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Spider-Man 2 is the sequel to the popular 2002 film Spider-Man and was released in the U.S. on June 30, 2004.
The film, directed by Sam Raimi, stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco reprising their roles of Peter Parker (Spider-Man), Mary Jane Watson and Harry Osborn, respectively. Alfred Molina plays the role of the villain, Doctor Octopus ("Doc Ock").
The screenplay is credited to Alvin Sargent, with screen story credit given to Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Michael Chabon. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko receive additional screen credit for "comic book & characters".
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
In Spider-Man 2, the plot picks up two years after the end of the first Spider-Man film. Harry Osborn is still seethingly bitter over the death of his father, Norman, which he believes was the fault of Spider-Man. What Harry doesn't know is that his father was actually the Green Goblin, the major villain from the first movie. Peter Parker, who knows all this and is a good friend of Harry's, has never found a way to explain it out of fear that he could expose his identity.
Meanwhile, Parker's grades and life in general are taking a dip because of his alter-ego's self imposed duties (his standard explanation for missing something was "there was a disturbance"). Mary-Jane, now working on a Broadway production of The Importance of Being Earnest, as well as his teachers and bosses, are growing tired of it. Parker also has to deal with The Daily Bugle - the newspaper he works freelance for - constantly smearing Spider Man. Mary-Jane has become so sick of his excuses that she has found a boyfriend, John Jameson, an astronaut, who is actually the son of the owner of the newspaper, J. Jonah Jameson. Peter is finally fired from one of two jobs, as a pizza delivery boy.
Since the death of Norman Osborn, Harry Osborn is now in charge of Oscorp, which is funding the scientific research of Dr. Otto Octavius, a nuclear physicist. Harry arranges for Peter to interview Otto and the two science buffs soon strike up a strong friendship. Octavius's dream is to harness nuclear fusion, a feat which has yet to be accomplished. With funding from Oscorp, Dr. Octavious sets up a reactor and prepares to demonstrate it to the press, disregarding Peter's concerns about possible flaws concerning the machine's safety. Since the reaction will in essence create a small sun, Octavious has outfitted himself with a harness set of four mechanical arms with tripod pincers each, a video eye in the palms and the flexibility of tentacles, hence the later nickname Doctor Octopus. They are, Octavius explains, impervious to electricity and magnetism. These arms are linked into Octavius's spinal cord so that they can be controlled by his brain, also but have a certain amount of artificial intellegence of their own. They are controlled with an 'inhibitor chip' to keep them from taking over Octavius's brain.
The fusion experiment is actually set up in an open room, in which a small amount of tritium is lanced with lasers until it explodes into something like a small sun. Octavius, proudly proclaiming "The power of the sun - in the palm of my hand", uses the mechanical arms to control the reaction. It stabilizes, and a readout says that it is putting out surplus energy in the megawatt range. It appears, at first, that a safe, sustainable fusion reaction has been produced, but suddenly the small sun flares up. Octavius, saying it is "just a spike" attempts to control it, but it flares up higher and begins sucking and incinerating up things made of metal (except, of course, for Octavius's arms, designed to be immune to magnetism). Spectators quickly evacuate the room, and as the reaction gets stronger and more dangerous, Peter Parker, there on photographic duty, transforms into Spider Man and pulls the plug. Unfortunately, a steel window frame has bent so far that the glass shatters and kills Octavius' wife Rosalie. Octavius witnesses her death in horror before is electrocuted as the reaction shuts down. He is then sent to the hospital.
There, doctors prepare to saw off the metal arms, which have been fused with Octavius's spinal cord. However, the arms animate themselves while Octavius is still unconscious, and lash out at the doctors. The doctors struggle to fight back but are killed in what is probably the most brutal scene in the movie. Octavious wakes up, realizing what had happened and escapes, fleeing down to the waterfront. He finds refuge in an abandoned wreck where he recalls the events. He is devastated at the loss of his wife, and realizes that the arms are not only fused to his body but, due to the inhibitor chip's destruction, have partial control of his brain. He ponders while his mechanical arms start corrupting his mind and he finally decides to rebuild his fusion experiment, since this dream is all he has left. However, financing is a pressing problem; one for which his arms have a ready solution.
