Puny Pod | Phase 3 Episode 11 - Spider-Man: Far From Home

[00:00:00] Welcome to Puny Pod, the podcast who's been to space, bitch. Welcome to Puny Pod, everyone. We are the Marvel Fandom Podcast where we rewatch the MCU in release order and over on our monthly Bugle episodes, we cover Marvel news and sometimes get really silly and decide to wrap a year in review around a Christmas theme. Go listen to those episodes.

[00:00:48] My co-host, who is going to take the third shift because he popped an Ambien, is David. David, how are we doing this morning? Quite the opposite. I'm amped up on caffeine. I'm ready to go. I'm pretty well, man. How are you? Not too shabby. Not too shabby. Excited to discuss Spider-Man Far From Home, our friendly neighborhood high school Europe vacation movie.

[00:01:17] Have you recovered from our nine hour podcast there? Oh, man. I hope actually I want to give a quick shout out right here up at the top. One of our listeners actually reached out to me. His name is Kyle. And one he he actually sent me his Spotify wrapped and we were his number one podcast, which I was like, dude, go listen to some better podcasts.

[00:01:42] But, you know, we beat out the office ladies for him. He listens to the office ladies podcast and he listens to us more, which I was I was impressed. Shout out to Kyle. Thanks for listening. But he also reached out to me this week and he let me know he really, really appreciated the the split up that we did with with Marvel the way that or with Endgame the way it was kind of split into multiple parts.

[00:02:06] So definitely appreciate that and appreciate you, Kyle, for listening. Other listeners, if you want to send us feedback, please, please do. We we thrive on that. And so and plus, you can get shouted out at the top of the show if you let us know you listen. What's our what's our email again? You can email us at your puny pod all one word spelled just like you see it in your podcatcher there. P-U-N-Y P-O-D at ears up hyphen podcast dot com.

[00:02:35] You can also find me on on the ears up discord. I'm puny RGA or I'm just RGH. You can always send me a DM on the ears up discord or message one of our socials. We can keep an eye on all those. So. So, yeah, David, let's real quick before we get started, I did catch in that marathon episode, which is unsurprising.

[00:03:02] When you record for six hours, there's going to be some errors. So I did have some past show corrections for us that I caught while listening to our our episode. First one here is it's actually funny. We we put ourselves into being incorrect about who sang the song Dear Mr. Fantasy at the very beginning of the movie.

[00:03:34] Eric was like, yeah, Dear Mr. Fantasy by traffic. Or was it Steve Miller Band? Then we're like, oh, yeah, it's Steve Miller Band. It was traffic, everybody. We were wrong. What a disqualifying error. Yeah. Okay. Keep going. What else do we miss on? Let's see here. This one.

[00:03:57] Well, David was talking about talking about Tony's previous flirtations when when he said that it was only Pepper. And he referenced that Tony had flirted with Oriole Adley Rushman. He did not. He actually said Natalie Rushman. Adley Rushman, though, man. Yeah. Great catcher. Good. Absolutely. Absolutely. And then this one.

[00:04:25] This is actually a news article that came out this week. I sent this to the group chat that we had set up for that recording because it was absolutely ridiculous. So I was scrolling through Facebook and, you know, sometimes you just get those stupid news articles that come up. This one was from I think it was Unilad is who posted it, but it was like a New York Times study or something.

[00:04:52] They found that 19% of people surveyed said that mayo was their preferred topping on their hot dogs. Okay. I'm not taking that as an error. That's 19% of people are monsters. I apologize to 19% of our listeners who we offended with our mayo lambasting. I mean, it does. It does lend.

[00:05:21] You think about Thanos. You're like, you know, maybe that 19%. Maybe it's like those people snap away. I'm kidding. It's whatever. You do you. You want to put mayonnaise on a hot dog? Go for it. Oh, man. Yeah. So, by the way, if you have not listened to Endgame, go back and listen to that. It's a great series of episodes. Honestly, some of my favorites of the year.

[00:05:47] So with that, though, let's get into our movie this month. So this month we are covering Spider-Man Far From Home. It is the final entry in the Infinity Saga, which we'll talk about a little bit at the end with what's coming next for us as a podcast. But stay tuned for that. With that, though, I'm going to hand it over to David for his traditional production details. What you got for us?

[00:06:15] Spider-Man Far From Home. This was, as all things Tom Holland, he released the name on Instagram before shooting even began. Good for you, Tom. I just don't want to even give him the script. Just show up and say these lines. Right? Right. Released on July 2nd, 2019. This is the second standalone MCU Spider-Man movie.

[00:06:40] It is the first movie after Avengers Endgame and is set about eight months after that movie. It is, as you mentioned, it is the epilogue of the Infinity Saga. And it is the last MCU film to be released in China until Black Panther Wakanda Forever in 2022. Phase 3, 11th installment. Movie number 23. Run time, 2 hours, 9 minutes.

[00:07:07] Production budget was $160 million. So actually cheaper than Homecoming by $15 million. Opening weekend, $93 million. Domestic gross, $391 million. Worldwide gross, $1.132 billion. So it made about, yeah, it made about $260 million more than Homecoming. As of the time of release, Far From Home had the most expensive marketing campaign for any film at $288 million.

[00:07:37] So Sony shelled out quite a bit of money in order to market it. It's gross. It was number four in 2019 behind Frozen 2, just ahead of Captain Marvel. It is the MCU total in 2019 was $5 billion between those two movies and Endgame. They paid $4 billion as a reminder. And it's number 10 in MCU movies all time.

[00:08:05] Find Captain America Civil War and just ahead of Captain Marvel. Fans like the movie. Critics, tomato, amateur, 91%. Audience, 95%. Not everyone loved it. One star review from Amazon from Laura Ballard. Quote, I started watching only to find out there's been a war. A bunch of Avengers are dead and Spider-Man has taken over for Tony Stark? Question mark? Mark, I stopped watching since I'm not about to watch the Infinity War movies.

[00:08:34] Waste of a $4 rental. Wait, what? What? I can't, I can't, I, if this is your first entry, I could see what the hell is happening here. Yeah. Anyway, Laura Ballard, not a huge fan. Didn't finish it. And I'm not, I'm not about to watch those movies. Yeah. Not about to watch literally the like highest grossing movie of all time. Anyway. Probably terrible. Exactly. Director John Watts. Screenplay Chris McKenna, Eric Summers.

[00:09:04] This is the writing dude who worked on Community and Lego Batman before coming in to help with the screenplay of Homecoming. They also wrote Ant-Man and the Wasp. The cast. Largely the same cast as before. Tom Holland turns as Spider-Man. Peter Parker. Zendaya as Michelle Jones. We have Jake Gyllenhaal playing Quentin Beck slash Mysterio. Little known fact he, Jake Gyllenhaal was going to replace Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man in the second Spider-Man movie.

[00:09:33] After Maguire was injured during the filming of Seabiscuit, but he recovered. Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds. Andrew Rice as his girlfriend Betty Brint. Part-time, short-time girlfriend Betty Brint. Samuel Jackson shows up as Fury. Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan. Martin Starr as Mr. Harrington. Tony Ravoli as Flash Thompson. We have Remy Hill making his debut as Brad Davis. JB Smoove as Mr. Julius Dell.

[00:10:04] His part is funny. He had a very, very minor part, but he was in a commercial with Tom Holland for, wait for it, Audi. And they liked the chemistry so much that they added more scenes to the movie. That's awesome. Yeah. Colby Smulders as Soren slash Maria Hill. Marissa Tomei as May Parker.

[00:10:27] And what I did not realize until researching this movie is that Peter Billingsley, who was in A Christmas Story, is in this movie. Yep. I completely, maybe you mentioned, I completely missed it. Yeah, he's reprising his role. Yeah. For Iron Man. William getting a Riva. Riva. We'll get. I'm not Tony Stark. I'm not Tony Stark. I'm not Tony Stark. I'm Tony Stark. And Newmont Akar as Demetri. There are some cameos.

[00:10:56] We see Dawn Michelle King, who's the first as an editor. She is the voice of Edith. We had a little Ben Mendelsohn as Talos. A little Sharon Flynn as Soren. A little cut of Robert Downey Jr.'s beginning to Iron Man. And J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson making his MCU debut. He was originally, like, my understanding is right before the film was about to be released, like a month or two, they filmed the scene. He finally agreed to be in it. Sam Raimi wasn't even going to have the scene.

[00:11:25] It's like, if it's not him, we're not doing this. But he had been in, you know, the Spider-Man franchise and Spider-Verse and on TV. And this is his first time in the MCU. Other choices for Mysterio, Matt Damon turned down the role. Matt Smith, who's Doctor Who. Andrew Scott, who's Sherlock. And Colin Farrell were all considered for the role. As with all things Marvel, there were a lot of different. Real quick, listener. Andrew Scott was Moriarty in Sherlock. He was in Sherlock.

[00:11:55] He was not Sherlock. But he was in the show Sherlock. Yeah. Yeah. I really like Sherlock was Benedict Cumberbatch. Yeah. By the way, if you haven't seen that, that's a really good show. So good. It's basically a bunch of movies. Like, it's like hour and a half episodes. And there's like three out there. Yeah. Super good. Ideas that were considered but were scrapped, unfortunately. There were plans for Sam Wilson to appear as the new Captain America. But it was decided to save this just as Peter's own film.

[00:12:23] Craven the Hunter was considered. They were considering Jason Momoa. They thought of going to new Asgard. Blade was going to be in the movie. They were considered to appear. But you know what? They're going to save it for his own standalone movie. Put a pin on that. So that's basically the production notes for Spider-Man Far From Home. Nice. Nice. Yeah. It was kind of just the wrap-up movie.

[00:12:50] And we already went through a lot of the Sony stuff and whatnot in the first episode. So if you're interested in how the sausage gets made and some of those pieces with how did this Sony character end up in the MCU, go listen to our episode on Spider-Man Homecoming. David did a really good job of covering it there. And so, you know, we won't repeat it for everybody who's already listened to all that.

[00:13:17] But if you didn't listen to that episode, go listen to that one if you want that kind of detail. So, David, let's talk about this one a little bit. You first viewing of this, right? It was post-Endgame. We were basking in the glow of Endgame. If I remember right, the trailer for this was on, like, was added as a post-credit scene late in the run of Endgame,

[00:13:47] in the theatrical run of Endgame, if I remember correctly. That could be right. But what were you feeling going into watching this one? What do you remember your viewing being like? What do you remember about this one? I'm going to be honest. This was an unremarked. I was straining to remember where I saw it and with whom I saw it. As with all things Marvel, I probably saw it with my son.

[00:14:15] But going into it, I kind of felt like it felt weird that they were finishing up with this movie. It just seemed like Endgame should have just been the ending. So, I didn't have, like, real high expectations. I liked the first film just fine. I liked Tom Holland. I think he does a really good job as Spider-Man. So, I was looking and hoping for something that was, like, light and fun and, like you're saying, like a vacation, you know, teen angst kind of movie. How about you?

[00:14:46] I would say somewhat similar, right? I was, I would say I was a little bit more excited. Like, Spider-Man, I think Spider-Man's probably my wife's favorite MCU series other than maybe Black Panther. I would say it's probably either Black Panther or Spider-Man for her. And so, you know, kind of being around excitement is, it breeds excitement, right?

[00:15:11] Right. So, definitely was looking forward to it. I remember, I love Mysterio, like, as a character. I was very excited that Mysterio was going to be the villain. So, I was, from, like, the Saturday morning Spider-Man cartoons, I remembered Mysterio being this fun, like, you know, visual effects guy, whatever.

[00:15:40] So, I was excited for that. I think there was some hints towards multiversality in the trailers. I don't remember for sure. But, you know, I was here for, like, maybe something a little bit more simple, a little bit less connected. Kind of. Totally, yeah. Lighter, you know, lighter tone, not as down, right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

[00:16:10] So, with that, David, going back into it this month, right? We are coming off of our six-hour recording session of Endgame. And you need to sit down and watch this this month. What were you thinking about it this month and going back into the rewatch? I was thinking, please, dear God, let this not be another six-hour recording. But, other than that, I've not, dude, I've not seen this movie a ton of times.

