This video is sponsored by
Skillshare. Well, I make video essays about comic book movies on YouTube, so eventually we had to talk about -
Spider-Man Homecoming is one of my favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. It really is. I'm not joking. It's really funny
Tom Holland is a terrific Peter Parker
the score by Michael Giacchino is easily my favorite from the MCU and
the Dad talk is one of the best individual scenes in a recent comic book movie even though it includes this line.
Thank you Etri. All those nice things being said, there is something that bugs me about Spider-Man
Homecoming. This scene. The movie has no idea what to do with the Washington Monument rescue.
It doesn't move the story forward in a significant way, create any new problems, or teach anyone a meaningful lesson.
It's just an action scene. And yes, I'm aware that it does set up one very important plot point
but why does spider-man homecoming think the best way to get to Peter rescues Liz
involves a field trip to DC, Peter getting trapped in a vault, and Ned taking an alien battery onto a National Monument.
Peter doesn't get in any trouble for missing the decathlon
he doesn't learn any new information about the vulture, his crew, or the alien tech besides it's
dangerous, even though he doesn't really seem to learn that lesson later anyway, and he doesn't suffer any other consequences.
It's weird, and it becomes even more frustrating when you realize at what point in the story the Washington Monument
rescue takes place and what purpose it should be serving. And it is super important to note upfront that there are no hard and fast
rules of screenwriting. Most movies abide by the same general conventions, but they don't need to. That's completely up to the screenwriter.
However, it seems like Spider-Man Homecoming was attempting to work within a traditional framework
but I believe missed one very
important beat. The midpoint a midpoint is a plot point
Around the middle of a conventional screenplay where something changes. There is a shift in the dynamic of the story
the stakes are dramatically raised, main characters that have not met yet meet for the first time, a character gets new information, the
protagonists beliefs are challenged, and usually this leads to the protagonists goal and their approach achieving that goal
changing. They go from being a passive participant in the story to an active one.
A midpoint is important because of how a midpoint affects pacing and how it can help to define
character development. Black Panther is a great example of a well structured
screenplay with a particularly effective midpoint that hits all of these beats. For the first half of the movie
T'Challa is reacting to Klaw and by extension Killmonger
but at the midpoint he is forced to confront Killmonger for the first time, T'Challa's views are challenged when he learns that his
father T'Chaka
abandoned kill monger as a child, and then Killmonger
challenges T'Challa for the throne, defeats T'Challa, and throws him off the waterfall.
Now the main characters are forced to stop reacting to Killmonger, and start actively trying to solve the problem.
And of course they have a new goal - stop Killmonger. Everything changes at the midpoint.
I'm bringing this up because Spider-Man Homecoming does not have a midpoint, and it definitely could have used one.
Spider-Man Homecoming is a movie about Peter Parker trying to stop the Vulture pretty much from minute one. Peter foils the bank robbers and then he
goes after Shocker at the weapon sale, and then he tracks down the Vulture in DC, and they catch him on the ferry and then
they fight on the plane and Peter saves the day. Peter is always right
which means he does not need to change his approach to dealing with the Vulture or being Spider-Man, and that does not give Peter an
opportunity for any real growth. There need to be points in the story where Peters views are
challenged and he is forced to change his course of action. Learn new information, go from being reactive to proactive, and in a traditional
screenplay the best way to do that is with a midpoint.
Adding a midpoint that functions like a traditional midpoint functions, would have forced some character development into this movie.
We do get a mid movie action scene in the form of the Washington Monument rescue, but it doesn't fulfill any of the criteria
I previously mentioned, and in case you don't remember how this scene plays out, Ned takes the Chitauri
Battery thingy into the monument and, not to nitpick, not unlike my podcast Mostly Nitpicking, please subscribe
but what does Ned think will happen if the security guards see the battery on the scan and searches bags?
Will they be okay with him holding on to a piece of alien contraband? To be fair
a lot of stuff apparently gets by these guys
but still it's pretty dumb.
The x-ray machine also
makes the battery
unstable, and the battery causes an explosion that traps the students in a dangling elevator. Peter is forced to climb to the top of the
monument to save his friends. Is this a great action set piece? Absolutely. I love it
In fact, I love almost all of the action scenes at homecoming, but is it an effective midpoint?
Absolutely not. Does Peter get new information about the arms dealers? Not really.
He knows that they're robbing damage control, but that information isn't all that important going forward. Does Peter meet a new character?
