Tear Jerker / Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

”I just... wanted to be special, like you... Gwen.”
”Oh, Peter…”

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

• The intro showing Gwen fighting Lizard-Peter (which he appears to do to himself of his own volition), which ends with him getting crushed by falling debris. He manages to regain his humanity in his final moments with Gwen, where he admits that he knows her secret and wanted to be special like her.
  • The kicker: Gwen and Peter's fight takes place during a school dance which they're implied to have been each other's dates on. Gwen began the night thinking she would be able to enjoy time with her best friend, only to witness his death by the end of it.
  • It also sadly shows a terrible outcome for what could happen to Peter Parker had he never been bitten by the spider. As he is in a lot of iterations, Peter is constantly bullied and ostracized by classmates. However, unlike a classic iteration of Peter who keeps his good heart and eventually becomes a superhero, here he concocts the serum that turns him into Lizard in hopes of striking back at his tormentors and, as he intones to Gwen in his dying breath, that he could be as special as his idol, Spider-Woman.
• The entire intro is sad in general. It begins normally with Gwen via voiceover recapping some of the events of the first film, before devolving into her feeling guilty about everything that happened, even saying that she didn't mean to hurt Miles, but ultimately did, anyway. Then it jumps to the present, where it's clear she hasn't acclimated well being back in her home dimension. When her bandmates ask what's going on with her, she doesn't open up for obvious reasons, and instead feels defensive and lashes out, and even quits. She even states as much to her father later, and it's played for laughs, but it's sad how nonchalantly she mentions leaving. It can be inferred at one point, the band was important to her, and she enjoyed it a lot. It seems her past and the adventure of the last movie really took its toll.
  "I didn't want to hurt him. But I did. And he's not the only one."
• In the script for the movie, it's revealed that the reason Gwen fidgets around with her clothes while her dad tells her they "got closer" to finding Spider-Woman is because she considers running away from home, and she ends up hugging him in case "it might be the last time..."
• Gwen reveals her secret identity to her father, Captain Stacy. Even after she tries to explain herself, his response is still to try and arrest her for Peter's death before Jess and Miguel intervene.
  Gwen: Please. You're all I have left...
  Captain Stacy: You have the right to remain silent.
  • While he obviously chose to still try and arrest her, it's clear that Captain Stacy is extremely reluctant to do so. And while you never get to see his full reaction to Gwen basically running away from home and not coming back for several months, knowing that he drove his own daughter away by deciding to still try and arrest her had to have been absolutely gut-wrenching for him. Gwen even notes that he looks like he's lost weight when she's forced to go back home.
  • Considering that one of the "canon events" that each Spider-Being goes through is losing a police/security captain close to them, one has to wonder if Gwen was hesitant to go back to her universe because she feared watching her father die and living with Parting-Words Regret.
  • Gwen already had a rough deal with her father thinking Spider-Woman murdered Peter in cold blood, and tries to argue that maybe the situation was complicated and Spider-Woman had no choice in the matter. His trying to arrest her even after finding out who she is shatters her, as now her own father believes she is a murderer. He came to regret it after she ran away and seems to have come to his senses in her absence, but she had no way of knowing that.
• Soon after reuniting, Miles and Gwen are having a moment together and it seems like they're about to turn from friends to something more, only for Gwen to hesitate for a moment before solemnly telling Miles that any Gwen Stacy who falls in love with a Spider-Man is never going to end well. The only way she could've known this is that she was shown a montage of what happened to her alternate selves who did indeed fall for their respective Spider-Men only to die soon after because it's a "canon event". How would it feel like to see yourself dying over and over again just for falling in love with someone simply because fate says so?
  • And on that note, the situation of being a Gwen Stacy in a building full of Peter Parkers.
• Miles admits he wishes he could just explain to his parents that he's Spider-Man, since it would simplify things a lot. Gwen immediately tells him to never let them know, clearly still reeling from how badly her own confession went.
• A moment where Miles is geeking out over Gwen's dimension hopping watch turns sour where she snaps at him over touching something he wasn't supposed to. It gives the impression that for all the duo had before, she's in a world that Miles doesn't belong in. Although most likely, Gwen panicked that Miles pressing buttons on the watch would result in him accidentally calling Jess, which would have been incredibly awkward for Gwen that her mentor gets contacted by the one person she wasn't supposed to be seeing.