Meanwhile, Peter Parker is assigned by the Daily Bugle to cover a party in honor of an astronaut who is J. Jonah Jameson's son (to whom Mary Jane Watson is later revealed to be engaged). When Peter discovers this at the party, he tries to explain his absence to Mary Jane's play but she berates him, dismissing him as an "empty seat".
The personal troubles multiply when Peter and Aunt May's loan application is denied by the bank. Coincidentally, Doctor Octopus arrives at the bank to rob it, forcing Peter to change into Spider-Man to confront him. The confrontation escalates when Otto taking Aunt May hostage to make his escape, and Spider-Man has his first battle with Otto to save her. The fight takes the trio to the walls and ledges of high-rise buildings, where Aunt May provides some timely assistance which allows Spider-Man to save her and drive Doc Ock away with a minimal amount of loot. Aunt May's original feelings for Spider-Man change and she now realizes that he is a hero.
The internal conflicts within Peter cause his powers to become highly erratic and prone to failure at the most inopportune times. This leads him to think about his problems with Mary Jane, Harry Osborn, Aunt May and his responsibility as Spider-Man. When he starts thinking about Uncle Ben's words ("with great power comes great responsibility"), he wonders whether he made the right decision in choosing this life.
Peter soon decides that the stresses caused by his double life as a superhero are too much for him. In an alley, he discards his Spider-Man costume in the trash, declaring himself to be Spider-Man "no more". With Spider-Man no longer a burden, he begins to rediscover himself as ordinary Peter Parker, and his focus (as well as his grades in school) improves - except for his myopia. He also finally attends Mary Jane's play, to her surprise. In addition, Peter finally confesses to Aunt May the truth about the criminal who killed Uncle Ben and how Peter's moment of selfishness allowed him to do that. Aunt May is profoundly shaken at this revelation.
However, for all of his new freedom, Peter finds himself feeling unfulfilled with crime skyrocketing in New York City and the urge to intervene becomes increasingly difficult to resist. This culminates when he discovers a burning tenement building, and despite his faded powers and no costume, he is compelled to enter the building to rescue a trapped child. Peter is successful, but discovers that another person died in that building, a person he might have rescued if he were Spider-Man. Later, he visits Aunt May, who is in the process of moving out of her foreclosed home to a small apartment. She tells Peter that she forgives him on account of his brave willingness to confess, and tells him that there is a need for heroes of such bravery.
Then, Harry Osborn is visited by Doc Ock. Knowing how much Harry wants revenge against Spider-Man, Doc Ock and Harry make a deal to have Spider-Man at the Osborn mansion by three P.M. in return for the tritium which Ock needs to complete his experiment. The next day, Mary Jane meets up with Peter and asks him if he truly loves her (as she needs to know before she gets married to her fiancé). Peter is obliged but eventually denies and Mary Jane, with a sense that he is lying, asks Peter to kiss her. As they are about to touch each other's lips, Peter's spider-sense goes off and he dives with MJ to the floor in time to avoid a thrown car crashing into the cafe. Doctor Octopus appears with an ultimatum to Parker: "Bring Spider-Man to me or I'll peel the flesh off her bones" (referring to Mary Jane). Slamming Peter against a wall, he carries Mary Jane off to his hideout.
Peter later finds that his abilities have returned to full power with his sense of determination and purpose to save MJ. Stealing the Spider-Man costume from J. Jonah Jameson (who had acquired it from a man who had found it), Peter rushes to challenge the doctor. This leads to an intense battle between Spidey and Doc Ock on a subway train. Towards the end of the battle, Doc Ock sabotages the train and leaves Spider-Man to save the passengers aboard the runaway cars. Spider-Man, using wit and strength, manages to slow down the train before it runs off the unfinished tracks. After he regains consciousness from the strain of pain and exhaustion, he realizes that he has lost his mask and his identity is revealed to its passengers as "only a kid". Something Peter had never expected happens when his mask is returned to him and the entire group in the subway train swears to keep his identity secret. Suddenly, Doc Ock returns, disgusted at his foiled plan, and captures Spidey despite the passengers' attempts to prevent it.
