*** BEWARE: There are spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home throughout the review and these show notes. If you do not wish to spoil the movie, see the film before proceeding. ***
We didn’t know it, but it’s all been leading to this. The prom, the Vulture, the European school trip, the Stark sunglasses, the “inter-dimensional warrior,” and the plot to steal Stark Technologies; all of it has been pointing to Spider-Man: No Way Home.
In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Eve and I get to untangle the web of plot and story that the MCU has been weaving for the last five years. As we pick up the story right where Spider-Man: Far from Home left off, we swing right into the story’s central premise: Spider-Man’s secret identity has been revealed, and the fallout is significant. The people around Peter are divided. Some hold him out as a hero; others believe he murdered Mysterio.
Life becomes very difficult—unsafe even—and when the controversy results in MIT denying the terrific trio admission, Peter decides to seek supernatural help. Enter Doctor Stephen Strange, and from there, we plummet feet first into the impact of the attempted fix on the multiverse, “a concept about which we know frighteningly little.” Between all the action sequences, we discover a moral question for which there is no clear or easy answer.
Spider-Man: No Way Home was an unexpected conclusion to a much tighter trilogy than we realized. In the end, it revealed the three movies: Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home, were all setting the stage for something unexpected.
Jon Watts directed Spider-Man: No Way Home, and the prolific Michael Giacchino provided the music. The track titles are a hoot, too—check them out if you have the chance. It stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, and Benedict Cumberbatch, among many, many others.
Initial Impressions
It is not a stretch for either one of us to say that this is the best Spider-Man movie to date.
No Way Home was as much or more a Sony project than it was a Disney property, and it seems to show in a distinct lack of “woke” social justice themes that have permeated the other Disney offerings lately. This third Tom Holland’s Spider-Man movie feels as much like the Rami and Webb movies of the twenty aughts and teens as it did the two previous Disney movies. It did a great job honoring the work of Maguire and Garfield. It also didn’t shy away from the age differences: it has been twenty years since Tobey Maguire first donned the red, blue, and black spandex suit, after all. Both Maguire and Garfield have grown older and wiser, which plays nicely against Holland’s less mature version of Peter Parker.
Way back when we reviewed Homecoming, we realized that something was missing—two core elements that were important to the Peter Parker story. The first was the death of Uncle Ben. The second was the guiding moral statement, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Without these critical pieces of the puzzle, it felt like the character of Peter Parker and the hero of Spider-Man were incomplete. No Way Home fills that void, a bit unexpectedly, with the death of Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May just after she imparts the “great power” wisdom on her nephew. However, when taken into consideration with the multiversal quandary’s ultimate solution, it becomes suddenly clear that all three Disney Spider-Man movies have been the origin story all along. 
We had two relatively minor problems with Spider-Man: No Way Home.
First, it seems the latest in an increasingly long line of movies that overtly pander to fan service and nostalgia. That’s not a bad thing in and of itself, but depending on it, too much will naturally stymie any original content.
Second, and perhaps this was to emphasize the immaturity of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, but Stephen Strange was . . . strange. His character seemed off in general, but he was also supposed to be the “adult” in implementing Peter’s magical solution. For someone who was an accomplished neurosurgeon before he became the Sorcerer Supreme, he seems to have forgotten how to plan and conduct projects. He starts casting the spell without discussing Peter’s scope and effect. Strange lays the blame squarely at Peter’s feet when it all goes sideways, despite Strange’s lion share of the blame. Of course, that may dovetail sweetly into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
The Court of Public Opinion
Keeping Secrets
Spider-Man: No Way Home movie opens with the fallout from the end of Far from Home with JJJ reporting (and condemning) Spider-Man for the assassination of “Mysterio, an interdimensional warrior who gave his life to protect our planet, and who will no doubt go down in history as the greatest superhero of all time.” Jameson’s entire effort is to sway public opinion against Spider-Man. In the end, the lies and secrets drive the movie’s plot. But is it wrong to keep secrets? Certainly not. We are advised in Scripture several times about the importance of keeping our own counsel. What makes the secrets a sinful or a righteous act is the intent: does it glorify God? Does it lift your brothers and sisters in Christ?
Make your case with your opponent without revealing another’s secret; otherwise, the one who hears will disgrace you, and you’ll never live it down. (Proverbs 25:9-10)
Whoever conceals an offense promotes love, but whoever gossips about it separates friends. (Proverbs 17:9)
There are private things that we should not share. Most marriages thrive because one partner or the other (or both) holds their tongue appropriately. It’s this kind of advice that holds true in all relationships, including with our neighbors:
Don’t testify against your neighbor without cause. Don’t deceive with your lips. (Proverbs 24:28)
Whether or not J. Jonah Jameson believes what he is saying or does not, his efforts condemn Peter Parker in the court of public opinion, causing Peter, MJ, and Ned incredible grief.
Court of Public Opinion
The incredible Matt Murdock mentions the court of public opinion as he advises Peter, Aunt May, and Happy. And this is what we have so often today. People get their info from unreliable sources, treat it as fact, and then make sweeping judgments about the people who are victims of character assassination (real-life examples of this are Nick Sandmann and Kyle Rittenhouse.) In both cases, people who opposed the issues that these young men were supporting took actions out of context and liberally applied confirmation bias to reinforce their mistaken beliefs.
