The Megahit Movies

by Richard Stefanik

  “Joe’s twenty-nine minute guarantee is a promise!” Aziz was shouting in Peter’s face. “I know a promise means nothing to you, Parker, but to me it is serious! You’re fired!” This produces sympathy for Peter because the audience knows that he is being treated unfairly.

  He got the same message at the Daily Bugle. ”You’re fired!” Jameson screamed at Peter. “I pay you because for some reason that psycho Spider-Man will pose for you!” Jameson flips through a portfolio of photos that Peter has given to him.” Peter again is placed in danger of losing another job.

  “Spider-Man will not let me take any more pictures of him because you turned the whole city against him!” replied Peter. Peter then gives Jameson one more picture of Spider-Man, for which Jameson finally agrees to pay $300.

  They argue about payment, but Jameson gives Peter a voucher. He takes it to Betty, the secretary. ”Sorry, Pete, this doesn’t even cover the advance you got two weeks ago.”

  Peter is broke. This generates empathy for Peter. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot win.

  New York University: Arriving at the campus Peter runs into Dr. Connors, but he is too late for his class. Peter tells Connors he is planning on writing a paper on Doctor Otto Octavius, who is a friend of Connor’s. Connor tells Peter to write the paper or he will fail him. Peter is in danger of failing the course.

  Peter jumps on his motorcycle and rides to Aunt May’s house. It is night-time. SURPRISE! It is his birthday. Harry Osborn and Mary Jane are there with Aunt May. The audience shares in the joy of seeing Peter with his friend and the girl he loves.

  “Long time no see,” says Mary Jane. Mary Jane is in a play off-Broadway.

  “Spider Man’s photographer! How’s the bug these days?” asks Harry. Harry is in charge of Special Projects at OsCorp. “We’re funding one of your idols, Otto Octavius,” says Harry.

  “I am writing a paper on him,” says Peter.

  “Want to meet him?”

  Harry promises to arrange for Peter to meet Octavius. Peter has hope for success.

  “Be honest,” said Harry. “If you knew who Spider-Man was, would you tell me?”

  “You’d only want him dead.”

  “Of course I would! The same way you’d want the man who killed your uncle Ben dead. My father loved you like a son, Pete.” The audience feels sympathy for Peter. They know that Harry’s father was the Green Goblin, who tried to kill Peter. It is unfair for Harry to blame his father’s death on Spider-Man.

  Peter sees a “Pre-Eviction Notice” from Aunt May’s mortgage company on the table. This is another problem for Peter, who does not have enough money and just got fired from his job.

  His aunt might get evicted. This creates more sympathy for Peter.

  After Harry left the party, Peter was hauling out a bag of garbage and discovered Mary Jane sitting on a stoop on the other side of the fence. ”I wish you would come see the play. You are the one who always encouraged me,” said MJ. The audience sees how happy Peter is to be with MJ.

  “I’m seeing somebody now,” she said. Peter is in danger of losing the woman he loves to another man. ”Hey, I’m going to see your play tomorrow night!” says Peter.

  ”Do you want me to put a house seat aside for you? Third row center? Prime spot?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Don’t disappoint me!”

  “I won’t,” says Peter.

  Peter went back inside and woke up Aunt May, who was sleeping at the table. She gives him a twenty-dollar bill for his birthday. She wants to face the one responsible for what happened to Uncle Ben. Peter feels guilty about causing his death. The audience sees how much Peter is loved by Aunt May, and they have sympathy for his situation.

  Peter goes back to his run down apartment and is confronted by his landlord, Mr. Ditkovitch. Peter is a month late with the rent. The landlord takes the twenty-dollar bill from Peter’s hand. Peter takes another loss.

  Next morning, Peter knocks on the Rest Room door in the hallway. The landlord comes out and goes in before him. This is a bit of humor which releases the tension in the audience.

  Octavius is working in his laboratory when Harry and Peter enter. Harry introduces Peter to Octavius. “Nobel Prize, Otto, Noble Prize. We will all be rich!” The audience anticipates great success for Harry and Otto. This is a setup which will make the audience even more disappointed when they all fail.