  • And later, when Miles follows her to the Spot's home, he's invisible and watches her in action. This tells him that she wasn't primarily visiting his universe to see him, but to carry out a mission. Then she opens a portal to another dimension, and he realizes she could very well be leaving him for good. And before she leaves, she turns around and... looks right through him, while he stares sadly at her, still unseeable.
  • When trying to justify herself to Jessica, Gwen calls seeing Miles a 'mistake'. After he'd waited 16 months to see her, Miles gets a hint that this is how the Spider Society sees him. The only other people in the multiverse who should understand him treat him as a leper instead. Even the girl he cares so deeply about.
• The fact that Gwen had wanted to see Miles again so badly, it becomes quite sad in hindsight how excited she would have been to join the Society with the thought that she would finally be able to visit him, only to be told that Miles is the "Original Anomaly" and she's not allowed to see him, next to apparently being shown the "canon event" that a Gwen Stacy who falls for Spider-Man will end up dying. It leaves the implication Gwen was biding her time for whenever the opportunity would arrive for her to sneak off to see Miles anyway, which she finally got with Spot's appearance.
• The argument Miles has with his parents at Jefferson's party because he was late. Maintaining his secret identity as Spider-Man is taking its toll.
  • From his parent's point of view, they know something is bothering their son, more than simple growing pains or teenage rebellion, and keep trying to get him to open up and talk, but every-time they reach out he keeps pushing them farther and farther away.
• While it's not given that much focus, Gwen was initially less than pleased to realize that Miles followed her to Earth-50101B, even saying directly to his face that she should have never come to see him. Ouch...
  • When Gwen first says she shouldn't have ever come to see him, Miles seems to take it well, just flatly exclaiming 'Dang!' It's only later, when he throws her words back in her face, that he reveals just how much that hurts, making them Harsher in Hindsight.
• Pavitr's predicament as he was inches from his canon event into making him a better Spider-Man. Either save a bus full of people, including his girlfriend, or save Inspector Singh and the little girl he was trying to save. He tried convincing himself that he could do both, but fate would have forced him to choose one. Had it not been for Miles coming in and save Singh and the girl so he could focus on the bus, Pavitr would have become another Spider-Man with the tragic backstory needed to fully become one, and most likely lose his happy-go-lucky self as well.
  • Just Gwen's reaction to seeing Miles getting buried by the rubble. She is practically praying for Miles to be alive, and even when he's revealed to be fine, Gwen can only experience a sorrowful relief since she knows his actions has caused problems with the Society.
• Spider-Byte makes an offhand comment about how using her avatar from her own dimension beats reality for her, and from the brief argument we can see on her end, her home life is absolutely miserable.
• Miguel had found a universe where one of his variants died, so he assumed that Miguel's life and family. This caused an anomaly that erased several people from that universe, including Miguel's daughter.
  • To add to the heartbreak, Miguel displays a hologram showing the events that took place. Everything collapses around him as he tries in vain to escape the oncoming destruction of the alternate universe he came to see as home. The last shot we see? His look of broken despair as his beloved daughter vanishes in his arms. Even Miles, who's been at odds with him throughout the film, is moved to tears by the sight.
  • As the hologram plays out before Miles, he's horrified to see countless innocents erased in the blink of an eye with no warning, and it's very obviously the last thing he'd want to be the cause of. What's worse, it's a harrowing Call-Back to another event where the heroes could only watch helplessly as everyone around them died.
  • Even Hobie and Peter, who were openly mocking Miguel's overly serious nature, can't bring themselves to wisecrack at Miguel's loss, or the deaths of so many innocent people.
• Before the meeting with Miles, Miguel is seen surrounded with screens, the one in front displays a brief recording of his alternative universe-self happily playing with his daughter, only to disperse and reveal this Miguel's appearance. And it's hauntingly hollow: the burden of the innocent lives lost due to his actions, and the terrible decisions he has to make have rendered a once heroic man into a worn down, cynical ruin of his former self.
• Following what happened to him, Miguel has become convinced that any tragedy must happen and any Spider-Person must suffer the loss of both family members and some authority figure who dies when they become a captain, like George Stacy, and Jefferson who is about to be promoted. As he talks, holograms display several of those deaths, even from the live-action movies. Most Spider-People are with Miguel as they seem equally convinced there is no other alternative and they are all willing to cage and capture Miles to make sure he can't stop the death.
