Spider-Man Challenges Death’s Inevitability in ‘Across the Spider-Verse’
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse hit theaters on June 2 and is already proving itself to be more than a worthy successor to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Of course, the movie had big shoes to fill as Into the Spider-Verse was hailed as one of the best Spider-Man films of all time upon its release in 2018. The bold and heartfelt film tells the origin story of Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), who bravely dives into the multiverse to stop Kingpin (Liev Schreiber). After five years and a few delays, viewers finally have the first part of the sequel, which sees Morales rejoining his fellow Spider-Men on a multi-universe adventure to stop supervillain The Spot (Jason Schwartzman).
The five-year wait and the decision to divide the sequel into two films ensured that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse would be even bigger than its predecessor in many ways. The animation is even more vibrant, innovative, and beautiful; there are far more Spider-Man variants; and the cast is even bigger and better. Even the characters are older and stronger, adding intensity and higher stakes to the story. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a film that clearly set out to make history.
That said, some viewers may be anticipating Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse to be more tragic than the first film, too. One thing that made Into the Spider-Verse so heartfelt and powerful was how it boldly tackled the concept of death. The death of his world’s Spider-Man (Chris Pine) and his Uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali) were the two events that shaped Morales the most and inspired him to become a hero. As tragic as it sounds, death is what shapes nearly every iteration of Spider-Man, leading many fans to wonder if Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse would upend Miles Morales’ world once more.
Spoilers for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ahead
Who dies in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse?
The surprising thing about Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is that there aren’t actually any major deaths. There is foreshadowing of a major death, but the only actual deaths largely occur in flashbacks or alternate universes. Viewers can rest easy knowing that none of the major members of Morales’ and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld)’s Spider-team die in this film. However, the deaths that do occur are extremely important, especially when Morales learns that all of the Spider-Men have experienced several tragic deaths in their lifetimes that shaped them—a cycle that seemingly can’t be broken.
Here is everyone who dies in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse:
Peter Parker (Earth-65)
The first death in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is that of Peter Parker (Jack Quaid) from Gwen’s world, Earth-65. His death occurs in a flashback as she gives her full backstory to the audience. She revisits how Peter was her boyfriend, but he struggled with being relentlessly bullied by his classmates. As a result, he takes a potion that transforms him into the Lizard and begins attacking his high school. Gwen attempts to stop him, but he is crushed and fatally injured by falling debris. In his human form, he confirms he knew Gwen’s Spider-Woman secret and apologizes to her before dying.
Miguel O’Hara’s daughter—and his dimension
In another flashback, we see the death of a variation of Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac)‘s daughter, as well as the destruction of an entire dimension. In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, it is revealed that O’Hara’s daughter passed away in his world of Earth-928, prompting him to enter a different unnamed dimension where his variant was deceased but his family was alive. He then takes the place of his deceased variant and tries to live a normal life with his family. However, because he disrupted Spider-Man canon, his entire dimension collapsed. In flashbacks, we see his daughter disappear from his arms, along with all the people around him. His entire dimension was erased from existence because of the breaking of a canon event.
Uncle Bens and police captains
In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Morales learns that two canon events frequently happen to Spider-Men: the death of an Uncle Ben or a police captain. While learning this, Morales sees a couple of Uncle Ben deaths playing out, the most prominent being Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man crying over his Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) in the first Spider-Man movie. Similarly, we see Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man grieving the death of Police Chief Stacy (Denis Leary).
Meanwhile, in the form of a vision, Morales sees two more police captain deaths. He first sees the death of Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni)’s girlfriend’s police captain father. This morphs into a vision of Miles’ own police captain father, Jefferson Davis-Morales, dying in almost the same manner. Morales succeeds in saving the life of the captain in Pavitr Prabhakar’s world, and the vision of his father hasn’t come to fruition by the end of the film. However, if Morales can’t disrupt the canon without catastrophic consequences, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse may include far more tragic deaths than Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
(featured image: Sony)
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