Fridge / Spider-Man: Far From Home

Fridge pages are spoilers off.

Fridge Brilliance

• The inclusion of Nick Fury serves as a subtle nod or clever Mythology Gag to the Ultimate Spider-Man comic in which he served as a mentor to Spider-Man in the hope of training him to eventually be a member of the Ultimates. It's also a Development Gag since Jon Watts wanted Fury to reprise that role in Homecoming before executives insisted he use Stark.
• Mysterio is described as being like Iron Man and Thor combined. His outfit takes obvious design themes from Iron Man and Thor, heroes who got great publicity from their battle in New York (the others are currently dead, retired, or MIA). It makes sense for Mysterio to use those heroes as influences in his stage appearances, so that he can look as heroic as possible.
  • Furthermore, this Mysterio claims that he was a Military Superhero in his home universe, a Super-Soldier that was part of a battalion fighting the Elementals. With the tremendous respect that Captain America has within the MCU, and considering how many look up to him, it makes sense that Mysterio would claim to have similar origins despite never serving a day in uniform in his life. Additionally, Cap's natural leadership skills are legendary throughout the MCU, resulting in Peter citing Mysterio's career as a soldier as to why he deserves control of E.D.I.T.H.
  • Of course, Beck's ability to very nearly lie his way into the Avengers despite having no actual superpowers - not to mention conning Peter, Talos/Fury, and even the audience into buying his pretense - is a feat reminiscent of the other Avenger we lost in Endgame. Black Widow, at least, would likely grant him Worthy Opponent status in the psychological-warfare and espionage games.
  • Along the lines of using aspects of Iron Man and Thor combined, much later in the climactic battle against the drones, Spider-Man utilizes an impromptu hammer and shield to propel himself to where Mysterio is hiding. Mysterio's take on theme did have a positive influence on Spider-Man leading him to use the same gimmicks as well, against Mysterio.
• Flash gets righteously furious on Spider-Man's behalf for Mysterio stealing Spider-Man's thunder. It may have to do with Spider-Man saving his friend's lives in the previous movie, despite the webbed warrior "borrowing" his car to stop a supervillain. On the other hand, "Spider-Man needed my car to stop the Vulture" is a pretty legitimate excuse for your homecoming being bizarre.
• It may seem like a Love Triangle at first glance, but Brad Davis being the only person to question Peter's intentions towards MJ makes a lot of sense when you consider the reason Peter's class is so small in the first place — The Snap. Many of Peter's circle of friends (MJ, Ned, and Betty) and acquaintances (Flash) were dusted, so Brad aged into their grade level in the five years they were gone... which means he isn't aware of Peter's flaky nature as demonstrated in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Ned is Peter's Secret-Keeper, MJ spent the last movie stalki—observing him, and Betty and Flash were either part of the Decathlon team or close to someone who was, so everyone but Brad takes Peter's disappearances as just something he does.
  • Also, as MJ says, no one really cares about Peter. As a matter of fact, even Brad only cares about him as a romantic rival, Ned and MJ are the only one in the class interested in Peter as a person.
  • This also explains why Flash called Peter "Penis Parker" in the previous movie. MJ mentioned a rumor that Peter kept disappearing because he was a male prostitute, and Flash is established to be an attention whore. He must've wondered how a scrawny freak could get laid so often, so this is his way of getting back at Peter.
• Peter just wants a normal trip in Europe and doesn't plan to enable his Chronic Hero Syndrome. When Thanos kills you, and you just took a trip to space on the last field trip, it's understandable that Peter is engaging in some Refusal of the Call and may have some PTSD from being turned to dust. And after Avengers: Endgame, there's the small matter of being teleported into a massive battle immediately after he's revived, where he watches his mentor die. Plus, he has to re-adjust to the new status quo in which he's functionally been sent forward in time by five years.
  • Not to mention potentially being homeless for a while, since May herself was also Snapped and a different family was living in her and Peter's apartment by the time they Blipped back.
• The customs officer doesn't bat an eye at the Spider-Man suit. Lots of people pack costumes for cosplay.
  • Additionally, Spider-Man may simply not be that big of a deal outside of New York, especially since there are so many other heroes who are known to the public.
• Being a Spider-Man fanboy, Flash doesn't hold it against him for stealing his dad's car. Even then, Peter had been wearing his original homemade costume when he had done so, so Flash might not have realized it was the actual Spider-Man rather than just a carjacker wearing cosplay. Or Hero with Bad Publicity is in effect (made more likely by the confirmation that Jameson exists), so Flash's dad's wrath would be directed away from Flash this time.
• Spidey and May's fundraiser is specifically for raising money for homeless people. After Endgame, something like that would absolutely be necessary in a world that suddenly has four billion more people than it did for the past five years. In the Fridge pages for Infinity War and Endgame, it's been brought up that these events have drastic implications for the economy and societies around the globe. It's good to see that there are people working to welcome their loved ones and even total strangers back into the world and help them get back on their feet, and it's totally in character for Peter and May Parker.