[00:16:39] And I'm going to, I cannot remember the last time I watched it. I remember thinking the first time I watched it, like, oh, that was fine. But it's not one I pick up all the time. And so, for this time, there were a lot of parts I completely forgot. So, I was looking forward to kind of rediscovering it. And, again, kind of seeing how it ties to back to Endgame, to the larger MCU, how I know it's going to lead into future Spider-Man stuff.

[00:17:09] And, you know, phase four and beyond. You? Yeah, I was excited to get back into it. I have watched it a lot, like I say. Spider-Man's a favorite of the wife. So, one of them will get turned on pretty frequently. Or, it's actually often on, I think, like, TBS. Usually, we'll play this one pretty frequently. Or, if I'm at my parents' house, they have Starz.

[00:17:37] And so, I'll flip over to Starz, and they have all those Sony projects. So, oftentimes, like, oftentimes from, like, its release until No Way Home came out, there was a lot of times where I would just go over and I'd turn on Starz. And, like, Spider-Man would, Far From Home would be on because it was the new one. So, I've watched it in pieces and parts quite a few times.

[00:18:03] I don't know that I've sat down to re-watch it all the way through all that many times. But, yeah. So, I was familiar with the movie. Very, very familiar with it, having watched it a good few times. I was interested to see, you know, as with all the movies of this re-watch, I was interested to see how the re-watch has changed my perspective on it. And it has a little bit.

[00:18:32] There definitely were some things I picked up that I didn't before. I think especially around, like, the interconnectivity of it was interesting to really pay attention to. Because the Spider-Man movies are separate but connected. It's weird. It is really weird in the way that they're connected. And so, I was interested to kind of pay close attention to that and see how it went. Yeah.

[00:19:02] Similar, watching these movies with a more critical eye rather than just like, hey, I'm just going to go nerd out and enjoy this and not think about things. And, like you were saying, to find those bits and pieces that tie in. And also, to kind of, like I said, I've not seen this a lot. So, kind of rediscovering and finding things that I really liked. And finding some things that were kind of like, eh, okay. Plus, it was cool. I got to watch this one. I let the boy watch with us. And because he's a big Spider-Man fan.

[00:19:32] So, he, I mean, he didn't really pay attention to any time where Spidey wasn't swinging across the screen. But, you know, it was kind of cool to, like, with most of this rewatch, I've been trying to watch it when he's like at nap or whatever. Just because, like, the violence and stuff and whatnot. But this one, I was like, yeah, let, you know, it's okay. Let's, let's, let's watch it. And he enjoyed it, which was fun. Let's watch.

[00:20:01] Let's let the infant watch the murderous drone attack at the end. Right, yeah. Or the, the, like, super scary hallucinated. Oh, yeah. Station scene in the, in Berlin. Yeah. That would be, yeah. Ted, you're gonna, we're gonna fast forward to this part. That would be such nightmare fuel. It was scary even watching it as a grown ass man. Yeah. Well, let's get into the movie. Let's, let's relive that trauma.

[00:20:26] Um, so we open up, um, in Mexico. Uh, so it's summer 2024. 2024. Hey, summer 2024. Remember that? Uh, in Nick Fury and Maria Hill arrive in the aftermath of what is supposedly a violent sandstorm that destroyed a small village. Nick, uh, or Maria Hill says, Nick, this was a tragedy.

[00:20:55] I'm not sure why we're here. What we're fighting, or what? We're fighting the weather now? Fury tells her that the cyclone had a face, classifying as a possible threat. To, uh, for them to investigate. We see a mysterious person arrive via a gust of green smoke. We also see the earth-based monster arrive, uh, arise and run rampant again.

[00:21:19] The Jake Gyllenhaal character, who we don't know yet his name, but we know he's Quentin Beck, is a super-powered individual who defeats the creature. I would like to point out that this is the world record for earliest auto placement at 40 seconds. We see the first, and not the last, Audi in the movie. I went, I meant to go back and check. I, I would be willing to bet that the license plate on this one has something to do with, like, Sandman's first appearance.

[00:21:49] Um, because, spoiler alert for the Easter eggs, we're gonna tell you later on, every freaking, uh, license plate in this movie is a comic reference. It's almost pornographic how much there is. But anyway, the, um, there are, um, we should probably pause. We're gonna talk about this throughout. We kind of debated whether we save it to the credit scene or not. But the, the reveal at the, in the credit scene that Fury and Hill are Skrulls, which is an ongoing joke of ours.

[00:22:19] The first one, when she says Nick, when I rewatched, that was the record scratch of like, oh, that's right. I remember what happened in this movie. They're all Skrulls. That was the first one because he made it clear that no one calls him Nick, not his mother. Even if he had kids, they would not call him Nick. They'd call him Fury. Yeah, that's a good call out. I, um, oh man, am I playing injured? Am I playing with hiccups today? There we go.

[00:22:48] Yeah, that's a good call out. Um, I had not picked that one up, uh, until this watch through, which is, you know, wild. Right. And this is one of the, this is the first elemental we'll see. This is Magnum who's made of earth. The four elementals kind of correspond to four famous supervillain villains, super, I'm sorry, Spider-Man supervillains. And this earth elemental is kind of similar to Sandman.

[00:23:17] When you see him on the screen, I say him, like it's an actual, like it has a gender, but you know what I mean? When you see it on the screen, it corresponds to Sandman. Yeah. Um, then we cut to probably one of my favorite ways to actually get into the movie, which is Whitney Houston singing. I will always love you. And we see the Marvel logo. And then we see. I completely forgot about this. This is so good. I don't know how I forgot about this.

[00:23:47] Like, I just, I don't know how, but. Comic Sans comes up on the screen and it says in memory or in memoriam. Uh, and it's a video from Midtown technical high school. Looks like somebody's senior project complete with like stock Getty images with the watermark still on them. Um, and the doves flying over everybody. So good.

[00:24:10] Um, and low res pictures, uh, of Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow and Vision. Uh, you know, lest we forget. Um, so good. And then Betty Brant is on the news and is retelling the ending of Infinity War where half of all life on earth was snapped away. And then end game where everybody came back.

[00:24:37] We see that this comically happened, uh, at the high school during a basketball game or during a pep rally is when the snap happened and a bunch of the band dusted away off the basketball court. And then they came back. Uh, the second snap happened, uh, in the middle of a, uh, basketball game. Um, so yeah. So, although you know what?

[00:25:06] Little bit of a plot hole and I don't care about it, but this, I just thought of in this moment. You have a world ending threat. Big old fight happening at Avengers campus, which is not very far upstate. And you are in Midtown Queens having a basketball game.

[00:25:32] You're telling me that they wouldn't have, they wouldn't have like, it's not like Wakanda, right? I can understand the first snap where the battle's over on Africa. You're, you're, you have a pep rally, whatever. That doesn't matter. But it's in the same state and it's not very far upstate where the Avengers, uh, compound is. So you have this big spaceship in the sky and you're just having a basketball game at the high school.

[00:26:01] I never really thought about that, but it is kind of true. Although you do wonder like how long the war was. I don't CNN is like, you know, broadcasting BBC broadcasting film footage of it. But, and we'll let aside the fact that the, how people return kind of doesn't make a lot of sense, right? Like what happens if two people are in the same spot at the same time?

[00:26:25] Um, but in the, you know, in the coming up scene, it does kind of, I thought they did a pretty good job of like making real the fact that there was aftermath from end game and people returning. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what something that that's something that like this, and then we'll see it again in Cap, uh, Falcon and Winter Soldier.

[00:26:49] Um, and in a little bit of WandaVision was this exploration of what happened after Tony snapped, uh, which was really interesting here. It was to comedic effect, right? Uh, you, you kind of have the two, uh, anchors of the school news, Betty Brant, and I forget the other guy's name. Um, but Betty's like, let's just move on. And then the other guy's like totally just shell shocked from it all.

[00:27:16] And you find out that Brad Davis, for example, has aged up five years because he didn't flip. Um, you know, what about the future? Are the Avengers even a thing anymore? Um, so pretty fun little, uh, you know, it is, it is, this is the fun way to investigate the after after effects of Tony's snap. Yeah. You have to kind of, one of the other things you have to kind of put aside or the whole age thing, like Brad Davis is five years older.

[00:27:46] Like, why is he still in high school? Also, I think he was like 32 when he filmed this. He looked every day of it in the film. He just kept looking like, like, good word. Um, Peter's identified as being 16 by my math. I think he's really supposed to be close to 18, but we'll kind of leave that aside and just, just enjoy the madness. Yeah. Um, so we cut to Peter and Ned who are about, uh, who are talking about their end of year science trip to Europe.

[00:28:16] Peter wants to tell MJ how he feels, but Ned talks him out of it. He wants them to be American bachelors in Europe. We cut to a charity fundraiser where May Parker and Spider-Man are raising money for people displaced after the blip. May shares a story about blipping back into her apartment and other people living there and thinking she's the mistress. Um, Happy Hogan shows up with a giant check for the charity.

[00:28:42] We get a little bit of an awkward exchange hinting at the, uh, romantic tension between May and Happy before Peter quote unquote ghosts Fury who is trying to contact him. Uh, Peter doesn't want to do his superhero thing. He just wants to be your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Uh, and he continues to refuse to talk with Fury as he packs for Europe. See him just keep silencing his phone.

[00:29:07] Um, and he debates his Spider-Man suits, but he decides not to take them. That's a, I think ghosting Fury is a very bad move personally. Um, one of the cool things that at like minute eight, you, there's a poster that you see in the back backstage of the fundraiser featuring Crusher Hogan. And he was the wrestler that, that Peter Parker got in the ring with it in Spider-Man's first appearance in amazing fantasy. Number 15.

[00:29:36] Nice spot. Yeah. Yeah. And the other, the other blink and you'll miss it kind of cameo ish, I guess. Uh, I guess it's more of like an establishing kind of Easter egg is when Peter closes his suitcase. You see that the initials emblazoned on it are BFP. So Benjamin Franklin Parker, which would be uncle Ben. Who's uncle Ben? The guy who, uh, Tony Stark tried to replace.

[00:30:05] Um, gotta get his beak wet. Great date loaf. Let me tell you right now. Peter attempts to bond, uh, with the, with MJ during the plane ride over to Italy, but it is futile. Peter fakes a perfume allergy, uh, and, and tries to like, and this is one of those high school things.

[00:30:31] Everybody had one of these plans, whether it was, they tried to hatch something on the bus or in a classroom to get next to the person they wanted to get next to. Um, and it, it just goes awry. Of course it does because it's a high school plan. And Mr. Harrington takes it way too seriously. Yeah. Mr. Harrington, uh, figures it all out and you're like, he's like, okay, let's rearrange.

[00:30:53] And it ends up with MJ sitting next to Brad while Peter is stuck next to Mr. Harrington listening to his, uh, him talk about his wife who disappeared during the blip. And faked her own death and ran off with another. That's so sad. Mr. Harrington. Yeah. That was, that was, there's another part later in the movie we get to, but this was the first part. I was like, oh my God, how does this guy hold together? Why is he telling a 16 year old kid?

[00:31:24] Um, so then we do see that, that Ned has ended up sat next to Betty Brant and they, they start as enemies and end in nine hour, uh, plane ride as boyfriend and girlfriend. Wild. Wild. That's wild.

[00:31:44] The, um, I, when they show the in-flight entertainment, it includes shows or movies called the snap finding Wakanda hunting Hydra Nova with a Dr. Eric Selvage, which I really want to watch and heart of iron, the Tony Stark story. So all this is in-flight entertainment. And I, this is the kind of stuff I want to watch on Disney plus. Yeah. They need to put these all out on Disney plus just like five minute little eggs. Totally. Completely.

[00:32:13] Like you, yeah, I'm with you. So they arrive in Venice, uh, at the airport and they take an Italian water taxi, uh, Veparedo to their hotel. They drop their bags and we get various cut scenes of the group sightseeing, taking photos in Vegas or in Venice.

[00:32:34] Uh, Mr. Harrington losing his camera, trying to take a photo, um, all before Peter steps into a little glass shop to buy a black Dahlia crystal pendant for MJ. Two quick comments are one. Um, I'm very sad for Mr. Harrington. Sad point. Number two, that camera in my, when I saw that it harkened back to the camera that Peter used as a photographer for the daily bugle that like, Oh yeah. Right.