  “It’s not about prizes, Harry. It’s not about money.” “But you need money,” says Harry. You need OsCorp.”

  After Harry leaves, Octavius talks to Peter. “Let me tell you something. Being brilliant is not enough. You have to work hard. Intelligence isn’t a privilege, it’s a gift. It’s not yours to waste. We’ve been given the power of intelligence for a purpose: to use it for the good of mankind.” Otto and Peter bond. This shows the audience that Otto is really a good guy. This makes the audience have sympathy for him when he is taken over by the intelligent arms. Otto becomes a tragic figure, another scientist destroyed because he pushed the limits of technology in the hope of benefiting mankind with an unlimited source of energy.

  He introduces his wife to Peter. ”This is my wife, Rosie.” This scene shows Otto to be a loving husband, who is also loved by his wife. Another setup to make him a tragic figure.

  “I understand that you use harmonics of atomic frequencies,” says Peter.

  “Sympathetic frequencies. Harmonic reinforcement—“ “An exponential increase in energy output,” says Peter

  “But are you sure that you can stabilize the fusion reaction?” asks Peter. Peter introduces the possibility of danger in the experiment. Rosie and Otto talk about their relationship: “He tried to explain the theory of relativity and I tried to explain T.S. Eliot. “Poetry will win a woman’s heart,” says Otto to Peter. Those in the audience who like poetry will now like Otto.

  Peter is in the Laundromat washing his clothes as he reads a book of poetry; Hiawatha by Longfellow. He takes his Spider-Man suit out of the washing machine. The red and blue colors ran into his white shorts. Peter’s incompetence produces laughter.

  Peter is back in his apartment getting dressed. He takes his shirt off in front of the window. He looks in his closet and sees two suits: SpiderMan and blue dress suit. (These are his two life options.) He puts on the blue-suit. He takes the play ticket from his mirror.

  Peter buys a bouquet of flowers, but he only has money for three flowers. His lack of money to buy the girl he loves a beautiful gift generates empathy for him with the audience.

  MJ is putting on makeup for the play, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. She is jittery that night because she expects Peter to attend. This shows that MJ really does care for Peter.

  Peter is on his way to the theater when he hears gunshots. He becomes Spider-Man and chases after the criminals. Peter is able to stop a police car from crashing into a crowd of people. They urge him on. Peter finally captures the two criminals, spins a web around them and hangs them from a lamppost. This scene generates admiration for Peter because of his ability to capture the criminals while also saving the lives of innocent bystanders.

  MJ notices that he is not in his seat! She is upset. The audience becomes anxious because the lovers may not get together. The traffic cop in front of the theater threatens to tow away Peter’s car, which he had taken from the criminals. Another obstacle for Peter to overcome, but the scene is humorous because it is not Peter’s car.

  Peter gets to the theater too late and the usher will not let him through the doors. Peter’s relationship with MJ is placed in jeopardy by the usher because MJ will be disappointed that he does not see her performance. Again, Peter cannot win for all his trying. This generates empathy for him with the audience.

  Peter stands outside the theater as a street musician sings a song: “Spider-Mon, Spider-Mon, does whatever a spider con.” This is a bit of comic relief for the audience. Peter watches as MJ leaves the theater. She is met by a young man. He kisses her. She le
aves with him. Peter is sad, and the audience shares his sadness.

  Peter swings through the dark alleys, but his Spider-Man powers begin to fail him. He falls onto the street. He tries to climb up the side of a building, but falls into the pool of water in the alley. Peter is losing his powers at the same time he is losing the love of his life.

  Peter is in an elevator with another young man who is walking his dog. “Cool Spidey outfit. It looks uncomfortable.” “It kind of itches and rides up in the crouch sometimes,” replies Peter. Another humorous scene to break the tension and make the audience laugh.

  Peter calls up MJ from school. She walks into her apartment, hears the phone ring, then her answering machine picks up. Peter starts talking and apologizes for missing the play, but MJ does not pick up the phone. He runs out of time and the telephone disconnects.

