Spider-Man 4 (film)

Spider-Man 4 is the fourth installment in the Spider-Man film franchise. The film serves as a sequel to Spider-Man 3. Most of the original cast reprises their roles from the first three films.

Plot
A caption reads "A few years ago, average high school student Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and came the hero New York knows and loves, Spider-Man. However, due to recent events, including the deaths of his best friend and Aunt, his girlfriend constantly traveling after picking up a successful acting career, and a slight decrease of crime in the city, Peter Parker/Spider-Man disappeared."

Columbia Pictures logo comes up while the music of the original opening credits begins playing.

The word Spider-Man in the same font as the original rolls on the screen, the word Returns comes in below it.

Various cast and crew members.

Directed by Sam Raimi.

Several flashbacks from Spider-Man 3 are shown. Another caption then reads 5 years later.

Dr. Curt Conners has finally found a way to regrow his missing arm. He records a video of himself talking about how he's going to use it, and gives out the address in case the unthinkable were to happen. He then injects himself with the cure hoping his arm grows back, but instead, Conners goes berserk and transforms into a giant lizard.

Meanwhile, in Rio de Janeiro, Peter Parker (after being gone for 4 years) feels like he is ready to return to New York after his longer than expected break. He has not talked to Mary Jane or anyone since he left, not that he had anyone left anyway. So a few days later, he finally returns to the city. The first thing he does is go to visit Mary Jane. He finds out through some old friends that Mary Jane has moved, and is seeing someone else. So he finds Mary Jane's house and it reveals she's engaged to her old boyfriend Flash Thompson. Mary Jane and Peter talk in front of her house. She says that he was gone for so long that she had to move on. She wanted someone and he wasn't there, so she met up once again with Flash and they began dating again. Peter apologizes and says and wishes Mary Jane the best, but she says they'll still be friends. Peter then leaves, hating himself for leaving for so long.

The next day, Peter decides to visit the Daily Bugle and see if he could get his job back. But J. Jonah Jameson says that if Spider-Man magically comes back, then he could also take his job back. Peter almost leaves when Jonah realizes that there is a new superhero he could take pictures of, good pictures at least. Everyone at the Bugle is calling her the Black Cat. Peter then leaves hoping to find this "Black Cat".

Meanwhile, since the events of Spider-Man 3, a group of scientists are working to create another symbiote. The closet one they've ever created, which failed miserably, was created by the scientist Adrian Toomes. Toomes has been failing at creating this symbiote and kept trying till he went bankrupt. He tried gambling, but just lost more. He is now poor and homeless, but in this time is creating a suit with wings that he hopes to use so he could get the money he needs and quickly escape using the suit. Finally completing the suit, Toomes decides to rob a bank. Toomes flies into the bank using his suit and kills several people, when just then, the Black Cat shows up. Peter Parker, who heard the commotion from across the street, witnesses the Black Cat fighting Toomes. He unbuttons the top of his shirt before he remembers that he doesn't have his Spider-Man suit. Instead of risking is identity, he just takes pictures of the Black Cat and plans to give them to the Daily Bugle. The Black Cat manages to pin Toomes to the ground and take the money he has, but he flies away before he can be arrested.

The next day, Peter takes the pictures of the Black Cat to the Daily Bugle. Jonah is looking at them, when a new photographer walks in with even better pictures of the Black Cat fighting Toomes. Jonah doesn't use Peters photos and uses the others one that the new photographer brought in. Peter compliments her for getting pictures in the paper on her first try, and she introduces herself as Felicia Hardy.

About a day later, Peter decides to pay a visit to Dr. Conners. Peter doesn't find Dr. Conners in his lab, but instead hears a voice saying "Stay back, Peter!" The voice sounds somewhat like a reptile. Just then, Peter gets attacked by a the lizard and he escapes in the open. Peter finds a video camera and watches the one video on there, Conners taking the cure and becoming a lizard. Peter then realizes that the lizard is Dr. Conners. He quickly returns home to get his Spider-Man suit, and tracks down the Lizard. While looking, he runs into Felicia Hardy, they have a brief conversation before Peter continues looking for Conners. Just then, his spider senses sense the Lizard's presence. He finds the Lizard attacking Felicia Hardy, he changes into his Spider-Man costume and fights the Lizard. He tries to tell it that Dr. Conners is in there somewhere, and he just has to find it, but the Lizard continues fighting Peter. Just then, the Black Cat comes from nowhere and helps Spider-Man fight the Lizard. They manage to knock him unconscious. Black Cat then turns to Spider-Man and asks him where he went. Spider-Man just says he had to deal with important things, and asks who she is. She says after Spider-Man left, she basically took his place as hero. She says she trained for a while, and become the Black Cat. Just then, the citizens see Spider-Man and begin cheering now that he has returned.

