Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a 2023 American animated superhero film based on Marvel Comics featuring the character Miles Morales / Spider-Man. Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson from a screenplay by the writing team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and Dave Callaham, it is the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and the second film in the Spider-Verse franchise. It stars Shameik Moore as Miles Morales, with Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Vélez, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Karan Soni, Shea Whigham, Daniel Kaluuya, Mahershala Ali, and Oscar Isaac in supporting roles. In the film, Miles goes on an adventure with Gwen Stacy / Spider-Gwen across the multiverse, where he meets a team of Spider-People led by Miguel O'Hara / Spider-Man 2099 known as the Spider-Society, but comes into conflict with them over handling a new threat in the form of the Spot. It was produced by Sony Pictures Animation in association with Marvel Entertainment for Columbia Pictures.
Sony began developing a sequel to Into the Spider-Verse prior to its 2018 release, with the writing and directing team attached. It was set to focus on the relationship between Moore's Miles and Steinfeld's Gwen. The sequel was officially announced in November 2019 and animation work began in June 2020, with a different visual style for each of the six universes visited by the characters. It had a budget of $100–150 million, and with a theatrical runtime of 140 minutes, the film was the longest American animated film by runtime at the time of its release.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse premiered at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles, California on May 30, 2023, and was released in the United States on June 2, having been delayed from its original April 2022 theatrical release date. Like its predecessor, the film received widespread critical acclaim and it set several box office records, grossing over $690 million at the worldwide box office, surpassing its predecessor and becoming the third-highest-grossing film of the year domestically in the United States, the highest-grossing film produced by Sony Pictures Animation, and the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2023. The American Film Institute named Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse one of the top-ten films of 2023. Among its numerous accolades, it won Best Animated Feature at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards, Annie Awards, and Producers Guild of America Awards, and received nominations for the same category at the Golden Globe Awards, BAFTA Awards, and Academy Awards.
The third film in the trilogy, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, is scheduled for release on June 18, 2027, while two spin-off films, Spider-Women and Spider-Punk, are in development.
Plot
On Earth-65, Spider-Woman Gwen Stacy has become increasingly isolated from her friends and estranged from her father George. George is hunting Spider-Woman for killing Peter Parker, unaware that it was an accident after Peter turned into the Lizard. Gwen encounters a version of the Vulture from an Italian Renaissance-themed alternate universe, and Miguel O'Hara and Jess Drew arrive through dimensional portals to help neutralize him. George corners Gwen and she reveals her identity to him, and he attempts to arrest her before she leaves with Jess and Miguel.In Brooklyn on Earth-1610, 16 months after Kingpin's defeat and the destruction of the Alchemax collider, Miles Morales is struggling with his duties as Spider-Man interfering with his personal life, and is grounded when he is late to a party celebrating his father Jeff's promotion to police captain. Miles encounters the Spot, an Alchemax scientist-turned-supervillain whose body was infused with portals during the collider's destruction. The Spot blames Miles for causing his mutation and reveals that the radioactive spider that bit Miles and gave him his powers came from an alternate universe, Earth-42, while the Spot was testing the collider. The Spot accidentally transports himself into a void and learns to use his portals to travel to other universes and empower himself by using Alchemax colliders in other dimensions. Gwen travels to Miles' dimension, and they reconnect, sharing their struggles. Miles attempts to convey his feelings towards Gwen but they remain unrequited.
Gwen secretly tracks the Spot and opens a portal to the next universe: Earth-50101. Miles discreetly follows Gwen into the portal, and the two team up with Earth-50101's local Spider-Man Pavitr Prabhakar, and later Hobie Brown, against the Spot. The Spot absorbs the power of that dimension's collider, and he and Miles share a vision of his future attacks, which include the deaths of Jeff and Police Inspector Singh, the father of Pavitr's girlfriend Gayatri. The Spot escapes and Miles saves Singh from the collider's destruction, but the world begins to collapse before other Spider-People arrive to contain the damage.
Miles, Gwen, and Hobie are taken to Nueva York in Earth-928, where a multiversal society of Spider-People, known as the Spider-Society, work together to combat multiversal threats. Miles meets Miguel, the leader of the Society, and reunites with Peter B. Parker, who introduces him to his infant daughter: Mayday Parker. Miguel explains to Miles that each Spider-Person's story contains "canon events", such as the death of a police captain close to Spider-Man, which cannot be disrupted; otherwise, that universe may collapse, which in turn could collapse the entire multiverse as a consequence.
Miles realizes that the Spot killing Jeff is a canon event and is imprisoned by Miguel to prevent him from leaving. Miles frees himself with help from Hobie, and flees with the Society in pursuit. Miguel corners Miles and reveals that he was never supposed to be Spider-Man; the spider from Earth-42 wasn’t supposed to bite him, resulting in Earth-42 lacking a Spider-Man, the Spot’s creation, and the death of Earth-1610’s Peter Parker. Miles overpowers Miguel and, with help from Margo Kess, flees back to his own universe. Gwen stands up for Miles, and is angrily ejected to her own universe by Miguel.
At home, Gwen reunites with George and they reconcile when he reveals he has decided to resign from the force instead of arresting her. George gives Gwen a makeshift portal device left for her by Hobie. Gwen uses it to travel to Earth-1610 and begins searching for Miles, as do other members of the Society. Miles tries to reveal his secret identity to his mother Rio, much to her confusion. Miles and Gwen realize that he is in Earth-42 and not his own Earth. In Earth-42, Miles' late uncle Aaron Davis is alive while Jeff is dead, and New York is crime-ridden due to the lack of a Spider-Man.
