Headscratchers / The Amazing Spider-Man

• How is it that no one at school suspects Peter is Spider-Man? In his scene with Flash Thompson, he displays his superhuman agility and strength when he backflips across the court and shatters the backboard. Then at the football field, he casually snatches the ball out of the air without looking and with a flip of his wrist, sends it back across the field with enough force to dent the goal post.
  • Because they have no reason to think that Peter Parker is Spider-Man - keep in mind that unlike the Ultimate Universe or the Raimi trilogy, Peter wasn't bitten by the spider on a school trip. For all they know, Peter is a better athlete than anyone at school, he just doesn't care about sports - he could practice parkour (And in a way, he kinda does) for all they know. Plus Peter is always scene with a skateboard so they would know that he is athletic. Since Peter is a loner in this movie they can just assume he plays sports by himself. The incident with the goalpost would have likely been written off as the post having a defect in the metalwork, and Peter just happened to hit it in the right spot to cause it to bend, besides at that point int he movie, all that is known about Spider-Man is that he a freak that can cling to walls and swing across buildings, the public doesn't know about his super-strength yet.

• How do Spidey's feet stick to walls through his shoes? And for that matter, his hands, once they're covered up by the costume's gloves.
  • I wondered that too. Maybe his gloves had mesh in them?
  • Perhaps so for the gloves. But the new suit also displays some pretty prominent sneaker soles, which should get in the way of his feet's stickiness.
  • Electrostatic cling of some sort (as opposed to generic stickiness, which is really just electrostatic cling on a smaller scale). Not the best explanation, but it's served the comics writers for decades.
  • The comic states his gloves and shoes are made from a material thin enough that his sticking ability still works.
  • Bear in mind that plenty of times the comics have shown him doing the wall-sticking routine in street clothes or an improvised costume.
    • More often than not he has to take off his shoes to do this though.
  • The comics state that his abilities to stick to objects have nothing to do with micro-barb hairs on his hands and feet. But manipulation of inter-molecular forces. In that he creates a temporary atomic bond with the object he is clinging to. However it would only work through thin layers of clothes, e,g Spiderman's suit, thin gloves and his socks, but it won't work through his thick shoes. The scene where it shows him climbing up walls with his shoes also shows him climbing with his fingers with his shoes digging into the wall. Spider-man can actually hold on with just one finger as each fingertip can hold over a ton of weight before breaking.
  • To reiterate, most media and the comics show that Spider-man can support more than his own body weight from the stickiness of a single fingertip. With both hands free, he could easily climb a building while using his feet to only push rather than stick.

• When Dr. Connors grew his arm back, it was initially covered in a reptilian shell until he peeled it off to reveal his new arm. Wouldn't that have happened to the mouse that grew its arm back too? Why he didn't notice that part?
  • Maybe it was noticed, and just ignored as a harmless side effect since the limb underneath was a regular mouse limb. He just didn't have the time to check the long-term consequences, which are the really troublesome ones.
  • OP here and I just thought of something: overnight, the mouse chewed it off!
    • Which is exactly what pet rodents do to bandages IRL, unless given a tiny Cone of Shame. Plus, it probably ate the peeled-off material, same as mother mice eat their pups' afterbirths.

• Why didn't the police suspect that Peter was Spider-Man? They knew that Spider-Man was attacking criminals who had long blond hair. They also knew that Ben Parker had been recently killed by a man with long blond hair. All this should have made Peter a prime suspect for Spider-Man.
  • For starters, different precincts don't share information. The Parkers live in Forest Hills, which is in the 112th Precinct, while Captain Stacy appears to run the 12th Precinct in Manhattan. And the fact that Peter manages to find so many criminals with long blond hair means that there is no real reason to single out the one who killed Ben Parker- for all the police know, Spider-Man might just have a grudge against blond guys. And those blond criminals he beats up were often working with other crooks, and he often beat them up as well, so his targeting might get lost in that. In addition, many such vendetta-driven types aren't looking for someone they haven't caught; the person they are angry at as already been caught, or they know who they are, but it wasn't enough and they still feel frustrated, so they target other people who remind them of the guy- not what Peter was doing, but for all the police knew he could have been.
    • Pretty much this, especially considering that Peter and his Aunt and Uncle have traditionally lived in Queens while it appears that the Stacey's live in a more posh area.
  • ...do you realize just how many people there are in New York? Also, considering these guys seemed to be career criminals, there are likely hundreds of people whom these long, blond haired people could've pissed off, of which Peter/Ben are only two.
    • Also, Spider-Man beats up muscled thugs with knives and possibly guns and Peter is just a kid and not a particularly strong one.
    • Spider-Man is also the first superpowered person anyone has experienced. The most likely deduction is some kind of acrobatic fighter and planned traps; you don't think of the impossible scrawny kid got spider powers. Justified Weirdness Censor.

• How Peter ends up getting a spider bite in the first place. He sneaks into a clearly marked biological testing lab, complete with him watching people in biosuits walk out right before he goes in. Then he wanders into the specimen lab and starts randomly touching stuff. For a guy who's supposed to be a high school science genius, he displays the acumen of a five-year-old.
  • Well, between the fact that he just committed a criminal offense (stealing someone's ID) to sneak into a secure corporate lab, and the fact that he impressed the head scientist there (whom he recently discovered was a friend of his parents) and gotten the girl he had a crush on to notice him, he was probably just feeling a little cocky. At least he only touched one thing, and the equipment seems unusually sensitive.
  • Peter probably didn't even cause anything to happen. At worst, he gave the system a false trigger. The system seemed to be harvesting the biocable, and knocking the expensive spiders off would be a necessary part of the process.
  • Also, he's Peter Parker in a building crammed full of Science. He probably felt like a kid in a candy shop.

• Why did Spider-Man need cranes in order to websling to the Oscorp building? What was wrong with the buildings that the cranes were standing on?
  • Because he was having trouble swinging from the buildings at the time, because his equilibrium was out of wack thanks to being shot in the leg.
  • That, and the cranes hanging straight out over the street let him act more like a straight pendulum. Realistically speaking (not that web swinging is frequently portrayed realistically), his normal method would always have him falling towards the building he anchored to. The cranes would be faster, even when he wasn't injured because he only needs to worry about moving in one direction. I think.
  • Spidey in this movie doesn't seem to swing off buildings the way all other iterations of the character do, he's never seen swinging great distances out of that one scene. Overall the swinging is portrayed much more realistically, so he needed the cranes in order to move so far.
  • About the cranes: the firefighter sees that Spider-Man is wounded, and his first reaction is "let's give him cranes so he can go fight a monster", not "let's get him to a hospital"?
    • Well, time was running out and he was the only one who could stop the Lizard and end the crisis.
    • Yeah, and he succeeded thanks to the movie forgetting completely about his wound as soon as he reached the tower. But logic would dictate that if he can't perform the basic Spider-Man task of swinging from buildings, then he wouldn't really be up to the task of taking on a perfectly healthy also-superpowered villain either. Plus, the whole thing just seems kind of cold compared to what was intended. "You're wounded, and you saved my son, but you have a job to do, so I'm gonna get you there to fight that monster!"
    • Spider-Man was forcing himself toward the Oscorp building even when he could have retreated. It was pretty clear by then that he was a determinator that wasn't going to quit for anything, so I doubt Peter would have let them strap him to a gunnery and cart him to the nearest hospital. A superpowered albeit-wounded transhuman is still an immense challenge restrain, and trying to force that on him would have been counterproductive. The crane operators were helping him in the only way they could.
    • Also, the movie didn't forget. Spidey didn't fight half as good as he has been shown to previously in the film during his encounter with the Lizard on the Oscorp roof. The Lizard destroyed him to the point that he had to be saved by Captain Stacy. If the movie had shown him flipping around and cocooning the Lizard like he did earlier, then a case could be presented that they forgot his injury, but as it stands, he mostly just got beaten on.
  • Spidey's whole web-swinging gimmick is also lampshaded earlier in the film when Peter's walking behind a couple of other students talking about the arc of a swinging pendulum.
  • The majority of the accessible surfaces on office buildings in that part of town would be windows. Even the toughest high-rise windows are a heck of a lot more breakable than crane steel. Any New York construction worker would know that, and Peter's got too many necessary risks to deal with at that point to gamble on unnecessary ones.