[00:33:03] And then you can see Quentin Beck, um, briefly out of costume. He's on a phone as Peter's looking out at the kids who are like taking selfies and stuff. It's this blink if you miss a moment, but you see him there. That's cool. So it's kind of, it's also kind of weird. Cause like he knew like what was happening. Did he know what was happening at the time? He didn't know who Peter Parker was. It just seemed like this, maybe it was just a weird coincidence, but it made it seem like he was.

[00:33:35] Yeah. Cause he, his whole goal is to get Edith. So somehow he must may, you know what? I bet it was cause he's working with shield, right? I bet he, he used that to gain Intel. Like they're watching how they watched Peter. Okay. Cause I'm sure they keep like Fury keeps tabs on what Peter's doing and knows that Peter's going to Europe.

[00:34:03] And so Quentin kind of through that, that relationship with shield was like, okay, cool. This is where I'll hatch my scheme. I really should have watched the director's commentary on this one, but it's a good point. Like he obviously was working with shield and in advance shield, you know, as we know, this is not real fury and hill. Yeah. Just kind of blabber mouths.

[00:34:24] And I could certainly see like them disclosing information about Peter and what was going to happen in terms of the, the, um, the feed. And they were obviously had to been aware of what was going on with like Edith and the drones and the satellite. Right. Stuff to get to anyway. Um, so while the class is sightseeing, Hydro man, an entity made from water emerges from the grand canal and runs rampant.

[00:34:49] Uh, Peter attempts to stop it to no avail, uh, until the armored Beck arrives to a big old CGI battle in Vegas, in Venice. I keep saying Vegas, totally different movie. Um, we see Beck destroy Hydron or Hydro man, uh, after Peter tries in vain to save one of the clock towers, Mysterio waves, uh, as he claps off, uh, or as he is clapped off by the high school science team.

[00:35:18] Leaving in a trail of green smoke. Um, I do like this scene. It is pretty funny. Like Peter trying to hide his identity is wearing like a Venetian, like jester's mask. And like, it's super silly. Silly. Yeah. The, um, the, this is the second element we've seen. It is, um, Hydron, which is obviously made of water, which corresponds to Hydro man, which I don't think was a super popular. No. Spider-Man villain.

[00:35:46] And actually they reference their actual Hydro man in the news report that's in the next scene. They say something about like, they suspect that it's Morris bench, uh, a man who, you know, fell into a, uh, nuclear reactor and became water or whatever. Um, which that's actually Morris bench is Hydro man in the comics. Okay.

[00:36:11] The, um, the, uh, the other thing that the trail of green smoke that we see, I saw there was a commentary online. It's basically like green smoke, um, has, um, you know, these kinds of evil connotations. You see like wizard laws. It's supposed to be tied to like a form of poison that emits gas. And so that was supposed to be like one of the tales of Mysterio was not a good dude.

[00:36:34] So the science team and teachers from midtown, midtown tech are watching TV footage from this second elemental or from another elemental attack and trying to figure out what they just experienced. Mr. Harrington says, what do you think it is? Mr. Dell says, you know, being a man of science, witches. I reminded there's so many witch references in this, it cracks me up. So we see Peter talking to Aunt May about the Venice attack.

[00:37:04] Happy is, uh, visiting May at lunch. Nothing, nothing to see there. And May reassures Peter about his plan with MJ. MJ. She said, um, you know, he said, don't worry. Happy says, don't worry. I'm really taking care of your aunt, which is a little, little double entendre. Uh, the students debate who Mysterio is. Someone says he's like Thor and Iron Man all rolled into one, which causes Flash to say, Flash says, he says, he's all right. He's no Spider-Man. MJ says, what is it with you in Spider-Man?

[00:37:34] Flash was, what? He's just awesome. Okay. He protects neighborhood and you know, he's inspiring. He inspires me to be a better man. And then Peter walks in and he's like, flashes. What's up, dickwad? I thought you drowned. Uh, Peter shrugs it off and he tries to get his MJ plan back on track. And Peter says to MJ, Paris tomorrow, go to the Eiffel Tower. Should be great. MJ says, yeah. I read it was secretly built as a mind control antenna to create an army of the insane, which is why it's my favorite destination on the whole trip.

[00:38:04] And also explains why when you fly over it on soaring over the world, why it bends. It's probably that mind control antenna. They fixed that, David. They fixed that. What? They did. They, you cut away from it sooner. So you don't actually go all the way up to it anymore in the film. So no mind control antenna. Yeah. Um, and a real quick note on Mysterio. I did want to mention, um, introduced as Quentin Beck in amazing Spider-Man number two, February of 1963.

[00:38:33] Uh, he was introduced as Mysterio, uh, 13 issues later in amazing Spider-Man number 15. Um, Stanley, Steve Ditko on the, on the design pair there, which I mean, you can almost assume that for anyone in the spider verse that those two had their hands in it.

[00:38:56] Um, in the comics, Mysterio is a special effects artist who ends up turning to crime after hanging out with the tinkerer. Um, and he's a, he's an all the time villain of, of Spider-Man. He's been part of the sinister six and he's always kind of in that Uber. He's someone who's going to show up if you read Spider-Man for long enough. Yeah. Yeah. The, I, and I was looking forward to Mr.

[00:39:23] And how they would, um, I've always liked the costume design and like the helmet. And I thought that did a really good job of it. Like visual. And that's one of the things that, um, Jake Gyllenhaal talks about where he was like, he loved the suit so much. He never wanted to take it off. So I can't blame him. It's a cool suit. And I mean, it does have a red scarf on it. So for all my Swifties out there, you know, spin your, spin your webs, but, um, no, I, I, yeah. Yeah.

[00:39:50] And I think the, the design was cool and the rewriting his character was interesting, you know, making him a scientist rather than a special effects artist. But I think ultimately it's kind of all to the same end. Like, like by the end, it's kind of the same feel, right? He's using science to make magic. Right. Right. Uh, Peter and Ned are in the room talking about their love lives as they, as they walk in.

[00:40:17] And just then Ned catches the tranquilizer dart in his neck and passes out. And it just reminds me of that scene in old school. It was like, you got a dart, man. Anyway, um, Peter turns to see Nick Fury, who has come to Venice because Peter has been dodging his calls. Fury breaks out a visual simulator and tells Peter what transpired for the Venice water monster incident. So one week ago, village of Mexico is wiped out by cyclone, which had the face again.

[00:40:43] The cyclone was the era elemental Zephyr, which harkens to the Spider-Man villain cyclone. Three days later in Morocco, an air-based creature was wreaking havoc until Beck with some help from Fury and Hill defeated it. Um, Peter encounters a multitude of visitors as Fury is talking to him. Um, my, I think my favorite is Mr. Harrington said, anyone need emotional counseling? And Peter's like, no, we're okay. We're fine. He's like, okay, great. Cause I'm not qualified.

[00:41:13] Betty pops in and says, babe, you're not answering my texts. And she sees you sleep. And then Mr. Dell says, you know, let me know if, let me know if you start vobbing. Uh, Peter suits up the board of Vaporetto water taxi where Fury hands Peter some sunglasses from Tony. And, uh, Fury says, uneasy lies the head that wears the crown quote from King Henry the fourth. Stark said, you wouldn't get that because it's not a Star Wars reference. So funny.

[00:41:42] So yeah. Yeah. So at that point in time to, to your point, connecting the dots, you know, Fury had the glasses. Fury obviously told Beck he was going to give the glasses to Peter Parker and we're off to the races. He may not have necessarily known his identity, but he knew that Peter was going to have the glasses. Right. So Peter and Fury arrive at an underground station where he introduces Peter to agents, Maria Hill, Dimitri and Quentin Beck. Beck says, well, you can call me Quentin.

[00:42:11] You handled yourself well out there today. I saw what you did with the tower. We could just use someone like you on my world. Peter says, thanks. I'm, I'm sorry. Your world. Fury says, Mr. Beck is from earth is from earth. Just not yours. Okay. That's scroll hint. Number two. Uh, Beck says there are multiple realities, Peter. This is earth dimension. Six one six. I'm from earth. Eight, three, three. Peter says, I'm sorry. You're saying there's a multiverse because I thought that was theoretical. I mean, that changes how we understand the initial singularity.

[00:42:39] We're talking about an, an eternal inflation system. How does that even work with the quantum? It's insane. Sorry. It's really cool. Beck says, don't ever apologize for being the smartest one in the room. And, um, obviously you noted the, the continuity multiverse references. Correct. Right. Well, oh, okay. So go for it. Uh, uh, yeah. So at the time, this was kind of a hint towards like, oh, Mysterio is not actually from another universe.

[00:43:08] Like, because popular, everybody was referring to the MCU as earth one nine, nine, nine, nine, nine. I think I said enough nines there, but, um, and earth six, one, six is the comics continuity. Now, a little bit of a spoiler for some future movies. We're eventually going to find out that the MCU is considered earth six one six, which I strongly disagree with.

[00:43:38] And I have the backing of Ms. Marvel herself, Amon Belani, uh, who also strongly disagrees with this. Um, but yeah. So, and, and I think it was written here to be a hint towards like Mysterio making, making stuff up. Right. Just, just kind of pulling it out of his ass and that sort of thing. Now it is kind of cool because this does introduce us to the idea of alternate realities, which

[00:44:05] obviously is going to play a big, it, it, this is one of those parts where as I was rewatching this, I was like, oh, this was supposed to be a transition. Like this is supposed to be a, a, Hey, we finished up infinity stuff. Now we're going to go into multiversal stuff. We're going to lightly kind of tap the wall with it a little bit here and a little bit in Wanda vision, uh, before we really break into it.

[00:44:34] Um, in, in like multiverse of badness and stuff. Right. Yeah. That jumped out at me for sure. Same. Yeah. So I did find that interesting. Yeah. Fury, um, the scroll hit number two, as I mentioned, when he says Beck, he's when he tells Peter that Beck's not from your world instead of just not ours. And then, um, and then just the, the big one is like Fury, just accepting at face value who Beck is like Fury is completely paranoid after the winter soldier.

[00:45:02] And he never, you know, it's like a background check. Yeah. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. So anyway. And actually I was, so question for you throughout this movie, do you think Samuel L. Jackson knew that he was essentially playing Talos playing? Uh, playing Fury? I don't know. I know, I know Colby, Colby Smulders did not know. Yeah.

[00:45:26] Cause there were several points throughout this movie where I was like, this feels like, this feels like Samuel L. Jackson is playing Ben Mendelsohn playing Nick Fury. Like there, there were a couple of points where it, it, I wondered if he, he actually knew where, where you could obviously going back hindsight being 2020 being what it is.

[00:45:55] You kind of, you, you, you're left to wonder if, if Samuel L. Jackson knew and he played the character of Fury a little bit different. Um, not just choices made, but also just like turns of phrase and that sort of thing. I wouldn't be surprised if he knew, right? Like he's a big, he's big enough and involved enough that he probably had read the whole script beforehand. And so I, I have to believe. Right.

[00:46:22] Um, the other thing I would, so, uh, Beck then explains that the creatures are elementals from an alternate dimension, which have emerged to their dimension in the blimp. Makes no sense, but keep going. Beck has managed. He's like, you're saying he's just making stuff up. Right. Yeah. Um, he's managed to defeat three of the elementals, but it's lost his family. Beck reveals that the final elemental, AKA fire, AKA hellfire is due to appear in Prague.

[00:46:49] Peter tries to beg off saying that this is all just seems like big superhero stuff. Peter says, I'm just your friendly neighborhood. Spider-Man serve. Fear is like, bitch, please. You've been to space, which is my favorite lines. Um, and, um, Peter then explains that it was an accident and suggested somebody else they can use. Peter's like, there's gotta be someone else. We're, what about four? Fury's like off world. Peter's like, um, okay. Dr. Strange unavailable. Peter, Captain Marvel. Fury says, don't you invoke her name?