Nope, you met the Vulture earlier. Are the stakes raised? Not really. the vulture now recognizes that Spider-Man is a problem
but that realization doesn't change his actions. He doesn't go looking for Spider-Man. Vulture just keeps doing what he's doing.
Does this change Peters goal in any way? No, he still wants to stop the vulture. are Peters beliefs challenged?
No, he still believes he can save everyone. It doesn't work.
This scene is supposed to be a crucial moment in Peter's character development and instead it's
nothing. It's just an action sequence, a good action sequence
But not anything remotely near what the movie needs at that point.
And I think there is a very simple change that can be made to Homecoming that fixes that issue. The Washington Monument
rescue should not be the midpoint of this story. It should come later.
But then, if the midpoint isn't in DC
where's the midpoint in Spider-Man Homecoming. When do things change drastically? When does our protagonist get new information?
When are the stakes raised? When can our protagonist and antagonist?
finally meet.
Well, this is the perfect midpoint of Spider-Man Homecoming it fulfills, or could fulfill, all the criteria
I mentioned before. And this is the first scene that literally and figuratively put Spider-Man in the middle of the action.
It's everything we need. So I want to walk through how moving the ferry scene would change the midpoint of this movie, outline a few
tiny changes in the beginning of the movie that you need to make to
facilitate this midpoint, and talk about how this change would affect the rest of Spider-Man Homecoming.
Let's start with those tiny changes. First
I would keep the Vulture largely absent from the first half of Spider-Man
Homecoming. Adrian is still leading what we will call Team Toomes, and it's clear that he's playing a larger part in his operation than the
movie is letting on. Maybe we can see bits of the vulture suit in the background of their hideout,
but I want to save the vulture reveal for the midpoint of the movie.
I am a big proponent of revealing information to an audience slowly, and if possible at the same time as our protagonist.
Especially if the reveal is going to surprise our protagonist.
I don't think having the Vulture be present in the beginning of the film adds all that much to the story.
You can keep him out of the action, and not change too much.
Vulture doesn't need to catch Spider-Man and toss him in the river during the first chase.
The chase can just end on its own. Maybe Shocker gets another hit on
Spider-Man, or Shocker causes some sort of disaster as a distraction which forces Spider-Man to let the thieves go. Make Spider-Man
curious about how they're getting the tech, but don't give them all the info. And Tony isn't forced to save Peter
we'll save those moments for later.
And if we're saving the DC scenes until after the midpoint
we don't need to worry about changing the second time Peter meets the Vulture, the damage control robbery, because that interaction just happens later.
So Peter foils the arms deal and he learns about Team Toomes.
He goes and tells Tony about them and Tony tells Peter that he'll take care of it. Then Peter backs off.
He doesn't pursue Team Toomes. He goes about his business as a kid in school.
Peter also
realizes that this suit does a lot of different things, and he should probably figure out what those are
so Peter tests out the suit on his own
Now instead of trapping Peter in the damage control bunker and forcing him to learn about his new suit
we can have a short scene where Peter tests the different suit functions just 'cause he's curious.
So then Peter hears something's going down on the ferry and hops on, and you may be asking if Peter isn't proactively pursuing Team
Toomes, why would he end up on the ferry in the first place? It's a pretty ridiculous coincidence to have Peter
also just happen to be on that ferry, although ridiculous coincidences are a cornerstone of the Spider-Man movies, good and bad.
But my best answer is that Peter or even Ned has built a device to scan for other weapons with a similar energy
Signature to the Chitauri egg, and one day it just happens to activate.
So yeah still a coincidence, but not as crazy as before
But if you have a better way to put Peter on the ferry without having him actively pursuing Team Toomes
please leave it in the comments. I would like to hear it. Once Peter gets on the ferry
he's able to ID Shocker to Schultz from the arms sale, and get ready to make the bust. And Spider-Man feels
completely prepared to handle the shocker.
He really only lost the first fight with Shocker because he wasn't expecting having to deal with the gauntlet
but if he knows the punches are coming, Spidey
can web up the gauntlet, and the Shocker isn't really a big deal, very similar to how the Shocker is
traditionally mismatched against Spider-Man in the comics.
So day saved, problem solved right? But then the Vulture rips through the van and attacks
Spider-Man, and because of how we've changed the rest of the movie, this moment becomes a huge deal.
This is the first time these two characters have met.
This is Peter
realizing that stopping these arms dealers is going to be way more dangerous than he thought, and Peter is going to try to stop the
Vulture. They fight on the ferry and their fight has the same result.
Disaster. Tony shows up in an Iron Man suit to save the day.