• Did his spider-sense just stop working when the policeman pulled a gun out and shot him in the leg?
  • He was probably too worried about Gwen at the time to notice.
  • And in any case, his spider sense isn't perfect.
  • Wasn't he already swinging away when he got shot? His spider sense doesn't help much when he doesn't have a move immediately available.
    • Yep.
    • That doesn't explain why he falls down with the roof. Spider-sense should've warned him about it.
    • It may have but at the time, he really hasn't practiced/understood what exactly he was feeling in a non-combat way. By the time he fell through the roof, he was basically scott-free. Also, even if it had warned him, without his webbing, there might not have been much he could have done other than maybe try to grab on to something (which he might have since he lands prone, not feet first).
    • To explain the cop, nothing I saw in this movie makes it clear that Spider Sense is magic. Every threat he reacts to is one that's somehow telegraphed (albeit really, really quickly), e.g. the guy pulling the gun right in front of him and firing. MAYBE, maybe he should have heart the bullet, but without looking he couldn't predict exactly where it was aimed, and the cop was behind him. The roof is the same way. There was nothing visibly wrong with it, so Spider Man had absolutely no indication that the roof would give.
    • 'Sense only warns him that there's imminent danger. Only in the Raimi movies has it been able to tell him specifically what's about to happen. Given that he was being chased by a half-dozen thugs who really, really wanted to stomp him into a mudhole, he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.
  • I know he is still at the start of his "career" as Spider-Man, but there have been plenty of times when he was swinging away from someone and was attacked from behind, and he still managed to avoid it because of his spider sense.
  • Better question. Why didn't his spider sense warn him that he was about to be attacked by The Lizard in the sewer? Connors got the drop on him there.
    • It did. Between the vibration in his web and his anticipation, he was already hyped up and ready to respond to something. The problem was, he might have been feeling many somethings or already responding or too many conflicting pings. Look at his initial reaction to the web vibrations. He focused on one direction, then another, then another still. Spidey-sense isn't him being psychic after all nor is it often very specific. It's as much intuition, reflex, and natural senses. And Lizard blindsided him; he might have been sensing danger but not what exactly. Even if he figured Lizard was attacking, he already knew that. He just didn't know when. His sense also is fallible; it can be tricked (and usually has).
  • The spider sense was completely inconsistent in this movie. At one point he can dodge several bullets at point blank, and at others he takes hits that could easily be dodged by someone with his abilities.
    • I'm not sure it's so much precognition as a really good vibration/hearing sense. The bullet dodging wasn't the Spider-Sense, that was a cop pointing a gun at him at short range, and Spidey actually looking at the gun to see where it was aimed. If someone could disguise the vibration (such as the super-smart Lizard), or Pete was distracted somehow, or unable to dodge, or just plain worn down, like he was with the police tazer. He could dodge several hits, but statistically, he's tired and just got smacked around by the Lizard a few hours ago.
    • "Spider Sense" is supposed to be based on the abilities that real spiders use to avoid danger. Since human senses do not work the same way, it might seem like precognition, but it is based on minute changes in light, airflow, vibrations, etc, and the ability to react to these almost instantly. He cannot know about an attack before it happens, though this is not always portrayed consistently.
    • In the comics, it actually is a form of precognition (usually). However, I wouldn't be shocked if its just a weird subconscious sense of surroundings in ASM (like it was in the Raimi films, IIRC).
    • The Spider Sense in all media has always been portrayed as a plot device usually is, that being it works when the plot wants it to and doesn't when the plot doesn't it to even when the situations Spidey finds himself in are exactly the same. The Spider Sense has worked when Spider-Man's back is turned, while he isn't paying attention, while his vision is impaired, while barely conscious, etc. If the Spider Sense were consistent, Spider-Man would never be hit by anything ever.
  • He's in a freaking sewer. Those places are deathtraps to anyone not properly trained, well equipped, and familiar with their layout and hazards. His Spider Sense probably kicked up a fuss the moment he headed underground, and kept going until it was little more than a background hum to Peter.

• If one bite from one spider creates Spider-Man, and there are no immediate risks to the bite, what is stopping Oscorp from making an army of Spider-Men in the future? (They must know Spider-Man has been inside Oscorp because he stole the web material from their lab and has been leaving those webs all over town.) The circumstances are too common and too safe not to be replicated.
  • It isn't actually clear if he stole them or simply ordered them legally.
    • The fact that they don't know that Spider-Man was created by getting bitten by one of those spiders.
    • He stole them. He had the key code of Osborn's Dragon guy. He could even use it on the back entrances. Osborn is probably smart enough to figure out Spidey has some connection. That, or think that he somehow stole from one of the people with the stuff, or he's a competitor who reverse-engineered it.
    • That assumes the door code was his personal passcode. It's just as likely it's a highly sophisticated door lock.
    • One of the benefits of even having digitalized locks is the ability to track and control who goes where. Each employee is issued a personal code. This is literally how key-codes work, unless the people in charge of it are really, really stupid. Pete has no problem getting into Oscorp itself, only that room. He could easily sneak into the Biocable room on his way out of his meetings with Connors.
    • He purchased them. The office building is a research and administrative centre, the spider thread would have come from a manufacturing facility. The box was way smaller than would have been shipped to many customers based on the use presented in the promotional video, and way larger than would have been shipped to the Oscorp building as a sample or demo pack. Plus it has a delivery label on it.
    • The question then is how the heck does 17 year old jobless Peter Parker afford a specialized webbing strong enough to pull a freaking tanker truck!? Something like that probably wouldn't run for cheap!
  • Considering Peter's father worked in transgenesis, specifically on a formula that could aid in keeping the patient fundamentally human while still receiving the benefits of the foreign genes, he might have used that formula on his son, pretending it was a routine shot or something. In the trailers (I know, I know...) they kept mentioning how Peter's transformation wasn't an accident. Richard Parker was terrified of something in the beginning of the movie, scared enough to leave his son behind with his brother. He might have been afraid that whoever it was might use his discoveries against him, perhaps on Peter, and so made certain that Peter would not lose his mind in the way that Connors eventually would. Therefore, Peter gets to be Spidey while any of Osborne's lackeys would wind up like The Fly. Only arachnidy.
    • Considering Ultimate Universe Richard Parker - it's possible that spiders were tuned to his son's DNA. Not the other way around. Without someone else getting bitten, no way of telling if it's true or not. But damn...
    • It was confirmed in ASM2 that the spiders used Richard Parker's DNA, so the venom would probably only work on Peter or Richard.
  • After first exhibiting his new powers, Peter asks Connors directly about any possible side-effects to transgenics. Connors states, just as directly, that they wouldn't know, because all test subjects have died. So, just like all those people in real-life who are carriers of a disease but don't actually die from it, it's very, very likely that Peter is an extremely lucky kid, and someone else trying to duplicate his experience could die or suffer a dangerous mutation.
    • Also consider that the spiders were production specimens designed to make biocable. There's really no reason to for them to start thinking "I wonder if we let them bit something, it'll make Spider-man!"; they might test the underlying genetics but that might not accomplish what an actual spider bite might do. Besides, their given genetic manipulation was to create biocable... that doesn't suggest anything related to creating Spider-man (eg physical attributes). That'd be like looking at your printer and realizing that if you stuck your finger into the ink spots, you'll gain telekinetic abilities.
    • Wait... those spiders were designed specifically to create biocable? And yet when they bit Peter, that's the only power he didn't get?
  • It's like in the Incredible Hulk: he was a freak accident. The idea is to do it better. Besides...how do you know they already aren't?
  • Maybe he will. Maybe it'll be a loose adaptation of Spider Island.

• Why at the end didn't Peter just jab Captain Stacy with the lizard formula? It had been shown to cause rapid healing just moments before. Even with the cure in the air, the concentration would have been so low that it probably couldn't have countered the formula for long provided peter use the whole dose on Captain Stacy.
  • Peter didn't see that rapid healing, so he probably had no idea that it worked like that.
  • Plus, the healing always gets undone when the lizard-ness wears off. Though that does make for an interesting idea for an alternate universe: one in which the Captain is kept alive by regularly getting low doses of that formula, small enough to keep him from going flat out monster, but enough for weird scales and to make people constantly wonder if he's mentally affected...
    • When Connors shifted back to normal, he wasn't full of bullet wounds, but he kept losing his arm. Apparently, the formula heals injuries when it turns people to Lizards, but when it wears off it returns them to their baseline human form, down to hair length and missing arms. So if Stacy had been transformed and reverted, he might or might not have been cured of the wounds. It was too risky, even if exposing someone to both the gas and the cure simultaneously didn't carry a strong risk of catastrophe.
    • The OP posted the answer already. Even if Peter knew that the Lizard formula would have saved Stacy, it wouldn't have worked because the cure was already filling the air at the time.
  • It took some time for the serum to have any effect on Connors, anyways. Stacy would probably be dead by then.
  • And there's also the fact that Spidey didn't have the serum to hand. The sample he removed from the device was probably smashed when the tower came down. There's no reason why he would have kept hold of it. And if he had gone down into the labs to make a new batch, the captain would be dead by the time he got back.
  • Mocked in the How It Should Have Ended short- Batman asks Peter in the Superhero Cafe, and Peter remarks that he didn't think of it. In-Universe? He was probably running off adrenaline (And being shot in the leg), and was thinking in the moment.

