Spider-Man 2 (2004) - 55 questions

Question: Harry walks into the goblin lair, and there are two gliders. One of them is the Green Goblin's, but there is one that isn't the sky stick from the 3rd movie. What glider is that?

Answer: Just a prototype Norman brought home from the lab.

Question: I never understood why Peter wanted to avoid a relationship with Mary Jane in order to keep her safe from his enemies. Doc Octopus and the Green Goblin already found out about her and captured her before she was his girlfriend, so why avoid being with her if his enemies were finding out about her anyway?

Answer: The Goblin grabbed her only after he figured out that Spider-Man was Peter Parker. Doc Oc grabbed her because she was with Peter and he needed to send Peter to get Spider-Man, since he knew that Peter had some kind of working relationship with Spider-Man. In other words, her relationship with Peter puts her in danger because Peter already has a direct connection to Spider-Man through his pictures. If he were able to distance himself from her as both Peter Parker and Spider-Man, it would reduce the chances of her being specifically targeted, especially if the villain figures out that Spider-Man is Peter Parker to begin with, which seems to happen at an alarming rate. When Eddie figures it out in the third movie, he grabs her again because he knows Peter cares about her. And Harry used her as a pawn to get his revenge on Peter. Clearly, her relationship with Peter puts her in danger.

Question: I was watching some of the movie on TV. In the scene with Peter's birthday dinner, when Peter says he has been busy, Harry asks "Taking pictures of Spider-man?" instead of "Taking pictures of your friend?", like on the DVD I have. Is there any reason why this was changed?

Answer: Both lines are said in the movie. When Harry first inquires he says "Taking pictures of Spider-Man?" casually. Later in the scene he says "Taking pictures of your friend?" in a rather irritated tone.

Question: When Peter goes to the doctor after losing his powers, he lies to the the doctor about a dream that he had, where he was Spider-Man and he was losing his powers. Then, after describing it, he says that it is actually his friend's dream. Chances are that the doctor saw through him, and suspects that Peter really is Spider-Man. Will the doctor end up being a villain, or at least have a significant part in upcoming movies?

Answer: If the doctor saw through Peter's lie, chances are he would disbelieve the part about "a friend" having the dream, not that the dream itself is a lie.

Question: The questions page for this movie says that the Green Goblin's voice, in the first movie, was another personality in Norman Osborn's mind. When Harry sees Norman's apparition in the mirror, is it really Norman, or is it coming from Harry's mind?

Answer: Norman's dead - he died in the first movie. This isn't a ghost, just a hallucination in Harry's mind.

Question: Is there any word that Felicia (the other girl that Peter dates in the TV series) will be in the movies?

Answer: There are no indications of Felicia Hardy showing up any time soon. However in Spider-Man 3 we will meet Gwen Stacy, another one of Peter's girlfriends from the comics.

Question: Does anyone know if Mary Jane and Peter will have a daughter in the movies (as they did in the comics)?

Answer: Given that, in the films, they're only just starting their relationship, it can be safely said that any thoughts of starting a family are likely to be some distance off.

Question: Is the Green Goblin a whole separate being, or just another side/part of Norman Osborn himself (and then Harry)? I am asking because Norman argues with the Green Goblin mask in the first Spider-man movie, as if they are two separate people, but it also looks like he could be arguing with himself (with the Goblin's voice really being in his mind).

Answer: It's either Schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder brought on by the super-soldier drug he took. The Green Goblin is a facet of Norman's mind. So he is really arguing with himself, though he thinks it's the Green Goblin.

Question: Why do the posters for Mary Jane's play say Emma Rose on them? Her character in The Importance Of Being Earnest, the play, is Cecily.

Answer: The billboard and posters are not advertisements for the play. They are advertisements for a perfume called Emma Rose.

Question: When Peter is in JJJ's office, while he is naming Doctor Octupus, the reporter says, "I heard Spider-Man was there" and he looks up at Peter. Did he suspect Peter of being Spider-Man?

Answer: He might not suspect that Peter is Spider-Man, but he knows that somehow Peter always seems to be where Spider-Man is in order to get pictures.