  • What truly pushes this element over the edge into outright tragedy is that it's ultimately self-defeating: Miguel is focused on grand-scale consequences of dimensional anomalies, the effects that the erasure of Canon events will have on certain worlds, and how his choice to take over an alternate version of himself resulted in an entire dimension being destroyed; however, this guilt blinds him to the true consequences of his actions, i.e. that his single-minded pursuit of/contempt for Miles and paranoia about disrupting the status quo is alienating his allies who dare to question his dogma like Gwen and Hobie, threatening to fracture the Spider Society he's worked so hard to build, and distracting him from the true threat to the Multiverse: an empowered Spot set on destroying Miles and everything he loves. When he confronts Miles on the space elevator, his conviction that he is the only one holding the multiverse together in spite of everything reads less as egomania and more as a desperate man trying to find order amongst the chaos, to no avail.
  • Miguel's behavior here also brings to mind the Miguel O'Hara from Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions and Spider-Man: Edge of Time, who also had to deal with reality-shattering events. Unlike Spider-Verse!Miguel, this Miguel was convinced by his Peter Parker to go save MJ, who was destined to die. Miguel initially didn't want to, seeing her death as unimportant in the grand scheme of things (and because he was unsure he could save her), leading to Peter giving him a HARSH pep talk that pretty much shows everything the movie Miguel ignored about what being Spider-Man truly means.
    Peter: What's important is NOT standing by and allowing someone to suffer or die, because you do NOTHING! If you don't get that, then you don't get the first THING about being Spider-Man.
• The Spectacular Spider-Man's George Stacy is revealed to have died the same way as his counterparts since the cancellation of the series. We see a hologram of Josh Keaton's Peter Parker sobbing over his body, and later he appears trying to talk down Miles about going against the Society to save his father.

  "We know it's hard. But it's the truth, Miles."

• When Peter B. Parker sees the hologram of him cradling his Captain Stacy's dead body, he turns away in utter sadness, clearly still affected by it.
  • Even more heartbreaking is that with the revelation of a Captain Stacy existing in Peter B.'s universe, it also means there was a Gwen Stacy whom Peter B. started a relationship with that didn't end well like the other Gwens mentioned by Spider-Woman.
• Hobie's defensive "Eh, what of it?", indicates that the death of his universe's police captain is a sour subject for him and he hates that this so-called "canon event" is being used to justify the Status Quo Is God mentality the Spider Society has taken to.
• While Miles is pleading that the Spider Society understand why he can't just let his dad die, he's utterly floored by the appearance of one particular Spider: Peni Parker appears, having traded out her rounded robot for a mech quite similar to the Evangelion-based one from the comics. She has a despondent response and expression to her now, only saying his name, indicating that she has grown through her own tragic canon event from the comics.
• The fact that many beloved and iconic iterations of Spider-Man, including The Spectacular Spider-Man and Insomniac Spider-Man have aligned themselves with Miguel's agenda, and try to stop Miles is heartbreaking in itself. In The Spectacular Spider-Man's case, it gets even worse. Josh Keaton has suggested that he was so lost and vulnerable from the two major losses in his life that when Miguel told him everything, that the tragedies are part of a bigger plan, he joined possibly because to him, Miguel had all the answers. How many other Spider-People have been recruited with their lowest point being a heavy factor?
  • Worse yet, from Josh Keaton's Word of Saint Paul suggestion, it's implied that Miguel approaching Spectacular!Peter after the death of Captain Stacy, a Parental Substitute already by that point to the young Peter, ended up causing Miguel to become one himself. This further implies that Miguel's recruiting has made him a role model figure for so many Spider People at their lowest point and, regardless of his well-intentions in doing so, fuels a very emotional abusive relationship with so many of them in using his position to force them to stick to his theory of enforcing canon in spite of the emotional cost it has on all of them.
• Miles starts lashing out at the various Spideys around him as he gets overwhelmed with emotion, and he gives Peter B this barb in reference to his betrayal from the first movie. Peter B's expression during the line shows that it hits home.
  Miles: Is that why you're here? To let me down easy? Worked last time, why not run it back, huh?
  • Miles' line also implies that he holds some amount of lingering anger over how Peter B. kept him out of going after Kingpin in the first movie. Yes, he understood why his friend had to do it but it doesn't mean Miles wasn't hurt.