• In the spider lab where Peter encounters the transgenic spiders, why is everything spinning?
  • Come on...You have to ask?
  • It's a high tech automatic loom for the industrial-strength bio-organic cable.
  • Visual Pun? It was spinning web?

• Why was there randomly some nitrogen on the tower? Seems rather convenient.
  • I too found this hard to believe until I visited New York, where, to my surprise, I saw there were barrels of liquid nitrogen all over the place. I'm not sure why, but it's Truth in Television, apparently.
  • *Shrug* The tower belongs to a Mad Science company run by a Corrupt Corporate Executive, and at the moment that part of it is being used for a reckless, illicit, super-high-tech experiment. There could have been propane tanks there, or some other coolant even more dangerous than nitrogen, or something completely made-up.
  • The simplest answer is that the tower includes experiments that require some degree of temperature control or coldness, so they keep the nitrogen up there as a supply.
  • Those tanks would be connected to the fire extinguishing/sprinkler system. When Gwen sets off the sprinklers in the lab jets of a white fog came down from the ceiling. Compressed nitrogen is used in Halon 130 suppressant systems and less-environmentally-unfriendly alternatives. (The downside is that if Gwen were to trigger that and hide in an unsealed closet, she'd probably have passed out or be too busy giggling uncontrollably to even try to fight off the Lizard when he showed up, but, then this is a comic book superhero movie we're talking about.)

• Why the big fuss about the device used to disperse the mutagen/cure at the end with the keeping it locked up, and the charging countdown and all? It was a mortar that launched gas - we had those back in WWI.
  • It's possible that the device is used for cloud-seeding, specifically a process called hygroscopic cloud seeding. Dr. Connors mentions that "you can't run away from a cloud", and the antidote seems to fall down in snowflakes, implying that the Ganali device did more than just release a large cloud of gas. Similar technology (albeit far more rudimentary and much less effective) actually exists and has been used by the Chinese for weather modification.
  • They don't want a terrorist to get access to it and spread nerve gas or pathogenic bacteria all over New York. Dr. Connors mentions this as one of the dangers when the thing is first introduced.
  • Yeah, we did have gas-dispersing weapons in WWI. Then we made them illegal under international law and labeled them as Weapons of Mass Destruction. So yeah, it's kind of a big deal. And again, this device seemed more advanced than WWI tech.
  • And even if they only use it for medicine, they are dispersing it without considering the dosage, side effects and allergic reactions and dispersing it outside of a controlled environment like a hospital where if something goes wrong a doctor would be there to immediately rectify the situation.
    • Not to mention drug interactions for those on other medications, and a person's right to choose not to be treated. Many people have religious objections to vaccines; however someone might feel about that, their rights are protected. Trying to perform inoculations this way would be a legal mess of epic proportions.

• Was Connors' plan such a bad thing? It's only implied (but not outright confirmed) that the transformation increased aggression and decreased sentience (through the Doc's monologues). But how much of a stretch is to say that this was simply an expression of his personal neuroses and ambitions? His initial self-injection of the serum was framed much like a suicide, so it's obvious that not even the threat of death (his own, or others') is enough to stop him; not exactly the portrait of a sane man. And when we see the SWAT team that was partially transformed at the end of the movie, one of them is strapped to a gurney. How would the EMTs have managed that if he was rampaging, or even just writhing on the ground in pain? So... did I miss something that clearly explained the side effects of Connors' brand of super-healing and super-strength?
  • Well for starters, there's the fact that Lizard killed several people. That alone should be a clear reason why exposing people to his formula was a bad idea. And even if there were no negative side effects, it is completely unethical to force his serum on the public the way he did. If you develop a wonder drug which you think could do wonders for mankind, you test the hell out of it until you can irrefutably prove that it isn't dangerous and then offer it to people who want it, not force it on everyone.
  • We also don't know what, if any, long-term side effects the drug has. Connors was the Lizard for...what? A week? Less? Who's to say his miracle lizard formula doesn't cause you to develop a giant brain tumor and die one month down the road, or reduce your body to a bubbling glob of LEGO Genetics, or any of a million things that could happen. And as far as the side effects we do know about, heightened aggression is a pretty substantial downside, and the serum also seems to have brought on bouts of psychosis to go with; the symptoms Connors displays after taking it - talking to himself, premeditated murder, the irrational belief that he can fix the world by turning everyone into giant lizard monsters like him - are completely contradicted by his behavior before taking the serum and after being cured, where he explicitly showed concern for the lives and wellbeing of others, suggesting that his sociopathy was another side effect. All in all, the Lizard was trying to infect the city with an untested psycho-drug under the delusional belief that the world could be fixed by making everyone like him. That's actually a plan worthy of the Joker.
    • That's just it, Connors wasn't exactly stable before his initial transformation. Again, the first time he takes the serum, it's portrayed as him hitting a suicide-level Despair Event Horizon. His life is over; he either gives in to Osborne (and lets war veterans take the fall), or he or "disappears" like Peter's parents. Or... he can do something completely unethical and test the formula on himself. As opposed to... alerting the authorities? The problem after he becomes the Lizard isn't that the effects of the transformation on his (and by extension, other human's) psyche are implied, because they are; it's that they aren't explicit. If we may compare TAS to the first trilogy, both Doc Oc and the Green Goblin are shown to have explicitly been driven insane by their transformations (Otto's talking to his claws as if they were alive, Norman's arguing with his reflection). By comparison, Connors' webcam monologues were "normal." There's a level of ambiguity in how much of his insanity is just him, pushed to the brink, and how much of it (if any) is the Lizard. We can't really tell if others would have had a similar reaction.
    • Just real quick, Doc Ock's claws did have a pretty damn sophisticated AI, so they were communicating with him.
    • The point is that even if the formula didn't negatively affect anyone but Connors, him trying to spread it across New York was still a bad thing. Why? Because he didn't know for sure that there were no negative side effects. And that he clearly wasn't in his right mind. And finally, once again, it is completely unethical to force a drug on anyone without their consent or knowledge, even if you believe it would only do good things for them. If you know someone who's suffering from clinical depression, you may well feel that they could do with taking Prozac or something. But that doesn't mean it's okay for you to slip it into their food without telling them. At the end of the day, it's up to them to choose what they put into their body.
    • There are a number of people with religious objections to ordinary vaccines, and to advanced genetic alteration of animals. When someone is upset about eating a tomato with a single pig gene, there is very little chance they would agree to become part reptilian. Also, Connors appeared to be a carnivorous lizard; vegetarians might object to alterations that would force them to change to an animal-based diet.
    • I'm not sure where you get that Connors was suicidal. Connors was desperate. There's an important distinction there. There is ambiguity in the scene; it's unclear whether he was more concerned with the prospect of never getting to have his arm back (as was just thrown in his face), or if he was trying to make a human experiment out of himself to prevent Ratha from having to test the serum on unsuspecting veterans (evidenced by his desperate attempts to reach Ratha IMMEDIATELY after seeing a successful trial), but there was nothing suicidal in the scene. He wasn't depressed, he was panicked. Furthermore, every scene with Connors after he takes the serum devolves further and further into insanity; there is nothing "normal" about his webcam monologues. He talks to voices in the air that don't exist, he speaks faster with a more unhinged tone to his voice, he actively grows scales on his face even when he's not transformed, etc. And the very first thing Connors does when he's finally cured is save Peter's life, and then display shock and horror at the fact that he killed Captain Stacy, explicitly renouncing who he was when he was under the influence of the serum. There is no ambiguity in his behavioral patterns; Doctor Connors is a completely different person when under the influence of the serum.
    • It's also worth noting that his first time as the Lizard, he was trying to stop Ratha, and was just heedless of collateral damage. The authorities aren't going to get to the place in time to stop Ratha, even if he managed to convince them, and Oscorp has enough lawyers to weasel out of trouble. I'd be surprised of Ratha didn't have an airtight NDA protecting Oscorp from all risk if the serum hurts the vets.
    • Let's say it's true that Connors got violently psychotic because the drug amplified his insanity, and didn't create it. In that case, is there any reason to believe that it wouldn't do the same to other people with mental problems? In a city of millions, it would mean having a few thousands of huge evil lizards. Nothing's stopping them, as well as all the newly empowered criminals, from going to some other city and wreaking havoc there. Connors might have even intended to change the entire world population and not just NY, but it would take time and a whole lot of effort to get to everyone who doesn't live in a metropolitan area. The only reason he didn't consider that his plan would make humanity chew itself from inside out was that he just couldn't think straight at the moment, or couldn't imagine what's wrong about his condition.
    • I figured the Lizard took Connors' thoughts (his ambitions/desires, not some psychosis) and went a tad mental with them. That's why the Lizard still wants to stop the veterans dying, but didn't care about the civilians on the bridge: he remembered that pre-serum, he wanted to help the veterans. So he does, but without regard for collateral damage.
  • Not to mention the fact that the guards *were* writhing around in pain... For a few moments anyway. They either calmed down, passed out or were sedated by the arriving EMTs. It was also shown that the first time someone got hit by the serum it took a while for the transformation to kick in, and they're barely showing any symptoms when the cure-snow is just starting to fall down around them. Now if they had been hit, and not gotten a cure for a few hours or days...
    • It should also be mentioned that the S.W.A.T team that was affected didn't move, and simply sat on the ground without becoming "Crazy", as was shown when they got cured.
  • Also worth noting is the rat they tested on. Sure, rats can and will kill each other (but typically when there isn't anything else around). But this one was so hyper-aggressive it broke out of it's cage.
    • And what affects a docile lab rat is bound to affect the far more fierce wild rats of New York as intensely. Likewise, the mice, pigeons, alley cats, stray dogs, house pets, police and carriage horses, cockroaches, zoo animals ... basically, anything that breathes would be just as susceptible as people. Pump out enough of that stuff as indiscriminately as Connors would have, and you don't just have a Joker scheme, you've got an episode of Zoo with scales.