• The lack of a birth year on Peter's passport can be attributed to the five years he spent deceased. In the wake of so many people coming back from the Snap unaged, the government is probably trying to figure out a new aging system, since Peter would legally be 21 going by his date of birth alone, but is biologically still 16.
  • The scene with Flash on the plane only confirms this further; with how young Flash looks, he would’ve been asked for ID when he bought the drink, and his ID would’ve said that he was 21. MJ alludes to this to get his drink taken away.
• Identity:
  • So should we be worried for Peter when J.J. Jameson leaks Spider-Man's identity to the world? Not really. Unlike in most continuities, Peter's had several years to build up a good reputation; plus he helped save the world in Endgame, a battle that involved hundreds of heroes that saw Peter in action, from Captain Marvel to all the Wakandans. If anything, his identity being leaked is going to be a rite of passage that makes Peter more of an Avenger than ever, since no Avenger really has a secret identity. Yeah, college applications will be awkward, but Stark Industries probably has Peter covered on that front.
  • Not to mention disproving Mysterio's claims should be easy enough. Between multiple Stark A.I.s, the remains of the Stark tech drones, MJ and Fury/Talos's testimony, Beck's own employee record, and the likely recording devices in Peter's mask, unmasking Beck's story as a falsehood should be no trouble at all.
  • Even the identity reveal can be easily dealt with: if or once Talos hears that Peter was outed in part thanks to his own incompetence (apparently he, as Fury, failed to do a followup debriefing to the British or American governments about the London incident), he's enough of a well-meaning dork to directly impersonate either Peter or Spider-Man to "prove" they're not the same person.
  • Adding to that, The Daily Bugle was mentioned to be a controversial news site, so the amount of people who take it seriously would likely be low.
  • Also, with the amount of fake news plaguing the media, this may just as easily be dismissed as tabloid journalism by a jaded public.
    • Maybe. But consider the setting the people of this world are in. The supernatural existing is not a secret. A teenaged boy being Spiderman doesn't sound hard to believe. Even if most people wouldn't believe the news, the amount of focused paranoia and attention the public gives to Peter Parker will be enough to essentially ruin his life, even if he is proven not guilty.
  • This thread with its entirety has been addressed in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
• With Spider-Man's identity being shown to the world through force, this makes the epilogue of the Infinity Saga end with an "I am Iron Man" moment.
• Mysterio and Talos:
  • Mysterio's entire plan worked because of the fact that Fury isn't actually Fury, but Talos in disguise. If it were Fury, "the most paranoid man on the planet", he would have facial recognition software running Beck through every database under the sun, and would have found him as a former Stark employee. Talos, being only an imitator and a shapeshifter, was caught by someone using his own trade against him.
    • This explains why Beck would want to use the Multiverse as a backstory besides sounding cool because he could use that as an excuse for why he has the same appearance and name as someone else on Earth. However, Beck would need to either fake his death to explain why this "Universe's" Beck isn't around or make it so he can be in two places at the same time, which would lead to more problems for Beck because he would constantly have to maintain this facade and Fury would eventually uncover it.
    • Then again, we're talking about Mysterio. One of the reasons why the Multiverse theory was even chosen by him might be how easy it would be for his team to create a convincing double right where he should be.
  • It was also helped by Talos being a lot harsher on Peter than Fury would have been, causing an emotional vulnerability that Beck was able to exploit. Not that Fury isn't harsh, but his interactions with Tony show that he's also stubbornly patient and more likely to try and encourage(/emotionally manipulate) a reluctant hero into helping him than losing his temper and writing the person off entirely.
  • Lastly, Mysterio's fake backstory of being the sole survivor of his homeworld and trying to prevent it from happening elsewhere. Talos did lose his world and almost lost his family to an invading force, that tale hit him harder than it would have hit Fury.
  • In a meta case, a goof by the marketing team led to a poster with Fury's eyepatch being on the wrong eye, which is how Peter in the 90s cartoon recognized another villain imitating Fury, this time The Chameleon.
• In a meta example, even though many saw it coming, other audience members were genuinely shocked by the reveal that Mysterio was Evil All Along. The reason it worked so well was because Beck claimed to be from an Alternate Universe, so people were willing to believe he was good on the grounds that a person known for being a villain in one reality can be a hero in another.
• MJ being the second person after Toomes to figure out who Spidey is. It isn't from putting pieces together and jumping to conclusions, but actually verifying that this is actually the case.
• Clues and "errors:"
  • "Hill" addresses "Fury" as "Nick" at least twice (and one of these was at the very start of the film); (the real) Fury was adamant in Captain Marvel that nobody did this.