• As soon as Miles realizes that Peter B. and Gwen are actively (though reluctantly) arguing that he should let his father die for the sake of preserving the canon event, it takes a serious hit on his friendship with the two, as he outright agrees with Gwen's earlier statement that she should never have come back to see him. It's worth noting that Gwen is visibly tearing up from his words.
  • It's not just Gwen and Peter B. either. Peni is among the Spider-People surrounding Miles in a rebuilt SP//er. And compared to how we last saw her, she looks absolutely miserable.
  • During the ensuing chase when Gwen snags Miles with a webline as he's from falling from their headquarters (with it being unclear if she's trying to save him or capturing him, quite possibly both) all he does is give her an angry stare before ripping said web line off and continues falling, essentially saying he'd rather risk falling to his death than trust her. Gwen's crestfallen expression says it all. ^note This is also a sad callback to earlier in Mumbattan when Miles catches Gwen with a webline after she stumbles a bit.
  • There's also how Miles doesn't immediately turn around to find another escape, but continues to look at Gwen even after snapping the web and falling, looking hurt and subtly shaking his head as if to signal to her how disappointed he is in her and/or that he doesn't trust her anymore. His hurt look is likely also indicating that despite how determined he was to sever her web, it was still painful for him to do so.
  • When it appears that Miles and Peter B. might make up when the latter explains that he had his daughter, Mayday, solely because of him, Miguel ruins the moment by tracking their location using Peter's watch. Miles responds by webbing him up by the legs in disappointment as if the whole thing was a setup on Peter's part when it couldn't have been further from the truth.
  • When Miguel orders, 'Send everyone', Gwen shuts her eyes in pain. You can see how much it hurts her even through her mask, how conflicted she feels over what she believes she must do to her best friend.
  • Peter and Gwen manage to catch up to Miguel just as he's violently ripping into the dimension transportation of the Go Home machine in a final attempt to seize Miles, his sheer anger causing his violent animalistic spider-traits to emerge with Blood-red eyes and prominent fangs, making Miguel look like a monster attacking a teenager. Seeing this and Miguel being deaf to his pleas to stop before somebody gets seriously hurt, Peter turns to Gwen with a look of genuine fear and apprehension on his face, which is tearjerking for two reasons. Peter's heroic nature and fondness for Miles would have him leaping in to pull Miguel back from Miles without a second thought normally, but with Mayday in his arms, Peter is Forced to Watch as Miguel gets closer and closer to tearing his way in to Miles, with him being so lost in his anger that Miles seems to be in genuine danger of being savaged, and Peter can do nothing to help him. Secondly, Miguel and Peter seem to have a somewhat close relationship. Peter was apparently present when Miguel's Replacement Goldfish dimension was destroyed and personally witnessed the traumatic event that haunts him. He felt close enough to him to trust him with Mayday using him as a climbing frame with her spider powers, and even asked him to take a photo of them during the big chase as it was Mayday's first. Seeing a man he once knew as a friend fallen so low clearly troubles Peter, but he just doesn't know what to say to Miguel to make him stop anymore.
• Miles being told that because of the spider that bit him coming from a different dimension, he is an "anomaly" if not an outright "mistake". Miguel further twists the knife by affirming that the Peter Parker of Miles' dimension died because Miles got Spider-powers. Heck, Miguel's entire demeanor and cruel words is reminiscent of a bigger and physically more intimidating bully tormenting someone smaller than him and trying to break him. He may be trying to protect billions of lives but Miguel's actions towards Miles are inexcusable.
  • It can be easy to miss, but when Miguel first starts pinning Miles, Miles sees Peter and briefly calls out to him in fear. The fact that Miles probably felt scared as Miguel gets a hold of him to the point he couldn't help but call out to his former mentor for help is heartbreaking (especially since he thinks his heart-to-heart was a trap by this point), doubly so as Peter ignores his call and can only watch and plead with Miguel from a distance to go easy on him.
  • When Miguel is ranting about Miles being an anomaly no matter where he goes and that he's the original anomaly, Miles' glitching kicks back in. For a split second, his appearance changes back to the store-bought Beta Outfit he wore in Into the Spider-Verse, showing that Miguel's assertion about him never belonging amongst the various Spider-People cut deep into his old fears about being an Inadequate Inheritor to his original Peter Parker and the role of Spider-Man. He retorts that Miguel is "lying" as he further outlines how Miles accidentally stole the destiny of being Spider-Man from a different universe, but in a desperate tone of voice that indicates Miles is suddenly scared that Miguel might be right about him all along.
