raimi had used more traditional special effects in his previous films and learned a lot about using computers during production. Raimi worked hard to plan all the sequences of Spider-Man swinging from buildings, which he described as, "ballet in the sky." The complexity of such sequences meant the budget rose from an initially planned $70 million to around $100 million. Shots were made more complicated because of the main characters' individual color schemes, so Spider-Man and the Green Goblin had to be shot separately for effects shots: Spider-Man was shot in front of a greenscreen, while the Green Goblin was shot against bluescreen. Shooting them together would have resulted in one character being erased from a shot.

Dykstra said the biggest difficulty of creating Spider-Man was that as the character was masked, it immediately lost a lot of characterization. Without the context of eyes or mouth, a lot of body language had to be put in so that there would be emotional content. Raimi wanted to convey the essence of Spider-Man as being, "the transition that occurs between him being a young man going through puberty and being a superhero." Dykstra said his crew of animators had never reached such a level of sophistication to give subtle hints of still making Spider-Man feel like a human being. When two studio executives were shown shots of the computer generated character, they believed it was actually Maguire performing stunts. In addition, Dykstra's crew had to composite areas of New York City and replaced every car in shots with digital models. Raimi did not want it to feel entirely like animation, so none of the shots were 100% computer-generated.

### **Music**

Further information: Music from and Inspired by Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Complete Motion Picture Score

Danny Elfman composed the music for the film. Its soundtrack combines traditional orchestration, ethnic percussion, and electronic elements. Its distinct ethnic characteristics are credited to Elfman, who spent a year in Africa studying its unique percussion.

## **Home Media**

Now this is what this board is all about! Here’s the details on Sony’s SPIDER-MAN DVD. Happily, watch the entire film without the dialogue, without the sound effects. With only the isolated music score and songs tracks of Spider-Man (2002). Read on!

2002 DVD Menus

Menus: Features

Scene Selection: 1. Start

2. Columbia University Research Lab

3. Bitten by a Spider

4. Norman Tests the Performance Enhancers

5. A Big Change

6. Great Reflexes

7. Fight with Flash

8. Scaling the Heights

9. With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

10. The Wrestling Match

11. Enter the Thief

12. The Death of Uncle Ben

13. Chasing Uncle Ben's Killer

14. Spider-Man to the Rescue

15. J. Jonah Jameson

16. Peter's Photos of Spider-Man

17. World Unity Festival

18. Battle Over Times Square

19. Norman Meets the Goblin

20. Goblin Terrorizes the Bugle

21. The Goblin's Proposal

22. The Alley Kiss

23. Hot Time with the Goblin

24. Thanksgiving Dinner

25. Goblin Attacks Aunt May

26. The Queensboro Bridge

27. A Final Battle

28. Norman's Funeral

Audio Set-Up: English 5.1 Dolby Digital

French (Canada) 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English

French

Spanish

Special Features: Music Score & Songs Only Track (presented in Dolby Digital 5.1)

Dialogue and Sound Effects Only Track (presented in Dolby Digital 5.1)

Filmmakers' Commentary

SFX Commentary

Spider-Sense Pop-Up

"Weaving the Web" Pop-Up Factoids

DVD-ROM

Quick Navigation

Theatrical Trailer

Music Videos: "Hero" by Chad Kroeger and Featuring Josey Scott

"What We're All About" by Sum 41

TV Spots: Amazing

Epic

Thread of Hope

Kids Suit Up

Upside Down

Suit Up

Blockbuster Countdown Thursday

Destiny Cutdown

Cingular

Changing Kids Cutdown

Review #1

Web of Spider-Man: The Comic: Spider-Man: The Mythology of the 21st Century

Spider-Man Archives

Artists Gallery

Comic Book Artist Gallery

Rogue's Gallery

The Loves of Peter Parker

DVD-ROM

Activision Game: Hints and Tips

Goblin's Lair: The Movie: HBO Making of Spider-Man

"Spider-Mania", an E! Entertainment Special

Director Profile: Sam Raimi

Composer Profile: Danny Elfman

Gag/Outtake Reel

Screen Tests Tobey Maguire

J. K. Simmons

CGI Spider-Man

Makeup and Costumes

## **Future**

### **Sequels**

Main articles: Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3

Two sequels to Spider-Man were produced and directed by Sam Raimi: Spider-Man 2 was released on June 30, 2004, while Spider-Man 3 was released on May 4, 2007.