[00:47:18] And again, another potential scroll moment there because like, he seemed to be very offended. Like he, Talos knows, you know, he's seen what Captain Marvel has done for her, his, his race of people over the past 30 years. And so the overreaction again, watching it again, knowing the punchline, you're like, oh, okay. That makes sense to your point. I, that's why I think he knew that he was playing a scroll. Yeah. So Peter bails out.

[00:47:48] He's worried about his involvement with spoilers identity. He is the, I think the only one I could think of in the MCU that has a secret identity. I think. Yeah. Of the heroes. Yeah. I think, I think so. Yeah. Cause like Bucky. I was thinking Bucky was the only one I could think of. But like his arm is a little bit of a tell. That's true. Um, Fury is empathetic and tells Peter to get back to the hotel before his teachers start to get suspicious. Peter wishes them all good luck.

[00:48:17] And Fury instructs Dimitri to take Peter back to the hotel. Cut to the Midtown tech crew exiting their Venice hotel. They're now going to Prague. They've been upgraded. Um, Mr. Harrington boasts about arguing with their travel planners. Uh, by the way, if you want a travel planner who will upgrade you, but not send you to Prague, eight, five, six hour ears, concy ears. I like what you did there. Well done.

[00:48:45] Um, but it was really Fury who hijacked the vacation and rearranged the school's trips location. Uh, they went from Paris where they could go to Disneyland Paris, uh, to Prague where there is no Disney parks. Um, but they wanted to put Fury wanted to put Peter in the same place as Fury back and molten man. I also think that Fury is a bit of a blocker where he's just like, you know what? You know, the air's plan.

[00:49:16] It's not going to happen. My man ain't going to get your beak wet Peter or your pincer. Oh no, no. Keep going. Spider, spider joke. Uh, all right. They're on the bus, uh, with Dimitri who's described as a regular tour bus driver as they head to Prague. Uh, Peter dons the Gucci sunglasses from Tony and there's a note that's in the case.

[00:49:44] It says for the next Tony Stark, I trust you. T.S. P.S. Say Edith. So he gives him the wake word. Uh, otherwise he would never have said Alexa. Uh, Edith is Tony is augmented reality security and defense system. Uh, and Peter gets a masterclass on the Stark global security network on the way to Prague. Peter scans the bus and can see everybody's messages.

[00:50:14] Uh, which is a kind of humorous little scene where like you see that, uh, Mr. Um, oh gosh, Mr. Harrington, Mr. Dell Dell. Mr. Dell is like researching wishes. Uh, Mr. Harrington's like sending sad messages. Um, it is pretty fun. Somebody's asking for money. I think it was, uh, the, uh, one of the kids. Yeah. Yeah. Like, man, this is crazy. I need money.

[00:50:44] Yeah. Um, so also I, I should mention here Edith because Tony loves his acronyms and this one's one of the best. Even dead. I'm the hero. So, so Tony, even, even in a movie without Tony in it, Tony's in it. Um, so they, they get to Austria.

[00:51:14] Everybody has a 10 minute pit stop. Uh, Peter exits the van and Dimitri directs Peter to a different pit stop. Uh, it looks like a bar of some sort. Um, and we get this awkward scene that, you know, what, what would a. A teenage European vacation movie be without a awkward sexual encounter mix up, um, where

[00:51:39] a female agent presents Peter with a suit and tells him to take off his clothes in a nearly dominatrix way. Um, and then Brad walks in and snaps a picture of Peter with his pants down, holding onto this, uh, female agent and tells, uh, tells Peter that he's going to tell MJ because she deserves the truth. Um, such an awkward team, like just such a dumb plot.

[00:52:09] It is, it is. There's so many parts of this. They're like, they checked off boxes of like, like I say, like that, that European vacation, whether you're watching European vacation, the movie or Euro trip or name, name movie here. Um, there's a million of them that all have sort of these same true tropes. Um, and it is funny to use it in a superhero movie a little bit, but, um, back on the bus,

[00:52:39] Peter puts the glasses back on and asks Edith for help. Peter confirms with Edith that Brad is the target and inadvertently authorizes an orbital drone strike on their tour bus. Silly AI, not very intelligent. Uh, Asher would never do such a thing. Uh, Peter distracts the bus with look, baby mountain goats before he jumps out of the like

[00:53:05] top safety hatch and webs the drone causing it to crash. So good. Um, so at this point we finally get to Prague. We are at Prague and, uh, the group enters this amazing hotel lobby, beautiful hotel. Um, they, they learn they're going to celebrate Prague's carnival of lights there.

[00:53:31] Peter gets a call from agent Hill and joins up, uh, with a meeting with her fury and Mysterio. The plan is to maneuver the, the monster away from other people while keeping it away from metal. Because if it gets too big, it will draw power from the earth's core. I will say this like on rewatch, obviously the whole tone and tenor changes.

[00:53:57] Cause you know, yeah, you know what's coming, but I was also happy that this was not true and completely made up because I'd be really angry if this were trying to be presented as real science. Um, Peter expresses concerns, uh, about his friends and fury reprimands him for endangering his classmates with the drone strike. Uh, essentially saying it's clear to me that you are not ready for this.

[00:54:25] Peter retreats to a rooftop where he is consoled by Beck. Um, Beck delivers a pep talk to Peter who expresses that he is happy to have, uh, someone to talk superhero stuff with. Peter engages with Edith, uh, or engages Edith to create a distraction for Peter's class and chaperones, uh, where they are going to attend the opera on the other side of town away from the

[00:54:52] elemental attack instead of going to the biggest party in the world. Everyone loves a four hour opera. Yeah. Right. And they apparently are the old people there. Right. Yeah. It's like three old people. And then this high school class, uh, fury is calling on Peter to join the mission as MJ invites him to sit next to her at the opera. He says that she looks pretty and she says, and therefore I have value. I love that little line.

[00:55:22] Um, as there, as Peter's trying to navigate this like situation in the opera house, uh, fury radios over, uh, and tries to make sure park, uh, Peter fury radios over and tries to make sure that Peter is in position prompting him to ask Ned to have an alibi.

[00:55:43] Um, and then he takes off, uh, while also being flipped off by Brad, um, as, as Peter leaves, he dons the, uh, night monkey stealth suit and awaits the fire elemental. Um, as, as, and actually I will mention here, I think it's right here where, where, um,

[00:56:10] fury drives up to like the carnival where the fire elemental is going to be at his license plate is asm, uh, 28, nine, six, five, which is amazing. Spider-Man number 28 September of 1965, which is the first appearance of molten man who the fire elemental is based on or harkens back to, I guess based on is kind of a weird word to call it.

[00:56:34] But MJ is, uh, curious and suspicious about the behavior and follows Peter when he exits, Betty and Ned follow MJ because they think she's trying to sneak off and go to the festival. As MJ looks for Peter, Betty and Ned hop on the Ferris wheel. The fair, the fire elemental erupts for during the city's carnival of lights. The couple, uh, being Betty and Ned get trapped on the Ferris wheel.

[00:57:03] When the operator is scared away by the fire elemental, Ned fabricates the night monkey alias to protect Peter's secret identity. Uh, Peter Mysterio and the fire elemental wage this big old CGI fight, which is actually CGI fight. Uh, that's kind of funny. We always refer to these as CGI fights, but in this movie, they really, really are CGI fights. Yeah, exactly.

[00:57:31] Um, Fury and Hill arrive on scene in a howdy. That's the, the car that has the ASM, uh, reference on its license plate. Peter works, uh, to save Ned and Betty as Mysterio fights off the, uh, elemental. Beck tells Peter that he is going to do what I should have done last time and performs this big sacrificial attack in order to say, to defeat the fire elemental.

[00:58:02] Peter leaps down to check on Beck and finds him injured, but still alive. Doing it for my family. Uh, Fury tells Beck that there was a void and that they can use a hero like Beck. Invites him to Berlin to help build a new superhero team. After praising Beck, Fury then goes in on Peter. Fury says, you got gifts, Parker, but you didn't want to be here.

[00:58:29] I'd love to have you in Berlin, but you've got to decide whether you're going to step up or not. Stark chose you. He made you an Avenger. I need that. The world needs that. Maybe Stark was wrong. Was he? The choice is yours. So, again, this speech makes more sense knowing that Fury is a Skrull because his buddy, uh, Tony, made way bigger mistakes than this and, and, and the approach was much different. It wasn't like this take it or leave it.

[00:58:57] Talos is, you know, you know, acting like he thinks Fury would act, but completely missed the mark. So after the pep talk, Beck invites Peter to celebrate his heroism over drinks at a pub. They, they talk about the responsibilities. Peter talks about all he really wants to be with his trip, with his friends to tell MJ how he feels about her. Waitress hands Peter the Edith glasses, which he dropped on the ground.

[00:59:26] Uh, and Peter tries them on. Beck says, can I be completely honest with you? Peter's like, please. Beck, they look really stupid. So Peter, um, for some reason insists that Beck try them on. And then Peter has an inner dialogue and comes to believe that Tony left his glasses to him. Not necessarily for him. So Peter is in his mind. The note says next Tony Stark.

[00:59:54] I trust you, which he twists into for the next Tony Stark. I trust you. So Peter believes that he is not the successor. He does not. He just, you know, he thinks he's chosen. He's been selected to choose the successor. The next Iron Man. He's the executor of the estate, if you will. Yeah, exactly. So believing Beck to be the best person suited to protect the post-Dark world. He instructs Edith to transfer control over to Quentin Beck and leaves him the sunglasses. All without a background check.

[01:00:24] All without seeing like an IDE. Nothing. Just here you go, man. So this is at this point in time of the movie. I'm like this, this, um, well, I'll keep going after Peter leaves the bar to try to, uh, connect with MJ. Beck celebrates his gaining control over Edith by gathering his allies who are all disenfranchised Stark employees, um, Stark industry employees and says that wasn't so hard.

[01:00:50] So the entire, the entire bar erupts in celebration, the entire group was in on it, if you will. So Beck is such like, I don't know if it's Jake Gyllenhaal being a bad actor or a really good one. You can see right through. And obviously we have hindsight. We know how the movie ends, yada, yada, yada. But his, like his conversation with Peter is so bad.

[01:01:16] Like it is so like contrived and just clearly he's faking it. Right. Right. And it's, it's this, this, um, you know, one in 14 million chance that it's going to work out like this. I just, this part, you know, again, it's a superhero movie. I'm going to spend a lot of disbelief, but this, this was completely unbelievable. Like this, it would happen like this. There's like two, there's two scenes like that in this movie. One is this, and then one is at the very end.

[01:01:45] The execute them all thing is just way too convenient. Yeah. Yeah. So it turns out that Beck isn't an interdimensional, interdimensional hero, but he's really just a disgruntled scientist. He's the person who created the binarily augmented retroframing barf technology for Stark Industries. Stark stole the technology and fired Beck for being mentally unstable. So that's really bad. Look for Tony, like stealing IP.

[01:02:14] Although an argument could be made. Look, as an employee of Stark Industries, anything you create is owned by the company and you assign all rights and, and, uh, interest in any patents and copyrights. And so in that sense. You've been listening to real Dan too much. I haven't, I just know, I unfortunately know too much about like companies and patents. Um, but, um, so I don't think it's unfair to say that Tony stole the technology. The fact that Tony said he created barf is a little bit of a stretch, but he takes credit, but you never know.

[01:02:43] You never know what the collaboration was like. You never know. He certainly sponsored the research. So whatever. Um, so Beck mockingly toasts Tony before toasting his crew in celebration. He toasts William for his weaponized drones, which were combined with Beck's illusion technology to create the elemental holograms. Williams was the Stark employee in the first Iron Moved. Oh, but I yelled at it. Tony Stark was able to build us in a cave with a bunch of scraps. Well, I'm sorry. I'm not Tony Stark.

[01:03:11] Um, he toasts Guterman for creating the quote, totally ridiculous, but somehow believable story of a soldier from another earth named Quentin fighting space monsters in Europe. He then toast Victoria for staging electromagnetic pulses at each attack site. So furious satellites would confirm their hoax. And he toasts Janet, who was one of the, he was, who was the one that discovered that Edith was being handed over to Parker rather than the defense department.