  Peter makes his confession into the phone about how he loves MJ but cannot be with her because he is afraid that he will place her in danger. He is a lonely man in the midst of a campus crowded with people. The audience shares this moment of honesty with the protagonist and will care for him because they know that he loves MJ but will not tell her the truth because he is trying to protect her.

  Rosie and Octavius prepare for the Fusion Power demonstration. Harry and Peter are present. The audience anticipates success. Otto makes a joke by asking if anyone lost a roll of money with a green rubber band around it. Otto found the rubber band. The humor makes the audience laugh. It also makes Otto a more likeable character at the moment before his transformation into a monster.

  Otto then whips off a drape revealing the rig and its contents: four long metal arms attached to a wide, lightweight harness. At the end of the arms is a set of pincers serving as that arm’s “hand.” The arms terrify the audience. They look like metallic snakes with red eyes.

  “My smart arms are controlled by my brain through a neural link. Nanowires feed directly into my cerebellum, allowing me to use the arms to control the fusion reaction in an environment no human hand can enter,” says Octavius.

  “If the artificial intelligence in the arms is as advanced as you suggest, couldn’t that make you vulnerable to them?” asks a spectator. The audience becomes fearful that Otto is in danger.

  ”That’s why I developed this inhibitor chip to protect my higher brain function. It makes sure I maintain control of the arms, instead of them controlling me,” says Otto.

  The arms come to life and move toward the Tritium target. The audience becomes excited with the anticipation of a successful experiment. The plasma igniters on each of the four towers simultaneously fire on the Tritium capsule in a continuous blast, exciting the core. A fine circular beam of plasma forms. Then spokes like a wheel extend and—after a few seconds – a bright glowing sphere of energy about fourteen inches in diameter flares into existence in the center of the array.

  “We have the equivalence of one thousand megawatts,” says Octavius. “The power of the sun in the palm of my hand.”

  Peter watches a metal paperclip slide against the floor toward the fusion ball of fire. This is becoming a dangerous situation. Matters began to spin out of control. From all around there are screams and shouts, and people evacuating the room. “Are you sure you can stabilize the fusion reaction?” asks Parker.

  Peter turns into Spider-Man. Harry Osborn sees him. Spider-Man saves Harry’s life by pulling him away from a flying metal cabinet. Harry hates him for that. “This changes nothing,” shouts Harry. This produces more empathy for Spider-Man because the audience knows that whatever Spider-Man does, he will still be unjustly hated by his best friend. This is an effective use of the dual personality structure. The best friend of one personality (Peter Parker) hates the other personality (Spider-Man).

  Otto still believes that he can stabilize the fusion reaction, but the audience knows that everybody is in great danger. The fusion source is creating a gravitational field which pulls metal objects into it. Rosie is killed by broken glass flying across the room. Spider-Man yanks cables out of the device and the fusion reaction began to subside. Otto sees his dead wife Rosie and then passes out. The audience feels sympathy for Otto as he becomes tragic by unintentionally causing his wife’s death.

  The body of Rosie is taken away. Harry blames Spider-Man for all his problems, yet his bodyguard says that Spider-Man saved his life. “He humiliated me by touching me,” says Harry. Peter walks out of the building. More sympathy for Peter because the audience sees that he is hated by the man whose life he has just saved.

  At the Midtown Hospital Operating room doctors are preparing to cut the metal arms off Dr. Ock which have fused to his spinal cord. Although the Doc is out cold, the arms become alive and kill all the medical doctors. Dr. Ock with metal arms in control breaks out of the hospital.

  At the Daily Bugle, Jameson is excited. “Panic in the street… if we are lucky. Crazy scientist destroyed his own lab, turned himself into some kind of monster. Four mechanical arms welded right into his body!” Jameson names the monster “DOC OCK.” The audience laughs because Jameson takes credit for the name that was suggested to him by his employee.

  Jameson forces Peter to be the photographer at a high society party for his son, the hero, the astronaut, at the Planetarium tomorrow night at 8 pm. The audience gains more sympathy for Peter because they watch this heroic figure being treated abusively.