Let's play the end of this scene the same way we played the end of the first vulture encounter in the movie.
Tony isn't in the suit
he scolds Peter, tells Peter that law enforcement will take care of the vulture and takes Peter home.
But things have changed. Peter is determined. He cannot stay on the sidelines anymore.
We are at the point of no return.
Peter believes that the vulture is a threat that only a superhero can deal with. The FBI and other law enforcement
try to stop Vulture on their own, they might get hurt, and Mr. Stark doesn't seem all that interested in doing anything about it
so Peter feels responsible. And the vulture also creates new challenges.
He's way more dangerous than the Shocker or any of the other thugs Peter's been dealing with thus far. Vulture can fly, which makes him
an even more unique threat. Vulture also has more experience using the weapons than the other goons, and maybe most importantly
the ferry disaster has put Peter on Tony's radar, and Peter needs to go after the Vulture in secret.
Otherwise, he could risk getting arrested because he is breaking the Sokovia Accords. And yeah
technically the Accords apply specifically to Avengers, but Peter fought on Tony's side with the rest of the Avengers in Civil War.
Why wouldn't he have to play by the same rules as the other Avengers. And this interaction also shows Toomes that Spider-Man is a
serious threat and next time they meet Toomes needs to be ready to put him down.
And since we have this well-defined midpoint, the DC bit makes more sense as a continuation of Peter's new goal
actively pursuing the Vulture. Peter tracks down Aaron Davis finds out the Team Toomes is working on a heist in DC, and
deliberately goes on the trip in an effort to find the vulture, and it doesn't have to be an academic
decathlon trip, just a field trip. Peter sneaks away from the group and misses the Washington Monument tour
like in the movie. Or pretends to be sick and while he's sick, Peter goes after the Vulture. Peter manages to track down the vulture
pre-heist. This can be where he first sees Toomes' face.
Then Peter interrupts the Vulture's robbery of a damage control truck, but since Peter has already trained with his new webs
there's no real good reason for us to trap him in the damage control building. Instead
this will be the second big
Spider-Man v Vulture fight, and this fight is a little more even. There are some buildings in DC that Peter can swing down while
chasing the Vulture, and the Vulture could just fly up in a way, but Toomes wants to kill Spider-Man
since Spider-Man keeps interfering in his plans. And this scene ends with Spider-Man and Vulture's fight moving towards the National Mall.
Spider-Man gets a good hit on Vulture, which damages Vulture's wings but in the process somehow also damages the Washington Monument.
Spider-man goes to save the people in and near the monument
Vulture uses this as an opportunity to escape, and then this kicks off the monument sequence. And by swapping the ferry and
monument scene we aren't just escalating the tension by raising the stakes
we're escalating the tension by raising the Spider Man. Over the course of the movie, as Peter
continues to pursue the Vulture, Peter ends up in higher and more precarious situations. First
he's standing on a ferry. Then, he's swinging around the city.
Then he's swinging around the Washington Monument, and then he's hanging off a plane.
The challenges Peter needs to beat are getting more dangerous as the story progresses, and this is
represented by how high Peter is off the ground. So look where we are.
Now the Washington Monument sequence is the natural next step of the plot.
Peter uses a class trip as an excuse to fight a villain, which inadvertently
puts his classmates in harm's way. Peter feels responsible for almost getting everyone killed, and now Ned who is
Previously on Peters side, is angry at Peter and their relationship is strained.
This makes Ned's return when Peter is fighting Shocker two a little more meaningful. And now on top of all of that Peter goes home
and who does he find there
but Tony. Peter gets his suit taken away because he disobeyed Tony's orders and put people in danger.
Peter is at his lowest point possible. Until, Peter learns that the Vulture is Liz's father and is threatened by Toomes.
Then he's at his lowest point, and now Peter has a big choice to make. Follow Mr. Stark's advice
have a normal, fun dance and be happy or
sacrifice that happiness to continue the path he has been on since the midpoint, to do what he believes is right.
Oh, and I've got one more tiny change, but first a message from our sponsors.
Like I said in the beginning this video is sponsored by Skillshare.
Skillshare is an online learning community with over 20,000 classes in things like video editing, design, business
technology, and more. Premium Membership gives you unlimited access to high-quality classes on must know topics, so you can improve your skills
unlock new opportunities, and do what you love. And I've said this before, but I think
video editing for Premiere Pro for beginners by Jordy Vandeput is a great way to learn about how to make videos like this.
