Spoilers ahead! If you
haven’t watched the movie, I can’t recommend enough that you watch it and
completely ignore this post or read it later.
The first piano chord hits
perfectly on note with the news announcement of Spiderman’s death as Miles' parents watch the news.
“I’m not scared of the dark.
I’m not running running running.” This line plays just as Miles is clearly
terrified and running away from his problems. He just recently watched Kingpin
murder Spider-man, and spider-man is revealed to be just a normal person, a kid
only about 10 years older than himself. He is running from this terrifying
realization, and the fact that he’s a spider-man now too. The part of the song that
says, “No I’m not afraid of the fall,” happens just as miles lets go of his
windowsill and falls down to the ground. This demonstrates that while he is running away and is truly scared, he is still willing to take the fall. It beautifully alludes to his
fall, his leap of faith later in the movie where he faces danger head on. In that scene later, he may be scared, but scared or not, he faces danger and loves it. However, in this scene, Miles is still terrified and not yet ready for that large of a leap of faith.
Everyone looking at their
phones as this realization spreads across New York City in mere moments at
the time of the announcement. It shakes the city as their hero is pronounced
dead and is unmasked. The news announcer says, “Our hero spider-man is gone.” The news spreads just as it does in our world, everyone finding out a chilling, horrible, ground-shaking news all at once over media. Many of us have been there during some natural disaster or catastrophe, and this scene meshes with the tone of the music to create an uncontrollable, visceral feeling.
Miles looking at himself in
the reflection of the news announcement. He’s literally between spider-man and
Peter. He’s between a hero and just a regular person, but also looking at the
reflection of a choice on what he wants to become.
This part of the costume
store scene overlaid with Mary Jane’s speech. “My husband Peter Parker was an
ordinary person. He always said it could have been anyone behind the mask. He
was just the kid who happened to get bit.” Miles is buying the costume, still
deciding if he’s an ordinary person or going to be a hero, but getting the
costume anyway. Like Peter, he was just the kid who happened
to get bit. Now the legacy is passing down. He's putting the mask on. As he says at the finale in the movie, anyone can wear the mask. Here, he wears the mask but has not yet made the decision to wear the mask and live up to the responsibility of it. Plus, the obligatory and wonderful
Stan Lee cameo adds even more feels.
Stan telling Miles “It always fits… eventually.” Not only does this add a wonderful piece of humor to a very intense scene, it has more meaning too. Miles can’t return his powers, and it shows that if someone tries, they can always grow into that power and grow into the costume, becoming the hero to fit the powers and the responsibility. With great power comes… well, you know.
Stan telling Miles “It always fits… eventually.” Not only does this add a wonderful piece of humor to a very intense scene, it has more meaning too. Miles can’t return his powers, and it shows that if someone tries, they can always grow into that power and grow into the costume, becoming the hero to fit the powers and the responsibility. With great power comes… well, you know.
Mary Jane’s speech continues.
“He didn’t ask for his powers, but he chose to be spider-man.” As Miles puts on
the mask, he is choosing, or at least starting his choice, to become
spider-man. He could have kept running, but as the song continues, he’s still
terrified, but he isn’t running as much, starting to become what he will grow
into throughout the movie.
“My favorite thing about
Peter is that he made us each feel powerful. We all have powers of one kind or
another. But in our own way, we are all spider-man.” This beautiful metaphor and
speech occurs in a scene where everyone is being spider-man, or at least wearing the mask in his honor. Not only does Miles choose to
be spider-man, but everyone else around him wearing the mask could have chosen
to be spider-man if the opportunity arose. Anyone can wear the mask and grow
into it if they are given the opportunity and have the will.
MJ finishes the speech with, “And we’re all counting on
you.” to which Miles responds, “They’re counting on me.” He realizes how much he has to do, knows the full weight of his promise to Peter when he took the goober and made the promise to shut down the machine. The end of this scene finishes after so many intense feelings, for both Miles and the audience, with a wonderful way to
break the tension again as a man responds, “probably not you specifically, I
think it’s a metaphor.” This is much needed, good humor, but it also shows that as amazing and heart
wrenching as this scene and movie is, it is overall a metaphor. There are no
real spider people out there in our world, but the message remains: we can all
wear the mask and be the hero. We're all afraid of the dark in different ways, but if we choose to fight it, the responsibility and power always fit eventually. All we have to do is to choose to wear the mask.