  • A subtle one for Marvel fans: Quentin Beck claims he's from Earth-813 while Peter's world is Earth-616. However, the MCU is officially Earth-199999 - your first clue that he's lying as the writers wouldn't be allowed to retcon the numbers like this.
    • Wouldn't they?
  • A second clue would be the nature of the whole scenario. Invading monsters from alternate realities usually warrants the notice of the Sorcerers of Kamar-Taj. However, not a single Sorcerer showed up to stop this supposedly otherworldly threat. It's because they are all technological holograms.
  • A third would be the purported nature of the elementals, which are based on the classical elements that have more roots in mysticism and pseudoscience and one that is notably not used by the actual magic users in the MCU. The real Fury would have caught this, being well-versed in how the magic powers of Wanda Maximoff and Doctor Strange work (and most probably knows about the Sorcerers of Kamar-Taj), but of course Talos wouldn't pick up on that.
  • When Spider-Man asks Mysterio about his world, Fury answers, "Beck is from Earth, just not yours". He uses "yours" instead of "ours" because he's actually Talos, who isn't from Earth.
• Look closely during the Mind Rape sequence, specifically when the zombie Iron Man snarls at Peter, and you'll see spiders crawling over the rotting corpse and rusting armor - specifically, black widows. Mysterio is tormenting Spider-Man with two major deaths.
  • Not to mention when Mysterio conjures a giant statue of himself, Peter is standing on Captain America's shield, surrounded by broken busts of Captain America and Iron Man. Mysterio is basically rubbing in Peter's face his fears of not living up to the heroes he admires while heralding himself as the new "truth" now that the Avengers are "broken".
    • Unused concept art revealed this scene also included Vision and Black Widow, symbolizing how Peter believes he's an Inadequate Inheritor to the Avengers' legacy.
• Why does Mysterio wear a face obscuring helmet? He's using special effects in-universe, and realistic faces are notoriously difficult to animate with CGI, so it helps to keep his face hidden most of the time on the digital Mysterio.
  • A sphere is a particularly simple shape to animate with CGI, since it looks the same from any angle, providing a justification for Mysterio's "fishbowl" helmet style.
• "Back in Black" playing when Peter begins to make his Upgraded suit. This has several meanings. First, the suit features black in the place of blue, and is Spidey's Infinity +1 Sword, signifying that this is his best work. Second, this was Tony Stark's favorite song, played all the way back in the first Iron Man movie, meaning Spider-Man is stepping up as Iron Man's successor as the most important hero on Earth. Third, this is the official point where Peter Took a Level in Badass from the Unskilled, but Strong kid struggling to fight villains and being the source of disappointment for Iron Man in Homecoming to the Strong and Skilled legit superhero capable of defeating any villain he comes across and being The Heart of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe here, and what better way to commemorate that than using the official badass anthem in pop culture?
  • The song itself was written after AC/DC's original lead singer Bon Scott died as a tribute. So, it's fitting that they play that after Tony died as a tribute.
  • There's an added layer of subtle brilliance in the scene. Peter hears the song and mistakes it for Led Zeppelin. The last time we heard this song, way back in the first Iron Man film, Tony Stark was telling a soldier he didn't want his picture on a soldier's MySpace page, despite MySpace having long since been outdated by then. Peter is demonstrating that he, much like Stark, might be brilliant in technology but still doesn't know everything.
• How fitting is it that the most pleasant place Tom Holland winds up in is the Netherlands?
  • Going further, the town of Broek op Langedijk is located in the province of North Holland.
• How come Dimitri and the blonde agent who work for Fury seem to be unaware what a touring bus should look like or not see the problem with Peter undressing in front of a female adult stranger or shooting Brad Davis to silence him? Because like Fury and Maria Hill, they are Skrulls who are unaccustomed with human culture, and especially the concept of undressing being embarrassing should be unfamiliar to them given they can shapeshift their entire appearance as easily as humans blink.
• Nick Fury is revealed to be in space working with the Skrulls at the end of the movie. As the many of the threats to Earth have now been cosmic, it makes sense for the hyper-prepared man who's always one step ahead to start working on a cosmic scale himself.
• When Peter asks why they didn't get Captain Marvel for help, Fury bitingly replies "Don't invoke her name." This reaction makes a lot more sense when Fury is revealed to have been Talos in disguise, since Captain Marvel was a savior to Talos and all his people, making her a very sacred individual to the Skrulls.
  • He may also find Carol Danvers' superhero handle a bit dubious in itself, given that Dr. Wendy "Mar-Vell" Lawson had been the Skrulls' greatest protector before Carol took their side.
  • Also, Talos saw Carol spend the last 30 years helping not only them, but countless people in space. She was the only one of the team to help other planets. Despite the dire situation, they have to have superheroes able to handle it (plus the Skrulls themselves are superhuman warriors), he might see requiring her assistance while she's helping less fortunate planets offensive.