• Once more regarding Connors' plan: he plans to turn everyone into violent Superior Species lizard mutants, and that's presented as a bad, bad thing. However, Spider-Man is a working example of a science-assisted übermensch, and he doesn't suffer from destructive urges. Now think of using his DNA as a basis for the Phlebotinum used by Connors. Spider-Serum + Ganali device = entire city of super-strong, super-fast, and super-alert Spider-Men, and no bad side effects!
  • I'm holding out on the DVD including a deleted scene explaining why Peter didn't turn into a half-kid half-spider mutant. The missing trailer lines "Do you think what happened to you, Peter, was an accident? Do you have any idea what you really are?" suggest it. If so, Peter's situation may be like in Ang Lee's Hulk where the only reason Bruce didn't die from the gamma rays was because his dad had been illegally experimenting on him as a child. And Peter's parents also had to go on the run... Even if there's no known side effects, it's still a radical shift to give everyone in New York superpowers overnight. Now every adult, kid, pet, and criminal will be have super strength and sticking powers and giving so many people power will cause chaos, since not everyone there knows Comes Great Responsibility.
  • Everyone getting Spider-Powers was done recently in the comic book. While everyone gained the strength, few had Comes Great Responsibility in their mind. Not to mention that everyone would mutate into a spider-monster if left unchecked.
    • Mentally also? Or just physically? Obviously not everyone wants to give up their ravishing good human looks, but if we're not talking about a complete loss of human morality, you really have to do a cost-benefit analysis. Same with Connors' plan.
    • You also have to do a risk analysis. Forcibly mutating an entire city of people without their consent is morally objectionable enough to reject offhandedly in and of itself, but doing so based on only a single successful trial run (or, in Connors' case, clearly evident horrific side effects) takes it from "bad idea" to "congratulations, you just reduced one of the most heavily populated cities in the world to a big pile of genetic goop". Ultimately, if you really wanted to give everyone spider-powers, you'd be better off distributing the serum freely as a "Take at your own risk" property than you would be forcing it on the world.
  • Peter Parker is a sample size of one. Just because he doesn't suffer any side effects doesn't mean it would work so well for everyone else. For all we know, the spider bite has a 50-50 chance of simply killing you.
  • The point wasn't that science is bad or even that genetics are bad. The point was that this specific instance (the lizard serum) was bad. Of the two subjects it was used one and allowed to fully mature, they both became hyper-aggressive and destructive. With time, it could very well be super useful. But not right now.

• This movie is clearly set in modern times, so why does Peter use an old-fashioned film camera?
  • I'm assuming the camera is for a photography class and is used to teach proper photography theory in the same way that art students are taught with a brush and canvas as opposed to using MS Paint.
  • A lot of photography teachers in high school have a Good Old Ways mindset. They'll start you off with an old fashioned SLR camera, make you take black and white photos, and develop the film yourself in a rather tedious process. I'd be surprised if Peter still uses one as, say, a photographer for the Daily Bugle, but as a high school student, it's not too far-fetched.
  • In both the modern comics and the movies, Peter uses old Fashioned photography techniques so people don't accuse him of doctoring his photos. It comes in handy later if he is gonna get a job taking pics of Spider-man for the Bugle.
    • It might also have belonged to one of his relatives; it seems like the Parkers are not the wealthiest family.
  • He uses Bing. I wouldn't count on him being technologically savvy...
  • Wasn't it Uncle Ben's old camera in the comics? And considering how Ben had died recently...

• The Cure. Where did it come from exactly? Peter describes what it looks like when telling Gwen to get it, so it was something already existing that just needed to be cooked or whatever, so the way it looks is that Peter developed it at some point, but when? Was it off camera or in a deleted scene? Its the only plothole in the film I could find so its something that kind of draws my attention.
  • Connors probably created the formula for it. The Cure itself still had to be synthesized, which is why Gwen was in Oscorp for as long as she was, but a general rule of science is that before you start testing your miracle formula, you prepare a counter-agent. Never test poisons without an antidote on hand.

• Doctor Connors' plans to create a world without weakness by mutating everyone so that their biology makes them mostly(or perhaps fully) reptile. With their regenerative capabilities, his plan is strangely logical...until winter comes around and they all freeze to death.
  • The Lizard was in a dark sewer most of the time, and fought many times late at night. It doesn't seem cold-blooded, but still warm blooded, so the transformation only seems to affect the outside, hence why it can just peel off.
    • In colder climates, reptiles hibernate. Assuming predators don't get them, lizards can live for years.
  • Most lizards also don't have access to things like heaters (or thermal underwear). Lizard was intelligent enough to realize that the draw back of being cold-blooded was easily countered by technology. And, it isn't to say that Conners 'inherited' the cold-blooded aspect necessarily either just like Peter didn't 'inherit' 8 limbs.

• In the scene with the cranes, where did they all come from? There didn't seem to be any construction sites there. One or two I would accept, but a whole dozen all along a major avenue? That's kinda hard to buy.
  • Fridge Brilliance: If Marvel studios hadn't been pressed for time, this movie and The Avengers would be confirmed to be in the same continuity. (And there's nothing saying they still aren't) New York is still being repaired after the Chitauri invasion.

• In the same scene. So, all the cranes align to form a "freeway" for Spidey to swing along, and Mr. Stacy is even nice enough to fly over in a helicopter to highlight the next beam...wait, why doesn't he just give Spidey a lift in the helicopter or at least let him catch a web on the copter's bottom and then drag him to the tower?
  • I don't know if there's an official clarification on what Spider-Man's top speed is when web-swinging, but I think it's been stated that he is faster than most vehicles. So if we assume than he can swing faster than a helicopter can fly, then it makes sense to use the cranes. Time is an issue after all.
    • Even when wounded? Plus, first they had to call everyone, and then very slowly rotate the cranes and position the helicopter. In all that time the helicopter probably could've carried him there.
    • Captain Stacy seemed pretty stunned when he found out Gwen was in danger. One of his own men barely heard him mutter "hold your fire" as Peter ended up getting shot anyway. It would have taken a while for him to recompose and to come up with a back-up plan. The target, Connors, was headed for Os Corp. There was an evacuation going on that will need officers for crowd control. The Os Corp employees needed to be evacuated and clear of the building to avert the risk of further casualties. The construction workers likely called the police to let them know that they are going to assist Spider-man, resulting in even more crowd control to clear the way (there's a scene this troper recalls where a cop on a motorcycle pulls up at an intersection to stop people from obstructing Spidey's path, just as the web slinger passes by at a very low height). Basically, in the few moments Stacey could have climbed into the helicopter and told Peter to "climb in, I'll give you a lift" he was doing his job: making sure people were safe and coordinating the best plan of action which was "get Spider-man to Os Corp to do what we can't do". In the heat of the moment, when there's a lot to do, the mind can be addled, and one would often look to the one who looks fit for the job/seems to know what they're doing for direction. This was the moment Stacy began to trust Spider-man and accept that he's just more than a masked vigilante. And a final note: Captain Stacy needed to make a quick stop on the ground to make sure Gwen got out of Os Corp unharmed, and to ensure she was out of harms way. If he'd delivered Peter to the Os Corp roof, they wouldn't have had the cure, preventing them from stopping the Lizard the way they did.
    • OP: Except that I was wrong initially. It wasn't Stacy - it was just some random pilot who had nothing else to do except for hanging there and highlighting the cranes instead of landing, loading Spidey in (or letting him catch on the copter) and then propelling to the Os Corp.