  • And Miles finding out that Gwen and Peter B. were aware of this, and that this was the reason that they never visited him despite having the ability to, further alienating Miles from the two Spider-People still trying to reach him.
    Gwen: Miguel, that's enough!
    Peter B.: This isn't what we talked about!
    (Beat)
    Miles: You talked about this!? You knew? (Peter B. and Gwen look away, unable to meet Miles' eyes) You ALL knew? ...That's why you never came to see me...
    • And then there's the utter grief in Gwen's voice when she admits: 'I... I didn't know... how to tell you.' Her hesitation makes it look like she was about to lie again to protect Miles's feelings, but just couldn't go through with it anymore. On another level, the first part of the sentence makes it sound like she genuinely didn't know Miles was an anomaly... and then she crushes Miles by showing that she actually thought the same way Miguel did: she too believes he was a mistake who was never meant to be Spider-Man.
  • After Miguel pins him to the wall, Miles still tries to struggle his way free, until Miguel throws the death of his universe's Peter in his face. The way Miles just goes smack with a horrified look in his eyes says that this is probably the deepest wound Miguel gives him.
  • While hard to spot, Miles' reaction to Miguel getting close to forcing the transporter that would send him home. The look on Miles' face makes it clear that, in that moment, he was genuinely terrified he was about to die if things didn't work out. Mercifully for him, Margo ended up allowing the transport to go through.
• As Miles outwits Miguel and prepares to race back to the now-defenseless Spider HQ to get home, he stands up and stares right at Gwen: Tired, betrayed, heartbroken.
  Miles: Goodbye, Gwen.
  • What makes this line even more heartbreaking is that it doesn't seem like Miles means "Goodbye, for now", he means "Goodbye forever", brought on by Gwen and Peter keeping secrets from him and never coming to see him because they thought that just being around him was too risky and dangerous.
  • On top of that, he is directing it at Gwen alone. He didn't simply say 'Goodbye' to include Peter B. No, he was saying this directly to Gwen, showing that out of the two of them, her betrayal hurts the most. It's also possible that he wanted to mirror her saying goodbye to him earlier in the film (which he also thought was forever). Additionally, it may also indicate that he just refuses to even acknowledge Peter anymore. Either way, he has no more words for them except to effectively tell them he's done with them.
  • Just like Gwen could be seen tearing up when Miles told her she should have never come to see him, Miles likewise has tears in his eyes when he says goodbye to her.
  • Just before this, when Miles defeats Miguel, Gwen smiles for him. But when Miles tells her, 'Goodbye, Gwen', making it clear just how done he is with her, her expression instantly changes from joy to despair within the space of one blink. And when Miles escapes from the Society, it's somehow even more poignant seeing that Gwen can still find it in herself to smile for him, demonstrating so clearly that how much she cares for him even after they've broken each other's hearts.
  • Going back to Gwen's opening speech that's really her speech to recruit other Spider-People at the end of the film, the meaning of the future imagery we were shown becomes clear as it's Gwen thinking back to everything she did wrong and how she hurt Miles despite not wanting to, and the final repeated image we see before "going back" to present-day is Miles' heartbroken face when he says goodbye to her, giving the implication that this moment and his expression towards her is what haunts Gwen the most out of everything that happened between them.
• As Miguel kicks Gwen out of the Elite Spider Society by forcibly sending her back to her home dimension, she angrily remarks that "We are supposed to be the good guys". Miguel feebly tells the other Spider-People "We are" but there is no reaction, only a grim silence.
  • Even Miguel's small bit of hesitance and attempt to reaffirm their commitment to be "the good guys" hints that even he doesn't quite believe it anymore himself with how much being a Well-Intentioned Extremist has cost his soul and what Gwen said cut deep just as much as the other Spiders were rendered silent and doubting... but he and the others have gone too far to just stop doing what they are doing now they know about the multiverse and need to stick it through anyway.
  • Gwen has no defenders in the Spider Society... not even Jessica, her mentor, who thinks she is too emotionally compromised to see things through to the unhappy bitter end.
