History Film / MadameWeb2024

''Madame Web'' is a 2024 superhero film based on the comic book character of the same name by Creator/MarvelComics and is the fourth installment of Film/SonysSpiderManUniverse. It stars Creator/DakotaJohnson, Creator/SydneySweeney, Celeste O'Connor, Creator/IsabelaMerced, Creator/EmmaRoberts, Tahar Rahim, Mike Epps, and Creator/AdamScott. Creator/SJClarkson directs from a screenplay by herself and Claire Parker.

Working as a paramedic, during one accident Cassandra Webb drowns and when revived gains the astonishing power to see the future. This ability draws her to protect three young women named [[Characters/SpiderWomanTitleCharacter Julia Cornwall]], Mattie Franklin and Anya Corazon from the mysterious [[ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManJMichaelStraczynski Ezekiel Sims]], who has a dark connection to Cassandra's past and the death of her mother. Cassandra must protect these girls from Ezekiel, who can see their destinies to become great heroes and seeks to kill them to change the future.

** ComicBook/SpiderWomen Julia Carpenter, Mattie Franklin and Anya Corazon go from badass arachnid action girls to three powerless damsels Cassandra needs to protect and babysit from Ezekiel. It is stated and briefly shown in flash forwards (where they take out the Ezekiel) that they will be strong Spider-Women in the future but in the movie itself, we still see none of their competency that will apparently make them such great superheroes.

* AnachronismStew:
** Despite being set in 2003, [[https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/psp-in-madame-web.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=480&dpr=1.5 a subway passenger]] is seen playing with a Platform/PlayStationPortable, a year before the handheld's debut in Japan, and two years before it would arrive in the United States.
** Part of the film's aggressive Pepsi-Cola ProductPlacement are prominent bottles of Pepsi that use the 2023 labelling rather than the one from 2003.
** When Ezekiel is seen outside of the Grand Central Station, the One Vanderbilt building could be clearly seen in the background. Said building would not be constructed until 2016 and finished in 2020, seventeen years after the film's setting of 2003.
** Downplayed with the use of Britney Spears's "Toxic" in the diner scene - whilst it did not have an official release until 2004, it was being played on radio stations and suchlike in 2003.

** ComicBook/SpiderWomen Julia Carpenter, Mattie Franklin and Anya Corazon go from badass arachnid action girls to three powerless damsels Cassandra needs to protect and babysit from Ezekiel. It is stated and briefly shown in flash forwards (where they take out the Ezekiel that they will be strong Spider-Women in the future but in the movie itself, we still see none of their competency that will apparently make them such great superheroes.

* ParentalAbandonment: Not traditionally, but Cassie's anger at her mother for prioritizing her work over her unborn child, getting herself killed and condemning her to a life in foster care is one of the reasons she has so many issues relating to taking care of the girls. It takes a [[spoiler:spirit quest to Peru to show her her mom was working so hard to find a cure for Cassie's genetic disorder - one which the spider venom she sought did eliminate]]. Once she gets this out her system, she becomes a much more caring person.

* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: The main story is set in 2003, while the movie released in 2024.

* EleventhHourSuperpower: When Cassandra accepts her responsibility to protect the girls and their futures, [[spoiler: she unlocks the power to be in multiple places at once and is able to astral project towards them while they're in peril to save them. A moment later, though, Ezekiel punches her to knock her out of it and it never comes up again.]]

* ComesGreatResponsibility: Being part of Spider-Man's universe, it's only fitting. Despite Ben Parker being part of the plot, he isn't the source of the famous quote here, but rather [[spoiler:Santiago, who provides an inversion of the quote: he tells Cassie "when you take on the responsibility, great power will come"]].

* AdaptationalVillainy: The comics version of Ezekiel Simms was marked out by his selfishness in using his powers to benefit himself, and his terror of dying, but he was otherwise an AntiVillain at worst who still wanted to help people and tried to atone for his past misdeeds. Here he's still driven by selfishness and fear of death, but goes far further; [[spoiler:he murders Cassie's mother to gain the mysterious spider that gives him his powers]], spends the movie tracking down and trying to kill three innocent teenage girls and killing numerous cops and civilians along the way - all to avoid going back to "nothing" as he puts it.

* CallBack: When Anya realises she lives in the same building as Cassie, she notes with annoyance that Cassie just leaves her junk mail in the hall for others to get rid of. At the end when the trio visits Cassie in her new apartment, Anya's the one bringing her junk mail up...again.