• So did Gwen tell Peter anything about her dad or vice versa before she invited him over?. Because letting someone know your dad's an overprotective police chief or letting your dad know that your date just lost a parent and to be nice would have made the whole dinner scene go smoother.
  • Rule of Drama, I bet. And Rule of Funny, because remember also in their "conversation" after school, for lack of a better word, where they decided to meet up, the two them barely managed to speak a single concrete detail at all!

• What happened to the mouse that ate the other mouse? He's just there and... we don't hear anything about it afterwards.
  • Got under the "fog" of cure and was cured.
  • Plus, unlike Peter's spider-powers, the Lizard Formula seems to wear off after a while. It does have long-term effects (The Sanity Slippage caused by the formula is implied to be what makes Dr. Conners use it more than once), but nothing that would make the mouse much different from other mice, and the mouse doesn't exactly have access to more of the formula.

• Peter's seen to use, and only use, traditional film cameras. So, how are his photos on his computer wallpaper?
  • Scanners.
  • Which then begs the question why use film cameras in the first place. Also, scanned photos tend to be relatively low quality compared to the original photograph - in which case, why not hang the original photo instead?
    • This one was already answered pretty well up above; either personal choice or because film teachers are picky that way.
    • That explains WHY Peter uses an old-fashioned film camera; not how said film cameras managed to produced high-quality digital images.
    • I'd bet Parker has multiple cameras, what with being a photographer and all. He probably has a digital camera (or at least is borrowing one) to take official photos for his school so he can touch them up later, but uses his old fashioned camera for personal use.

• Small one. Where is Dr. Connors' wife? He's seen wearing a ring. Is she dead? Left him? Wandering the house muttering how lizard skin sheddings got in her carpet?
  • Cut from the film, apparently. Maybe her and his son will be included in the deleted scenes on the DVD release.
  • Did some snooping, and yeah, there were scenes filmed with Connors' son and wife. They visit him at the prison.

• Why does Peter use Bing?
  • Same reason he uses Internet Explorer: for as much of a dork and an outsider as he is, his field of nerddom is not the internet. Spider-browsing has never been one of his superpowers.
    • Hold on. Are you saying Spidey's not very good on the web?
  • ...and honestly? Outside of the movie setting, Microsoft (the makers of both IE and Bing) probably had a hand in funding the movie, so... product placement.
  • Maybe he actually likes IE and Bing?
  • Heresy!!
  • Maybe there's product placement In-Universe too; maybe Microsoft funds Os Corp and Peter's a loyal guy.
  • For all the nerds I know who despise IE (including me), few of us have actually deleted it. We don't use it, but it's still there on our desktop. Think about his state of mind when we see him using it- two of the three times, he's freaking out. The first time, he's frantically looking up anything he can about the one scrap of information he's got about his dad. The next time, he's frantically trying to figure out why he's developing insane, somewhat horrifying powers. To be honest, he couldn't have given less of a damn which browser he used. The third time is when he's looking up information for his new career as a masked superhero- and he probably doesn't want to use his preferred browser in case someone checks the history.
  • Maybe it's a new computer, and he hasn't gotten around to changing the default browser yet, since most computers have IE and Bing as defaults. If you compare the computer to some of his other stuff, it is visibly in better condition. While he could just take good care of it, it's in visibly better nick than the camera, for example, which he'd have no reason to neglect.

• What is Ben's problem with Peter getting revenge on Flash Thompson? The guy beat the heck out of Peter so bad he had trouble standing and came home with bruises all over his face, not to mention regularly attacking other students. So when Peter gives the guy his comeuppance, what does Ben have a problem with it?
  • Because he raised Peter to be better than that. Despite the fact that the famous line itself is never said verbatim in the film, power and responsibility are a core theme of Amazing Spider-Man. Peter giving Flash his comeuppance had nothing to do with defending himself or anyone else; he was just lashing out at Flash because he was angry. Did he have a right to be angry? Yes. But he wasn't helping anyone with his actions, he was simply putting more violence out into the world. It's an early reflection of what happens when he first puts on the costume; he goes on a warpath and, as Captain Stacey points out, winds up doing more harm than good. There is a very important distinction between picking a fight to protect someone or help someone, and picking a fight because you're pissed off and want to make someone suffer. Peter was doing the latter, and it could have put him on a very different path.
  • As I recall, that girl with the glasses was there trying to make a banner. Flash knocks over the paint she's using and spills it. She accuses him of doing it on purpose and he laughs at her, says that he should have, and tops it off by threatening her . Peter walks over to her and starts helping her out and Flash decides to throw the basketball at her as hard as he can, deliberately this time. Peter catches it and seeing that Flash will never stop, decides to teach him a lesson. Also, said lesson ultimately ended with Flash humiliated yes, but not hurt. The only violence there was Peter pushing Flash down, which, considering what Flash did to Peter and other people on a daily basis, is really more of a slap on the wrist. As for the hoop and backboard, that was an accident and no one was hurt anyway, so I just can't see where Ben is coming from. He protected another student and stood up to a bully and knocked him down a few pegs.
  • He also destroyed the basketball board and caused Ben troubles at work. Besides, humiliating bullies is not the smart tactics, for it only makes them angrier. What Peter did was not "knocking Flash down a few pegs" - it was waving a red scarf at a bull. So Ben probably had problems not with Peter standing against Flash, but with the way he did it.
    • Yeah... no. Bullies choose victims they think won't fight back or they think they can beat up if they do fight back. Peter proved to Flash that A) he will fight back, and B) he can take Flash down if he wants to.
    • Look at it this way: before Peter gets his powers, Flash is someone who's clearly stronger than the people around him, and who uses that strength to make himself feel better by humiliating the people weaker than him. Then it's Peter who's suddenly stronger than people around him...and he uses that strength to make himself feel better by humiliating someone who's weaker than him. That is what Uncle Ben is upset about, that Peter is going beyond standing up for himself, and moving into bullying Flash outright.
    • I could see it that way if Peter beat up Flash more than once, or went on to bully other people after beating Flash. But this was one time. Ben doesn't know Peter has powers. So as far as he knows Peter got provoked by a known bully and won. And that's it. It would make much more sense if Peter had accidentally broken Flash's arm or something. EDIT: Actually, let me backtrack that comment a bit. I agree that the intent of that scene was to make Peter seem like a bit of a bully himself, which Ben would of course have a huge problem with. But they didn't do a very good job of it. As it is, the scene makes the audience root for Peter and think Flash got his just desserts. What would have made this scene work is if Peter had walked up and challenged Flash to a fight without provocation, or if Peter and Flash got into a fight and Flash got seriously hurt because Peter doesn't know his own strength.
    • I think the intent of Uncle Ben was to nip things in the bud before Peter could start doing things like this repeatedly. Flash probably got what was coming to him, but Peter did more than that, too, to the point of showing off. If Ben got a full enough recap of what happened, he'd see there was a point where Peter stopped being the bullied-person-standing-up-for-himself and started bullying Flash just because he could.
      