[01:03:39] And all of them contributed, came together to create mysterious persona and his costume and his magic abilities and the elements holograms and this old big, you know, you know, fake wizard of Oz kind of like, um, reality, if you will. So, um, I, I, I have a lot of questions on when Edith was created, which we'll get to later on, but we'll put that aside for a moment.

[01:04:07] So Beck gives, Lassie gives us toast. To the rest of you, Tony Stark is gone. There is a window of opportunity and someone will step up. But these days you can be the smartest guy in the room, the most qualified, and no one cares unless you're flying around with a cape or shooting lasers from your hands. No one will even listen. Well, I've got a cape and lasers.

[01:04:32] With our technology and with Edith, Mysterio will be the greatest hero on Earth. Yes! Not to a boozy man child. No! Not to a hormonal teenager. No! To me and to my very wealthy crew. To us. To us.

[01:05:02] To Mysterio! To Mysterio! To Peter Parker! To Peter! Poor kid. So, this smartest guy in the room comment that he made about Peter earlier. Yeah. Comes back to pat himself on the back. Peter returns to the hotel to find out that the field trip is over because parents are freaking out. Mr. Harrington is relieved to find that he didn't lose another student on the field trip. Not again. Not again.

[01:05:30] This is the third sad Mr. Harrington moment in this movie. He's like, oh, Peter, you're not dead. Oh my God. Yes. Good. I also like, Mr. Dale says, I came for science. I'm leaving because of witches. Welcome to the new Dark Ages. Ned is called away by Betty when MJ emerges from her room to ask where Peter went. They share an awkward exchange before MJ turns in for the night. So, she closes the door. He then summons the courage to knock on her hotel room door when she opens it.

[01:06:00] And he finds him standing there. And it's super awkward. Peter tells MJ that he's not ready for the trip to be over. And that he wants to do something fun. To which MJ promptly responds, yes. He has to meet outside in 10 minutes. And she says, five. I don't know. We will leave in our mind what we think two hormonal teenagers think is, quote unquote, something fun. But put that aside.

[01:06:27] So, they head outside on the Charles Bridge, awkwardly talking. And before they momentarily brush hands. It's their last night in Europe. And Peter tells her of the plan to tell her something important. Peter, you know, he breaks out the Black Dolly gift. He says, I'm just going to tell you, MJ. I and MJ says, I'm Spider-Man. He's like, what? That's what you're going to say. That you're Spider-Man.

[01:06:54] And MJ has deduced that he's Spider-Man based on his bizarre behavior. Strange appearances. Different disappearances. She talks about the Washington, D.C. trip. In which Peter tries to explain and tells him that it was the night monkey that escaped in Europe. Before she confronts him with a webbed drone that she captured and says, Peter says, maybe he's a spider monkey. Which I think is so funny. She dropped the holographic projector.

[01:07:21] Which recreates the Zephyr slash wind elemental used by Mysterio. So Peter figured out that the elementals were fake and that Beck is a fraud. And Peter finally admits to MJ, who at that time was only 67% sure, that he is actually Spider-Man. They flee the bridge and head back to the hotel. I did like on rewatch, these scenes in particular between MJ and Peter feel very kind of real. You do see the connections.

[01:07:50] It does feel legitimately very kind of high school. They're like, so where do you want to go? MJ is like, who cares? Peter's like, awesome. Yeah, it ultimately becomes very evident why in real life these two actors are dating. There is real chemistry there, I think. Between the characters and the actors. I do also like MJ said, you know Susan Yank thinks you're a male escort. He's like, no. He's like, then you're Spider-Man, which I love. Yeah, so good.

[01:08:20] So we cut back to Beck and his crew. They're working on their simulation. What they're going to use later on. He's fighting the wind elemental Zephyr. Beck orders William to double up the damage caused by the drones and upload a software hack to Edith. Beck's plan is to be the next Iron Man.

[01:08:44] In order to do so, he needs his holograms and massive army of drones to create an Avengers level threat and wreak havoc on London for him to come and save the day. During the simulation, Beck noticed a render error with his projected suit illusion when he points to his actual suit. He calls Edith to conduct a search for the device. He examines the footage and he finds that MJ is showing the projector evidence to Peter.

[01:09:15] Beck tells William that when Peter is killed, his blood is on William's hands. And this is where Beck really takes that turn for the evil. Like from this point on in the movie, he is truly evil to this. They did a really good job of kind of disguising it as just like not altruistic, but he, you know, he was a hero up until this point. Yeah, they they did a good job of making you believe that and then very quickly turn that switch.

[01:09:43] Yeah, the part when he was, you know, he if you hadn't if he'd stayed in this kind of like decent character mode all the way throughout, you could see him like, oh, I was fired for being mentally unstable and, you know, I'm I'm not the bad person. And now you see like, oh, no, you are actually the person. He points the guns at like members of his crew like he has the drones like threaten members of his crew and stuff here, too.

[01:10:08] So we cut over to Peter, who realizes that he has completely messed up by giving the glasses to Beck. Peter realizes he needs to contact Fury, who is worried or but but he's worried that his phone is bugged. So he decides to head from Prague to Berlin to notify him. Peter strips out of his clothes to change into his suit.

[01:10:33] Well, MJ turns her back, but also tries to sneak a little little sneaky peek just as Ned walks into the hotel room. Again, great, awkward teenage movie moment. Peter dons his suit and hitches a ride on the train from Prague to Berlin to world to warn Fury. Yeah, this is the easiest when you look at this trio.

[01:11:01] Ned is the easiest K in the MFK game, right? You debate the M. You debate the F. Ned's the only K. Right. That's fair. That's fair. And this also starts a fun little moment of like Ned and and MJ like kind of ribbing each other for who knew about Spider-Man first and who knows Spider-Man better and that sort of stuff. It's a fun little little start to that.

[01:11:31] As Peter slash the Night Monkey, knock the monkey. That cracked me up on Rewatch. He arrives in Berlin. He is greeted by Fury and Hill in an Audi product with the license plate MTU 83779, which references Marvel team up issue 83 from July of 79, which is called Spider-Man and Nick Fury. Spider-Man and Nick Fury teaming up.

[01:12:01] Spider-Man and Nick Fury. Spider-Man and Nick Fury. Spider-Man and Nick Fury head into an office space where Peter tells him that Beck is a liar and that Mysterio and the elementals are all fake. And Peter explains the tech behind the deception. Before Peter can explain who else knows, they are confronted by Beck. Beck, who had a drone shoot Fury.

[01:12:25] The office building vanishes into a mid-construction building where Beck torments Spider-Man with various illusions, dropping MJ off the Eiffel Tower, getting jumped and fighting multiple Spider-Men. Mysterio continually feeds into Peter's self-doubts before saying, maybe if you were good enough, Tony would still be alive. Oof. Deep cut.

[01:12:55] Peter is facing a tombstone with the name Anthony Edward Stark before zombie Iron Man climbs out. Well, before we ever see the zombies. What if? And chases Peter. I really like this like hallucination scene. It's really, really well done. It's it's very creepy.

[01:13:16] And like there's parts where it flashes into the real world and it's just seamlessly cut in a in like a really disorienting way, which makes you feel for Peter. Right. It's supposed to be disorienting because that's what Peter is going through. Right. It does kind of it does kind of harken also to like Mysterio's powers in the comics. So you can kind of change perception and reality, if you will. Right.

[01:13:40] The thing that was that was, you know, I kind of questioned at this point in time is that. He didn't necessarily know that he was going to fight Spider-Man way back when it was only when MJ learns and Peter learns that Beck is basically a fraud. He's like, OK, I have to kill Spider-Man. And so I don't know if he like all these kind of scripted elementals. It seems like it is a big production.

[01:14:09] It takes practice and rehearsal. We've run it through. You know, you see him later on where he's like, you know, add more damage, zap, zap, zap, fight, fight, fight, fly, fly, fly. And this is happening at such a pace. I'm wondering, like, is he just able to connect with the drones with his mind? Is this something because or is it just something like a program that he simulated? I don't know. It just was weird to me. Yeah, it is weird. And I and I kind of wonder if it's like.

[01:14:36] Yeah, he would have had to rush it together, right, to to make it actually be like the elemental attacks, like you say, that are very produced. They take them, you know, seemingly at least weeks of a prep work. And this was basically overnight. Yeah, it didn't that part again. And we'll put it aside. It's not that big deal.

[01:15:01] So just then, Peter is saved by Fury, who shoots back in the back. Well, at the construction site and ends the illusion. We're done with the movie. Mysterio's dead. We move on. David, what? How do you rate this one? No, I'm just kidding. Fury demands the names of the people who Peter knew, who Peter told. Peter confesses, telling MJ and Ned, Ned, who probably told Betty.

[01:15:29] Fury then turns out to just be another illusion. So Beck resumes the illusion and steers Peter into the path of an oncoming train. Beck has Edith in route to the Midtown tech trip. He's going to kill everybody in the middle of London just to, you know, do all the things that he needs to do.

[01:15:56] Yeah, this is the part where to create the elementals, it seems like, okay, this is a large, like, coordinated visual effect. But he's not fighting anything. Here he's effectively fighting Spider-Man. And so it doesn't make sense that he would have to be able to control his mind. But anyway, we'll put that aside. Yeah, you know, Beck, you know, has Edith reroute the class.

[01:16:23] Now they're going to London and the plan is to kill them there. So it turns out that Peter has somehow survived the collision with the train. He crawls his way into the train car to recover, takes off his mask. He passes out and wakes up later in a holding cell with some local football fans. They tell Peter, welcome to the Netherlands.

[01:16:43] Peter breaks out of jail, just kind of snaps the lock off, sneaks past the guard who's wearing Peter's mask and talking to his wife, telling her about the night monkey, which is kind of funny. Another European vacation trope. You have to go, you have to go to the Netherlands at some point. And you have to, there has to be soccer hooligans. Yeah, totally. Totally.

[01:17:08] So after escaping, he asks a very kind stranger to use his phone and he calls Happy to rescue him. Hogan asks where he is and Peter doesn't understand Dutch. And so he just hands it to the person. He tells him where in the Netherlands to find him. I don't know how Peter knows Happy's telephone number by heart. That to me seemed to be completely unrealistic. But Hogan lands the plane in a field of tulips.

[01:17:35] Yes, Peter asks, you know, Hope, you know, Happy if he's real. How to prove to me that you are who you say you are. And Happy tells him about the time when they were in Germany. And Peter read an adult film at the hotel. And Peter's like, that's enough. So Peter's on the plane. Happy is kind of stitching him up, providing his first aid. And Peter's despondent about what he's done.

[01:18:02] And this is the part that's like so very sad. Peter says... A few more. There we go. Oh my God. Happy. Don't tell him to relax, Happy. How can I relax when I messed up so bad? I trusted Beck. Right? I thought he was my friend, so I gave him the only thing that Mr. Stark left behind for me. And now he's going to kill my friends in half of Europe. So please do not tell me to relax. I'm sorry, Happy. I'm sorry I shouldn't shout.

[01:18:34] I just really miss him. Yeah, I miss him too. Everywhere I go, I see his face. And the whole world is asking who's going to be the next Iron Man. I don't know if that's me, Happy. I'm not Iron Man. You're not Iron Man. You're never going to be Iron Man.

[01:19:04] Nobody could live up to Tony. Not even Tony. Tony was my best friend. And he was a mess. He second-guessed everything he did. He was all over the place. The one thing that he did that he didn't second-guess was picking you. I don't think Tony would have done what he did if he didn't know that you were going to be here after he was gone. And your friends are in trouble. You're all alone.

[01:19:34] Your tech is missing. What are you going to do about it? I'm going to kick his ass. I mean, right now. Like, specifically, what are we going to do? Because we've been hovering over a tulip field for the last 15 minutes. I love this. I mean, like, right now. What are we doing right now? Like, what's the plan?

[01:19:56] So, Happy plots a course towards London based on Flash Thompson's live streams, which are super helpful for the entire movie. And he activates this. And this scene, I forgot. But he activates this cool lab in the back of the plane. Oh, yeah. The, like, suit 3D printer and design lab. Totally. Yeah.

