Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

**More Than One Wears The Mask**

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is a 2018 Film from the USA. It won Best Animated Feature at the 2019 Academy Awards.

## Plot

Teenager Miles Morales struggles to live up to the expectations of his father, police officer Jefferson Davis, who sees Spider-Man as a menace. Miles transfers to a boarding school, but later sneaks out and goes to his uncle Aaron Davis' apartment. When they go to an abandoned subway station to paint graffiti, Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider and gains spider-like abilities, including the ability to emit a bio-electric "venom" blast and turn invisible.

Miles returns to the station to search for the spider and discovers a particle accelerator called "The Super-Collider" built by Kingpin, who hopes to access parallel universes and reunite with his dead family. Spider-Man is fighting Kingpin's enforcers, Green Goblin and Prowler. When Miles stumbles into danger, Spider-Man saves him, but Green Goblin shoves Spider-Man into the collider's energy beam, causing an explosion that kills Green Goblin and severely wounds Spider-Man. He gives Miles a USB drive that will disable the accelerator and warns that the machine could destroy the city if reactivated. Miles then watches in horror as Kingpin brutally kills Spider-Man, before fleeing from Prowler.

As the city mourns Spider-Man's death, Miles tries to honor his legacy by becoming New York's next superhero. While trying out his newfound abilities, he falls off a building and damages the USB drive. At Spider-Man's grave, Miles meets Peter B. Parker, an older and worn-down version of Spider-Man from another dimension. Peter reluctantly agrees to train Miles in exchange for help stealing data to create a new drive. In Kingpin's research facility at Alchemax, Miles discovers he also has the power to turn invisible. They are confronted by scientist Olivia Octavius, who takes DNA samples from Peter and determines that he will die if he does not return to his home dimension.

After being chased through the Alchemax laboratory and a nearby forest by both Octavius and a group of lab workers, Miles and Peter are rescued by Gwen Stacy, Spider-Woman from another dimension. The group find Peter's aunt, May Parker, who is sheltering more spider-heroes—Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Ham, and Peni Parker—who are also deteriorating. Miles offers to help capture the collider so the others can return home, but the heroes tell him he lacks experience. Miles retreats to Aaron's home, where he discovers that Aaron is the Prowler. He returns to May's house where Peni has completed the drive; however, he is followed by Kingpin, Prowler, Octavius, Scorpion, and Tombstone, leading to a brawl. Miles flees, but is captured by Aaron and unmasks himself. Unwilling to kill Miles, Aaron is mortally shot by Kingpin. Miles flees with Aaron, who dies of his injuries. Jefferson sees Miles mourning over Aaron and believes that Spider-Man has killed him.

The heroes regroup with Miles in his dorm. Peter restrains and gags Miles with his webs to ensure his safety before heading out with the heroes, choosing to sacrifice himself by staying behind to deactivate the collider after the others have returned home. Jefferson arrives outside Miles' door and, assuming his son does not want to speak to him, apologizes for his mistakes. Miles masters his powers, breaks free, and goes to Aunt May's where he gains web shooters and repaints Peter's spider-suit. He joins the heroes and helps them defeat Kingpin's enforcers in the collider chamber. Kingpin and Miles fight throughout the collider and myriad realities, attracting Jefferson's attention. As Miles is nearly killed, Jefferson realizes that Spider-Man is not the enemy and encourages him. Miles paralyzes Kingpin with his venom blast and throws him at the kill switch, destroying the collider.

Kingpin and his enforcers are arrested and Jefferson recognizes Spider-Man as a hero. Miles embraces the responsibilities of his new life. Back in their home dimensions, the heroes return to their lives; Peter prepares to fix his relationship with Mary Jane, and Gwen finds a way to contact Miles across dimensions.

In another dimension, Miguel O'Hara (Spider-Man 2099) travels to a 1967 New York and argues with the Spider-Man he meets there.