      When you find out you're stronger, faster, or otherwise better than those around you, it's really easy to fall into the temptation of using those abilities to put people down. Ben recognized that temptation, and did what he could to curb it in Peter.
    • "Peter proved to Flash that A) he will fight back, and B) he can take Flash down if he wants to." Well, that's the point - he didn't. He goofed around with the ball and then jumped and smashed himself into the board. That doesn't exactly read fighting proneness - it's just Peter being a show-off. Which is why I think this scene was a significant improvement from the Raime's series where Peter and Flash did get into a fight and Peter knocked him down, and then Ben still chastised him for some lame reason.
    • That's... not at all what happened. He effortlessly dodged Flash's every attempt to swipe the ball from him, showing superior agility, knocked him on his back with a bump, showing superior strength, and jumped a good 10+ feet in the air, showing both. If that level of speed and power isn't proof that he can kick ass, I don't know what is.
    • Although, the case of the Raimi movies, Peter very clearly used excessive force on the bullies, (seemingly) breaking one of Flash's hands for no actual reason and ''punching him across a room''. It'd make sense Uncle Ben would be What the Hell, Hero?.
    • Actually, Flash was in pretty good shape after the fight in Rami Spider-Man 1. IIRC, he was the one who picked up MJ in the car after her chat with Peter and we see him for a second later at the Graduation arguing with MJ during which he moves his arm around, so his hands and arms at least were in good shape.
  • Frankly, it seems like an Out-of-Character Moment. It would make more sense for uncle Ben to actually be proud of his nephew finally giving the bully a taste of his own medicine. Not only was it fair, after what Flash did to him, but it's also a rather good lesson: don't be a bully, it can backfire. And since Flash later befriended Peter, it seems the experience actually did him good.
    • Peter knew Flash's real name (Eugene)- its likely that, as in the comics, Peter and Flash used to be friends, then they drifted apart. So its more like re-friending. If you wonder why Uncle Ben doesn't know who Flash is if that is the case, he might just know him as Eugene- in that case, God knows how he would have reacted if he knew the boy Peter was fighting was the kid he grew up with.
  • Oh boy... This is actually a BIG case of hypocritical Fridge Logic parents and teachers have. No wants their kids to be punching bags, but they don't want to be bullies, or at least publically accused of being bullies and having that affect them. And in their fucked-up mentality, if you take one jab at a bully, you might be Slowly Slipping Into Evil and He Who Fights Monsters, especially in situations like this one where there are accidents, ignorant teachers complaining and the parents have to pay for it. Parents have three Berserk Buttons in bullied-beats-bully situation: A) Looking bad because of their kids' actions, B) having to repay something and C) having to deal with the teachers and other students' parents, which none of them wants to because of the two previous buttons. It's like we're RPG characters with Karma Meter and any action might turn you into a Chaotic Evil Card-Carrying Villain. Frankly, I hated Ben's character all around in this film. The guy was big Jerkass embarassing Peter in front of Gwen, and then later almost eating his head out because of the thing with Aunt May; I'm not excusing Peter, but up until that point, he was nothing but a dutiful, nice kid. So, humiliate a bully and accidentally break something, be late to help his aunt(because he was making a major scientific breakthrough, but Ben wouldn't even let him explain it because he was overreacting) and suddenly Peter's a delinquent on his way to become a criminal?! No wonder Peter stormed off like that. What's worse is that Ben is looking for him and then sees a thug drop his gun in the middle of the street, right after having a fight with his nephew, and decides to fight the guy (NOT UNLIKE PETER DID WITH FLASH), getting himself killed in the process and making Peter blame himself irrationally, even more than the original(Seriously, the original was already a ridiculous case of cruel and impossibly convenient Karma, but this one makes it look like if Peter so much as think about breaking a rule, he will get someone killed.
  • That's...not really fair. I get your point, that it really is a cruel double standard in the modern education systems, but I think in this case, it was sensible for Ben to worry that Peter would become a bully himself if he didn't curb his actions early. If the later scenes are any indication, this Peter DOES have kind of an arrogant and hot-headed mentality. Two factors that, if not carefully looked after, can easily make you a douche. Ben probably knows Peter well enough to see in him that potential. And Ben trying to take the gun from the crook wasn't him being a hypocrite; a high school bully being an ass is different from a freakin' criminal with a loaded weapon. And this guy also just robbed a store. Ben was actually being very noble in that scene by trying to stop him (yes, rather stupid, too, but then again, part of being a hero is the courage to do supposedly stupid things). Whereas Peter in the earlier scene was abusing his power without a good enough reason at the time. (and just so you know, I literally just saw the scene in question, so I remember it clear as day)
    • ... Okay, for starters, the "curb it down" is EXACTLY the problem of the mentality! Peter had done absolutely NOTHING wrong or of the sort prior to that point, so there's no point in the sudden paranoia of him becoming a bully or worse, and the hot-headed part comes AFTER Ben started the whole thing, much like it happens in Real Life, with parents thinking the best way of ensuring their kids don't become bullies is by forcing to endure it silently, especially since, in their fucked up logic, dealing with bullied kids is easier than dealing with stuck-up teacher complaining their kids aren't taking the abuse quietly; I've witnessed and experienced bullying, and let me tell you, ignoring it DOES NOT make it go away. And yes, a gunman is different from a bully, which is why the smart thing to do is not try to fight one from the front with no plan, especially after bickering with your nephew over the very same attitude, the nobility or lack thereof doesn't matter, the guy wasn't even threatening anyone anymore when Ben decided to play Leeroy Jenkins! And clearly you haven't watched the scene, or even read the topic start, cause Peter was defending a girl Flash was messing with. In fact, both in the original and the new film series, Ben complaining to Peter about defending against Flash make absolutely no freaking sense, cause both occasions are the very first occasions; the difference is that Sam Raimi!Ben was just telling Peter to no go Slipping Off The Slippery Slope and Peter overreacts, while Amazing!Ben is already treating Peter as if he had gone off the edge and Peter is understandably pissed off. Which completely goes against Uncle Ben's character, he's supposed to be the guy that encourages Peter to face the obstacles, not the guy who "curbs him down".

• So, is every supposedly normal person in this New York a psychopath? Not counting criminals, we have: The people on the subway, who try and beat seven shades of shit out of a minor because he accidently tore one guy's girlfriend's shirt.(after being roughly shoved) The lady in question eggs them on the whole time and has the gall to act terrified when he successfully defends himself. The Ungrateful bitch who sends a bunch of thugs after him because he dared to rough up the abusive pimp who was roughing her up, and last but not least, the cop, who uses lethal force on him, in his case, appearing to be no more than an unarmed man in a weird outfit, because... he didn't like Peter sassing him. Am I missing something? What the hell is wrong with these people?

• I'm having a hard time feeling the tension in the scene where Spiderman is dangling from a building from Connors' arm which is about to disappear. He's spiderman. He may not have web, but he never needed it for wall-crawling, and he's up against a window. Why did Connor need to pull him up again? The moment there was a pause he should have been able to grab hold. I love the idea of him being held up by the soon-to-be-gone arm, but I feel they could have placed that scene somewhere where there was actually danger of him falling.
  • He's also suffering from a bullet wound and had the wind beaten out of him by the Lizard. Spidey is running on pure adrenaline and has been for a while at this point, but it's only a matter of time before that fails him. Sure, he can stick to the wall, but does he have any strength left in his muscles to actually hold himself up long enough to climb it?
  • When he was trying to get to Oscorp Tower, we get a pretty significant set of scenes showing the difficulty of him trying to move around (gunshot). And even earlier when he had his first real wound that wasn't just bruises (slash marks). Blood loss is blood loss and it makes you weak. He stemmed it with webbing, but both him and Lizard are strong enough to remove webbing; that doesn't say much for how long a web bandaid would last in a fight in an area that's Spidey's constantly moving and scraping against stuff. If he could wall-crawl, it'd be unlikely he'd be able to climb up before passing out from the effort of holding himself up (at which point he'd fall off). And that's making the assumption that his stickiness is instant and automatic. Yes, we see he has difficulties with it at first, but that would happen with anything (like skateboarding). The punishment he took might have taken away some of his ability to stick, from mental exhaustion if nothing else. Lastly, it may be that the point of the scene wasn't tension over whether Spidey would fall but to make sure everyone knew that Conner was 'back' and ultimately a good man driven by poor decisions and an evil personality; that the distinction between Lizard and Conner is that Conner cares about others before himself (he didn't lament the loss of his arm but rather he immediately realized Spidey was in danger), and perhaps to show that Conner's thought process that his lack of arm is a weakness is only one in the sense that he can't juggle; that he's maybe starting to focus on the strength he has rather than the strength he doesn't have. Note that the scene just after Spidey gets pulled up is not of Spidey but of Conner watching his arm flake away and him telling Spidey about Stacey. This shifts the overall focus of the scene away from Spidey.
  • Watch that scene closely - When Connors grabs Peter's arm, he's falling away from the building. Connors then grabs his arm & subsequently drops Peter onto the wall - it's not especially noticeable since it's very quick, but it's there.