• The fact that E.D.I.T.H. is not as strong an Artificial Intelligence as J.A.R.V.I.S., F.R.I.D.A.Y. or Karen makes perfect sense considering it was meant to control a massive army of super-advanced killer drones. Tony would've been the last person on Earth to put an army of killer robots under the command of an A.I. who would have any chance of becoming self-aware, considering what happened the last time. He probably made sure to put all sorts of limitations and fail-safes in E.D.I.T.H.'s programming to make sure she never Turned Against Their Masters.
  • There's also the fact that JARVIS, FRIDAY, and KAREN have always been seen running on Tony and Peter's suits, or even entire buildings, and thus have access to much more powerful hardware. Edith is contained to a pair of glasses, and thus would be subject to many more constraints than the other A.I.s by necessity.
• Since Nick Fury was actually Talos with the job to give Peter the glasses, he of course wouldn't know how to contact other superheroes for help.
• The crew's concept of using "Elementals" as a pseudo-threat isn't just lent some credibility by how the Asgardians turned out to be real, but also because the Infinity Stones themselves had already demonstrated that fundamental forces of the universe could have physical embodiments in the MCU. If concepts as abstract as "soul" or "mind" can take on a corporeal existence and pose a cosmic threat, why not abstractions like the alchemical four elements?
• It seems almost odd that society would come to know the events of Infinity War and Endgame as "The Blip". The word choice almost implies a minor glitch as opposed to the universe-spanning cataclysm that it actually was. That is, until you realize that, for most of those that were dusted and revived (and it is primarily them that use the term), it wasn't a universe-spanning cataclysm. All each individual remembers, if Peter is to be believed, is that they passed out for a bit and then woke up to find out that they were biologically the same age but chronologically five years in the future. It's probable that most people didn't even know, at least initially, that the same thing happened to half of the living creatures in the universe. It's also possible that most people weren't even as aware of what had actually happened as Peter was, given that Peter had been part of the failed mission to stop Thanos and had heightened awareness anyway. So for the 'unlucky half', a 'Blip', aside from intentionally minimizing the event in order to make it more psychologically palatable, is the perfect term to describe what happened to them from their point of view. "The Snap" would only make sense to outside watchers of the medium (i.e. us, the audience) and the Avengers who dealt with Thanos personally, and "The Decimation" would only be relatable to the people that were left behind after watching the Unlucky Half be dusted out of existence and lived during the five-year interim period.
  • On top of that, look at how the people come back from being dusted: They blip back into existence.
• When Peter opts to leave both his Spider-suits behind, May slips one into his luggage anyway: not his extra-potent nanotech one, but the first Stark-enhanced suit that's mostly ballistic fabric. Why didn't she equip her nephew with the more effective of his two suits? First, because the fabric one was much more likely to (and did) slip through customs; and second, because the special case the nano-suit is stored inside is probably keyed exclusively to Peter's biometrics, same as the EDITH glasses: May couldn't get the thing out of its casing even if she'd wanted to.
• Peter's failure to be tipped off by his Spider-Sense earlier in the movie isn't an inconsistency: his special sense can only tell him that there's danger wherever an Elemental is located, it can't tell him that the danger is from drones hidden inside a hologram. Nor can it single out Beck as a threat, since Mysterio initially doesn't intend to harm Peter at all: the man sincerely wants the teenager to survive long enough to pass on the glasses, and to endorse Mysterio's status as a new Avenger afterwards. It's only when MJ and Peter discover he's a fraud that Beck becomes a legitimate enemy or threat to Peter himself.
  • His Spider-Sense may also have been so overwhelmed by the impact of the Snap, back in Infinity War, that it takes it a while to fully re-engage after Peter's months of safe "down time" after Endgame. Sensing the Snap was the "Peter tingle"'s equivalent of staring into the noonday sun, and it could have been left "dazzled" for some time afterward. Indeed, Peter himself may well have been hesitant about "looking" in that direction again, consciously or otherwise.
    • Adding to this, it's also possible that most of the problems Peter has encountered in battles have felt so small to him. The fights after he got Snapped paled in comparison to actually getting Snapped. Plus, he was pretty much fine without his Spider-Sense. He didn't actually need them until he focused on activating them.
    • In fact, it's entirely possible his senses worked just fine. As noted above, they seem to be working fine when he goes up against the Elementals, and the only time they're really said to fail is when May threw a banana at him, which is not exactly a threat.
• When Peter is worrying over his plan to admit he likes MJ, May tells him to just trust his instincts, and that it'll be fine. This isn't just about his feelings, but it also foreshadows how he wins in the end- by using his instinctual spidey-sense to fight even when blinded.
• Take another look at the scene when Mysterio first puts on the EDITH shades. Between his beard, lighting, shadows, and the particular way his hair is styled (which gets slicked back almost immediately after this), Jake Gyllenhaal cuts a reasonable impression of Robert Downey, Jr. Sure, it's probably intentional on the part of the makeup team...Quentin Beck's, that is.
