This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Highlights
- "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" takes Miles Morales on a thrilling journey through different universes and introduces a diverse cast of Spider-people.
- The film's cliffhanger ending leaves fans in shock as Miles finds himself trapped on Earth-42, facing his alive uncle and dead father.
- The narrative of the film shines, diving deeper into Miles's place within Spider-Society and exploring the concept of canon events that must take place for the universes to remain intact.
While Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse had characters from different universes enter Miles Morales’s world, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has Miles leave home and explore the other worlds out there. With a lot of universe-hopping and several different versions of Spider-People, the film is an animation extravaganza. In the midst of this multiversal spectacle, it’s the narrative that truly shines. Diving deeper into Miles’s place within Spider-Society, the film takes audiences through multiple twists and turns.
But out of all these, it is the cliffhanger ending that had most fans in shock. Miles escapes the Spider-Society headquarters to go home to Earth-1610 but ends up getting trapped on Earth-42 instead. There, he finds that his uncle is still alive but his father is dead. And to make matters worse, the Miles from that universe has become The Prowler and isn't inclined to let Miles leave anytime soon. So, how did Miles end up in the wrong universe?
Why is Miles trying to get back home?
Across the Spider-Verse begins with Miles encountering a villain named the Spot, a scientist whose body was infused with interdimensional portals during the collider explosion in Into the Spider-Verse and also left him looking like the humanoid version of a Dalmatian. Miles then meets Gwen who tells him about her work with the Spider-Society. Miles follows her when she leaves and ends up on Earth-50101.
They face off against the Spot again, this time along with the universe’s local Spider-Man — Pavitr Prabhakar. When his girlfriend’s father, Police Inspector Singh, is in danger, Miles saves him. However, the danger is far from over as a quantum hole opens up right before them, sucking the universe into nothingness. A team from the Spider-Society turns up to contain it and Miles and the rest of the group are shepherded back to Spider-Society headquarters.
At first, Miles is fascinated by the hundreds of different Spider-people and even a few versions of The Prowler. He’s even more thrilled when he reunites with Peter B. Parker, his original mentor from Earth-616B. He even meets Peter’s young daughter Mayday. But his awe at the world is interrupted when he meets Miguel O-Hara, leader of the Spider Society from Earth-928. Where Miles was hoping for a pat on the back for saving the inspector’s life, Miguel berates him for disrupting a canon event.
What is a canon event?
Miguel shows Miles a web of red lines representing the vast number of Spider-People in existence, each in their own universe. However, every now and then the lines intersect, forming crucial events that every Spider-Person must go through — like the death of an uncle figure such as Peter’s Uncle Ben and Miles’s Uncle Aaron. These canon events must take place or the universe falls apart. Miguel witnessed this first-hand.
One of these canon events happens to be the death of a police captain close to Spider-Man. Because Miles saved Inspector Singh, Earth-50101 is now on the verge of collapse. Miles then makes the devastating connection that his father is about to be promoted to police captain in two days. And his death is going to be a canon event.
Of course, Miles’s first instinct is to leave and save his father but Miguel doesn’t let him. He even imprisons him inside an electric cage but Miles, being Miles, breaks out. What follows is an incredible chase as Miles tries to escape not one or two but hundreds of different Spider-People.
How does Miles end up on Earth-42?
Miguel doesn’t make it easy for Miles to escape. In the midst of the chase, he even reveals that Miles was never meant to be Spider-Man. The spider that bit him came from a different universe, Earth-42, which now has no Spider-Man to protect it. Miles isn’t just an anomaly but the original anomaly. If he hadn’t been bitten, the Peter Parker from his world wouldn’t have died saving him — the collider would have never exploded — the Spot would have never existed.
Even in the face of all these proclamations, Miles stands his ground. He decides to write his own story. He lures all the Spider-People on a rocket headed for the moon and then jumps back down to the Spider-Society headquarters. Before Miguel can stop him, Miles gets into the interdimensional teleporter which is used to send Spider-People home.
Here’s where things go wrong. The machine uses the person’s spider-DNA to locate their home universe. However, in Miles’s case, the spider-DNA belongs to Earth-42 whereas Miles belongs to Earth-1610. This is why the teleporter sends Miles to Earth-42, landing him with a whole new set of problems. But this is Miles. He’s not going to give up, not even when faced with himself. Beyond the Spider-Verse is bound to get very, very interesting.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse catches up with Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, and a host of other Spider-people as the doors to other realities are ripped open by The Spot. Miguel O'Hara (Spider-Man 2099) and a returning Peter B. Parker are also along for the ride through the multiverse.
- Release Date
- June 2, 2023
- Runtime
- 120 Minutes