• Considering what happened with Fred, why didn't Connors try to eat anyone?
  • What did he eat? Granted, a large reptile does not need to eat often, but that's only if it consumes a very large meal, and does not race around at the kind of speeds Connors was using for long periods of time. So, are the sewers missing many rats?
  • Because then they would've lost the PG-13 rating.
  • Given Connors is still capable of thinking, maybe he ignored hunger because he had more important things to do.
  • Mice and rats aren't species that are exactly adverse to cannibalism without the influence of a lizard serum.
  • He might have eaten when he wasn't Lizarding out. Also, as the previous note mentioned, mice and rats will normally eat other mice and rats if hungry and/or there's not enough other food around. That's without a serum at all. Humans do not and that's not factoring in intelligence. Also consider the general differences between small animals and humans. They loose body heat much faster and, on a per-mass basis, tend to require more food and energy than large animals. An elephant shrew (a small rodent) needs 100x more energy than an actual elephant, relative to body mass. Also, the Conner scenes were really more to show him slipping into insanity rather than development of his powers. We do see him at his office and he must obviously have brought the equipment from somewhere (it's not like he's suddenly homeless either; he just didn't want anyone to find his stuff and/or he was more comfortable in the sewers) so it's not really that difficult to think that he'd still eat normally. Besides, the Lizard isn't exactly an moron either. Certainly it realizes that could (and it did, after all) take advantage of Conner's human appearance to get what it wants.
  • It sounds like there was at least a cut scene where he is implied to have eaten Dr. Ratha.

• Considering Wilma was never seen transforming, does that mean that the formula does work in certain subjects, or just that she and Fred had different lizard periods?
  • Wilma was the control specimen, so likely she was not injected or was given a different serum.
    • Outside of movies, that is not how tests like this work. A control animal should not have been given any serum at all. There should also have been far more than two test mice (dozens, at the very least, for the first round of tests and far more in the second round), but perhaps they did not want to give the impression that Connors was maiming mice for his experiments. I really did think Wilma regained a limb; was I mistaken?

• Oscorp is a modern, high-tech company. You would think they have the very best in security. So WHY does it seem like there was not a single security camera in the spider room, or the hallway in front of it?
  • Inside the spider room it's probably too dark for a camera to record (the audience can see what's going on because otherwise the scene would be boring). As for outside the spider room...I got nothing.
    • Never thought of it being dark in the room to the characters, though that makes a lot of sense, but in that case one might think there'd have been specialized security equipment. It seems like either Oscorp made a big mistake, security wise, or somewhere there's footage of Peter breaking into a secret project and then (possibly) carrying off a specimen.
    • There could be any number of reasons why there wouldn't be any surveillance equipment inside the spider room. Maybe the spiders are extremely sensitive to electromagnetic fields and being anywhere near an electronic device bothers them enough to stop producing silk.
  • It occurs to me that Peter didn't seem to set off any alarms when he was messing around in the spider room. It could be there are cameras inside and outside the spider room, but Oscorp security has no reason to check the footage because no alarm was set off.
  • To be fair, though, cameras are the least of Oscorp's security problems. For one, the security access panel to that room is pretty much nothing more than a slightly fancier looking smartphone lock screen. Security like that falls apart as soon as someone glances over at the door when someone is using it, which is pretty much exactly what happens in the movie. Not only that, but systems like that which require some sort of code tend to also require further security checks, such as a company issued personal key card or the like, exactly to avoid someone just sneaking a peak at the code and thus having immediate access to the fancy top secret labs. Speaking of personal identification, Peter's ability to just blatantly lie to the front desk worker to get an access card was just plain ridiculous. If you're going to get any sort of access to a place like that, you're going to at least need some form of identification like a driver's license or something, if not a full blown birth certificate and social security number. Just being able to say "My name is, uh... Rusty Shackleford" or whatever makes me wonder how Oz Corp didn't go bankrupt years ago due to corporate espionage.
  • For that matter, what the hell was in the spider room that had the apparent function of dropping spiders on someone's head?
    • Spiders were. The room was a gigantic loom built to harvest the webbing for that Oscorp spiderweb product we see later. However, in a room full of spiders on webs, when the webbing all starts moving, the spiders don't often have the courtesy to stay put.
  • The actual reason is very simple; the security guards who get paid to watch surveillance cameras all day don't have the security clearance to see what goes on in restricted areas such as this. After a certain point you stop seeing security cameras and start seeing more hard security such as locked doors and such. Granted, Oscorp has very poor locks on their doors, but still.
  • Maybe Norman wanted Peter to snoop around.

• Someone, please, explain the lizards. Where did they come from? Why are they all going into the sewers to where Connors was? Why in a straight line like the spiders in Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets?
  • First off, Animal Motifs. If I were to actually try to give a rational explanation, I would suggest The Lizard, being the natural evolution and superior form of all Lizards, somehow "attracts" them due being the strongest reptile in that biosphere, making all other seek him out. Granted, that sort of attitude falls more in line with wolves or similar animals, but it's the best I got.
    • Its an explanation at least. Maybe they were genetically altered lizards from Oscorp and they are connected to the Lizard.
    • Keep in mind that Connors was, in all likelihood, not the most genetically stable, and even then has become some sort of radical new chimera of man and lizard, there's no telling WHAT sort of scents and other things he's letting off, that might, for whatever reason, attract the smaller lizards.
  • The practical and less interesting reason is that it was probably done as a simple way for Peter to be inspired to look in the sewer system to track the Lizard, especially if they cut out the scene of him following Connors. Otherwise, in addition to what everyone else suggested, it may be a homage to the Lizard's mind control powers over reptiles from the comics.
  • In the DVD Commentary it's said they are being called by their "king".
  • It was probably also intended to parallel the way that Peter started seeing spiders when he first got his powers. Perhaps on a more subtle level, it was intended to demonstrate how the genetics in the movie weren't bad period but depends on the person and persona. Both characters became more in tune with their new animal instincts but Peter know how to control them and use them wisely. Conner's flaw was his borderline obsession and that allowed the serum to 'tip the scales' since he didn't have that same level of control or the additional circumstances that helped forge Peter into the traditional Determinator he is.
  • Connors probably had a ton of them in the lab. He was experimenting with lizard DNA replication, so he had to get the samples for it from somewhere. Now that he's partially similar to their species, he probably has some strange sympathy with them and set them free when he moved to the sewer.

• It's mentioned several times in the main trope page that the Stinger somehow implies Connors was not hearing the voice of the Lizard inside his head in that one scene (where he decides to dose Manhattan with the serum) but was actually talking with someone. How the heck does the stinger give that impression? All the Man in the Shadows does is ask Connors if he has told Peter about his parents' death. What, are the voices just that similar?
  • I think the troper who added those comments in the main tropes page and the character one may have just got mixed up. It's very clear in the sewer scene that Rhys Ifans is delivering the in-his-head lines as the Lizard (the same lines are outright said by Connors to Peter in a deleted scene), not Michael Massee as the Man in the Shadows somehow actually talking to him.

• How did Crane-Dad organize every crane operator in the city during a police-enforced evacuation in less than eight minutes?
  • Crane-Dad works in mysterious ways.
  • It wasn't every operator, it was only some. And as shown, he himself could operate cranes so if someone stopped one person, there's still others. Plus, at least at some point, Stacey must have radioed to help Spidey (or at least, not stop him) and focus on evacuation - someone saying that they're trying to help Spidey might have gotten a pass. Also, once a guy gets into a crane (or even gets up a small fraction of the way), there's really not much a cop could do. It's not like a cop could just chase a guy up into a crane, wrestle with him, and arrest him. Also, the Lizard and his plan presents a clear and present and immediate danger. The police are better off helping the people that want to leave rather than spending a precious few minutes helping a couple that don't. A police enforced evacuation is still voluntary not some sort of martial law action or federal disaster law - look at things like hurricane and flooding situations. In severe ones, there are usually city, state, or federal level warnings telling people to hunker down, evacuate, or whatever. But there's still a few that always insist on staying put. That's their right (if not a smart one) and since they're not also causing harm to others, well... the officer might think they're nuts or brave, but they'll move on to helping the injured and controlling panic.