• Peter's situation by the end means that he'll probably need a lawyer; luckily for the MCU, which is in need of new heroes to flesh out the roster after Endgame, there is no shortage of New-York based superhero lawyers that, despite a bit of legal red-tape to navigate, could be perfectly introduced at this point, and would likely have reasons to help Peter (Matt's own relationship with secret identities, She-Hulk doing her cousin's friend a solid).
  • Also a stupid-simple way to maintain the "super-hero mentor figure" trend the Watts movies have been maintaining.
• Given that Mysterio is an actor playing a role, there is something almost akin to Sequelitis in his performance in London. The story was basically repeated, as were many of the best lines. No wonder Talos Fury was starting to find holes in it.
  • Similarly, every time Mysterio acts like a stereotypical hero (being nice to Peter) or villain (tormenting Peter with the construction site illusion, when he could've killed Peter at any point), he's trying to get something. So when he tries it on the Bridge as he's "dying", well, he can't fool Peter anymore. In fact, earlier in that exact scene, he tried to lure Peter into facing the drones by baiting him with the glasses.
• It may sound like Fury was just being sarcastic when he said Happy was not winking until you realise that it was actually Talos. Talos has probably taken to that idea that Earth's coded message comes with a wink.
• At first, Mysterio's line that Peter shouldn't apologize for being the smartest person in the room sounds encouraging and joking but is kind of egotistical. It's a hint of Mysterio's real nature.
• Stark did learn at least something from his past drone and AI issues. The drones don't have any arc reactors or repulsors like the drone suits used by Vanko in Iron Man 2.
  • Furthermore, Edith is essentially a 'suit of armor around the world,' functioning exactly as Ultron was intended to. Barring a few accidental drone strikes.
• Star Wars gets mentioned early on, and Star Wars tactics end up saving the day- Peter knows that "your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them", so he has to "let go of his conscious self and act on instinct"- the Spider-Sense- in order to win.
• The goofy tribute video at the beginning includes Captain America among the fallen, but not the original Gamora. The elderly Steve Rogers, assuming he didn't pass away from old age shortly after Endgame, has likely allowed the world to believe he was dead so he can continue to live out his retirement in privacy. Gamora was never an Avenger, so even if Rocket and Nebula told people on Earth about her heroism and death, she'd be more likely to appear in a different tribute: one dedicated to the Guardians and circulated on other planets.
• In one of the tie-ins for the movie, Peter and Ned's Ultimate Travel Journal, Peter describes an argument that broke out between MJ and Mr. Harrington on the subject of Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. It's a sneaky way of foreshadowing who Quentin Beck really is and how he relates to Tony Stark: a brilliant inventor who was cheated out of due credit by an equally talented but more influential figure. Beck probably thinks of himself as Tesla-like, contributing to his already oversized sense of self.
• Tony ends the first Iron Man film saying "The truth is: I am Iron Man." Fast forward to here, one of Mysterio's lines during the Berlin illusion sequence where he torments Peter with Tony's death is "Mysterio is the truth." An obvious allusion to Mysterio's ability to shape one's perceptions, but also an Ironic Echo twisting of one of his former employer's most famous moments.
• Bridges appear a heck of a lot during pivotal moments. The Rialto Bridge (Venice) ^note even built by a man with the surname "da Ponte", from the bridge is featured in the first Elemental attack and Mysterio's introduction to the world. The reveals that Peter is Spider-Man (well, a reveal for MJ) and that Mysterio's a fake takes place on the Charles Bridge (Prague), where St. John of Nepomuk, a Czech national figure, was executed (as MJ mentioned. Also, note the wording.) for refusing to reveal a secret. The battle in London and the final confrontation between Spidey and Mysterio takes place on the Tower Bridge, where Peter supposedly killed Mysterio after he "revealed the secret" that Parker has an army of drones.
  • St. John is a protector against calumnies (lies/libel/slander) and flood/drowning. Mysterio's evil plot involves a water Elemental attack and libel against Peter. He is also often shown with five stars (there were allegedly five stars in the sky at his death), and there are four Elementals, plus one final form. Peter is supposed to keep watch from a cathedral tower prior to the attack in Prague. The saint's tomb is within St. Vitus' Cathedral. ^note This is a case of Artistic License – Geography, however. The cathedral is within the Prague Castle complex, way up the hill (visible in the back during the Charles Bridge scene). The square that the fire Elemental attacks is probably meant to be the Old Town Square... but because it's a big tourist destination that can't be kept closed long enough for filming, the attack was filmed in Dr. Edvard Beneš Square in the nearby city of Liberec. There's a place of worship in the Old Town Square, but it's the Church of Our Lady before Týn.