Question: In the opening credits, Vanessa Ferlito is listed as a cast member. In the end credits, she is listed as Louise. I looked up Vanessa on IMDB, and didn't recognize her from anywhere in the movie. So, just who is Louise?

Answer: She is one of Mary-Jane's co-stars in the Play she stars in.

Question: At the very end of the movie, when Harry discovers the secret room, he sees many vials of the performance enhancer that his father was working on. Why did Norman Osborn need so many?

Answer: It seems likely that a large number of samples would have been created during the initial experiments - Norman simply took them away and stored them to prevent anyone else from doing what he did. It also gives him the option to repeat the experiment if he feels that the effects are wearing off - remember, it was highly experimental so it would be hard to predict precisely what would happen in the long-term.

Question: When Dr. Octavius is out cold in the hospital, he has bandages covering his eyes. Since his eyes were protected during his demonstration and when he took them off to see his wife had been hit by debris, why would he need the bandages? His eyes were never damaged.

Answer: As the surgeons were going to be using metal cutting equipment, it makes sense they don't want bits falling into his eyes - the surgeons themselves all have protective goggles on. His eyes were also arguably damaged from the light of the artificial sun, despite the protective coverings. It's why he's wearing sunglasses for the rest of the film. It's also noted in the comics that Doc Ock's eyes were damaged during his accident, thus making him sensitive to bright light.

Question: What song was playing when Peter was getting ready to go see Mary Jane's play?

Answer: "Hold On" by Jet. It's on the soundtrack.

Question: At the beginning of his experiment, Dr. Octavius is wearing goggles. One lens is brightly colored from the reflection of the fusion, and the other is dark. Is this supposed to foreshadow that he will soon have a split personality between his good side and his evil side?

Answer: Maybe, but a better explanation would be that only one of the goggle lenses was at the right angle to reflect the light.

Question: Doc Ock's power comes from his actuators. Without them he is just a normal man. Spiderman has superpowers ie strength, recuparative powers etc. So why after all their fighting does only Spiderman show visible injuries? Even after being crushed between a flying table from the bank, and a taxi,which rocks the taxi onto two wheels, he gets up with no apparent injuries.

Answer: In the comics, the radiation from his experiment also gave him some extra strength and toughness. Not as much as Spider-Man, of course, but enough to be able to withstand a beating.

Question: Aunt May's speech to Peter at the end of the film suggests she's figured him out. The look he gives her back (I think) suggests he knows she knows and is cool about it. Am I right?

Answer: Without reading the minds of the scriptwriters, no way to tell. Certainly one interpretation of their conversation is that she knows, or, at the very least, that she strongly suspects. Given that she knows Peter better than anyone and that she's now encountered Spider-Man up close, it's not unreasonable to think that she could have noticed something and put two and two together - Peter certainly doesn't seem to make any attempt to disguise his voice when he speaks to her.

Question: I've seen some different Spiderman-magazines and on some of his costumes they have very large white eyes and some are significantly smaller, more like the costume in the movie. So is there anything that differs between the two costumes? Or is it just that the pictures are from different years or editions?

Answer: The artwork is always altering to some extent, generally based on the artist who's doing the drawing. Peter makes his own costumes, so it's not out of the question that he might make alterations from time to time, which can provide a 'story' reason, but the real answer is just that each artist will have his own interpretation of the character.

Question: How closely does the movie match the comic? Was that how Doc Ock get his tentacles? Were any of the fights similar to those in the comic? Did Doc Ock have an honorable death like he did in the movie?

Answer: Comic continuity is constantly being changed particularly in different comics (Amazing Spiderman, Spectacular Spiderman and Ultimate Spiderman are 3 comics in the same universe), . For each thing that happened in a movie, you could find one way that happened the same and two that it happened differently in the comic universe. So it's really best these days to take the movie on its own.

Question: In the scene where Peter Parker pulls up to the theater in that beat up car from those two bad guys. What kind of car is that and what year?

Answer: Corvette Stingray, most likely late 60s to early 70s.