Spider-ManSave

We open with Peter Parker, narrating directly to the audience. 'Who am I? Are you sure you want to know? The story of my life is not for the faint of heart.' Peter is a high school senior in Queens, a science nerd, son to his Aunt May and Uncle Ben (after his parents' death). He has an unrequited crush on the girl next door, Mary Jane Watson. He is bullied at school by Flash Thompson. He has one friend: Harry Osborn, the son of wealthy industrialist Norman Osborn.

Peter's class takes a field trip to Columbia University's genetics lab. A radioactive — actually, in this film's version, genetically-modified — spider escapes its containment and bites Peter on the hand. He goes home, feverish. Overnight he develops superhuman strength, agility, the ability to climb walls, organic web-shooters that emerge from his wrists, and a precognitive 'spider-sense.' He doesn't know what to do with any of it.

Meanwhile, Norman Osborn is conducting his own experiments at Oscorp Industries. The company has lost a military contract; the new performance-enhancing combat serum he's developed is unstable. Osborn injects himself with the serum to prove its viability. The serum transforms him — and unleashes a violent split personality, the Green Goblin. The Goblin kills the Oscorp scientists who would have testified against the test. Norman has no memory of doing it.

Peter, restless one night, sneaks out to a backyard wrestling competition for the prize money to buy a car (and impress MJ). The promoter cheats Peter out of the prize. Peter, fed up, lets a thief escape rather than stopping him — even though he easily could. The thief carjacks Uncle Ben at gunpoint and kills him. Peter, arriving moments later, finds his Uncle Ben dying on the street. He chases the killer through a warehouse and corners him. The killer is the same thief he let escape an hour earlier. Peter kills him — though not directly; the killer falls from a window during their struggle. Peter has just learned the cost of his power.

Peter becomes Spider-Man. He spends six months learning his powers, designing a costume, taking on petty criminals. The world doesn't know who he is. He gets a job photographing himself for the Daily Bugle (which loathes Spider-Man — newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson, played by J.K. Simmons in one of the most-iconic supporting performances of any 2000s film, runs a constant anti-Spider-Man editorial campaign). Mary Jane Watson — now a struggling actress in Manhattan — begins to suspect something has changed about Peter.

Norman Osborn's split personality is escalating. The Green Goblin attacks Oscorp board members, demolishing the Times Square Stark Industries Expo location. Spider-Man stops some of the violence. The Goblin learns that Spider-Man is Peter Parker — his son Harry's best friend, his own neighbor. The film's climax is the Brooklyn Bridge sequence: the Goblin abducts MJ and dangles her over the bridge alongside a gondola of children. Spider-Man arrives. The Goblin gives him an impossible choice: save the children, or save MJ. The Goblin throws both. Spider-Man, in mid-air, catches the gondola with one hand and MJ with the other. Both survive.

The Goblin retreats to his Oscorp lab. Spider-Man follows. The two of them fight through the lab, Spider-Man slowly winning. The Goblin tries to impale Spider-Man with a remote-controlled glider. Spider-Man dodges. The glider impales the Goblin instead. Norman Osborn dies in front of Peter, calling out Harry's name with his last breath. Peter brings Norman's body home to spare Harry the truth.

The film closes at Norman Osborn's funeral. Harry, devastated, vows revenge on Spider-Man (whom he believes killed his father). MJ tells Peter she's in love with him. Peter, knowing his life is now incompatible with any romantic relationship, gently refuses. He swings out across the New York skyline in his Spider-Man costume — credits roll. Spider-Man (2002) grossed $825 million globally on a $139 million budget — the highest-grossing superhero film of 2002 and the third-highest-grossing film of the year overall. It saved Sony's Columbia Pictures division, established Marvel's licensing-out strategy as viable, and proved the modern superhero blockbuster could work commercially.