'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Trailer Breakdown: Going Through The New Footage Frame-By-Frame
A new Spider-Man: Homecoming trailer arrived yesterday, so let's do the sensible thing and go through the trailer and rank every single frame from best to worst. What? Too much. In that case, let's just do another trailer breakdown, where we pick apart the footage and see what we can find.
Naturally, we may uncover some accidental spoilers, so tread cautiously.
Ah, the mere presence of an elevated train is giving me a warm flashback to Spider-Man 2. Sam Raimi's movies always made such strong use of their New York City setting and Homecoming will hopefully follow suit.
So, how does Peter Parker slip in and out of a skintight suit at moment's notice? I love that his Tony Stark-designed outfit actually allows this to make sense: it's loose-fitting until it's activated. This means we'll actually get to see a Spider-Man costume change onscreen for the first time...because it actually make sense for the first time.
Attention cosplayers: here's a great close-up of Spidey's new web shooters. Take note and act accordingly. The rest of us can just enjoy the design, which complements the more practical design of his suit quite well.
And while we're looking at close-ups of the costume, those eyes that widen and narrow will never stop being cool. What better way to make up for the fact that the Spider-Man costume doesn't allow for any personality or expression?
Tom Holland's Spider-Man won over audiences in Captain America: Civil War because he really was a teenager...a goofy, awkward, pun-loving teenager. This seems to have very much carried over to his solo movie, where every moment of superheroics is also a chance to be a showboat.
Here's sight you don't see very often. Just a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man swinging through the suburbs...
...and interrupting a pool party. While the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe characters are adults with adult problems, Homecoming seems dead-set on distinguishing its much younger, far more inexperienced hero by letting him get involved in all sorts of teen antics.
This is one of my favorite Spider-Man images in films and comics – the clash between Peter Parker the teenager and Spider-Man the superhero, all wrapped up in a single visual. Sure, he's doing whatever a spider can, but he's also a kid hanging from the ceiling of his bedroom in the apartment he shares with his aunt who's always wondering what he's getting up to these days.
Although Homecoming is still being released under the Sony banner, this trailer bends over backwards to remind audiences that it's set in Marvel Studios' comic book universe. This shot, seen in the first trailer, gets the point across nicely: "Hey! It's Iron Man! Forget about The Amazing Spider-Man 2, please!"
And this shot is even better. Of course Captain America, the goody two shoes boy scout, would make a physical education video for public schools. Based on his uniform, this thing was put together back when the Avengers were still new. It's also amusing that this video is still being used when Steve Rogers is officially a fugitive after the events of Civil War. American public schools use what they have, even if it's fitness challenges from newly controversial super-soldiers.
There are two things to note in this shot. First, everyone is wearing matching t-shirts, which certainly implies that this is some kind of science club that counts Peter Parker among its members (we'll see more of that in a moment). Secondly, it's refreshing that the kids in this shot look like actual kids, not twenty-somethings trying to pass themselves off as students. If you're going to set a movie in high school, everyone should look like they bleed awkwardness.
In the modern Marvel comics, you'd need a page or two to list all of the people who know Spider-Man's true identity. For now, the MCU Spidey has two confidants: Tony Stark and Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon), his geeky best friend who soon realizes his buddy is the Spider-Man "from YouTube." Ned looks like a welcome source of comic relief and Peter Parker is often at his best when he has someone with whom he can actually talk about his personal (girls!) and professional (giant robot vulture men!) problems.
Speaking of Ned Leeds and speaking of science clubs, here are the two chums working on some kind of project together. It's not clear what they're doing, but this is an angle of Peter Parker that has been sorely missed in previous cinematic incarnations: he's a total science geek and wiz-kid capable of cooking up all kinds of cool gadgets and experiments.
Michael Keaton's Adrian Toomes (who suits up as the villainous Vulture) has been described as a dark mirror to Tony Stark: a blue collar, middle class businessman who didn't have the world handed to him on a silver platter. And from this shot, it looks that point will be driven home. However, it's not clear if he somehow got his hands on an actual Iron Man face plate (unlikely) or is holding a Halloween mask, as seen in the original trailer (likely).
We have also heard that Toomes turns to a life of crime when his salvaging business, which has grown to specialize in dealing with the aftermath of chaotic superhero brawls, finds itself threatened by a new Tony Stark initiative. This shot suggests that Stark's new endeavor has direct ties to comics lore. In the Marvel universe, Damage Control is a company that specializes in cleaning up after superheroes, clearing rubble and taking care of any otherworldly side-effects. The company has even had their own series focusing on the employees, offering a humorous look at the Marvel world and the more normal people living within it. It looks like Damage Control will be entering the MCU and it will now be founded by Stark Industries and/or the Avengers.
Like all good super villains, Adrian Toomes' civilian clothes reflect his dark side. In this case, that oversized, fluffy collar is very much a callback to the traditional Vulture costume (which has otherwise received a serious upgrade in this movie).
It's still not clear who Logan Marshall-Green and Donald Glover are playing in Homecoming, but the fact that they're dealing with alien weaponry certainly suggests that they're up to no good. We've previously spitballed that they will eventually be members of a new Sinister Six founded by Adrian Toomes (Bokeem Woodbine is playing Shocker, after all). If so, which familiar Spider-Man baddies could they be taking on?
Back in the day, the Vulture was just an old guy in a green wing suit. And now he has these...
...and that. When this villain was first announced, we wondered how this old school villain could be made threatening on the big screen and now we know: a bunch of salvaged alien technology and an total overhaul of his suit. And also Michael Keaton, of course.