[01:20:21] So, he calls up all of Spider-Man's suit designs and functionalities in order to customize a Spider-Man suit. Peter reaches his arm in the hologram to see how the suit design looked. So, just like Tony did when building the Mark II armor in Iron Man. Happy says something like, you know, I'll add some music here. Yeah. And then it's Led Zeppelin's back in black. I love Led Zeppelin.

[01:20:51] I love Led Zeppelin. ACDC's back in black, which was obviously at the beginning of the first Iron Man movie. So, we cut to a quick scene where Fury is talking about Kree sleeper cells before Maria Hill warms him at a huge EM pulse, which signals an impending attack in London. Again, this is scroll hint number seven. Like, Fury would not give a you-know-what about Kree sleeper cells because there's unlikely to be any on Earth. But that was Talos' focus. Focus.

[01:21:18] So, we jump to London, the train station where Brad calls out Peter for his shady behavior, but then gets canceled by the other kids for taking shady pictures of Peter in the bathroom. I like Mr. Dell's. Okay, I'm going to be the cool teacher now. You got to stop doing that. It's weird. No more photos in the bathroom. You're in Oselstahls. They go outside. They are greeted by the tour bus driver. It is actually Guterman. Guterman. And he has them aboard the tour bus.

[01:21:48] And he radios and messages to Beck that he has the kids. So, Beck flies up to one of the top floors of the – this building is called the Shard. It is the tallest building in London where Fury and Hill are now located. And Beck basically says he's in his Mysterio costume that he's completed a full perimeter sweep and spotted nothing but will continue to check. Fury says, quote, you're all we've got, Beck.

[01:22:14] And so, this basically informs Beck that the Avengers are not coming. And that causes Beck's team to release the weaponized drones from space. So, well done, Fury. Edith marks Fury and Hill along with MJ, Ned, and Betty as, quote, loose ends to be destroyed once the illusion show starts. Guterman parks the tour bus with the students on the Tower Bridge, not the London Bridge, and tells Beck that they are in the kill zone. And Happy calls Fury about the surfboard.

[01:22:44] He left at Tony's saying, I don't think you're – most people don't think you're a surfer. But appearances can be deceiving. Oh, good job, Happy. That was so slick. Wink. The plan is for Happy to fly to the bridge and get the kids. Once Peter's custom spider suit is done printing, the plan is for Peter to get inside the illusion and take things down.

[01:23:11] Beck is, quote, just a guy, and he will retake his Edith glasses. I have notes about the satellite with the weaponized drones. Maybe we save for the super secret spoiler show. But there's so many questions. Like, how did this even happen? When did this happen? Like, we'll say it. Yeah, it's weird. Because, assumedly, it would have happened after – After – Civil War? No.

[01:23:40] Well, I guess maybe. Maybe it was after Civil War. That would make some sense that he, like, sent it up and it's just been chilling up there as a just-in-case kind of thing. And it wasn't – because it wasn't the same satellite that the Hulkbuster came from in Age of Ultron. Okay. I don't think it was the same satellite there. It could have happened after Age of Ultron. Yeah.

[01:24:06] But, I mean, it certainly didn't happen in the eight months after Endgame, right? Yeah, maybe the drones were supposed to be enforcement. They were supposed to be enforcement of the Sokovia Accords. I mean, it could be. In another dark timeline where Tony designed weapons to go hunt down superheroes that were going rogue. Yeah. It's just the when and the how. Like, how many governments do you have to get approval from to, like, to put this into space?

[01:24:34] Like, that to me – unless it's on page 714 of the Sokovia Accords. And he's like – Everybody compares Tony Stark to Elon Musk. And, you know, maybe Tony just bought a social media platform to get the right people in the White House to put a satellite in the sky full of drones. Too soon, man. Too soon. Anyway. So – and then the other thing is, like, the drones all have the combined hologram tech with the drone tech. And Beck said he created that.

[01:25:01] So it's unclear to me how they all came preloaded with it unless that's the patch. It was maybe a stealth – or, like, a stealth kind of – maybe it's, like, Tony had put it on there so that they could be stealth, right? Like, he didn't intend them to be used for projection but more for, like, stealthing so that you couldn't see them. Yeah. Or maybe that's the software tech that they just uploaded. It wasn't – whatever. It's fine.

[01:25:27] The plan is – so now we cut back to the tower bridge and the kids exit the bus when Mr. Harrington notices the driver's gone. And now it's time to queue up the huge CGI illusion drone battle with the combined elementals. And there's a fun exchange between Mr. Dell and Mr. Harrington. Mr. Dell's like, earth, wind, fire, fire, water. Or, oh, no, they joined forces just like the Power Rangers. And Mr. Harrington's thinking of Voltron.

[01:25:57] You're like, who? Voltron? You're thinking of Voltron? The mighty Avenger. And then we just cut back and forth between a bunch of action scenes. MJ warns Ned that they're all in danger. They flee the bridge. Happy flies Spider-Man way high above. So he's in the jet. He's, like, say he's super sicky. And he's, like – and then Peter says something about, like, I want to talk to you about my aunt. We'll get back. But he had to be really high so Beck couldn't see him.

[01:26:24] So he gets dropped high above and then parachutes down and then kind of glides into the illusion, which is pretty cool. In a spider-shaped parachute. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Fury asks Beck for a report. And Beck says that all the elementals – you know, Fury calls – Fury asks Beck for a report. And Beck says that all the elementals have combined and are drawing energy from the Earth's core. I think we've heard that before. And Fury finally wising up, turns to the hill and says, see, now that's some bullshit.

[01:26:55] So Agent Hill climbs to the top of the shard. As a drone is poised to kill Fury, he says, you got me? And she shoots the drone. She says, I got you. Spider-Man jumps from drone to drone. Inside the illusion, he starts webbing them together. He does this – you know, causes this break in formation. And then it's this – he kind of jumps and falls backwards. And it causes some cool electronic chain reaction, which takes out a bunch of drones.

[01:27:23] And basically short-circuits a big part of the elementals illusion. So Mysterio takes manual control of the drone, see what's going on, and orders William to kill the illusion and to render Beck's illusion suit. Happy locates the kids, thanks to Flash's livestream again, and encourages them to get on the jet. Strike that. That jet is – the jet is destroyed by drones. And so let's go to plan B.

[01:27:49] They head into the Tower of London and hide in the Crown Jewels vault, which I guess is unlocked, but is eight feet thick and provides some safety. Do you think this is like a light callback to Happy's enjoyment of Bridgerton? Like he just has a love for like the monarchy and stuff, and so he's researched this stuff and knows this stuff. I could totally see that. That's a good callback. I like it.

[01:28:20] Beck instructs Jones to attack – instead of attack Spider-Man, exhausting the hero who uses all his web fluid. And sends the drones in to kill the students and Happy inside the vault. The cool scene where there's the – he is – he, Beck, is manually controlling the drone who's kind of looking around for the students. Somebody pushes over armor. You know, the drone turns, shoots it, and MJ smashes it with a mace and they hide inside the vault.

[01:28:47] But there's still like – that drone's still alive and it's, you know, like trying to laser in through. MJ's holding a mace and I think it's – who's holding the quote-unquote sword? The halibird? Oh. Yeah, I think that – I think Happy's got the sword. And then I also like the part where he tries to throw the shield. Like he grabs a shield off a suit of armor. He knocks it in and just falls short.

[01:29:16] How does Steve do that? How does Captain America do it? It's so good. Oh. So Spider-Man stays alive, finds a myriad of ways to destroy this. Drones, really fun little scenes. Like he – it's really cool. These are some of my favorite Spider-Man scenes where you see him creatively use his webs, right? He creates nets and drives them into it or, you know, creates a big ball of them and flings them around and stuff.

[01:29:45] Mysterio says, finally, when Peter is knocked into the water and presumed dead. Inside the vault, Peter's friends open up with Happy. And Happy says he's in love with Spider-Man's aunt. Peter creates a weapon out of two drones and grabs the tower bridge sign to use as a shield. And he starts running looking like Captain America with his shield and Mjolnir.

[01:30:15] At the end of Endgame, Peter uses an improvised tactic that blows a hole through the drone defenses and reaches back in the tower bridge observation station. Peter punches back and breaks his interface dome helmet, which deactivates the drones outside the vault. A little bit of an IT gripe there.

[01:30:40] Just breaking an interface does not usually stop a program from running. Your interfaces are just the way you look at the program. That's your nitpick of this movie? Technology? Beck uses Edith to control some drones and protect him and cast a dark illusion within the walkway between Peter and Beck.

[01:31:08] Peter using his hyper-awareness or his Peter-tingle, which I don't think we've said that throughout this. That's kind of an ongoing joke is the Spidey sense has finally been introduced, but it's called the Peter-tingle. So Peter uses his Spidey sense and battles the drones and makes his way back to back in a really cool scene where he knows where the drones are, but we as the viewer don't.

[01:31:35] A panicked Beck orders his protection drones to open fire, even though Beck is now in the kill zone. Peter uses a drone as a shield, which causes another drone to misfire and shoot Beck in the abdomen. Peter reaches Beck and counters a last-ditch effort of an illusion and grabs Beck before he tries to shoot Peter. Peter reclaims the Edith glasses and calls off the attack.

[01:32:01] The drones leave London, saving his classmates and the population in the process. Beck's accomplice, William, downloads all of Beck's drone files after the battle and escapes into a safe location. So that's all the big battle. I will mention there is, like I mentioned, a very convenient... So Edith is like, do you want to execute the escape protocols?

[01:32:28] And Peter shouts, yes, execute them all! Very, very convenient wording there. But that's the last we'll see of that. We will not see that. Yeah, never again. Not in an Alex Jones-inspired post-credits scene. But after Beck dies, Peter and MJ meet up on the bridge to embrace.

[01:32:54] Excited that they are both safe, MJ says, some sweaty guy gave me this and shows Peter the Black Dahlia. It's all broken up. Peter apologizes and explains that he had this stupid plan to go to the Eiffel Tower. They admit their true feelings for each other and exchange a couple of kisses before she returns to the class. There's an overturned car license plate.

[01:33:23] It says TASM 143. And in The Amazing Spider-Man number 143, Peter and MJ share their first kiss. I'm telling you, people, watch the license plates. That's where literally everything is. That's like all I could watch. Like, okay, what's this license plate? Yeah, if it's on an Audi, I guarantee you that it's a callback to something. I thought it very convenient.

[01:33:49] There's no one else around and he's running around without his mask on for the longest period of time. But just put that aside. I guess London's not that populated. Probably just a handful of people. And no tourists. No. No. No. No. So we get a short scene between Happy, Agent Hill, and Fury, who Fury tipped off with the earlier... Sorry.

[01:34:14] Happy tipped Fury off with the earlier appearances can be deceiving code words. Hill outs Fury for not having any doubts about Beck. Fury asks where Parker is. And Happy tells him that he's with a girl.

[01:34:37] I know you noticed another scroll hint where Fury not having suspicions of Beck was probably the biggest. Like, oh yeah, this guy's a scroll. Because Fury is legitimately outside of maybe Ant-Man. Maybe old Ant-Man. The most suspicious character in the entire...

[01:35:07] I think he's more. I think he's more. Right? Like, after Civil War, he had to be completely blindsided by S.H.I.E.L.D. HYDRA. Right? Like, and so after that, he has got to be the most paranoid, I'm not trusting anyone person in the MCU. And to just kind of let it all pass.

[01:35:28] And one of the things I noticed, too, on re-watching it, when you look at the flight scenes, like the Mysterio CGI when he's fighting the Elementals, which looks, we should have pointed out, looks really great. Oh yeah, they did a great job on the VFX. Did a great job. Love the dome. Makes perfect sense. You know, I think it's hard to CGI faces in such a kind of a realistic way. And so it makes perfect sense wearing the dome.

[01:35:58] But he reuses lines, like, you know, for my family. And you could tell that they recycled probably fight and cut scenes, and Fury has seen enough of it that by the end he's like, okay, this is some BS, which you said earlier. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah. And it's... But comes way too late. It comes way too late. No. I also liked that...

[01:36:26] I did like, speaking of the dome, it made me think that I did like that the interface ultimately was a dome, because that's so iconic to Mysterio, right? Is his dome gas head. And so, like, the fact that even in his mocap suit on the bridge where he's not in costume, quote unquote, he still has the dome, was really cool. Just a really cool little, like, nod to the costuming.

