Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now in theaters, and we're taking a look at the biggest moments and surprises from Sony Pictures' critically-acclaimed animated sequel.
As you may have already heard (since most reviews haven't gone to any effort to avoid discussing it), Across the Spider-Verse ends on a massive cliffhanger, laying the groundwork for the third part of the trilogy, Beyond the Spider-Verse, with a pretty shocking and unexpected conclusion.
Major spoilers from this point on!
When Miles follows Gwen into Miguel O'Hara's future dimension and meets the "Spider-Society," the determined (zealous?) Spider-Man 2099 explains that, in order to maintain the status quo and ensure that all realities remain safe, Morales must allow his own father to be killed by the villainous Spot.
As you might expect, this doesn't sit very well with the young hero, who manages to escape back to his own universe (or so he believes) with the aid of Spider-Byte.
Once back home, Morales decides to tell his mother that he's Spider-Man, but when she doesn't know who he's talking about and his uncle Aaron walks through the door, Miles realizes that he's been sent to the wrong reality - one where his father was killed in action.
Miles leaves, but he's almost immediately knocked unconscious by an unseen assailant. He wakes up tied to a punching bag as Aaron tinkers with a very familiar -looking glove... but his uncle is not the Prowler in this dimension!
A mysterious figure walks through the door and unmasks, and Miles finds himself staring into a mirror image: here, in this world, Miles Morales is a supervillain.
The movie ends as Gwen assembles some allies to defend Miles against O'Hara and his group, who have followed Spider-Man to the same alternate timeline and are preparing to stop him from saving his father by any means necessary.
This conclusion could be viewed as being a little abrupt, especially by anyone who didn't realize that Across the Spider-Verse was a Part 1, but it certainly makes us even more hyped to see how the story wraps-up next year.
The review embargo lifted yesterday (you can check out our verdict here), and the movie currently sits at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.
In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, after reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. However, when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves most.
The confirmed voice cast includes Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac, Jake Johnson, Issa Rae, Jason Schwartzman, Daniel Kaluuya, Shea Whigham, Jorma Taccone, Luna Lauren Vélez, and Brian Tyree Henry.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will be with us June 2, 2023