* AdaptationalVillainy: The comics version of Ezekiel Simms was marked out by his selfishness in using his powers to benefit himself, and his terror of dying, but he was otherwise an AntiVillain at worst who still wanted to help people and tried to atone for his past misdeeds. Never truly good but never evil either, he would eventually recant on having Peter sacrificed in his place, saving his life. Here he's still driven by selfishness and fear of death, but goes far further; [[spoiler:he murders Cassie's mother to gain the mysterious spider that gives him his powers]], spends the movie tracking down and trying to kill three innocent teenage girls and killing numerous cops and civilians along the way - all to avoid going back to "nothing" as he puts it.

* DarkIsNotEvil: On the other hand, Julia is glimpsed in [[spoiler: Ezekiel's and Madame Web's visions of her future]] in her traditional black Spider-Woman suit too, and she's one of the heroines. To be fair, hers sports a lot more white.

* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Ezekiel ultimately meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it. [[spoiler: Having seen visions of the three future Spider-Women knocking off a ledge to his death, he assumed killing them when they were younger and powerless would allow him to chance his face. But his constant attacks on the three future Spider-Women caused a series of events that result in Cassie developing her powers as Madame Webb along with a reason to fight him, with her being the one who kills him.]]

* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Ezekiel ultimately meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it. [[spoiler:His constant attacks on the three future Spider-Women lead Cassie to develop her powers as Madame Webb and give her reason to fight him, and she is ultimately the one to throw him off a ledge to his death.]]

* AlternateUniverse: The official synopsis for the film states that the film occurs in a different universe, separate from the main SSU reality designated as Earth-688B.

''Madame Web'' is a 2024 superhero film based on the comic book character of the same name by Creator/MarvelComics and is the fourth installment of Film/SonysSpiderManUniverse, though the official synopsis states that it takes place in a different reality to the one the previous films are set. It stars Creator/DakotaJohnson, Creator/SydneySweeney, Celeste O’Connor, Creator/IsabelaMerced, Creator/EmmaRoberts, Tahar Rahim, Mike Epps, and Creator/AdamScott. Creator/SJClarkson directs from a screenplay by herself and Claire Parker.

[[AlternateUniverse Meanwhile, in another universe...]]

* ComesGreatResponsibility: Being part of Spider-Man's universe, it's only fitting. Despite Ben Parker being part of the plot, he isn't the source of the famous quote here, but rather [[spoiler:Santiago, who provides an inversion of the quote: he tells Cassie that her responsibility brought her great powers]].

** Courtesy of the Spider Tribe leader, the film offers its own take on the Spider-Man franchise's most famous line: "when you take on the responsibility, great power will come".

** As mentioned in CompositeCharacter, Julia Carpenter is divided into two characters: the teenage Julia who will become one of the Spider-Women, and Cassandra Webb herself who not only looks more like Julia as Madame Web instead of her comic counterpart, but also inherits part of Julia's comics backstory as the daughter of researchers who've worked in the Amazon.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Understandably not having a clue what's going on when Cassie gets her and the others the hell off the train before Ezekiel arrives, Julia calls out to nearby police officers that she's being kidnapped. Sure enough, with Ezekiel killing all the police officers and disappearing from the scene, Cassie's furious when a news bulletin identies her as the girls' kidnapper - something she gives a bewildered Julia a tongue-lashing for.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler:The only thing Sims achieved with his singleminded quest to avoid being killed in the future by the Spider-Women was to shorten his own life by a decade or two because it caused Cassie to become involved and she ended up killing him considerably ahead of schedule.]]

* ResetButton: How Cassie initially understands her visions to work. She'll go through a particular event or moment, then after a certain time she'll be back at the start of said moment. Gradually she figures out that she can use this to change things.

--> '''Julia:''' You saved my stepmother, then were really awkward about it afterwards.
--> '''Cassie:''' [[IResembleThatRemark That...does sound like me]].

''Madame Web'' is a 2024 superhero film based on the comic book character of the same name by Creator/MarvelComics and is the fourth installment of Film/SonysSpiderManUniverse, though the official synopsis states that it takes place in a different reality to the one the the previous films are set. It stars Creator/DakotaJohnson, Creator/SydneySweeney, Celeste O’Connor, Creator/IsabelaMerced, Creator/EmmaRoberts, Tahar Rahim, Mike Epps, and Creator/AdamScott. Creator/SJClarkson directs from a screenplay by herself and Claire Parker.