  • Fridge Funny: The class was "upgraded" from Paris to Prague. Edvard Beneš (see the note on the cathedral) was a passionate Francophile, and loved Paris, calling it the "city of light". Peter and his classmates attended the Signal Festival of Lights.
  • The Tower Bridge has been criticized as a "tawdry", "absurd", and "pretentious" structure. The same adjectives might be applied to Mysterio's persona and backstory.
• If the attack on Prague is meant to be at the Old Town Square, then the statue the Elemental engulfs is the Jan Hus monument. Hus was one of the precursors of Protestantism, the movement that would go on to split the church in two, just as the Avengers was divided into Team Tony and Team Cap during Captain America: Civil War.
• During the opera scene, music from "The Devil's Wall" can be heard. Written by famous Czech composer Bedrich Smetana, it adapts a legend of a sheer rockface that overlooks the Vltava river, near the old monastery of Vyšši Brod, where the Devil was said to have halted the building of the monastery by damming the Vltava, which then rose and flooded the site. This harks back to Mysterio and the water Elemental.
• If Mysterio is a combination of Iron Man and Thor, then Spider-Man is a combo of Iron Man and Captain America. New Yorker, genuinely good person (possibly worthy of Mjolnir, given the Call-Back shot of Spider-Man with his shield - made from the Tower Bridge sign, a London landmark, whereas Cap's shield is themed after the U.S. flag - and improvised weapon looking like a hammer), a science nerd and future Gadgeteer Genius, deceased parents, out of his depths in a dangerous world, and the next face of the MCU.
• Having J. K. Simmons reprise the role as J. Jonah Jameson from the original Spider-Man trilogy is incredibly fitting for the scene where Beck exposes and frames Peter. He didn't want to be famous, so Beck and Jameson made him INFAMOUS!
  • Additionally, it highlights the necessity of Peter Parker being the Daily Bugle's freelance photographer who takes pictures of Spider-Man. Had Peter Parker had taken a job at the Daily Bugle like his comic book counterpart, he could have appeased to Jameson's better nature or least create a plausible explanation as to why he could not be Spider-Man. After all, Mysterio didn't show Peter in the Spider-Man suit, only his high school picture. But because Peter didn't have a job at the Daily Bugle, Jameson has no skepticism to believe Mysterio's claim since from his perspective, Parker is a complete stranger rather than someone he personally knows.
• Beck's plan has a major oversight that he may not have thought about or possibly did think about but was too arrogant to care: if the world was to see him as the next Iron Man, what would he do in the face of an actual Avengers-level threat? His illusions and the EDITH drones would likely have little effect on a galactic warlord like Thanos and the other superheroes such as Doctor Strange are bound to see through and expose his lies much faster than it took for the naive, impressionable Peter. In hindsight, dying with his illusions intact and Jameson claiming him as the "greatest superhero of all time" was a far more beneficial option for Beck.
• It quickly becomes apparent why Peter has fallen for MJ as the film goes on and shows she’s a good match for him: despite her usual snarkiness, she can be just as awkward and shy as him, as seen during their time at the opera and in Prague together; she shares his massive smarts and is an avid learner and reader; she has a Hidden Heart of Gold as shown when she cuts down Flash and Brad for picking on him, and just like him, stands up for the little guy; and when things get tough she’s willing to throw herself into danger to protect the people she cares about, shown when she leaves the opera to follow Peter and when she picks up a mace in the climax. And ultimately, as this video points out, Peter has matured since the days when he had a crush on Liz partially because she represented the mature place in life he pined for and for her beauty; now, Peter has developed deeper, more genuine feelings for a girl who has always noticed him and displays all of the above positive traits - tellingly, when he explains to Ned why he likes MJ, he doesn’t once mention her looks, only the good person she is.
• In the first two Iron Man movies the threats were very Sins of the Father which also applies to Tony's successor's first two movies.
• In a deleted scene, we see Jason and Betty delivering the morning update when they disintegrate ^note  or would have if the effects had been implemented as a result of Thanos' Snap. They reappear while another student is delivering a similar report. So Thanos not only halved the life of the universe, he also halved the students delivering the update.
• Happy admonishing Peter not to ghost Nick Fury seems a little hypocritical at first since he ghosted Peter himself in Homecoming. Except that ghosting Peter made the situation so much worse. He's learned a lesson on the subject and is now passing it onto Peter.
• Tony firing Beck for being "unstable" seems like his typical tendency to Create Your Own Villain like all of his previous villains. However, when you rewatch all of the scenes with Beck and understand the outside context of them, you instead begin to wonder how he managed to stay employed in Stark Industries at all. To list:
  • In the BARF flashback, Beck believes that he was being mocked for his life's work by a live audience. The original scene in Captain America: Civil War had zero laughter. Beck also conveniently ignored the fact that directly afterwards, Tony admitted he needed to come up with a better name for it, meaning the unfortunate acronym was accidental.