• So just what kind of detectives does Stacy have working for him that when they interview people at the bridge scene after the Lizard has ripped things up that apparently they never inform him that Spider-man was saving lives (or that corroborating evidence existed such as the cars caught by webbing rather than plunging into the water) or that a giant lizard-creature was running around doing the damage. Instead Stacy seems to think that just because Spider-man was there that he had to have been doing the destruction and people were just confused thinking that something else was also in the area doing the actual damage. Even when he's confronted by the actual existence of the Lizard he spends more time trying to stop Spider-man who seems to be the only one with a chance of really stopping the Lizard rather than keep after the Lizard. He only stops being an obstructive bureaucrat for no other reason than 'oh wait it's Peter he must be okay then'.
  • You would be amazed at the stupidly confused "eyewitness" testimony that surfaces after a major disaster like that. For instance, while the majority of the witnesses to the Kennedy assassination agreed that they heard three shots fired, some claimed to have heard at least five. I can only imagine the ludicrous witness statements Stacy would've had to sift through in the wake of the Lizard's rampage. It's not surprising he decided to go with the comparatively simple explanation of "Masked weirdo causes mayhem" rather than the more outlandish "Giant killer lizard man runs amuck".
  • Not to mention it's also the first time anyone's seen superhumans (as far as we know) and masked heroes. It'd take a while to compile evidence and the initial evidence, for better or worse, suggests Spider-man if only because he leaves a lot more immediate evidence on the scene with his webbing. He's also the only guy they know of at the time with the kind of strength to toss stuff around and the apparent motive to do so. Even if they knew that Spider-man was saving lives, that still leaves the question of what he was doing (until the evidence from the Lizard is fully analyzed as 'Never see it before') and that doesn't negate that they still want to talk to him/arrest for other stuff or just talk to him to find out what the heck happened. And as mentioned, they have to sift through a lot of reports (not just the bridge, but the entirety of Lizard going from cab to bridge); that kind of information takes many people many hours to sort. But mostly, Spidey might be saving lives, but that's really the first time he started doing so rather than chasing the bad guy (we see, after all, him making the choice to either chase the Lizard or save the kid). The police have no knowledge of this. Moreover, while Spidey prevents the cars from falling, he didn't necessarily help anyone other than the kid (special circumstances, to be sure) - this, from an outsider who wasn't there perspective, still fits the profile of the vigilante; they might have been collateral damage in pursue of 'something'.

• Doctor Ratha "firing" Connors when he refused to test the serum on Humans. Assuming there is a problem with it, who is he going to get to fix it? Does Norman Osbourne have enough time for Ratha to bring some other Doctor up to the level of understanding of the serum that Connors already had?
  • There is no good explanation, other than he was gripping the Villain Ball really really hard that day. And that's the least of the problems with that scene, BTW. The bigger question is what Dr. Ratha's explanation was going to be after he injected a bunch of amputees at the VA clinic with Connor's formula. Best case scenario, they all grow new limbs overnight. Worst case scenario, they all die from some unexpected side-effect. (And worst-worst case scenario, they all turn into giant lizard men, but he didn't know that yet.) Either way, there is absolutely NO hiding the fact that he performed illegal tests of an unapproved drug on unwilling human subjects. The guy would have cops knocking on his door the next morning.
    • Have the vets sign releases, test them in a secure facility at Oscorp. And if they die, they can be disposed of quietly.
    • Wasn't what he was doing though - he was going to tell them it was a flu shot.

• So... what's with the spider? It WAS genetically enhanced, but only to produce industrial-strength biocable. And yet it gives Peter Parker all of Spider-Man's powers, without the webbing included. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to, y'know, actually transmit the genes that were enhanced in them? Unless they randomly decided to enhance all of its natural traits. Yes, the organic webs were only in the Raimi films, but it just seems silly.
  • It's implied Peter himself may be enhanced in some way. So when he was exposed to the enhanced spider, it somehow transferred.
  • More likely, Doctor Connors explains that the spiders were part of an experiment to cross human and other species genetically, and Peter was just lucky to have the right genetic makeup to make it work. Perhaps his father used his own DNA as some kind of stepping stone with the spiders, resulting in Peter being the only person capable of surviving it.

• How does Peter escape at the end? His web-shooters were crushed by the Lizard, the building is too high and too far away from any other building to jump to and there are SWAT teams surrounding the building? There is no way he could have gotten out of that situation without revealing he was Spider-Man?! Furthermore, he cannot have changed because he hasn't brought any spare clothes, not to mention, he's clearly naked under his costume?
  • Get inside OsCorp, borrow some clothes from the lockers inside. If Gwen's still there, she might be able to help him find some and then escort him out, telling the police that he's a fellow employee.

• The car thief scene - How does Spidey get in the car? He's in the backseat, waiting, in a car with electronic locks (which is relevant because the thief is part of a bigger operation), which was just left there by a valet. He has next to no time to get himself in the car before the thief, especially since he's clearly just waiting when the thief gets in. So, was he there when the valet brought the car? How'd he know to get in that specific car? I know, Rule of Funny prevails for that scene, but it's bugged me since I first saw the movie, I kinda wish they'd have shown perhaps the valet and the thief communicating to at least make it less of a mystery how Peter knows exactly where to be and how he manages to beat the thief to the punch.
  • Stealth Hi/Bye. Just go with the same explanation as Batman and co have for it.

• During the video Peter watches in the lobby of Oscorp, why is Norman Osborn a mysterious, shadowy figure? Either give him a face or just don't show him. I realize the reality of it was that they either didn't have an actor for him yet or wanted to make him look mysterious, but then why bother putting that video together for the lobby of his own company? It makes it look like, say, Apple portraying Steve Jobs as Dr. Claw.
  • Osborn's a dying egotist. Likely, the 'shadowy leader' thing is designed to hide the fact he's currently not well, while also making him seem powerful and mysterious, IE, interesting.

• Are there really lizards in the wild in NYC? I grew up in the north and never saw any wild lizards like the southern U.S. has - I always assumed it was too cold in the winter for them to to survive year to year.
  • No, there aren't wild lizards in the city. Possibly Connors released some from his lab, or even from a pet store or the zoo, during one of his more reptilian-oriented outbursts. Or perhaps they're pets that got dumped when tales of a monster lizard-thing ripping up the city freaked out their former owners (or young former owners' parents).

• Must be really hard to keep a secret identity when you have to order your web fluid in through the mail. Even if he orders it under an alias or whatever, surely someone who's already familiar with the biocables must be suspicious of where Spider-Man got his hands on Oscorp stuff.
  • It is very very much worth noting that in all honesty: they have no reason to assume Spider-Man is buying the Biocable stuff legitimately rather than simply going to places that have ordered it and stealing cases of it for personal use. Even if they did think to check purchase records if someone orders something under an alias to a P.O. box at any branch of the post office, there is very little recourse for tracking it to an individual living in a private residence that's potentially in another area of New York altogether from the postage destination. Especially given that the same alias used to purchase it could be used to take out a money order to pay for the biocable. Every step of the way can provide anonymity to Peter. They also have no way of knowing for sure that he is not using a self-designed formula rather than purchased biocable fluid unless they have direct, unimpeded access to the police investigation on Spider-Man. While the police might compare the stuff to the biocable and demand samples, or purchase records Oscorp have no recourse, on their own, to investigate. And, like Oscorp, the police have no real reason to assume it was being bought rather than stolen.
  • During the car thief scene, doesn't Spider-Man say that he developed the web fluid himself? The biocable he ordered definitely jump-started his own research, but it seems more likely that he found a way to create his own supply, or at least significantly extend the lifespan of the amount he can order. This is a college kid on a budget, after all; he can't keep ordering critically-needed supplies, even at wholesale prices.
  • However, during the web-shooter making montage, we as the audience never see Peter doing chemistry or anything to create web-fluid; there isn't even a beaker set lying around. Aside from engineering, biology/genetics, and possibly physics, Peter is never depicted as knowing anything on how to create or reengineer webbing.
    • Another thing: what's Peter gonna do if Os Corp goes to hell? I mean, in the second film the company's founder died from a rare, incurable genetic disease, his heir started to die from the same disease, a disgruntled worker turned into ultra-powerful electric being, who ends up endangering several people and possibly killing few cops. Then, the dying heir breaks out the crazy electric guy, and then then two kill a guy and nearly kill another man, steal prototype equipment, and afterwards, one goes off to fuck around with the city's power grid and proclaim himself a god and the other turns into a monster and murders a young woman. Then later, the heir unleashes a violent Russian mobster in a robot suit just so he can cause chaos. Seriously, how is this company still running in amidst of this clusterfuck?
    • Keep buying his web-fluid base from the same company under new ownership, probably.

• Why did Peter think it's a good idea to add LED lights on his web shooters? Whenever he shoots a web, they flash bright red. Doesn't he know those things will give away his position? They're not going to be helpful when trying to be stealthy in a room full of bad guys.
  • My assumption was that the lights were, in some way, curing the web fluid to make it turn into the actual webbing.
  • I thought it was so that he knows the web-shooters are working.

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