    • Just the fact that not even Jess, her mentor who she (in a funny moment) asked earlier in the film to adopt her, doesn't defend her is sad. The older woman was there when Gwen was about to be arrested by her father and pleaded with Miguel that they needed to help her. And now she doesn't even bother to hear Gwen's case or defend her student. She coldly tells Gwen she got too close and should've listened.
    • The fact that Jess even stated that Gwen "got too close" is disturbing and a sign that Miguel's side are losing touch with who and what Spider-Man is supposed to represent and who they are supposed to be. He does not make himself distant and isn't afraid to get too close or personal and wears his heart on his sleeve. He most definitely does not let terrible things happen when he could have made a difference. You don't foster the web of life by being disconnected.
• After Miles returns "home", we see that Miguel's words are echoing through his head. Despite his Shut Up, Kirk! response, what Miguel said affected him and Miles is having doubts about whether he really is worthy to be Spider-Man and he is simply nothing more than a mistake.
  • It's not just Miguel's words; Spider-Ham's line from the previous film ("Miles, the hardest thing about this job is... you can't always save everybody.") also echoes in his head. Needless to say, Miles had to learn this the hard and painful way through the Spider Society. The extra kicker: the second part of the quote is played as Miles swings by a flashback of Uncle Aaron.
  • In the background, pictures of Miles's friends repeatedly appear across the background: Noir, Ham, even Peni (who betrayed him, too). But Peter and Gwen are nowhere to be seen. The only trace of Gwen in Miles's hellish breakdown is the cruellest thing she's ever told him: 'I didn't know... how to tell you.'
  • The entire scene shows how effected he is by the whole thing under the jokey Spider-Man persona. It's a surreal montage of him dodging images of The Spot's grasping hands, Octavia's tentacles and speeding trains as images and voices of his past traumas flash across the city, ending with him nearly getting trapped in a wall of growing darkness. For all he jokes and goofs around, he's a 15 year old kid having gone through hell, and when we get a glimpse into his psyche it's horrifying to see what it all looks like to him.
  • This then culminates in Miles being so distracted by his thoughts he ends up being hit by a truck and sent flying, crashing into the window of another truck. He immediately gets up and leaps away, but the next time we see him, he's crouching and breathing in pain, clearly hurt by the impact. The fact that we saw Miles do nothing but dodge all kinds of crazy traffic since the moment he got bit in the first movie, it's a brief but sad moment to see his mind so messed up he ends up hit by a truck like that, even needing a moment to recover.
• A case for Peter B. is what he went through in this film. He not only has to betray the one person that saved him from his loser lifestyle and improved it but also having to see what the Spider Society has devolved into. After having had enough, Peter tries to make up an excuse to leave with Miguel retorting to him "I had the right amount of you", causing Peter to realize that he was being treated like a loser again.
  • The fact he constantly doubts himself about being a good mentor further showcases how much he lapses back to some of his old self in the previous film. Not helping that Jessica makes cracks about him and shuts him down.
  • When he gets back home, MJ inquires if Peter brought their baby to a fight and he tries feigning it. However, his lack of effort in trying to make up the lie and facial expressions makes it clear that he honestly wished that it was a fight.
• Earth-42's Jefferson is dead, and this Miles has become the Prowler.
  • Furthermore, both the Miles and Aaron of Earth-42 are a lot colder and more solemn than the versions we're familiar with.
    • While we don't spend much time with Earth-42 Miles, we can already see what losing his father and growing up in such a harsh environment has done to him. When 1610-Miles tells him he's from another universe and pleads with 42 to save Jeff, while 1610-Miles would automatically jump at the chance to save anyone, 42 coldly dismisses the issue as not his problem.
      1610-Miles: If I don't get home... our Dad is gonna die.
      42-Miles: Your Dad.
      1610-Miles: Please... You have to let me go.
      42-Miles: Why would I do that?
  • It's implied this version of Aaron is using his criminal activity at least partly to help Rio make ends meet as a single mother, and Miles became his partner in crime at least partly for this reason. This universe, maybe unintentionally, serves as a pointed commentary on how inner city kids with heaps of innate potential can be funneled down a darker path just because they lack positive influences or are underresourced and have a much harder time being able to focus on aspirations just because they're so focused on surviving.
  • A brief hint at Miles's predicament: when Miles mentions Jefferson, Rio has a sharp, curt reaction as she's obviously still grieving her beloved husband. When she says she's got work to do and they have each other, she's clearly trying to say how they're all they've got in the wake of Jefferson's death.
