Spider-Man: No Way Home is finally here and the critical and audience response indicates that it has managed to live up to the massive hype that preceded it. This Tom Holland-starrer deals with the multiverse concept introduced in Loki and brings together supervillains from previous Spider-Man series.
Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, and Jamie Foxx, Thomas Haden Church, and Rhys Ifans will reprise the roles of Green Goblin, Doctor Otto Octavius, Electro, Sandman, and Lizard, respectively. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange replaces Tony Stark as Peter Parker’s mentor.
This piece explains the film’s ending and mid-credit and post-credit scenes. So if you are yet to see the movie, stop reading right now. Watch it, and then come back.
SPOILER ALERT!
No Way Home picks up right after the fallout in the last Spidey film, Far From Home. In that film’s end-credits, the superhero’s real identity was outed by J Jonah Jameson (balding this time) based on a video recorded by Mysterio before his death. Jake Gyllenhaal’s character also blamed Peter Parker for trying to kill him.
Parker, Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), Michelle Jones or MJ (Zendaya) and Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) are taken into custody but Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock, better known as Daredevil proves to be their saviour and has authorities drop their charges.
The trio of friends are unable to get into college due to the still simmering controversy. Peter approaches Doctor Strange and asks him to perform a spell that can potentially undo the damage. Strange, despite warnings from Wong, performs a spell that would make everybody in the world forget Peter is Spider-Man. Peter, however, interferes, asking that exceptions be made for MJ, May, and Ned. The spell goes wrong, and suddenly everybody who knows Spider-Man is Peter Parker, from every universe, enters MCU.
Strange wants villains to be sent back while Peter, after learning about their ultimate fates, wants them to get rid of their evil personas so they can stay alive in their respective universes.
For instance, Peter rebuilds the inhibitor chip that Doctor Octopus had to help him control his robotic arms (as opposed to the arms controlling him). But Green Goblin persona takes over Norman Osborn. In the ensuing battle, May is killed by Goblin.
In the third act, the worst kept secret of the movie is revealed. Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s versions of the superhero also entered MCU when the spell went awry. They meet MCU’s Peter and they, along with MJ and Ned formulate a plan to lure the wayward supervillains to a single location.
In the end, as everything looks lost, Otto arrives to help the three Spideys and restrains Electro, who has become too powerful for them to handle. Green Goblin also arrives. He is also ultimately defeated. Peter overcomes his vengefulness to inject him with a serum that restores him to Osborn. Parker requests Doctor Strange to do the spell again, without any exceptions.
He is, in effect, doing a very Spider-Man thing: sacrificing his own happiness for the greater good. MJ, Ned and everybody else who knew Peter forgets his real identity.
That he has has been forgotten in the MCU may also indicate that the next time we see Holland’s Spidey, it will be in Sony’s Spider-Verse, as Sony and Marvel’s deal to share the character ended with No Way Home.
Mid-credits scene
In Venom: Let there be Carnage, we saw Venom being transported to MCU in the post-credits. It was believed that it set the stage for Tom Hardy’s Venom to be in No Way Home, but it turned out to be a decoy.
In No Way Home’s mid-credits, we find Eddie Brock conversing with a bartender (essayed by Ted Lasso’s Dani Rojas, actor Cristo Fernández) about so many “superpeople” in MCU, murderous, purple aliens and the Blip.
But as Strange’s spell takes effect, Venom goes back into his own universe. However, he has inadvertently left a part of symbiote, indicating that there is an Eddie Brock in MCU and we are finally going to see Spidey vs Venom.
Post-credit scene
No Way Home’s post-credit scene is basically a trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The movie looks amazing. It addresses the effects of Strange’s spell. Apparently, all ias not well, and the spell has unintended consequences. We get to see Strange’s evil twin, Strange Supreme, who we first saw in that What If…? episode titled “What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?”. In the episode, Strange became obsessed with preventing the death of his girlfriend, Rachel McAdams’ Dr Christine Palmer. He played with the immutable laws of nature that ultimately resulted the destruction of his universe.
In the trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, we see Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Mordo telling Strange that the biggest threat to the universe is him, meaning Strange Supreme.
It was believed that Strange will be facing Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda or Scarlet Witch as supervillain, but it turns out he will ask for her help to save the reality.
The film looks absolutely worth waiting. Adding to the excitement about the movie is it will be directed by Sam Raimi, the legendary filmmaker behind Maguire’s Spider-Man trilogy and Evil Dead franchise, who just seems perfectly suited to handle this story.