Hey may not be directing movies for Marvel anymore, but it's nice to see Jon Favreau still hanging around the MCU as "Happy" Hogan, Tony Stark's completely unnecessary bodyguard.
The climactic shots of the first trailer featured Spider-Man desperately trying to save a ferry as it was torn in half and now we know why he's there in the first place: there's crime afoot! Maybe these are members of Vulture's gang and this encounter is what encourages him to make his hasty (and destructive) retreat.
Come for the cool shot of Spider-Man webbing up two foes, stay for the license plate easter egg: that's SM2-0563, or Amazing Spider-Man #2, which hit shelves in May 1963 and featured the first appearance of Vulture. Does this imply that the ferry scene will be Vulture's first big moment in the movie?
Spider-Man may be a "street-level" superhero, but he has his fair share of tricks and gadgets. While Tony Stark has given Spider-Man an upgraded suit, this delayed webbing grenade is definitely the kind of thing Peter would cook up in his bedroom in the comic book world.
We saw the destruction of the ferry by the Vulture in the previous trailer, where it felt like some kind of climactic scene. The new trailer suggests that it arrives closer the midpoint, as the moment where Peter realizes that he's bit off far more than he can chew and has met an enemy who will truly test him.
If that ferry looked like an impossible problem for Spider-Man to solve...well, that's because it is. Enter Iron Man and his fleet of tiny rockets to get the job done.
Seriously: there's a lot more Iron Man in this movie than we were expecting. This isn't a cameo – it looks like Tony Stark will be a key supporting player in the film's actual plot.
Anyway, here is billionaire philanthropist superhero Tony Stark doing what a spider can't and saving a ferry full of innocent people.
Iron Man giveth and taketh away. In the wake of Spider-Man getting a ferry split in half by a guy in a robot bird costume, Tony takes away all of the cool toys he gave Peter Parker until he can grow up just a bit. This should be familiar to anyone who was ever a teenager. This is cool for a few reasons: it works as a metaphor for being grounded (which is great for a high school movie), it allows us to see more of Peter's nifty homemade costume, and it forces Spider-Man to confront his enemies without the aid of gadgets supplied by a billionaire. After all, Spidey has to be more than another Stark project...
Here's one of our only glimpses of Marisa Tomei's Aunt May, who had a cameo in Civil War and looks to have a much larger role in this movie. While some people have joked about the "reverse Benjamin Button-ing" of May over the years, from an old maid in Sam Raimi's movies to Maria freakin' Tomei, it does make sense that a teenager's aunt would be roughly same age as his late mother, not his grandmother.
This is another angle from the scene we saw earlier and now we know who Adrian Toomes (wearing that great jacket) is talking to: Spider-Man. Note that Spidey is wearing his homemade costume, so it looks like he's decided to take the fight straight to the Vulture after having his gear taken away by Tony Stark.
To further reinforce the "dark Tony Stark" imagery, here's Toomes standing in front of his Vulture suit, which appears to be capable of coming when called.
We already saw glimpses of Spider-Man's battle with Shocker in the previous trailer, but this image of him getting blown through a school bus is new. Without his Stark-approved gear, even a C-list baddie like Shocker looks to offer a serious challenge.
Here's our best look yet at Spider-Man's homemade costume and I don't know about you people, but I'm in love. This looks exactly like the kind of thing a high school kid would be able to cook up on a shoestring budget. What's not clear is whether or not he'll get his proper suit back for the grand finale or if he'll dress like this til the end.
Since Vulture's powers aren't that exciting on their own (he's just a guy who can fly), Homecoming looks like it'll up the ante by just making Toomes completely ruthless. Considering Spider-Man's state of dress here, this scene may take place shortly after their conversation seen above...and we can add the Vulture to the list of "people who know Spider-Man's identity."
This is just a great shot (and I wonder if this is the aftermath the plane sequence, seen later in the trailer). Peter Parker really seems to get roughed up in this movie...which makes this all a very appropriate high school metaphor.
That's Laura Harrier as Liz Allan, Peter's classmate and potential love interest. There's so sign of Mary Jane Watson in this movie (unless that's who Zendaya is actually playing). Anyway, they appear to be a (homecoming?) dance. So there you go.
As we've seen from previous marketing, at least one portion of Homecoming takes place in Washington D.C. and now we know why Peter is forced to suit up while visiting the nation's capital: there's some kind of incident at the Washington Monument. That blue explosion looks an awful lot like the alien energy beam we saw Adrian Toomes using earlier in the trailer.
And because Tony Stark designed this suit, that spider emblem isn't just for show. It detaches...
...and flies away, revealing itself to be a little drone. It's specific use has yet to be revealed, but surely this thing will act as Spidey's eyes and ears in difficult to reach locations.
Whatever the Washington Monument incident turns out to be, it seems to involve Peter's science club. Note the matching yellow jackets on the students behind him! Is he just rescuing his fellow students from an error of their making or has the Vulture decided to make this battle personal?
So, how does a guy in a wing suit battle a human spider? Simple: you drag him so high into the sky that his web-slinging, wall-crawling abilities become completely useless.
If I had to guess, I'd say this entire plane sequence is the bridge between Peter having a quiet chat with Adrian Toomes and the scene with Peter defeated on the beach, surrounded by wreckage. And despite this sequence ending the trailer, this probably isn't even from the movie's third act. Marvel has gotten pretty good about hiding their final action scenes until their movies actually hit theaters.
As you'd expect from a mid-air battle where he's wearing only a hoodie and ski mask, this fight does not seem to be going well for Peter.
And to be fair, it doesn't seem to be going well for the plane, either.
Anyway, let's close this out with a shot of homemade Spider-Man in action. This looks so goofy and I love it.