Trivia / Spider-Man 2

For the sequel to Spider-Man (PS4), go here.

Trivia for the film:

• Awesome, Dear Boy: Alfred Molina was a fan of Marvel and jumped at the chance to be in the film.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: A meme circulating around the internet features a picture of the train passengers lifting Spider-Man's unconscious body with the caption, "carefully, he's a hero", even though no such line is actually said in the movie.
• Blooper: Peter is tasked with delivering eight pizzas at the beginning of the movie. When he temporarily sets the stack of pizzas on a random man's balcony, there are only seven pizza boxes.
• California Doubling:
  • Most of the movie split filming between New York City and Los Angeles (look at the traffic lights to distinguish New York City scenes from Los Angeles scenes).
  • The train fight between Spidey and Doc Ock was filmed in Chicago, as that city still has extensive elevated trains running downtown, whereas in New York City, most of the elevated lines in Manhattan had been replaced by the subways by the 1950s (with elevated trackage only being prominent in the outer boroughs).
• Corpsing: During the extended-cut scene in which Jameson tries on the Spider-suit, Betty is seen barely containing her laughter. Elizabeth Banks has later admitted she was only supposed to act bemused like Bill Nunn and Ted Raimi, but J. K. Simmons was just so hilarious during that scene.
• Creator Couple: In the Japanese dub, Otto and Rosalie Octavius are respectively voiced by Banjo Ginga and Gara Takashima, who are married in real-life.
• Cut Song: Sia's "Where I Belong" would be in the soundtrack, but a label conflict made it be left out. The single still has Sia dressed as Spidey on the cover◊.
• Development Gag: There are a couple of playful jabs at Tobey Maguire's back problems, which nearly forced him to drop out. This includes the "I'm back, I'm back!...My back, my back!" scene, and a Freeze-Frame Bonus Bugle headline claiming link between back pain and brain shrinkage. That headline is actually a lot more mean-spirited than it seems: Maguire's back problems were a point of contention on set, and it was generally assumed by most of the production staff that he was using his condition to avoid showing up on the set or working on days that he didn't feel like it (regardless of whether or not that was true). At one point, they even threatened to fire and replace him.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • Alfred Molina lost some weight for the role of Doctor Octopus, considering he had had to gain some for the part of Diego Rivera in Frida. He said he wanted Doc Ock to have the build of a "1950s weightlifter".
  • Kirsten Dunst dyed her hair red for the film.
  • Tobey Maguire had lost his Heroic Build for Seabiscuit and had to workout and eat well to regain it.
• Fake American:
  • Alfred Molina, who plays Doctor Octopus, is from London. For the most part, he does a pretty spot-on American accent, though when he says the line, "I should've known Osborn wouldn't have the spine to finish you!", he momentarily slips back into his natural English accent.
  • Daniel Gillies, who plays John Jameson, is Canadian and grew up in New Zealand.
• Orphaned Reference: When Peter tries to "reactivate" his powers by jumping over a building, the "strong focus on what I want" line was a Call-Back to a cut line from the doctor earlier. 2.1 re-inserts the doctor's line, restoring the Call-Back.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Twins Spencer and Peyton List playing siblings (not stated if also twins) saved by Peter at the beginning.
  • Tobey Maguire's half-brothers are also in the film, playing the two boys who give Peter back his mask after the iconic Trainstopping scene.
• Refitted for Sequel: Doctor Octopus was going to be a villain in the first film alongside The Green Goblin, but Sam Raimi decided that one villain was enough, and saved him for the sequel.
• Troubled Production: Tobey Maguire was injured while filming Seabiscuit and would've been replaced by Jake Gyllenhaal had he not recovered on time.
• What Could Have Been: See here
• Working Title: The Amazing Spider-Man (which would end up being the title of the Continuity Reboot two films later).

Trivia for the game:

• Celebrity Voice Actor: The game has the voices of Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man), Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane), Alfred Molina (Dr. Octopus), J. K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson, PSP version only) and Bruce Campbell as the Narrator. Additionally, whilst some movie characters are not voiced by their film counterparts, they are played by notable character actors such as Mindy Sterling (Aunt May)
• Dummied Out:
  • Governor's Island was also supposed to be included as a bonus accessible area along with the Ellis and Liberty islands. Time constraints forced the dev team to remove it, but its title card remained in the game.
  • The GBA version of the game has an unused song hidden within its game data. What stage it would've been used for is unknown.
• Hey, It's That Sound!: As odd as the end result is, the lizardmen mentioned below (the ones that appear on the fight arena) reuse the damage grunts of "The Skulls", a street gang that acted as the main enemy faction of the first 3 levels of the previous game.
• The Original Darrin: Unlike the first and third games, Kirsten Dunst reprises the role of Mary Jane in this game.
• The Other Darrin:
  • As in the first game, Josh Keaton replaces James Franco as Harry Osborn.
  • Zig-zagged with J. Jonah Jameson. Jay Gordon replaced J. K. Simmons in the console versions, while Simmons reprised his role in the PSP port, which came out nearly a year later.
  • Mindy Sterling replaces Rosemary Harris as Aunt May.
  • Jeff Coopwood replace Bill Nunn as Robbie Robertson in this game.
  • Bethany Rhoades replaces Elizabeth Banks as Betty Brant in this game.
  • The late Joe Alaskey replaced Dylan Baker as Curt Connors.
• What Could Have Been: The 2003 trailer sported a more cel-shaded style, and showcased the Lizard, who never made it into the game (though there were lizard men of sorts in the game, but only in the unlockable bonus fight arena mode). One of the hint markers makes a reference to this; "Everyone knows that lizards only live in sewers anyway." In addition, unused lines from Spidey indicated that Kraven the Hunter and Calypso were set to appear as part of a Lizard subplot, but got cut. Calypso would remain in as a bonus boss, while the Kraven and Lizard subplot was saved for Spider-Man 3.
  • Governor's Island was likely meant to be explorable, as its name is still on the map. It instead ended up being Dummied Out.
  • There's a row of doors inside the Daily Bugle, which, when approached, play the "door locked" sound effect that usually plays only when a normally accessible location is temporarily locked.^note Non-player stores during nighttime, story locations until (and sometimes after) the location becomes relevant) It's speculated that they were to have some sort of extras behind them, but we will never know for sure.
  • Unused voice lines suggest one of the "concerned citizens" missions involved Spidey finding items people lost, from stereos to rings, and even trophies.