Jordy does a great job of walking you through the basics of using premier
which happens to be what I edit on. Skillshare is also super affordable. An annual subscription is less than
$10 a month, and you can join the millions of students already learning on Skillshare today with the special offer just for you, guys
get two months of Skillshare for free. To sign up, visit the link in the description and, the first
500 visitors get two months of unlimited access to over 20,000 classes for free. Act now and start learning today.
So I had one other small problem with Spider-Man Homecoming that has to do with the airplane finale.
Here's the problem. Peter being there makes the situation a million times worse. Vultures plan seems to be to fly over to the
autonomous plane, because why bother putting anyone on your plane to keep an eye on the most important objects on the planet. Anyway, Vulture flies
over to the plane, uses those magic marbles that we will never see again
even though they are incredibly useful to enter the plane, then vulture clones the planes transponder
signal and
launches a drone with the same signal to trick Stark's computers into thinking the plane is going where the drone goes. And then Toomes
reroutes the plane
I assume to some
hideout of his where Toomes and whatever goons he has left, will steal all the weapons and arc reactors and things like that.
Now, let's say Peter escapes the rubble, and Toomes' plan goes perfectly. Toomes
and his friends are selling these things out of the back of a van.
They don't know Thanos or anything like that.
If Peter tells Tony about Toomes, Tony can easily track down Toomes and get everything back pretty
much immediately. Instead Peter sneaks onto the plane, and gets in a fight that ends with the plane crashing into Coney Island
very nearly killing a bunch of people, and it only crashes because in their fight, Toomes and Peter destroyed both
turbines on the wing of the plane, one of which is completely Peters fault.
So this entire crash could have probably been avoided if Peter did what Tony said. And all of Peters
development thus far, and all this guilt, and everything
he has learned, would suggest that the right course of action in the finale is to do what he has to do, and not rely
on Tony Stark. However, the movie sets up a situation where that's the wrong thing to do.
So I would change Toomes' plan a little bit, and I would have Toomes explained it to Peter in their meeting.
So what are you gonna do? Ah, just one more job.
Stark's moving some of his toys tonight. if we can steal just one, we'll be set for life.
But if you steal something Stark will know it's missing. He'll find you.
Yeah, well the crash will make such a mess. You won't notice anything missing. You're gonna crash his plane.
You'll put innocent people in danger. Maybe, but I need to do this Pete. To protect my family.
Why are you telling me this. Because, I want you to understand what I do for them. Now, Peter does not have a choice.
He needs to stop Toomes immediately or Toomes could crash Stark's plane faster than Stark could respond.
And now if the end goal was a random crash, it isn't as big of a deal when the plane
actually crashes and it's Peters fault, since a crash would have happened whether Peter was there or not. And at least Peter was able to
bring the plane down safely in an area that's not full of people.
This change sets up a
problem that Peter needed to solve the way he did, and not what the movie gives us, a big dumb plane
disaster that proves Tony's point. Thank you to everyone who continues to support the channel on Patreon.
You guys are the best. If you want to see your name up here, get access to videos early, other cool stuff,
throw in literally any amount of money at patreon.com/nandovmovies. Really it means so much to me
it's so cool that all of you guys support the channel. I love talking to you guys
there, showing you the videos, getting your feedback. It's really cool.
Also subscribe to my podcast, Mostly Nitpicking. Every week, me and my co-host DJ pick apart a piece of pop culture by looking
exclusively to details. We've done Shazam. We did Captain Marvel. We're gonna do Hellboy and Endgame when that comes out.
We also have restarted our mini show
After After the Thrones. Every week, me, DJ, and good friend of the show, Chris Diggins, recap an episode of Game of Thrones.
The title of the show is a joke based on a show that used to exist, but no longer exists
but whatever it's called After After the Thrones. If you subscribe to Mostly Nitpicking, that'll just show up in your feed.
So if you enjoy Game of Thrones
I'd give that a listen to where everywhere podcasts are found and we're at Nitpicking Pod on Twitter.
I'm sure you guys have noticed that I have a brand new logo, which is so cool.
I really want to give a big thank you to Michael Pento who designed the logo and has been working with me for the last
month or so on it. Follow him on Instagram. He's peanutfreepanda, like the bear, and tell him how much you love the logo
it's super cool. Last thing, follow me on Twitter, twitter.com/nandovmovies.
It's where you can get updates on the podcast, and videos, and other cool stuff. Also, next video is gonna be a little different
I'm so excited about it. Look out for that next week. That's all I got. I'll see you next time.