[01:37:00] So, we get back to New York. Peter and MJ are holding hands as they talk about their date plans, while Ned reveals that he and Betty broke up. Although they're still, like, calling each other wise and so good. So dumb, but good. Peter is greeted outside the New York airport by Aunt May, who's totally getting a ticket.

[01:37:29] Totally getting a ticket in the Volvo we saw from Homecoming, right? Yeah. With the license plate. So then there's... Oh, yeah. The license plate AFM for Amazing Fantasy. Or AMF for Amazing Fantasy 1562. Number 15 from August of 62, which is Spider-Man's debut. I love this voiceover. This is one of my favorite parts. This voiceover, yeah, from Peter.

[01:37:57] I kept my identity guarded for the last couple of years. I've faced a lot of deception. And I'm tired of the lies. So it's time for the truth to be out there. Are you dating? And we see that he's actually talking to Happy and May, who are sitting on a couch. And they respond differently, right? Happy's like, oh, yeah, we're dating. And May's like, I don't know. Summer fling. May sees it as a fling while Happy thinks they're dating.

[01:38:25] Peter's feeling awkward during the conversation and takes his leave to go see MJ for their date. Peter swings across New York to meet MJ for their first date, which is swinging around New York some more because Spider-Man. And then at that point, and actually during this swing, you actually see him go over, I think it's the New York library.

[01:38:48] And the statue on top has been replaced with a statue of the Avengers circling up from Avengers 1, which that's also the scene where that's like the building outside that they're outside of when the Avengers circle up in Marvel's The Avengers, which is kind of fun. And there's also a cool, I think it's that same area, because that's East 41st, I think. They pass a sign that kind of hides what would be like a construction.

[01:39:17] And it says, we are so excited to show you what comes next. And the phrase appears over 1, 2, 3, which some have thought is a signal that get ready for phase 4, ending phase 3. Some other have said that it might allude to the Fantastic Four, because it's near the original side of the Stark Tower. I tend to think it's more phase 4 looking forward. Yeah. And that's the end of our movie.

[01:39:44] So let's get into our post-movie stuff. Why was this movie significant? Because they ruined a perfectly good supervillain, just like they did. Sorry.

[01:40:03] It's significant in the sense that, I think from a financial perspective, it shows that the MCU does a fantastic job of making Spider-Man movie, and that this should be the model for Sony. And that Sony should just distribute it, give up the ghost, stop making the terrible Spider-Man anti-hero movies, which they're doing. Stick to the animation, which is great. Oh, absolutely.

[01:40:33] Yeah. Right? Do the video games, and then just stop trying to do it. It's just not working anymore. Yeah. I think the other thing that this provides is a younger entry into the MCU. I could see a teenager or somebody of that age kind of really enjoying the Spider-Man movies before they get into the MCU as a whole.

[01:40:59] And so I do think, and this is true of the first two Spider-Mans, a little bit less on No Way Home. But it very much feels like something that I can show my son here in another 10 years or whatever. Obviously, I talked about it at the beginning. I showed him now. But he can understand it in another 10 years.

[01:41:26] And it can be more of an entry point than trying to show a teenager Iron Man or something like that, where the themes are a little bit more mature and more adult versus this is very much a young person's movie, which I think is really important for the MCU to have. Right. You have to have those entry points. Right. So that did strike me on this rewatch, that that's a good thing it's got. Yeah.

[01:41:56] You're not looking at like, as we've talked about all throughout these films, the more mature themes, the stuff that was going on in the 60s that come out in the comic books, which make their way into the movies. And Homecoming, this film, feel very light. And like you're saying, if you've never seen anything, you could watch Homecoming on its own and enjoy it. And yeah, there's little Easter eggs here and there, but it stands on its own.

[01:42:23] This one, as Amazon reviewer Laura Ballard said, you kind of have to understand what just happened in Infinity War. But even if you cut out that part and let's say Tony Stark was still alive, this could still stand on its own, like you're saying. Much younger cast. You could even watch like, you could, you could, you could listen to our podcast.

[01:42:48] But no, joking aside, you could like watch a, like an MCU recap. And I think you would still enjoy this movie. Like if you knew Tony Stark was dead, you knew that Tony Stark had been mentoring Peter. Like I, you could get by and still enjoy this movie without actually watching all three hours of, of end game. Yeah. Oh, totally. Totally.

[01:43:17] Um, so that moves us on into our MVP. And David, I know you pulled our MVPs from the series so far. And for listeners, we can't pick the same person twice. Um, and actually for listeners, I do want to also say we are going to be doing something with the MVPs here in the next couple episodes. I'm going to talk about those at the very end. I'll talk about what our next couple episodes will entail. We're going to do something with the MVPs.

[01:43:46] I would encourage everybody to join the ears up discord and specifically the Marvel channel. I'm going to be posting some, some things up there that you're going to be able to engage with and kind of become part of the show, um, in a way. So if you want to engage with that stuff, make sure you join the ears up discord. Um, the MVPs are going to play a part in that. So go join that now and be ready for when I get that all posted.

[01:44:14] So David, who can we not pick for the MVP? Well, I will, um, I technically speaking, we saw Tony and Captain America and at the beginning in Blackwood at the beginning of the movie, but they're not in it. Yeah. The ones that are excluded, you selected Happy Hogan in Iron Man 2. Okay. And in Captain Marvel, you picked Talos. Ah, okay.

[01:44:42] In Homecoming, Spider-Man Homecoming, I picked Spider-Man. So I cannot pick Peter Parker as the MVP. So I'm going to let you. Now does, does, uh, Fury count as Talos for the whole movie? Uh, no, you could pick Fury. You could pick Fury. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Sorry, that hurt my head for a second. Yeah.

[01:45:10] But everyone else is pickable. I am going to pick. I have not picked Spider-Man, right? You have not. Trying to decide if this is the movie to pick him or if further on. Um, question in the next one. Yeah. Picking a Spider-Man. Okay. Um. I think they're separate.

[01:45:40] And so you could pick. Well, not to spoil it, but. We'll fight. We'll fight that fight when we get there. It's fine. Um. Yeah. I'm going to go ahead and pick Spider-Man here. Um. I don't think this was the strongest. Like. Time Spider-Man was in the whole MCU. I think. Um.

[01:46:05] There were other times where, where Spider-Man was a, was a more integral character or was a more interesting character. Um. Um. But I picked other people over him at the time. Um. So. But I, I, I will say like, I think. You know. Obviously it's his movie. Spider-Man. And. Spider-Man in the Spider-Man movie. Go figure. Um. But. I do think it was interesting to watch. Him.

[01:46:33] I, I liked watching his. Like. Progression as a character. Um. He was growing up. I would say. I almost picture this as like a. Senior trip. So more of like an. His. His progression feels more like an 18 year old than a 16 year old. But it feels very believable. If, if he were six. Or if he were 18. Um. It feels like a very believable way that a 18 year old would move through the world. Um.

[01:47:03] A lot of the like. Romantic gaffes. And. The, the like schemes to, to get with his crush and stuff. All very fun. Um. Very enjoyable parts of the movie. Um. Um. Not to mention he's the hero of the movie. Yeah. You know, you see his grief. You see his frustration. You, you know, he, I think he does a pretty good acting job in this movie. He, you know, he is. You know, even through the mask, you tell he's like frightened during the illusion, you know, nightmare scene.

[01:47:33] Mysterio. And. You know, you see. The MJ relationship that seems very reasonable, realistic. Um, as opposed to some of the MCU relationships we've seen. So it's a solid choice. Plus you only have one more movie to draft them. So. Yeah. Right. My choice. I debated. I thought there were a couple of really good. I couldn't pick Spider-Man.

[01:48:00] I don't think I would have picked Spider-Man even if I could have. I probably. I thought Happy was really good in this. Although he didn't have a lot of screen time. I thought MJ was really good. But I'm going with. Quentin Beck. A.K.A. Mysterio. Fair enough. Uh. I'm going to say this is one of the best. MCU villains we've seen. To be honest.

[01:48:26] And this is one of the best new characters we've seen in phase three. I didn't. I didn't do it like a complete listing. If you will. But like he was. Um. I mean Black Panther's in. In. Phase three. So. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not saying he's number one. But like. And certainly one of the best villains. Right. Yeah. Definitely. Top five. Top four. Top five. He is. He is. Um. Charismatic.

[01:48:57] He is. He is charming. He is. Comes across as. He is smart. He is. Amazing jokes like he's on a late night show. Um. He just. He's manipulative. He is. Then you see him go kind of crazy. And you know. See his little. Stunt at the end. I think you could have had other actors play him. Yeah. But. It. The. It's. The movie is. Is mysterious. I think it's. As. It's not as much mysterious movie.

[01:49:26] A spider-man's movie. But he is a huge chunk of it. It's the two sides of the. The aftermath of Tony's death. Right. One side is. The grieving. People who knew. Who knew Tony as a hero. The other side is. I don't want to say the celebrating. But the like. Opportunistic. Not. Not necessarily grieving. People who feel wronged by Tony. And feel. It may be. Downplays it a little. They were wronged by Tony.

[01:49:57] Right. These people. Are. Employees of. Of. Of. Tony Stark's. Who. Who. He did. Mistreat. In one way or another. And so. It is. It is interesting. In the. Way that like. This does. It. Kind of. Of. This movie. As a whole. Kind of. Looks at both sides. Of that. You know. What happens after. A CEO dies. Yeah. I. I. Really enjoyed his character. Even.

[01:50:27] When. On rewatch. Knowing. That. That. He's not really. He's not really from another planet. It's still enjoyable. He does a really good job. And. You know. Yeah. Couldn't pick Spider-Man. So. I thought about Fury. I thought like I said. I thought about MJ. But. Quentin Beck. What about. Mr. Harrington. I love Mr. Harrington in this. His. His story is so fun to watch. Like it's so sad. But it's so. Like. I.

[01:50:56] I will give a special shout out. To. To. Our favorite computer nerd. In the computer lab. In. Incredible Hulk. Who now. Has made his way. All the way to. An appearance in three different MCU movies. And. Just so. So fun. Honestly. If you think about it. He's probably. Number three. He was really good in this. He didn't have a lot of scenes. But everyone. Because the. Spider-Man.

[01:51:26] The. Well. We'll talk about like. Kind of critiques of the movie. If you will. Yeah. But you want these films to be funny. And he. Him and. Mr. Tell. We're the funniest things. Funniest parts of the movie. Yep. Well. Let's move on. Let's. Let's do the. The overall ranking. So. I'll. I'll get mine out of the way. I will tell you. I'll put it in the mid third. Okay. First. Let me introduce the. The. The premise here. For anybody who.

[01:51:56] This is their first episode. We do top third. Middle third. Bottom third. For these movies. Basically. Instead of trying to place it. In a specific order. Which we'll do actually. In our next episode. But. Instead of trying to place. The movies. In a. Exact. Place. In their rankings. Here in these episodes. We like to put them in the top third. Middle third. Bottom third. There's about. There's about enough projects. I think there's like 36. Projects or something.

[01:52:26] So these. We're talking. You know. Top 12. Middle 12. Bottom 12. Ish. So. I will say. As we discovered. During end game. I have no slots left. In my top third. I. Love these movies. So I just overestimate them. All the time. So I'm going to. Put this in the middle third. Asterisk. It's going to move. To the top third. Literally next month. When we reorder all these. But I will put it. In the middle third. To. To keep David happy.

[01:52:58] David. Where are you putting this one? It's. In my middle third. But barely. I actually. Don't love this film. And so. I thought about putting. In the bottom third. But I think that's. A little aggressive. The. You know. It. It has some charm. I think. That. They completely ruined. A perfectly good character. Like. I don't love the twist. Personally. Like. Yeah. I think it's fine.

[01:53:29] The. Hinting at the multiverse. Like. Either do it or not. But. It's sort of like. Once you know it. And you rewatch it again. You're like. Oh yeah. But. It's not. As. Funny. As I would want. Some of the other films to be. And. I just thought. It's okay. It's fine. It's fine. I'm not. Spider-Man is not my. Favorite. Character. So I tend to view these.