Doc Ock returns Spider-Man's bound body to Harry Osborn (already in a drunken stupor over his hatred for Spidey). In a mix of revenge and triumph, Harry, with his father's knife, pulls the mask open to reveal Peter Parker. Osborn is shell-shocked at the fact that his own best friend had killed his father, Norman Osborn. But before he can take action, Peter regains consciousness and breaks free from his bonds before begging Harry to tell where Doc Ock is as he has kidnapped Mary Jane.
Doc Ock returns to the crumbling laboratory with Mary Jane as his prisoner. He fashions a larger fusion reactor that will magnetize and destroy half of New York City. Spider-Man arrives too late to stop the machine's activation and battles Doc Ock for the final time. When he defeats the scientist, Peter unmasks himself and tells the scientist to stop the machine. Meanwhile, MJ sees this conversation and finally knows for sure that Peter is Spider-Man and understands everything that had happened in the past. As Octavius fights the artificial intelligence of his mechanical tentacles to regain his sanity, he realizes and tells Peter that the only way to stop reactor is to sacrifice himself. And he does so by regaining control of his mechanical arms and using their strength to send the laboratory (with the reactor) into the river. Otto Octavius apparently drowns while Peter and MJ escape from the ruins. The scene concludes with Peter explaining his secret life Mary Jane as they rest on a spider's web high above the street.
Back at the Osborn mansion, Harry is visited by a hallucination of his dead father in a mirror, much in the same way that the Green Goblin periodically appeared to Norman. He urges Harry to get revenge on Peter Parker/Spider-Man. In denial because Peter is his best friend, Harry breaks the mirror and discovers a secret part of the house. Entering the room to investigate, Harry realizes that this was his dead father's secret base, which houses a duplicate of the Green Goblin's costume, equipment and arsenal. Harry also finds the serum which was the origin of the Green Goblin.
The next day, Mary Jane calls off her marriage to John Jameson and leaves him at the altar, and as she arrives at Parker's apartment, both Mary Jane and Peter Parker declare their love for each other. Peter assures her that there will be dangers in the relationship but Mary Jane accepts anyway, telling him that she wants to share the dangers with him. As they kiss, police sirens are heard and MJ encourages Peter to respond to the emergency ("Go get 'em, Tiger"). As Spider-Man with a renewed sense of purpose, Parker then swings through New York to answer the call for help. Meanwhile, Mary Jane stays behind, accepting of her love's path, but apprehensive of the potential danger both will be facing in the uncertain future.
In its first six days, Spider-Man generated a record $180 million at the US box-office, which is a record as of 2004. It generated $88 million at the box office in its first week of sale.
The general critical reaction to the film was almost unanimously enthusiastic, with the general opinion that the film is superior to the original, possessing a dramatic power and emotional content that many summer blockbusters lack. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a rating of 93%, based on 195 reviews.
The film received excellent critical reviews from the following newspapers: Baltimore Sun, Chicago Sun-Times, Dallas Observer, Entertainment Weekly, Miami Herald, Newsweek, The Onion, Premiere, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, Variety, Portland Oregonian, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times, Slate, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Austin Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, The Globe and Mail The New York Daily News, The New York Post, Rolling Stone Magazine
The following publications have given the film good reviews: Film Threat, LA Weekly, Los Angeles Times, TV Guide, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Philadelphia Inquirer, ReelViews, Chicago Reader, New York Magazine, Charlotte Observer
The New Yorker rated it as average while Salon.com and Village Voice rated it as poor.
The soundtrack for Spider-Man 2 has reached the top 10 of the US album charts and has also reached the top 40 of the Australian album charts. "Vindicated" by Dashboard Confessional reached the top of a world composite soundtrack chart in June 2004 and the top 20 of a composite world and US modern rock chart. "Ordinary" by Train has also reached the top 20 of the US adult top 40 singles charts. "I Am" by Killing Heidi has been added to the Australian version of the soundtrack and has been released as a single in the country. "I Am" debuted at #16 on the charts on 19 July 2004.
The track listing for the US version of the soundtrack is:
On the Australian version of the soundtrack, "I Am" by Killing Heidi appears as Track 17 and is a single.
Allmusic.com best tracks are "Hold On", "Someone to Die For" and "Spidey Suite".
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