- Total Gross: $821,708,551
- Distributor: Sony / Columbia
- Release Date: May 3, 2002
- Genre:Action/Adventure
- Running Time: 2 hrs. 1 min.
- MPAA Rating: PG-13
- Production Budget: $139 million
Cast:
Tobey Maguire - Spider-Man/Peter Parker
Willem Dafoe - Green Goblin/Norman Osborn
Kirsten Dunst - Mary Jane Watson
James Franco - Harry Osborn
2003 Academy Awards® :: 0 Wins out of 2 Nominations
Nominated: Best Visual Effects, Best Sound
Peter Parker is a high-school kid about to graduate when he is bitten by a genetically-enhanced super-spider. He develops extraordinary powers; great strength, heightened awareness, lightning reflexes and spiderlike abilities to climb and spin webs. At a crossroads in his life, he resolves to become Spiderman, a crime-fighting superhero. This is a great action blockbuster version of one of the most famous and beloved comic-books of all time - Stan Lee's Spiderman. A rather odd thing has just occurred in the life of nerdy high school student Peter Parker: after being bitten by a genetically modified spider, his body chemistry is altered mutagenically. He can now scale walls and ceilings, he has superhuman strength and super-fast reflexes, and he develops a precognitive sense that warns him of approaching danger. Adopting the name Spider-Man, Peter first uses his newfound powers to make money, but after his uncle is murdered at the hands of a criminal Peter failed to stop, he swears to use his powers to fight the evil that killed his uncle. At the same time, scientist and businessman Norman Osborn, after exposure to an experimental nerve gas, develops an alternate personality himself: the super-strong, psychotic Green Goblin! Peter Parker must now juggle three things in his life: his new job at a local newspaper under a perpetually on-edge employer, his battle against the evil Green Goblin, and his fight to win the affections of beautiful classmate Mary Jane Watson, against none other than his best friend Harry Osborn, son of Norman Osborn! Maguire gives an assured but atypical superhero performance, quiet and affable and completely lacking in pretension. Dunst is a great all-American girl, Dafoe is terrific as the schizophrenic villain, alternating between ambitious-but-cowardly scientist Norman Osborn and his depraved alterego, the Green Goblin.
