Writing a screenplayfor a film is not exactly a soft nut to crack. No matter how seemingly simple a plot is, it commonly involves a large cast with plenty of events and developments happening all at once. That is especially true when it comes toSpider-Manmovies, with tons of friends and foes sharing the screen with the friendly neighborhood hero. What about the MCU, then, where the screenwriters need to tie that plot to all previous films, including the upcoming ones? Now, what if they decided to include even the non-MCU pictures, intertwining all plots in one film?
All things considered, it is almost acceptable that a plot hole here and there might be caught by the more watchful crowd. But some of those are a little too deep to turn a blind eye. The following list gathers some of the plot holes in Spider-Man films that could really use some webbing to help cover them.
10Peter Reveals His Powers, Yet No One Suspects Him
Directed by Sam Raimi and with Tobey Maguire in the title role,Spider-Manis still considered by many to be the hero’s best film yet. But even in the absence of MCU’s intricate timelines and madness multiverses, the movie is not immune to a few plot holes. One of them happens when Peter, unbeknownst of his newly acquired powers, accidentally causes an incident in the school’s cafeteria. He shoots a web string at a tray, which hits Flash Thompson and leads to a fight, where the bully gets the worst.
A few days later, everyone is surprised as they see a certainSpider-Man fighting criminalsby shooting webs at them. How come no one present in the cafeteria that day did not think that Peter Parker could be behind it? It was pretty clear that it was a webbing pulling that tray. Especially considering that it happened to Flash, a typical scumbag with all the reasons to get back at Peter, having being humiliated in front of the whole school. Ok, Flash could be a coward and decided to keep his mouth shut, afraid of an eventual retaliation for exposing Peter. But it’s a little unlikely that everyone else felt the same way.
9Doc Ock Wants to Question Peter, But Tries to Kill Him
InSpider-Man 2, Dr. Otto Octavius develops a promising new technology which allows him to control metal tentacles with a microchip implanted in the back of his head. Needless to say, the experiment goes awry, leading the scientist to adopt the alter-ego Doctor Octopus, making of him into a menace to New York City. But if the police’s guns are no match for his metal limbs and his devilish master intellect, Doc Ock sees Spider-Man as the only one able to stop his plans.
Doctor Octopus realizes that a good idea to lure Spidey into his clutches is by questioning his sort of personal photographer, Peter Parker, the only one who seems to know exactly where the hero will be most of the time. But the way he tries to bring Peter in is curious, to say the least: by throwing a car at him. Perhaps Doc Ock could have been starting to really lose his mind, as well as any sense of what an average human could and could not endure. Still, pretty weird.
8Eddie Was Mentioned in The Daily Bugle Before Being Hired
Eddie Brock, introduced inSpider-Man 3, is one of the few characters that rivals with Peter Parker in and out of his costume. Even before being in contact with the alien symbiote goo that turned him into Venom, Eddie and Peter quarreled over the position of top photographer for the Daily Bugle. However, there is a slight discrepancy that concerns him.
InSpider-Man, Robbie Robertson, one of J.J. Jameson’s assistants, says how they are having trouble getting a good picture of Spider-Man, even though “Eddie had been working on it for weeks”, in what is seemingly a reference to Eddie Brock. However, J.J. says inSpider-Man 3that Eddie “was hired just a week ago.” Could it be just another Eddie, making the whole thing a coincidence? Yes, it could. But it’s very unlikely that the scriptwriters would randomly choose this name specifically in the given context.
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse: 10 Things That Should Happen in the Much-Anticipated Sequel
Across the Spider-Verse delivered various plot twists and cliffhangers. But what storylines does Beyond the Spider-Verse need to complete the trilogy?
7Peter’s Webbing Could Be Traced By Oscorp
InThe Amazing Spider-Man, Peter is seen sneaking into Oscorp, where he learns of the company’s secretive experiments with genetically modified spiders, eventually getting bitten by one of them. Before that, however, he discovered the webbing that was being engineered as part of the project. Later on, Peter buys a case of Oscorp’s web fluid, and uses is as a reference to develop his own webbing.
As soon as Spider-Man made the news for shooting webs all around the place, it would not be too hard for Oscorp to connect the dots and find out the vigilante’s identity. Specially considering that, in that story, one of the pioneers of the enhanced spiders project was none other than Peter’s father, Richard Parker. The reason why Oscorp never said anything to anyone remains a mystery, thus becoming one more plot hole.