The next day, Peter returns to the Daily Bugle hoping to get a job, when he sees Felicia Hardy talking with Mr. Jameson. She apparently managed to get photos of Spider-Man and the Black Cat fighting the Lizard. She leaves Mr. Jameson's office and tells Peter her pictures are getting in the paper again. Peter talks to Mr. Jameson about a job, but he asks Peter if he knows anything about Spider-Man that he doesn't. Peter doesn't know what he's talking about. Mr. Jameson says that Peter disappeared 4 years ago, and so did Spider-Man, now as soon as Peter comes back, Spider-Man also does. Peter says it was just a coincidence. Mr. Jameson says he's got his eye on Peter.

A few days later, Peter invites Mary Jane to lunch. Not as a date, just to catch up. Flash isn't enthusiastic about it, but Mary Jane goes anyway. So she does go and Peter asks her how life's been. She says that her acting career really picked up. He says he's missed her. Mary Jane says that it's too late, and that eventually she'll have to marry Flash, they've been engaged a while now. Peter says that if things don't work out that he'll be available. Mary Jane however is offended by it. She says how could he think that her and Flash's relationship wouldn't work, she loves him. Peter apologizes; Mary Jane says that if he's going to continue being Spider-Man, that they shouldn't see each other. When she gets home, Flash is asking many questions. He never did trust her that much, which has kept them from marrying too soon.

A few days later, Adrian Toomes (who's come up with an alter ego called The Vulture) is planning his revenge on the Black Cat, who foiled his plan to rob the bank. With Black Cat, out of the way, he can successfully rob the bank and gain the profits he needs to make a successful symbiote.red He flies through the city as the Vulture and hopes to get the Black Cat's attention, but instead Peter sees the Vulture and recognizes him as the robber that Black Cat was fighting. So he changes into his suit and chases after the Vulture. Spider-Man grabs the Vulture's leg in midair and they are now falling to the city below. Just then, Vulture escapes Spider-Man's grasps and begins fighting him. Vulture knocks down Spider-Man and prepares to kill him, when Black Cat comes out of nowhere. Outnumbered, despite wanting revenge, Vulture flies away, swearing to return and finally stop them. The next day, Peter goes to the Daily Bugle. Felicia Hardy is once again there, with extraordinary photos of the battle with the Vulture. Peter asks Felicia how she does it, Felicia just says to follow him.

Felicia and Peter are now on top of a building, when Felicia jumps over the edge. Peter looks over and doesn't see her, but he sees the Black Cat. Peter then realizes that Felicia Hardy is the Black Cat, he asks why she told him. She said she knew his secret, she knew he was Spider-Man. Peter asked how, Felicia said she could tell by the fact that Peter and Spider-Man both disappeared for the exact same time, and his voice. Felicia walks up to him and kisses him (They are visible to the public). Unknown to Peter, Mary Jane and Flash pull up in front of the building and see Peter and Felicia kissing. When they return home, Mary Jane feels kind of upset. Flash says he's glad because he doesn't want Peter anywhere near Mary Jane. Hearing this, Mary Jane finally snaps. She says that if Flash can't trust her, then Flash should just leave, and she kicks him out of the house.