## Cast

* Shameik Moore as Miles Morales / Spider-Man: An intelligent yet rebellious teenager of African-American and Puerto Rican descent, who is imbued with spider-like abilities after being bitten by a mutated spider and eventually takes up the mantle of the masked vigilante Spider-Man. Producers Lord and Miller described the character as unique among Spider-Men because of his Brooklyn upbringing, half-Puerto Rican and half-African-American background, and the fact that his family is still alive, with that family dynamic being central to the film's story.
* Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker / Spider-Man: Miles' reluctant mentor, a disheveled, jaded and brown-haired 38-year-old counterpart of the hero from another dimension. He is intended to be an amalgamation of all pop culture Spider-Man adaptations and interpretations, and Lord and Miller envisioned him to be like *The Karate Kid*'s Mr. Miyagi, if "Mr. Miyagi doesn't know anything" which they thought was a "really neat color to put onto Peter that we hadn't seen before".
	+ Chris Pine as Peter Parker / Spider-Man: The younger, blond-haired version from Miles' dimension seen at the beginning of the film, who is killed by Kingpin after the activation of the collider. This version of Parker was intended to be "as competent a Spider-Man as possible", and combines elements from previous Spider-Man portrayals, but with slight differences to indicate that this is an alternate universe from those.
* Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy / Spider-Woman: A dimension-displaced counterpart of Gwen Stacy with spider-like abilities, who takes up the alias of "Gwanda" while at Miles' school.
* Mahershala Ali as Aaron Davis / Prowler: Miles's uncle, who moonlights as an enforcer for Wilson Fisk.
* Brian Tyree Henry as Jefferson Davis: Miles's father, a police officer, who initially views Spider-Man as a menace. At the age of 35, Henry had said he was too young to portray a father of a teenager, but agreed to the role after learning that Miles Morales was the only black, Latino Spider-Man.
* Lily Tomlin as Aunt May: Peter's aunt, who is dead in Peter B. Parker's universe, and provides refuge for the other Spider-People in Miles' universe.
* Luna Lauren Velez as Rio Morales: Miles's mother, a nurse.
* Zoë Kravitz as Mary Jane Watson: Peter Parker's widowed wife in Miles' universe and Peter B. Parker's ex-wife in his universe.
* John Mulaney as Peter Porker / Spider-Ham: An alternate funny animal version of Spider-Man from an anthropomorphic universe, who was once a spider, bitten by a radioactive pig.
* Kimiko Glenn as Peni Parker / SP//dr: A young Japanese-American girl from an alternative anime-like universe who co-pilots a biomechanical suit with a radioactive spider that she shares a telepathic link with. The filmmakers initially considered using Silk as their Asian-American Spider-Man, but eventually settled on Peni because of her more unique power set compared to the other Spider-People. Peni's designs went through a few iterations as her initial design was particularly "iffy" before producer Justin Thompson came up with the idea to portray her in an art style similar to that of *Sailor Moon*, aside that Phil Lord and Christopher Miller wanted to go full anime in terms of her design.
* Nicolas Cage as Peter Parker / Spider-Man Noir: A dark and monochromatic alternate version of Peter Parker from a 1930s universe. Cage based his character on the films of Humphrey Bogart, specifically the voices of actors from that era such as James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson.
* Kathryn Hahn as Olivia Octavius / Doctor Octopus: Head scientist and CEO of Alchemax, and scientific adviser to Wilson Fisk.
* Liev Schreiber as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin: A crime lord and the benefactor of Alchemax in Miles's dimension.

Additional voices for the film include: Lake Bell as Vanessa Fisk, Jorma Taccone as Norman Osborn / Green Goblin, Marvin "Krondon" Jones III as Tombstone, Joaquín Cosío as Scorpion, and Post Malone (who contributed to the film's soundtrack) as a bystander in Brooklyn. An archival recording of Cliff Robertson from *Spider-Man* (2002) was used for a flashback scene involving the character Ben Parker. Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee appears in a posthumous cameo, as a character named Stan who sells a Spider-Man costume to Morales. Lord and Miller said it was important to give Lee a bigger moment in the film rather than just a passing cameo, because he was "so integral to the spirit of this movie", and the role was "extra meaningful" following Lee's death in November 2018. Lee's character also has several brief "Easter egg" cameos throughout the film, such as when he walks over Miles and Peter B. when they are lying on the streets of New York City.

Cameos during the film's post-credits include: Oscar Isaac as Miguel O'Hara / Spider-Man 2099, an alternative version of Spider-Man from the Marvel 2099 Imprint; Greta Lee as O'Hara's AI assistant Lyla (respectively credited as Interesting Person #1 and Interesting Person #2); and Jorma Taccone as the Peter Parker / Spider-Man from the 1967 TV series (replacing Paul Soles, with the character being credited as Last Dude). Donald Glover also appears in a background TV screen as Troy Barnes from *Community* in Spider-Man pajamas. Miles Morales' best friend and roommate Ganke Lee also appears. The character originally had a bigger role but was rewritten due to *Spider-Man: Homecoming* having a similar character named Ned. Pixar animator Peter Sohn was cast as Ganke before the character was cut from the final film; the filmmakers have since said that Ganke will appear in later films.

## Critic Consensus

*Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse* matches bold storytelling with striking animation for a purely enjoyable adventure with heart, humor, and plenty of superhero action.