  • When he proposes the toast, he congratulates himself first and only credits his crew after a beat. It's a sign of basic narcissism.
  • Tony likely knew the dangerous potential of BARF if it was applied outside of being a designated therapeutic experiment judging from his own past experiences with technology. Beck insisted on doing more with his invention while being blind to the danger and paranoia his invention will cause as demonstrated in this film while under the delusion that his work was being mocked. No wonder Tony fired him for being "unstable".
    • Technically, Pepper was the CEO of Stark Industries, not Tony. And she knows from firsthand experience in Iron Man 3 how well the last time someone used cover-ups to make themselves look good went and saw a lot of Aldrich Killian's negative traits in Beck. And she does anything and everything that Mr. Stark requires. Especially taking out the trash.
• Peter being tormented in Mysterio's illusion by the grave of Tony Stark seems like just Wolverine Publicity for Iron Man, when Uncle Ben's name seemed more likely to show up on the tombstone by the tone of the scene. But Beck only cares about Stark's effect on people and probably wouldn't care less about the private details of Peter Parker's origin story.
  • In addition, while we tend to briefly see Uncle Ben in a lot of Spider-Man stories and media before he's unceremoniously offed to begin his Origin, we rarely have time to truly connect with him and realize just how special he is to Peter. Here, while uncle Ben obviously existed (and again, perished), it seems that Tony Stark has become the "Uncle Ben" Spider-Man is constantly haunted by who he was unable to save, which has a much greater impact on the audience, who like Peter, miss Iron Man tremendously.
  • Furthermore, judging by how Peter doesn't seem to be in mourning during Civil War, Ben died roughly a decade, if not more, before the events of this movie (even if five of those years Peter was Snapped too). Peter's had time to grieve and move on from Ben, while Tony's death is a lot more raw.
• MJ's conspiracy theories make a lot more sense when you realize that this is a world where magic, gods and myths, aliens, and superheroes are known to be real. With that in mind, things like the Eiffel Tower being a mind-control device actually aren't that far-fetched.
• When Quentin 'hands' the EDITH glasses to Peter, he holds them in an odd way like his hand is full instead of just two fingers, which then is explained because he's actually holding a gun about to shoot Peter in the head. And when Peter intercepts the attack, you can see the holographic Quentin's hand jerk away.
• Bit of Fridge Humour: Peter mentions that the Night Monkey suit is a "bit tight in the ol' web-shooter area." It's worth noting, though, that he is just coming from a scene where he shared significant Ship Tease with MJ, meaning that she's probably still on his mind...
• Vision's picture is noticeably lower quality in the memorial slide shows than the other's, reflecting that he wasn't a public figure like the other three Avengers.
  • Similarly, Natasha's picture appears to be taken from a news article showing her at the would be signing of the Sokovia Accords, complete with headline text being cut off. Given how private and elusive she was, it makes sense that they had to use that to get a good picture of her.

Fridge Horror

• So starting with the Elephant in the room: confirmation that pretty much everybody Peter knew also got Snapped.
• When the kids arrive back at the airport at the end of their trip, there's a sad little moment when Flash realizes his mom couldn't make it to pick him up, sending the butler instead. Then you remember that Flash was one of the kids that were Snapped away for five years. He disappeared - essentially died - for five years before being miraculously resurrected, and his mom still isn't there for him? It's foreshadowed on the bus scene when Peter is using EDITH....you see a quick glimpse of Flash's text which says "Mother, haven't heard from you or Father for the entire trip."
  • It leads to the uncomfortable question of whether his parents (provided they weren't decimated too) even noticed he was dead for five years.
  • Or maybe his parents had already mourned and processed Flash's death so completely that they can't quite believe he is their son anymore. They might even be conspiracy theorists who suspect every Snap-victim is an alien impostor and a threat.
• While the safety of the people "blipped" back has been confirmed, the movie also confirms the logistical quagmire of all those people returning: May recounts how she had reappeared in what was now someone else's apartment. So it's pretty clear that both the original survivors as well as those brought back are still dealing with the consequences of Hulk's snap.
  • Among the logistical nightmares, ironically, is the very same one that Thanos tried to avert in the first place: a lack of resources. Losing half of any given planet's population for five years means that production of essential resources (especially food, which tends not to keep for that long, especially the amount needed to feed half a planet) was almost certainly drastically cut (ignoring highly advanced races who may have had automated means to make up for it), and now demand is back to the levels it once was. Famine and, in the case of the animal kingdom, potential ecological collapse, is a very real threat that the universe will have to try to avoid.
    • Maybe in this universe, Reed Richards won't be useless.
    • Also, we never saw any evidence that the Snap eliminated non-sentient life forms, to the point that Rogers mentioned seeing whales in the sea while travelling to the Avengers facility before Lang showed up; the wild animal population may have had a chance to grow in number while our domesticated ones thrived as we weren't killing as much as we used to, so even if there's still going to be trouble as we manufacture food again, we do have more resources.