The next day, Peter (Spider-Man) finds Felicia (Black Cat) to talk about the previous day. He says that he can't see her (like date her). She asks why, and he says that he's still trying to get back with his previous girlfriend. He explains a little more and she respects what he is doing. She removes his mask and kisses him one last time. But suddenly, Peter hears something in the dark, he tells Felicia to watch out, when the Lizard jumps out and knocks her unconscious. Not wearing his mask, Lizard finds out that Peter is Spider-Man. Not worrying about his mask, Peter decides to fight Lizard and hopefully knock some sense into him. He tells Lizard to try to control himself so he could become human again, but Lizard keeps on attacking. Meanwhile, Adrian Toomes is flying through the city as the Vulture once again, and sees Spider-Man fighting the Lizard. He flies down and changes into his normal clothes and walks by. He sees Peter without his mask and recognizes him as a photographer from the Daily Bugle. Now knowing Spider-Man's true identity, he walks away plotting revenge. Just as he leaves, Spider-Man knocks out the Lizard. He then walks over to Black Cat and manages to wake her up. Lizard then reawakes, he escapes too quickly for Peter to track him.

The next day, Mary Jane, who's still alone because Flash hasn't returned, decides to call Peter for dinner. After dinner, her and Peter are talking about the other night about how Mary Jane saw Peter kissing Felicia, and she just wants to let him know that (despite her being upset about it a little) she wishes him the best with her. He says that him and Felicia aren't dating, and that she just... did that. Peter asks where Flash is anyway. Just then, Mary Jane begins crying. She says that Flash never trusts her around other men and that she kicked him out the other night because he was glad Peter and Felicia were kissing (not that it mattered). Peter takes Mary Jane closer and they kiss again after 4 years. However, unknown to them, Flash returned. He saw them kissing through the front window. All he did was look, he didn't want to do anything. He walked away, even though he didn't do anything at that moment, he was angry. He wanted revenge, he wanted nothing more than to end Peter Parker. He then heard a voice, the voice was telling him that if he wanted revenge, he could give Flash the strength to do it. And then, a man came from the shadows, the voice belonged to him, it was Toomes.

Toomes takes Flash to his secret lab, and shows him the newly completed symbiote. Toomes managed to complete the symbiote by stealing the items he needed (why steal the money for the items, when you could steal the items). He tells Flash that Peter is Spider-Man and that if he wants revenge, just get his attention, and Toomes knows just how. Flash then pours the symbiote on himself.

The next night, Peter goes over to Mary Jane and finds the place has been broken into. He sees a sign that says, turn on the TV; the sign is made of webs. Peter turns on the TV and finds that Toomes and a strange looking creature have kidnapped Mary Jane. He suits up and heads over to the scene. Meanwhile, Felicia Hardy is also watching the incident on the news and decides to head over there as well.

When he arrives, Spider-Man finds Toomes holding Mary Jane back, threating to kill her. Just then, Peter gets tackled by the strange creature, and it's mask comes off (a similar way to Venom's) and it is revealed to be Flash. Peter is in shock, and Flash says one thing: "Just call me Carnage."

Flash says to Peter how if he had just stayed gone then none of this would've been happening, but Mary Jane breaks away from Toomes's grasp and says that if he never trusted her, then marriage would never have happened. She says that when they broke up the first time it should've stayed that way. Flash tells her to shut up, removes Peter's mask and is about to strangle him, when he is kicked to the side by Black Cat. He puts his mask back on and Black Cat helps him up. Toomes pushes Mary Jane to the side, and then another unexpected person shows up at the battle, The Lizard. Lizard, who still can't control himself, stands next to Toomes. Spider-Man and Black Cat now have to take down the Lizard, the Vulture, and Carnage.

Vulture immediately flies up to Black Cat, he threatens to end her so she won't interfere with any of his plans anymore. Meanwhile, Spider-Man begins fighting Lizard. He's about to punch him when he is tackled by Carnage. He kicks Carnage aside and notices something. They are fighting right near Conners's lab. He runs over to the lab, hoping to find a cure to the Lizard. He looks as quickly as possible before Lizard and Carnage show up, and finds a something labeled "cure to cure." He reads the file and it says the following:

"In case the cure to grow a new arm to replace my missing arm were to go awry. I please hope that someone may find this and inject me with it. If so, it may possibly cure me from whatever happened to me. If it doesn't, then I will die. But if I go berserk, it will probably be for the best.