  • The Dramatic Irony of Miles' situation at the end of the film as Gwen and the Spider-Gang set off to rescue him. The last time he saw the majority of them, they were trying to keep him from going home to save his father and now's trapped in an Alternate Universe at the mercy of his villainous alternate self. The poor kid, as far he knows, is all on his own and even if he does escape there's a good chance he meets his friends, he'll assume they're his enemy and will either flee or more possibly fight them.
• Gwen's conversations with her father and Miles' parents.
  • With her father it's a double-whammy. First because she is just so upset over losing Miles' trust over her betrayal that she is ready for him to arrest her. And then when her father reveals he quit his job, stopping a canon event without destroying her universe, Gwen realizes that betraying Miles was All for Nothing (though it's somewhat mitigated as she also realizes she can help him save Jeff, after all). There's tears in her eyes as she gives her speech.
    "You're a good cop, Dad. You know you put on that badge because you know that if you don't, someone who shouldn't will. But... you have to understand: this mask is my badge! And I'm trying to be good too. I was trying so hard to wear this thing the way you would want... and I didn't! I didn't! I can do all of these things, but I can't help the people I love the most and they can only know half of who I am, so I- I'm completely on my own! And now, I don't- I don't even know what the right thing is anymore. I don't know what I'm supposed to do, but I know... I can't lose one more friend."
  • Then Gwen is forced to go to Miles' parents and admit she has no idea where he is but she is going to find him. While she is determined, she is also devastated that she has to deliver these people the horrible news, including one she was willing to ignore - indeed, to condemn to death - only a few moments earlier. She likely realizes that if she'd just told him the whole truth about why she visited, she could have averted the chain of events that led him to run away. There's also a hint that Gwen has not forgiven herself for betraying Miles and feels that the only ones that deserves his love are his parents.
• As Gwen is informing Miles's parents about his disappearance, Jess has been listening to her from the outside with a solemn look, implying that some of Gwen's words about the lengths Miles would go to protect his parents finally got through to her. When Gwen is leaving for Earth-616B, Jess could only look at her former student from afar with a sad expression on her face, either feeling regretful about her prior decision to support Miguel against Gwen, or that she might eventually have to come to blows with her former student due to their differing ideologies.
• It's one thing to acknowledge that you can't save everyone, as the Spider-Gang does in the first movie. Miguel's view takes that to its logical extreme, as he seems to have come to the conclusion that once you take the mantle of Spider-Man, deep personal misery is a requirement.
  • It becomes abundantly clear through his actions that the Spider Society, while seemingly stemming from positive intentions, acts as a way for Miguel to unintentionally propagate multiverse-wide trauma and an almost fanatical devotion to a group of people desperate for someone to understand their plight. Miguel's plans have not only doomed himself to deep personal misery, but everyone else in the Spider Society as well, and he's too angry and traumatized to process it.
• With the hindsight courtesy of this movie, the last movie has Fisk attempting to find a universe where he could unite with his family and bring them to his universe, with the high possibility of destroying them in the process. Ultimately, there is not a universe where he does, nor was his attempt to change that successful. In other words, the separation of his own family could easily be seen as his own version of a Canon Event where undoing it would have erased his universe.
  • Miguel succeeds, reuniting with his own daughter as the Replacement Goldfish, only for that universe to collapse. He made the mistake long before Fisk ever attempted to and we got to see first-hand what would happen if he succeeded.
  • And now Miles himself is on a Screw Destiny crusade of his own, willing to risk the multiverse to save someone he loves.
• In a sense, Miles being alienated from the Spider Society: From the first movie, Miles was happy in finding a group of heroes who could understand his struggles and wanted to reunite with them. It wouldn't be too hard to assume that he thought he could repeat the same positive experiences again. Except, it doesn't happen. He finds out that most of them think of him as an "anomaly" and deliberately stated he didn't belong (mainly from Miguel). And remember, the whole concept of the Spider-Man mythos is that anyone can wear the mask and anyone can be a hero; and as stated previously, the Spider-Heroes found solace in knowing there were other people out there like them who understand. But here? It's flipped - They (or, at least Miguel) state Miles can't be Spider-Man because it goes against "canon" and he's a "mistake". They attack a teenager for trying to do what they are supposed to do: Save lives. And the twisted part is that even though all of them can understand what it's like to got through pain and loss, they're now willing to let others go through it to make them "stronger". And if said others won't play along, the Society will force them to.