  • Immediately before Clint gets the phonecall from his wife they show songbirds in the garden outside, so it’s at least strongly implied that animals got snapped.
• It is also extremely likely that if farm animal populations and the like were culled, a high percentage of the planet would have become vegetarian and if they are still sticking to these diets after those that had been Snapped came back then there is a chance (slim as it may be) that these animal populations would have grown.
• Mr. Harrington's overprotective behavior towards his students and near-constant paranoia throughout the entire class trip was played off during most of the movie as comic relief. If you think about it from his perspective though - particularly if you assume that he was one of the people who lived through the Decimation - he is understandably afraid that whenever he can't find one of the students under his care they might have been kidnapped, killed, or dusted without warning, just like five years ago. Earth of the MCU is now a much, much scarier world to live in for normal folks.
  • While his remark about his wife pretending to be Snapped was treated as an off-handed joke, how many people immediately after the Snap ran away and/or created new lives for themselves in the midst of the chaos? Not to mention that some of these people would have been not-so-savory...
  • Mr. Harrington mentioned in Homecoming that he's already lost a kid on a school trip, so he's probably pretty worried about that happening again.
• Peter's identity being blown is compounded by the fact that anyone out and about in Manhattan literally just saw Spider-Man carry away a screaming teenage girl. Peter has been framed for terrorism and murder, and with the sight of him swinging with MJ out of context, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for someone to conclude he’s also a kidnapper.
  • Though a bunch of people did also seem him just set her back down on the ground and have an amiable conversation with her, so counterpoint witnesses do at least exist. And with Peter being outed, MJ is now also outed as his girlfriend.
• While Peter's reputation may be salvaged (as stated above in Fridge Brilliance), the film makes very clear that this isn't the scrupulous newsman JJJ was in the comics or the Jerk with a Heart of Gold of the Raimi films, but a "fake news"-spouting Pompous Political Pundit who has no qualms about outing a minor to the world without considering the consequences.
  • What makes this frightening is the current successors of the Avengers consists of a reluctant ex-convict given the Shield of Captain America and a wanted criminal who didnt even do any time in prison as they were both Blipped out of existence and believed fugitives. A crippled and retired pilot of the US Military. It is awfully easy for certain evil corporations and organizations to accept the lie to drive the world to hate them and undo the achievements of Tony.
• E.D.I.T.H., aka "Even Dead, I'm The Hero". Sounds very heartwarming, eh? Tony's little joke to Peter to keep him happy? Well, too bad Mysterio also uses it, but in a bad way. While he may have not predicted that Peter would (accidentally) kill him, the fact that he managed to break him in every possible way, then makes doctored footage to show how he was actually The Hero, not Spidey, who he frames for being a villain who thinks he should be the only Iron Man, in the eyes of the public, good guy and hero Mysterio dies to Spider Man, and he got the last laugh. Even Dead, MYSTERIO IS THE HERO.
• E.D.I.T.H's existence in general is pretty horrific. A drone army connected to a system able to access virtually any information and data online to be used at its owner’s whim. The privacy and security issues alone are the stuff of nightmares. Add to the fact they can be dispatched to kill anyone in the world within minutes, not due to the threat they may represent just on the say so of its owner. Without any redundancy built in to prevent it even from targeting for termination an innocent high school student in error. The disturbing implications were noted by some critics of the film. Worse if the world found out about its existence because it would be seen as Tony’s final legacy. It is a weapon platform with massive destructive and intelligence harvesting abilities that is built without oversight or safeguards and could be used by anyone as they saw fit. All this was handed over to a teenage boy then to a homicidal glory seeker. It is fitting that Stane has a cameo here via flashback because his taunt to Tony is still relevant: "You wanted to rid the world of weapons but instead you gave it the best one ever".
  • The thing of all? The biggest reason E.D.I.T.H. is a drone network basically forked into a dumb terminal with only rudimentary security in place rather than a Starktech AI is because the last time Tony hooked an AI into a high-level Security Protocol, it didn't go so well.
  • There is also the fact that E.D.I.T.H. will uncomfortably remind many of how almost a decade ago, 20 million people were nearly killed by HYDRA using similar technology with Project Insight.
• As detailed under Freeze-Frame Bonus, Beck can be seen stalking Peter while wearing tourists' garb. So how long has he been following Peter?
• Now that Peter's identity has been revealed, it's gonna be easier for super-villains (among other violent criminals) to track him down.
• Since the person that Peter quickly befriended and entrusted E.D.I.T.H. with ended up nearly killing Peter, his classmates, and many Europeans, and now framed him for the destruction of London and revealed his identity to the world, it's very well possible that this will take a toll on his mental heath and he may develop trust issues in the future, especially to new superheroes.

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