  Doc Ock talks to his metallic arms in the broken down wharf by the river. The arms take over the mind of Doc Ock because his inhibitor has been damaged. They persuade him to rebuild the fusion system. The power of the sun will be in the palm of his hand. Nothing will stand in his way! Otto has been taken over by the evil arms. He has now become the villainous antagonist of the story.

  Peter and Aunt May go to a Bank to get a loan. She has just opened an account, but the Social Security and the insurance from her late husband are not enough to qualify her for a loan. Sympathy for Aunt May and Peter because their request for a loan is rejected by the Bank and Aunt May will lose her house.

  While they are in the bank, Doc Ock tries to rob it. He uses his arms to pull off the safe door. Peter runs to change into Spider-Man. The loan officer thinks he is a coward and is running away. Peter returns as Spider-Man and confronts Doc Ock, who hurls bags of money at him.

  Doc Ock grabs Aunt May as a hostage and carries her up the side of the building. Aunt May hits Doc Ock with her umbrella, and he drops her. Spider-Man rescues her from the fall and sets her down on the street. Doc Ock gets away with bags of money.

  Peter goes to the High Society Ball. Harry is drunk and confronts him about Spider-Man. John Jameson walks down the stairs with Mary Jane on his arm. More sympathy for Peter as he is falsely accused by Harry, and he watches the woman he loves on the arm of another man.

  Peter talks to MJ on the balcony. She is angry at him for not coming to her play, then walks away from him. More sympathy for Peter because the audience knows how hard he tried to get to see her play.

  Harry is drunk and confronts Peter again, saying that he is more a friend of Spider-Man than him. Harry slaps Peter in front of the crowd of people. Peter is humiliated in public. This generates a lot of empathy for him with the audience, especially since he does not strike Harry. The audience knows that Peter (Spider-Man) could easily defeat Harry.

  John Jameson takes the podium and announces to the crowd that MJ has agreed to marry him. This results in applause. Peter is stunned. This produces even more sympathy for Peter. Jameson tells Peter to take a picture of his son and MJ. This is the final humiliation for Peter.

  Peter’s web abilities start to fail him. He cannot get his webbing to work, and he falls off a wall. He is losing all his special powers as he is losing the woman he loves.

  Doc Ock puts together his new equipment in the wharf building. The antagonist will now place the city of New York in jeopardy. Peter goes to see a doctor, Doctor Wally Davis. “You seem okay to me,” says the Doctor.

  “My diagnosis? It’s in
your head. Maybe you are not supposed to be climbing the wall. Maybe you should not be Spider-Man. You have a choice, Peter,” says the Doctor.

  “I have a choice!” says Peter. There is hope for Peter. The only way he will become well is if he changes his life and gives up the desire to be Spider-Man.

  Peter sits in bed and imagines a conversation with Uncle Ben. They talk about “with great power comes great responsibility.” Peter tells Ben that he loves MJ and does not want to be Spider-Man any more. Peter decides to be Spider-Man no more! Peter chooses love over power. Peter walks up to a trash can in the alley, opens it, then dumps the Spider-Man costume in. The audience feels that he has made the right choice and that he will become happy.

  Peter is happy as he walks through the park. He fixes his bicycle tire in his room. The tire spins off the stand, off the balcony, and onto the street below. The audience experiences and shares his happiness. The humor of the tire going over the balcony makes them laugh.

  Peter has a hot dog in the park. He is now relaxing and starting to enjoy his life. He watches the police chase after a criminal, but Peter does not join them.

  Peter goes to Connor’s class at the college and gives the correct answer. The Professor congratulates him for being a good student. Peter is starting to get the respect he deserves.

  Peter goes to see MJ in the play. MJ says the lines of Cecily: “I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.” Suddenly, MJ realizes that Peter is in the audience. This line in the play also applies to Peter’s life.

  They talk after the play as they walk through China Town. Peter tells her that he has changed, but she says it is too late. She is getting married. She walks away from him, but then turns and says: “You are different.” He is starting to regain the love of MJ, but it may be too late. Their relationship is still in jeopardy.