While it may not be called “the court of public opinion” in Scripture, we can still see that the Bible speaks against it:
You must not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked to be a malicious witness. You must not follow a crowd in wrongdoing. Do not testify in a lawsuit and go along with a crowd to pervert justice. Do not show favoritism to a poor person in his lawsuit. (Exodus 23:1-3)
Even the King of Israel gave in to the pressure of the mob, despite explicit instructions to the contrary from the prophet of God:
Saul answered Samuel, “I have sinned. I have transgressed the LORD’s command and your words. Because I was afraid of the people, I obeyed them.” (1 Samuel 15:24)
Of course, there is the most notorious example of the mob swaying opinion:
Then they all cried out together, “Take this man away! Release Barabbas to us!” (He had been thrown into prison for a rebellion that had taken place in the city, and for murder.) Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate addressed them again, but they kept shouting, “Crucify! Crucify him!” (Luke 23:18–21)
The logical conclusion of Christ’s words in Matthew 7:13-14 is that it will be a rare thing indeed where going with the crowd will be the right thing to do:
Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.
Conclusive Proof
As Christians, we must consider all “conclusive proof” very critically. JJJ reported that he had “conclusive proof,” which turned out to be a carefully edited video. In an age where you cannot trust video or photos as proof of anything, what does that say about our controversial news sites (or any news site)? What constitutes “conclusive proof”? The MIT representative completely changes her mind about Peter after seeing him in action with her own eyes. We need to focus on the truth—from trustworthy sources—when we consider what is essential.
One witness cannot establish any iniquity or sin against a person, whatever that person has done. A fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. (Deuteronomy 9:15)
Forced Salvation—Can Everyone Be Saved?
In No Way Home, there is a scene where Peter is replacing the damaged chip on the back of Octavius’s neck that has allowed the AI of the arms to control him. The way that Doc Oct objects when Peter is doing this is uncomfortably close to the type of intimate violation of a rape. Was Peter right to force this fix on Octavius?
Where does the line get drawn between exacting justice and fixing the bad guy? Is this is difference between a “hero” and a “vigilante”? When Peter realizes that sending them back to their home realities will be condemning them [back to] death, he determines that he will offer them a chance at salvation by fixing them before sending them back. So Peter, along with Peter, Peter, Ned, and MJ, are all set about devising fixes . . . using science.
And that brings us back to the most common thing that we see coming out of Hollywood: science is the way to address evil. We don’t defeat it; we FIX it. The solution is within us, not from God.
In the case of No Way Home’s villains, it is assumed that they are evil or criminal because of the accident or transformation they underwent. But in reality, that kind of evil is already in all people—it’s called the fallen nature. Apart from Christ—apart from God—we cannot do anything that pleases God. In the case of at least three of the five villains in No Way Home, there is no evidence that they are villainous because of their powers.
Like Peter, we should feel compelled to see those around us saved, but we need to remember from whence salvation comes.
“Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:5-7)
Vengeance
Finally, there is an aspect of vengeance in Spider-Man: No Way Home. After Green Goblin kills Aunt May, Peter wants to kill him. The other Peters counsel him against it from positions of experience, but Peter attempts to kill Norman in the heat of the moment and the passion of his anger and youth. Tobey Maguire’s Spider-man stops him, but it does raise a point in Scripture:
Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord. But If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head. Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good. (Romans 12:19-21)
Science is Better than Magic
Throughout much of the movie, Peter Parker and Doctor Strange oppose each other. Strange believes that the five villains need to be sent back to their home dimensions exactly as they arrived, despite the certainty of their death. Peter is convinced that it is his responsibility to help them before they get sent back, hopefully giving them a chance to survive. This conflict escalates into super-powered opposition, and at one point, Strange seeks to trap Peter in the mirror universe to prevent him from trying to fix the villains. In the end, though, Peter realizes that the mirror dimension is constructed using complex geometries. He turns it against Strange by using his knowledge of an Archimedes spiral against him. In the end, Peter overcomes the former sorcerer supreme with math.
This ties into the MCU theme that seems to be developing along with the old Arthur C. Clark quote, “Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” There’s not any theological point here. We just wanted to call it out. In the rock-paper-scissors of the superhero world, nerd beats wizard!
May’s Amorality
The MCU’s version of Aunt May is a very different version than what we’ve traditionally seen in the comics. Instead of the lovely old widow of Uncle Ben, she’s the “smokin’ hot” aunt who has a fling with Happy but is okay with cutting it off. She is Peter’s moral guide, but the morals she represents are those of the progressive, social justice warrior, not the morality of God as reflected in the natural law. She’s all about helping the homeless, but when she walks in on he teenage son in his underwear with his girlfriend, she barely bats an eye before going back in to welcome MJ. Behind the scenes, the actress wanted to portray Aunt May as a promiscuous bisexual.
For Eve and I, this really highlights how far the very idea of morality has drifted in Hollywood. Indeed, Satan wants us to redefine morals to move us further from God. Paul cautions Timothy about this kind of shift away from God:
But know this: Hard times will come in the last days. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
Expect Disappointment
Several times in Spider-Man: No Way Home, MJ references a mantra she has: “If you expect disappointment, then you can never really get disappointed.” This brought to mind a topic that is near and dear to my heart, that of being content in what God leads you to in life. Of course, that doesn’t mean we aren’t supposed to make plans or pursue dreams, but we always have to remember that God has the final say:
A person’s heart plans his way, but the LORD determines his steps. (Proverbs 16:9)
It’s okay to be disappointed once in a while. We will all have times where we preferred things had gone differently. The point is that our disappointment, frustration, anger, or sadness should never displace our hearts from being set on God.
Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6–7)
Tying it All Up
There is little doubt that Spider-Man: No Way Home is one of the best Spider-Man movies ever made and among the most enjoyable movies of the MCU. But a careful, critical examination helps to show how secular media is changing our definitions of what is and is not essential. They still get many major themes right, like the dangers of the “court of public opinion,” but they can’t help but include their own versions of morality. As believers, it falls to us to separate the wheat from the chaff and use both to grow in our Christian walk.
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