Doctor Octopus' Tentacles

*"And now let me introduce my assistants. These four actuators were developed and programmed for the sole purpose of creating successful fusion. They are impervious to heat and magnetism. These smart arms are controlled by my brain through a neural link. Nanowires feed directly into my cerebellum, allowing me to use these arms to control fusion reaction in an environment no human hand could enter."*
―Otto Octavius[src]
**Doctor Octopus' Tentacles** are mechanical appendages created and used by Doctor Octopus. They possess highly intelligent artificial intelligence, giving them their own motivations and independent thoughts.

## History

### Creation

To help him perform a sustained fusion experiment, Dr. Otto Octavius developed a set of highly advanced tentacles, dubbed the "smart arms" by himself. The four arms were designed with the principle of "distributed processing," with each arm's advanced, independent artificial intelligence allowing a high degree of precision and agility necessary for the delicate reaction. The tentacles are controlled via nanowires connected to Octavius's cerebellum, which are connected via a series of needles along his spinal column. Octavius protected his higher brain function with a Neural Inhibitor Chip, maintaining control over the artificial intelligence.

### Fusion Accident

When the first demonstration of Octavius's fusion reactor goes wrong, the inhibitor chip was destroyed and the needles connecting the nanowires to Octavius's brain are fused to his spine. Octavius was rushed, unconscious, to the hospital. Although Octavius was unconscious, the arms remained aware of their surroundings. Terrified of the surgeons who planned to saw off the arms to ascertain the damage to Octavius's spine, the tentacles suddnely lashed out and killed the doctors in self-defense. As Dr. Octavius slowly regained consciousness, the arms gently removed the gauze from his eyes, revealing the carnage. He cried out in despair, his arms mimicking his motion, then fled the hospital. He stumbled into the street, where he was nearly run over by a cab, but he instinctively threw the cab out of the way. Then, Octavius retreated to an abandoned warehouse outside the city.

### Doctor Octopus' Campaign

Distraught over the destruction at the hospital, the loss of his wife, and the failure of his reactor, Dr. Octavius resolved to drown himself and his "monstrous" arms in the river. However, Octavius started hearing the voices of his arms in his head and realized that the inhibitor chip had been destroyed. The arms convinced him to rebuild the fusion reactor, playing to his vanity and ego and blaming Spider-Man for the disaster. The arms then suggested they steal the money necessary to rebuild, convincing Octavius that "the real crime would be not to finish what we started." He stole some clothes, such as a long black and brown coat, a fedora, gloves and a pair of sunglasses, from a local department store and planned his crime.

Control between Doctor Octopus and his arms switched, as the arms did not force Octavius to do their bidding, instead manipulating his emotions to convinced him to help them. Doctor Octopus' morals became warped and twisted, to the point where he considered a quick death for Spider-Man to be merciful and morally right, justifying allowing his arms to satiate their bloodlust and endanger normal civilians.

### Destruction

The arms would often warn Doctor Octopus of imminent dangers, such as Spider-Man's attempts to rescue Mary Jane or Mary Jane's attempt to hit Otto with a rotten plank of wood. Spider-Man tricked Octavius into electrocuting himself, temporarily stunning the arms and blasting him backwards into the river. Taking off his mask to reveal his true identity, Peter Parker convinced Octavius that the reactor needed to be destroyed. In a last bid for self-preservation, an arm seized Peter by the neck, but Otto convinced the arms that they needed to atone for their crimes and take responsibility for their actions.

Otto Octavius sacrificed himself to destroy the reactor, the heat from the boiling river water instantly killed him. The arms, however, did not die, and as they sank to the bottom of the river, they cried out in fear to Otto as their lights drowned from the river waters.

## Personality

*"Which is why I developed this Inhibitor Chip to protect my higher brain function. It means I maintained to control these arms, instead of them controling me."*
―Otto Octavius about the arms' A.I prevent his brain function from being controlled, via the Inhibitor Chip[src]
The four mechanical arms have their own personality and motivations, which are unique and distinct from Dr. Octavius's. Being artificial intelligence, they think logically and analytically, with no regard to subjective concepts such as morality or emotions. Despite this, the arms often behave like petulant children, selfishly prioritizing their own needs over the needs of others.

The mechanical arms' primary motivation is self-preservation. Their initial attacks on the surgeons were to defend themselves from being sawed off, and when Octavius threatened to drown himself in the river, the arms convinced Otto to rebuild his reactor instead. Rebuilding the reactor became an extension of their self-preservation instinct, a motivation that continues even in a parallel universe.

The arms can manipulate Doctor Octopus' emotions as delicately as they can manipulate a fusion reaction, playing on Otto's grief and ego to convince him to rebuild the reactor. They also convinced him that Spider-Man was at fault for the accident. The arms despised Spider-Man, and Doctor Octopus eventually acquiesced to their desire to rip him apart, considering a quick death to be merciful.

## Capabilities

The four mechanical tentacles are controlled by the user's brain through a neural link. Nanowires feed directly into the cerebellum to form a connection between the arms and the user. Doctor Octavius installed an inhibitor chip to prevent the arms from taking control of his higher brain functioning. Since the arms are designed to operate in an environment dangerous to normal humans, they are impervious to heat and magnetism.

Each tentacle is 4.5 feet long, can extend to 13 feet long via telescoping. Each of the tentacles can lift up to 3 tons and more if they are all used. The four tentacles has superhuman strength, which allowed Doctor Octopus to easily overpower humans, rip metal objects, lift cars and even overpower the experienced superhero Spider-Man. The tentacles are also equipped with a flashlight, which one arm can be seen using to read a label on a box of equipment. The tentacles also feature daggers that come out of the "eyes" of the end of the tentacles.

With the use of the tentacles, Doctor Octopus was capable of transporting himself through rooftops and climbing buildings. He could also use the arms to punch, grab, throw, and defend himself against Spider-Man. The arms' distributed processing and high processing speed allowed Doc Ock to be completely aware of all his surroundings, with his arms offering an early warning system for imminent danger.

## Trivia

* In the comics, **Doctor Octopus' Tentacles** are non-sentient four mechanical appendages that Doctor Octopus constructed so he could manipulate radioactive substances from a safe distance. He would later resort to use them to commit crimes after a freak lab accident left him with irreversible brain damage.

## Behind the Scenes

* In *Spider-Man 2*, the mechanical tentacles were both portrayed using puppetry and visual effects. Each of the tentacles were made using 76 parts when they were portrayed using puppetry. However, in *Spider-Man: No Way Home*, the tentacles were portrayed in entirely Computer Generated Imagery (CGI).
* Alfred Molina actually gave four names to the tentacles: Larry, Harry, Flo and Mo. Flo was the top right tentacle that was considered as most motherly, when it removed his glasses and gave him sips of his drink.

## External Links

* Doctor Octopus' Tentacles on Marvel Database