Working as a paramedic, during one accident Cassandra Webb drowns and when revived gains the astonishing power to see the future. This ability draws her to protect three young women named [[Characters/SpiderWomanTitleCharacter Julia Cornwall]], Mattie Franklin and Anya Corazon from the mysterious [[ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManJMichaelStraczynski Ezekiel Sims]], who has a dark connection to Cassandra’s past and the death of her mother. Cassandra must protect these girls from Ezekiel, who can see their destinies to become great heroes and seeks to kill them to change the future.

* AbledInTheAdaptation: In this version, Cassandra is neither blind or paralyzed, being a young and physically fit paramedic. [[spoiler:The final confrontation with Ezekiel leaves her in a state much closer to her comics equivalent, left both blind and in a wheelchair]].

* AdaptationalDyeJob: Due to their AgeLift, instead of having gray hair both Cassandra and Ezekiel have black hair, though Ezekiel's vision of [[spoiler:his death at the hands of the Spider-Women has him with the comics-correct gray colouring]].
* AdaptationalNameChange:

* AdaptationalOriginConnection:
** Ezekiel knew Cassandra’s mother and was responsible for her death, while in the comics the two haven't even met.

* AdaptationalSpeciesChange: While she's a mutant in the comics, in this version Cassandra is a normal human that gains her psychic powers after a near death experience causes [[spoiler:the Spider Tribe's abilities to manifest]].

* BaitAndSwitch: When Cassie's neuromuscular disorder is mentioned, comics fans will expect this to be what causes her to be [[spoiler:blind and paralyzed. In the movie, the disorder is cured before her birth, and her injuries come randomly from getting hit in the face with a firework and having a Pepsi sign fall on her.]]

** Played straight with [[spoiler:Cassie training the girls on how to do CPR, which they use to save her life at the end of the movie.]]
** Subverted with [[spoiler:Julia's claim that she knows how to fight because she took Tae Kwon Do lessons. She never uses those skills in the film.]]

* ComesGreatResponsibility: Being part of Spider-Man's universe, it's only fitting. Despite Ben Parker being part of the plot, he isn't the source of the famous quote here, but rather [[spoiler:Santiago, who provides an inversion of the quote: he tells Cassie that her responsibility brought her great powers.]]
* ComicBookMoviesDontUseCodenames: Cassandra is never once referred to by the title of Madame Web, [[spoiler:even after the climax leaves her in a physically crippled but psychically powerful state akin to her comics counterpart.]]

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Ezekiel's tech expert seems distinctly uncomfortable when she realises Ezekiel's targets are teenage girls rather than full-fledged Spider-Women. Downplayed in that she still helps him target them after he makes clear he'll kill her if he can't get them.

* JerkassRealisation: Cassie grew up blaming her mother's focus on her work as the reason her mother died in childbirth; it takes [[spoiler:a particular vision for Cassie to learn that her mother only went on that expedition to find a cure for the genetic disorder that Cassie had been diagnosed with]].
* LiteralMetaphor: Having foreseen O'Neil's death but not yet knowing she could have saved him, Cassie has literal blood on her hands after her failed attempt to resuscitate him (something she also foresaw in her vision.)

** During her baby shower, Mary complains that she can’t keep track of where in the planet her husband Richard is off to at that particular time. No surprise, [[Characters/SpiderManSupportingCharacters given his line of work]].

** When [[spoiler:Mary's baby is born, Anya snarks that Ben will have all the fun of being an uncle without any of the tricky parenting parts. As this is, of course, [[Characters/MarvelComicsPeterParker Peter Parker]], Cassie knowingly tells her that's what she thinks.]]

* ParentalAbandonment: Not traditionally, but Cassie's anger at her mother for prioritising her work over her unborn child, getting herself killed and condemning her to a life in foster care is one of the reasons she has so many issues relating to taking care of the girls. It takes a [[spoiler:spirit quest to Peru to show her her mom was working so hard to find a cure for Cassie's genetic disorder - one which the spider venom she sought did eliminate]]. Once she gets this out her system, she becomes a much more caring person.

* SociallyAwkwardHero: It's not quite NoSocialSkills, as Cassie at least has decent relationships with Ben and her other coworkers. Outside of that, she's deeply uncomfortable in social situations, tries to fob off a child thanking her for saving his mother on Ben (she even complains about the drawing he made her) and generally acts like an ass towards the girls as they initially get to know each other. [[spoiler:By the end of the film she's grown out of it, viewing the girls as family more than anything else]].

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: By the end of the film, the fate of [[spoiler:Amaria, Sims' tech support lackey]] is left completely up in the air, despite the fact that [[spoiler:with his death she is left in complete control of access to the NSA's SinisterSurveillance and the superpower-granting spider in his apartment.]]