  • On the other side of the fence, both Gwen and Peter have to deal with the consequences of siding with Miguel against Miles; they had lied and distanced themselves from someone who was a positive presence in their lives and were initially willing to allow his father to die because of Miguel's claims, even going as far as allowing him to be imprisoned so he couldn't save Jefferson. And while they try reaching out to Miles to let him know that they care about him, their prior actions (along with Miles mistakenly believing Peter had distracted him by telling him about Mayday and led Miguel to his location) destroyed all of Miles' trust in them, with him rejecting Gwen's help when she tries to save him from a fall and making it very clear in his goodbye that he never intends or wants to see either of them ever again. And to add further insult to injury, Gwen's father quitting the police force (thus avoiding his supposed death) ultimately shows her (and the audience) that canon can be changed without destroying their universes, showing that they most likely tried to condemn Officer Jefferson to death over nothing but paranoia. While Gwen rallies her own Spider group (including Peter and Peni) to help save Miles, both she and Peter clearly have a lot of work to do in regaining their former friend's trust as he's most likely not going to be happy to see them. At all.
  • To add further salt to the wound, it becomes clear that all of Miles' earlier actions with the group were partly his attempt to prove his worthiness to the Spider Society. From it being as simple as him showing Gwen his new web-slinging tricks or as complicated as him trying to absorb the energy shield generated by the Collider machine, all of his actions have been his way of showing the group that yes, he does belong with them too. As an audience member, seeing Miles essentially fail in his mission to prove his naysayers wrong, even when he displays exceptional leadership instincts (such as when he stages a team mission to save the townspeople of Mumbattan), it really makes you feel bad for the guy. You can hear the desperation underneath his breath when he tries so hard to absorb the energy shield at Alchemax. The guy literally says, "just let me do this..."
  • And while Gwen does sincerely admit that she believes Miles is amazing, you can just feel Miles wanting to be acknowledged as 'good enough' for the team, not knowing what its true purpose is. Poor kid is here fighting for what he feels like is his only chance at building a real community with people who are just like him.
  • A subtle one, but when Miles is introduced to the Society, most of the Spiders only acknowledge Gwen and ignore him. When we learn the reason for this (Miles being the original anomaly), it becomes Harsher in Hindsight.
• In a way, it's hard not to feel at least a little bad for Spot. Even though he was working with the Kingpin, he was still just a relatively normal guy doing his job before he became a Humanoid Abomination. You can hear his anger in his Motive Rant to Miles, with his voice reaching the peak of rage and desperation when he furiously demands Miles to look at what he became as an indirect result of Miles' actions. For as much as a terrifying cosmic horror Spot would become down the line as well as embracing his powers, he's still fueled by revenge for having his personal and professional life utterly destroyed. All-in-all, the Spot is a broken man who thinks the only way to have a purpose in the world is to become Miles' greatest nemesis.
• How Miles' situation at the end of this movie contrasts to the first movie's conclusion: From ITSV, Miles ends his origin story fully believing he's Spider-Man, befriended fellow Spider-Heroes while earning their respect in the process (with the possibility of a romance with Gwen), and on better terms with his father. But by the end of ATSV?: He's trapped in another universe under the (not likely) mercy of an evil alternate version of himself not knowing anyone's coming to save him; a large number of Spider-Heroes under Miguel's guidance think of him as an anomaly, which has shaken his confidence; he doesn't fully reciprocate his early argument with his parents, mainly his father; and his respect and especially his bond with Peter B. and Gwen have been severely damaged - if not outright shattered.
• It's shown as a comedic moment but the nonchalant, almost uncaring, expression Jessica has on her face when she sees Miles painfully glitch. Think about it - She just witnessed a child go through a horrific and painful experience but hardly bats an eye or shows concern. The typical Spider-Hero would've at least been attentive, but Jessica doesn't even do that. Really shows how hardened and even cruel, she and maybe some other Spider Society members have become. It's implied that her lack of concern comes from knowing of Miles' anomaly status and sees his presence as a danger. Either way, still harsh. It also hints at the Society's dehumanising treatment of 'anomalies' - even if you're a child, once you're labelled an anomaly, you're not even worthy of human empathy or compassion.

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