Aaron restrains Miles, and is joined by Miles' Earth-42 counterpart, the Prowler. As the Spot begins his attack on Earth-1610's New York, Gwen promises Rio and Jeff that she will find Miles and teams up with Peter B., Mayday, Pavitr, Hobie, Margo, Spider-Man Noir, Peni Parker, and Spider-Ham, while Miles prepares to escape.
Voice cast
- Shameik Moore as Miles Morales / Spider-Man: A teenager who took over as the Spider-Man of Earth-1610 after the death of his reality's Peter Parker by Kingpin
- Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy / Spider-Gwen / Spider-Woman: A version of Gwen Stacy who is the Spider-Woman of Earth-65, where she is a wanted fugitive since accidentally killing her reality's Peter Parker who had turned into the Lizard.
- Brian Tyree Henry as Jefferson Davis: Miles' father and a police officer, who was recently promoted to captain.
- Lauren Vélez as Rio Morales: Miles' mother, a nurse. Vélez also plays an alternate version of Rio from Earth-42.
- Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker / Spider-Man: An older Spider-Man from Earth-616B who was a mentor to Miles. He is now married to his reality's Mary Jane "MJ" Watson and has a daughter named Mayday.
- Jason Schwartzman as Johnathon Ohnn / the Spot: A former scientist from Alchemax-turned-supervillain after an accident, whose body is now covered by interdimensional portals that allow him to travel through space and different universes. The Spot was not originally the film's main antagonist, being dismissed at first by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller when producer Avi Arad suggested using him, but this changed after the potential of his powers was discussed.
- Issa Rae as Jess Drew / Spider-Woman: A pregnant Spider-Woman from Earth-332 who is Miguel's right-hand and rides a motorcycle. Unlike most Spider-People, Jess does not maintain a secret identity.
- Karan Soni as Pavitr Prabhakar / Spider-Man India: A version of Spider-Man from Earth-50101 whose wrist bands act as web slingers, and lives in Mumbattan
- Daniel Kaluuya as Hobie Brown / Spider-Punk: A punk rock version of Spider-Man from Earth-138 who uses his guitar as his main weapon
- Oscar Isaac as Miguel O'Hara / Spider-Man 2099: A "ninja-vampire" Spider-Man from Earth-928 set in the year 2099, who is the leader of the, a group of Spider-People from alternate universes tasked with protecting the multiverse. Isaac described Miguel as "the one Spider-Man that doesn't have a sense of humor".
Additional iterations of Spider-Man appearing in the film as members of the Spider-Society, with speaking roles, include Andy Samberg as Ben Reilly / Scarlet Spider; Amandla Stenberg as Margo Kess / Spider-Byte, a Spider-Woman remotely operating a virtual avatar from her home reality; Kimiko Glenn as Peni Parker / SP//dr, reprising her role from the first film; Taran Killam as Patrick O'Hara / Web-Slinger; Mike Rianda as Ezekiel Sims / Spider-Therapist; Sofia Barclay as Malala Windsor / Spider-UK, an original incarnation of Spider-UK who wears a hijab; Danielle Perez as Charlotte Webber / Sun-Spider, a fan-created character who uses a wheelchair; and Metro Boomin, who composed music for the film, as Metro Spider-Man.
Iterations of Spider-Man from various media also appearing in the film as members of the Spider Society include Peter Parker / Spider-Man from the television series Spider-Man Unlimited, Nic Novicki as Peter Parker / Lego Spider-Man, Josh Keaton as Peter Parker / Spectacular Spider-Man from the television series The Spectacular Spider-Man, Yuri Lowenthal as Peter Parker / Insomniac Spider-Man from the Marvel's Spider-Man video game series by Insomniac Games, and Peter Parker / Spider-Man from the 1967 animated series, also voiced by Jorma Taccone, which he reprises from the post-credits of Into the Spider-Verse.
Melissa Sturm voices Mary Jane "MJ" Parker, Peter B. Parker's wife and Mayday's mother; Rachel Dratch voices C. Weber, a counselor at Miles' school; and Ziggy Marley voices Lenny, a Jamaican shop owner. Pixar animator and filmmaker Peter Sohn provides the voice for Miles' best friend and roommate Ganke Lee after his dialogue was cut from Into the Spider-Verse. Elizabeth Perkins voices the Aunt May of Gwen's Earth-65; Atsuko Okatsuka voices Yuri Watanabe, a police colleague of Captain Stacy; Ayo Edebiri, Antonia Lentini, and Nicole Delaney voice Gwen's bandmates Glory, Betty and MJ; and Jack Quaid voices the Earth-65 Peter Parker who died after transforming into the Lizard. J. K. Simmons reprises his role as J. Jonah Jameson, voicing various versions of the character on AU Earth-1610, Earth-42, and Earth-65 with archive audio from other Spider-Man media being used for the Lego version on Earth-13122.
Live-action roles are also featured in the film, with Donald Glover appearing as an alternate version of Aaron Davis / Prowler, reprising his role from the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Spider-Man: Homecoming. Peggy Lu reprises her role as convenience store owner Mrs. Chen from the Sony's Spider-Man Universe, identified as Earth-688. Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Kirsten Dunst, and Bryce Dallas Howard appear in their respective roles as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, and Gwen Stacy from previous Spider-Man films through archival footage, as well as Cliff Robertson as his version of Ben Parker and Denis Leary as George Stacy. Archival audio of Alfred Molina's Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man: No Way Home is used for a hologram version of the character with a comic book-accurate design. Archival audio of John Mulaney as Peter Porker / Spider-Ham from the first film is used in the film before his character reappears in a non-speaking cameo at the end.