6Electro and Rhino Appear Suddenly Yet the Streets Are Barricaded
The second installment in which Andrew Garfield impersonates the webslinger,The Amazing Spider-Man 2has one fairly intriguing moment that doesn’t seem to fit properly in the script. When the world witnessed Electro’s first appearance right in the middle of Times Square, one thing stands out: the streets are all barricaded exactly around where he and Spider-Man are fighting. Almost like they were already there. But if Electro literally came in a flash out of nowhere, how could the streets be already barricaded?
Perhaps, New York’s finest response time really went up the roof, given the exceedingly huge number of situations where bizarre and creepy fellas attempt to bring destruction upon the city. Not impossible, but most likely a plot hole. Interestingly, the same situation happens when Rhino appears near the end of the movie, forcing Spidey to take a young kid to his mom behind one of the record-time-placed barricades.
5Electro Never Knew Peter’s Identity, Yet Appeared With Strange’s Spell
Speaking of Electro, there is still one more plot hole that Spider-man’s sparky opponent fell into, this time inSpider-Man: No Way Home.When Peter Parker asks Doctor Strange to conjure a spell that would make everyonebut a selected fewforget who he is, what he manages to do is to bring everyone, in every universe, who knew Spider-Man’s real identity to his own universe. Electro was one among other antagonists of the webhead who showed up.
The only problem is that, as far as anyone knows, Electro never knew Spider-Man’s face beneath the mask. He actually states it clearly by the end of the film, where he confesses to Peter 3 he thought Spider-Man was a Black guy. How he got there, though, remains an unanswered question. At least in this universe.
4Sandman Was Working Against His Own Goal
Another antagonist ofSpider-Man: No Way Homethat left question marks all over was Sandman. A tragic villain who, despite his criminal record, cannot be considered evil. After all, his main motivation was to get his old life back and take care of his daughter. Something he would achieve with what Peter originally wanted to do, using Doctor Strange’s magical box.
But rather than assisting Peter and his friends, Sandman actually helped the other villains, who intended to destroy the box to remain in that universe as evil rulers. Perhaps Sandman was just afraid of being the gang’s mood breaker and decided to go with the flow. But considering super villains are usually not much permissive, that seems more like a plot hole.
MCU: 10 Things That Should Happen In Spider-Man 4
As Marvel prepares the Spider-Man follow-up to No Way Home, there are 10 things that could help push the film and the MCU forward.
3Why Didn’t Peter Make Everyone Forget About Mysterio?
The entire plot ofSpider-Man: No Way Homeunfolds after Peter Parker realized his life had become hell since Mysterio revealed to the world he was Spider-Man, so he decides to do something about it. He goes to Doctor Strange and asks for the entire world to forget he was Spider-Man, but the spell goes terribly wrong, thanks to Peter’s insistent meddling. By then, it was clear that a spell contained a large margin of error. Still, Doctor Strange re-conjures the same spell, properly this time.
How come they did not think it would be simpler by simply making people forget about Mysterio? Or even better, forget that he said Peter was Spider-Man? Not a wise choice, considering they are a pretty smart duo. But when you’re dealing with magical spells, multiversal stuff, and college applications at the same time, it’s an understandable lapse.
2Doctor Strange Came Back Without His Ring
When Peter tries to escape the Sanctum Sanctorum inSpider-Man: No Way Home,Doctor Strange takes them to the Mirror Dimension. This magical realm, a sort of dimension within the dimension, would let them fight preserving the real word from any damage. Although Strange seemed to have the upper hand, he was beaten by theone power he’s never seen coming: geometry.
Peter took his ring and left it under Ned’s care, so Strange could not leave the Mirror Dimension until his mission to “cure” the villains was accomplished. However, even without the ring, Strange does manage to break free. And it’s not like his ring is just an expandable accessory, since it allowed even Ned to find two Peters from alternate universes.
1The Erratic Functioning of the Spider-Sense
This is the one plot hole that probably allSpider-Manfilms have in common. The Spider-Sense is one of the most important abilities and a compulsory item in the “superpowers pack” of any webspinner. It’s what makes the hero move so fast and feel any threat before it happens. This skill, however, seems to inexplicably sometimes fail for no reason.
This can be seen in times like Peter being knocked down with a chair by the wrestler inSpider-Man, being caught by Aunt May in his costume inSpider-Man: Homecomingor sense Rio approaching Miles and Gwen inSpider-Man:Across the Spider-Verse. Of course, a keen Spider-Sense that prevented all and every hit against the wall crawler would make the fight seem too easy and bore the audience. But maybe the screenwriters could give a reason for its eventual malfunctions. Like a Spider-Sense’s snooze button that was always accidentally turned on, or something like that.