[01:53:59] Not as. Enthusiastically. It'll probably. Remain in my middle third. But. Like. It's just. It's on the cusp. For me. It just. Like. I joked about it. Moving up to my top third. But it honestly. Could end up in the middle third. Like in that. 15 to 13 range. For me. Just because. Like. It's not better than.

[01:54:28] It's not better than. I. I. I don't know. I'd have to. I haven't thought about this. And I don't necessarily want to spend the time. To think about it here. But I. I don't know if this is better. Or worse than. Homecoming to me. Um. Yeah. It's close. It's close to me. Um. I will say. I like. No way. Home far better than this one. So out of the three. This one is definitely. In the middle. Um. Middle or bottom.

[01:54:58] You know. Obviously. Debating. Homecoming. Or whatever. Um. It's not better than. Like. Black Panther. Or Civil War. Or most of. You know. Most of this phase. Is probably better than this movie. But I really like it. I mean. I will say. Like. As a high school kid. End of high school. Um. Euro Trip. Was one of my favorite movies. During that time. And so. Like. To have a European teen.

[01:55:28] Comedy. In the MCU. Kind of speaks to a niche for me. Uh. That. That I think. Like. Makes me enjoy it a little bit more. Um. So. I. Yeah. I would. You know. I would say. As much as I joke about it moving into the top. It may not. It may actually live in the middle. Um. But it's. I think. Where you're kind of at the bottom of the middle. I'm more at the top of the middle. With this one. Um. So.

[01:55:57] Is it kind of right around like. Iron Man 3? Iron Man 3? Kind of. Yeah. Kind of in that. Kind of like. Yeah. Okay. Kind of in that. Like. I really like it. I watch it a lot. But. You know. Is it a standout. Like. Say. Black Panther. Or Civil War. Or Endgame. Or Infinity War. Or. You know. All those. I don't know. Incredible Hulk. Yeah. Yeah. So. That's our ranking. Now. Before I get on to our plugs. I do want to mention.

[01:56:27] Kind of what's going to happen. For the show. For the next couple of months. So. We're entering a weird time. Right? We just finished the Infinity Saga. We. David. We did it. We are releasing this. Right around our second podiversary. So we've been doing this for two years. We have finished the Infinity Saga. Which is a day. I was not expecting to. Like. Get to. To be honest with you. Like. I'm. I'm so proud of what we've done here. As a podcast. And I thank you. David. For joining the journey here.

[01:56:57] Am I getting fired? What's happening? No. Super awkward to do on a podcast. Right? So. So. This is how you create a supervillain. No. But. For those who were not around for the end of the other phases. What we do is. After the end of the phase. We do a phase review. This was kind of built in to give us a break. For us and our families a break. From having to watch nothing but Marvel movies all year round.

[01:57:26] Even though we love them. But this also was. You know. A chance for us to look back at the phase. Look back at. Our own episodes. We'll actually talk a little bit about our episodes. We'll talk about the phase as a whole. And what it meant. We also will reorder. And we'll actually get to specific orders. Of our. Of the. Movies. So we'll rate. All the projects that are part of the Infinity Saga. In a specific order.

[01:57:55] It's a really fun episode. Come listen to it. That'll be out in February. And then. In March. You will hear. A Saga review. We still aren't. 100% on what that's going to look like. We do know that there's going to be like. The best MVP. Basically like. I think we're going to try and maybe do tournament style. Or something. And that's where the community involvement. Is going to come in. So I'm going to post up polls.

[01:58:25] You're going to be able to. Like vote in head to head. Who's the better character type. Polls. As far as our. MVPs go. Harley Keener is definitely going to come out on top of that. And so that'll come out in. So that's March. Will be our Saga review. And then in April. Will be our dealer's choice.

[01:58:55] We stole this. I'm not going to even. I'm not even going to lie. I stole this. The idea of a dealer's choice. From scraping the fault. They do it to give themselves. Kind of a holiday break. We do it as a. As a. As a once a year chance. For us to kind of explore. A movie. That. Isn't necessarily in the MCU. We can argue. If it should be. Maybe that'll be part of the episode. But. We will be doing. Tokyo drift.

[01:59:25] Probably this year. If I had to guess. Unless Craven. Somehow. Decides to make a whole bunch of money. In the next. Like. Week. David's going to lose the bet. And I am going to get to dictate. This year's dealer's choice. Which will be. If. If it is my choice. I'm not. I'm going to say it now. It'll be Tokyo drift. Fast and furious Tokyo drift. There's absolutely no. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind. We were going to have to watch this movie. And there's no way you can argue.

[01:59:55] That should be in the MCU. But. We will get there. So that is. So yeah. That is. Is the next three months. Right. Not your usual Marvel content. But. It's going to be really fun. I will also say. The monthly bugle is going to be a little bit weird. For January. It's going to be a year in preview. So we're going to talk about what's coming in 2025. And what's cool is. The monthly bugle from there on out. We have new content to talk about February. We'll get to talk about Captain. We'll get to talk about Captain America.

[02:00:25] March. We'll probably get to talk about. We'll get to talk about. So Daredevil. I don't know what in April. But May. We'll be able to discuss. The. Fantastic Four. Or Thunderbolts. I don't remember. One of them. Anyway. It's going to be really good. So. Make sure you're listening to both of our. Types of episodes.

[02:00:54] Make sure you're listening to. And. And just so you guys know. Like I say. I wanted to give you guys a heads up. We're not going to dive straight back into. WandaVision. Which is the next MCU project. That's going to be a little bit off. Like I say. About three months off for us. So. With that all being said. I do also want to encourage you. Find us on your social media of choice. Like I mentioned at the top of the show. Listen to the other shows on the network. We have. Scraping the Vault. Like I mentioned.

[02:01:22] They are in their dealer's choice season. Where each of their hosts. Gets to pick. A thing for them to watch. They watched. The Disney version of. Christmas Carol. And then they watched a Mr. T. PSA video. This month. That one should be out. I think. About the week that we're releasing this. I don't remember for sure. So that's Scraping the Vault. Supreme Resort.

[02:01:51] Is still doing resorts. By the way. If you are a listener on Spotify. And you listen to Supreme Resort. Jump over to a different podcatcher. Because. For specifically. Asher's dance party. Spotify. For some reason. Didn't publish that episode. For Supreme Resort. So. And it's a. It is so good. Dan's talent. With getting Asher. To make great music. Is amazing.

[02:02:21] Amazing. Um. So go listen to. Supreme Resort. Go listen to. The Buena Vista Boys. They actually. I think. Just wrapped up their season. So they're on a little bit of a hiatus. Uh. The flagship show. Is taking January off. But I was on their Christmas episode. So I was on their Santa Iger episode. Um. Go listen to that. Uh. Flagship. Uh. Uh. Panther Milk. Is still talking about. Skeleton Crew. As it comes out. Um.

[02:02:52] I think that's all of them. Not on the network. But we always love to plug. Bowie Splaining. And. Uh. The Hub Crawl. Go listen to those as well. But. I think that's all of it. So. Thank you all for listening. We have come to the end of another phase. We've come to the end of a saga. You guys have been listening for two years. For the OGs. We thank you. Every single one of you. For listening. So. So. So. Much. Um.

[02:03:22] Puny Pod will return. With our phase three. Review.

[02:03:52] So. Mid credit scene happens. Um. While Peter is. Going on his date. Swinging around the city. As Spider-Man. Uh. With. With MJ. Uh. They land. Which by the way. One quick. Quibble. Right. Peter keeps his identity secret. So that he doesn't endanger MJ. Everybody in New York. Just saw. Completely dumb. Spider-Man and MJ. Uh. Connected. But. Anyway. That aside.

[02:04:22] Um. They land at Madison Square Garden. Broadcast from New York. One anchor. Pat Kiernan. Broadcasts on numerous billboard screens. Across the city. Um. Much to. Peter Parker's. Horror. Controversial. Online. News reporter. Alex Jones. I mean. J. Jonah Jameson. Uh. Of the Daily Bugle. Released. Altered footage. From the Battle of London. Broadcasted. The story. Of. Mysterio's. Last words.

[02:04:51] On a confession video. That. Directly. Incriminated. Spider-Man. For the elemental attacks. And. Oust. Spider-Man's. Identity. As Peter Parker. And. Peter. Goes. What the. F. Channeling. Channeling. His inner. Aunt May. From the first movie. Yeah. Super fun. First. First. Uh. MCU. Appearance. By J. Jonah Jameson. Which is great. Yep. And he's played. Again. By. Oh. That.

[02:05:22] Into that. And then I completely. Dropped the. Actor's name. As I was saying it. J.K. J.K. Simmons. Thank you. Yeah. Who has. Been J. Jonah Jameson. All over the spider. Completely. Yeah. We. So we get that. Mid-credit scene. That. You know. Nothing can end. Happy. In a. Spider-Man. Seems like. This is something. Always going wrong. Um. And the. Identity thing. Will be. Seen. In a future movie. The post-credit scene. The thing we've been. Referring to. From the beginning.

[02:05:52] That we spoiled. Because it didn't make sense. To talk about it. Separately. So Fury and Hill. Are driving in a. Wait for it. An Audi. Shocker. Um. Hill. Shapeshifts into Sorin. And then tells Fury. Slash Talos. That he has to tell. The real Fury. About what happened. And it get this. Funny little reaction. So he was like. It's. It's fine. The little boy handled it. We helped. She's like. Talos. Come off. How was I supposed to know.

[02:06:22] The whole thing was fake. I mean. It was all very convincing. The performances. The illusion. The costume. God. I sound like the Grinch. What would I wear? What would I wear? What would I wear? I can't cancel it myself again. Uh. The performances. The illusions. The costumes. The craftsmanship. He's just admiring it. He's like. It's just. It's just embarrassing. For a shapeshifter. Um. Uh. And so. Talos finally contacts Fury. He's like. We gave the glasses to Parker.

[02:06:51] About a week ago. Like you said. And uh. It was very touching. You know. Really. Really. Quite touching. Talos. Oh. And um. You know. Shortly after that. It really went off the rails. And we need you to come back. Because everybody kept asking where the Avengers are. I don't know what to say to that. So you're lucky that Spider-Man won. And then we cut to Fury. Who is vacationing on what looks to be a beach. He's got a fruity drink. And as Talos is reporting what's happening on Earth. He. Fury just ghosts Talos. And hangs up.

[02:07:22] And it just turns out to be a simulation. Fury's actually been on a space station. Overseeing his work. So it does a couple things. The license plate again. H&M 620111 is a reference to the Hawkeye and Mockingbird number six comic from 2011. Where Fury is impersonated by a Skrull for the first time. Never knew that. This explains why in Age of Ultron Fury was eating diagonally cut toast.

[02:07:50] So he was probably a Skrull before that. Right. Right. And it makes at the end it kind of makes sense that Fury. The like super paranoid hyper prepared person. Who's a step ahead of everybody else is working on a cosmic scale at this point in time. And so we have no idea when Fury left. But Talos has been basically his villain.

[02:08:18] While Fury's been overseeing the movie. The missions has probably happened after the Avengers. If I'm being honest. You think so? Yeah. I mean I guess that would make sense. Right. He's got everybody. He's got the ball rolling. And that's all he needed to do. Yeah. We probably should go back and kind of plot Fury in the different films. That might be fun in the saga review. Yeah. Let's do it.

[02:08:46] But and then lastly the shoot the bare feet of Samuel Jackson at the end is a nod to Quentin Tarantino. Who has Samuel Jackson has appeared in a number of his films which I thought was kind of fun. I like how Samuel Jackson just looks like a bored teenager. Like I've been on this beach a million times and he's just like walking. He's just like plotting through the space completely station. All right guys back to work. Let's go. It's like those those like.

[02:09:17] Like a month into work from home during COVID and you're like hi. I've watched all the things on Netflix. I guess I better get back to work. Yeah. Yeah. That's his and that is his vacation. So. Yeah. All right y'all. Well thank you all again for listening. We will see in the reviews. And. Oh speaking of reviews leave us a five star. Leave us a five star review. Do that thing. Anyway. Enough said.