''-Dr. Curtis Conners"''

Just then, Lizard shows up. Spider-Man fight until he knocks Lizard vulnerable. He then injects him with the needle. Meanwhile, Carnage and Vulture are both fighting Black Cat. Vulture asks where Spider-Man and Lizard are. Carnage then goes to look, leaving Vulture to deal with Black Cat. Carnage finds Spider-Man in the lab, but instead of finding the Lizard, he finds Spider-Man with Dr. Conners. Carnage runs to Spider-Man and they fight once more. When suddenly, Carnage is smacked aside by a metal pipe, which Dr. Conners is holding. Not only does it smack Carnage aside, but it makes a loud bell like noise. However, unlike Venom, the loud noise doesn't affect Carnage, that's how Toomes created it. Carnage runs up to Conners and stabs him with the pipe. Carnage then escapes to go help Vulture kill Black Cat. Peter runs up to Dr. Conners. Dr. Conners apologizes for everything he did. Peter says it wasn't him, it was the Lizard. Dr. Conners tells Peter to go do what Spider-Man does, save the city. With that, Dr. Conners dies. Almost severely injured, Black Cat is about to let Vulture and Carnage kill her. When Spider-Man swings by and kicks Carnage aside. Vulture sees this and Spider-Man swings up to a tall building, with Vulture following him. Spider-Man and Vulture fight on top of the building and Spider-Man damages one of his wings. Peter then threatens to throw Toomes off of the building. Toomes however, just surrenders. So Spider-Man tells him to stay, the cops will be here shortly. However, Toomes instead tackles Spider-Man off the building. Toomes uses Spider-Man's hand to shoot webs, doing this, he shoots a long web and the end of it accidently gets tangled around his neck. He tries to get it off, but the web is already attached to a building. With nothing he could really do to save Toomes, Spider-Man swings away and Toomes gets hung by the web. With Vulture dead, Spider-Man must now deal with Carnage. Carnage returned to the building Mary Jane was on, and grabbed a giant shard of glass. He walked up to her slowly. Just as he was about to kill her, Spider-Man punched his arm and the glass fell off the building. Spider-Man and Carnage fight until he finally manages to knock him down. Spider-Man keeps beating on Carnage until he's weak. He punches him one last time before he's sure that he's down. With Carnage unconscious, Peter walks up to Mary Jane.

He hugs her when just then Black Cat arrives. She says that even though she's pretty beat up, she'll be fine. Just then, Flash wakes up. He takes off the mask of his suit and tells Peter that he's grown stronger since high school, but not strong enough, and he tackles him off the building. They fight on the streets of New York until Peter knocks him to the ground. He tries hardly to rip off Carnage's suit, and after a few minutes, finally does. Flash now sits on the streets of New York, without a suit. He gets up and runs up to Spider-Man and punches him. Peter kicks him to the side. Pieces of the building they were just fighting on are collapsing, right above Flash. Peter tells him to move, but Flash just sits there. The pieces fall and crush him to death. Peter, a little guilty that he didn't save Flash, gets Mary Jane off the building. Both of them not saying a word, he proposes right there. To which she agrees.

The next night, Spider-Man sits atop the Daily Bugle watching the city, when Black Cat shows up. She asks if he's gonna continue being Spider-Man. He agrees and said that maybe if he needed help; she cuts him off. Black Cat says that if he needs help from her, that she'll just cross his path. She then jumps off the building. Spider-Man then swings around the city and it ends.

Cast

 * Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
 * Harrison Ford John Parker
 * Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson
 * James Franco as Harry Osborn/New Goblin
 * John Malkovich as Adrian Toomes/Vulture
 * Anne Hathaway as Felicia Hardy/Black Cat
 * Dylan Baker as Curt Connors/Lizard
 * Joe Manganiello as Flash Thompson/Carnage
 * Rebecca Hall as Valeria Toomes
 * JK Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson
 * Bill Nunn as Robbie Robertson
 * Elizabeth Banks as Betty Brant
 * Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy

Trivia

 * After The Amazing Spider-Man trilogy ended, Sam Raimi decided to try once again to make a fourth film in his Spider-Man franchise, thus coming up with this film.


 * Practically all of the cast expected to appear in Spider-Man 4 appeared in this film.


 * Unlike the Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man trilogy, the Lizard's portrayal in this film has a snout and wears a lab coat at all times.


 * Unlike previous plans to have Felicia Hardy become the Vulturess in Spider-Man 4, Sam Raimi ultimately decided to have her become the Black Cat in this film.