It's Time To Talk About That Spider-Man Farewell Scene In No Way Home
Spoilers ahead for "Spider-Man: No Way Home"
"Spider-Man: No Way Home" continues to conquer the box office as it moves toward the one-week mark after its original release on Friday, December 17. Fans have responded well to the new release; "No Way Home" has a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of an incredible 99%. Additionally, the threequel has earned an A+ CinemaScore and is currently blowing away the box office with a worldwide gross of $751.3 million at the time of writing (via Box Office Mojo).
"No Way Home" sees the return of Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin and Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus from the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man universe. We also see Jamie Foxx's Electro, Rhys Ifans' Lizard, and Thomas Haden Church's Sandman from the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man universe. These villains invade the MCU after Tom Holland's Peter Parker interferes with Doctor Strange's (Benedict Cumberbatch) attempt spell to make everyone forget Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Instead, the spell brings those who know Peter Parker and Spider-Man are the same person into the MCU, even if they don't live in the MCU. After failed attempts to help the villains, Green Goblin kills Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). Soon after, MJ (Zendaya) and Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) accidentally bring Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) and Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) into their universe after an attempt to contact Holland's Peter.
At the end of the film, Ned, MJ, Doctor Strange, and all three Spider-Men are able to finally defeat the Goblin. However, the cost is too great with the broken spell from earlier. The only way for Doctor Strange to prevent more people from invading the universe is an idea from Holland's Peter: Make sure everyone — including the people he loves — forgets he existed. The farewell that follows is brutal, and it's time we talked about that heartbreaking scene.
Holland's Peter Parker loses his best friends
After making peace with Doctor Strange, Tom Holland's Peter has to do one of the hardest things a hero could ever do. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.)'s sacrifice as Iron Man is as selfless a decision as it gets, but at least the world and his loved ones remember his legacy. With Holland's Peter, the closest thing that he has to found family is Ned and MJ. Not only does he have to leave them, but they aren't even allowed to remember him ever being a part of their lives. It's so brutally heartbreaking and one of the most selfless acts we've seen in the MCU to date.
In "Spider-Man: No Way Home," we see Holland's Peter explain the spell to Ned and MJ. Tears are shared. Ned hugs Holland's Peter one last time, while Peter kisses MJ as she tells him that he must find them afterward and explain everything. Based on events in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and "Spider-Man: Far from Home," Ned has been Peter's only best friend for years. He is the first person to know Peter is Spider-Man, the one person who helps him take on Vulture (Michael Keaton), and happily takes the role of "the guy in the chair" while Peter is out in the field.
Also, Peter only recently discovers MJ is the love of his life. They are still getting to know one another and develop an awkward romance during "Spider-Man: Far from Home. Considering the events of "Spider-Man: No Way Home" take place immediately after the sequel, they're likely still just falling in love with each other. MJ saying "I love you" to Peter at the end of the movie before she forgets him is the first time she's ever said it.
It ends up being the exact opposite of what Peter wants
The irony is what hurts the most with Tom Holland's Peter, considering just how quickly his good intentions sour in the first act of "Spider-Man: No Way Home." Everything that led to the events of the film comes from Peter simply wanting to let his friends be able to live a normal life without suffering the consequences of his actions as a superhero. Ned and MJ aren't able to get into MIT because of the controversy over Peter's actions as Spider-Man, and so he goes to great lengths to get rid of that issue for them — even resorting to magic. The reason the spell goes wrong in the first place is that Peter still wants his friends to know his true self as Peter Parker and Spider-Man, making the consequences of them not knowing him at all anymore even more brutal.
In the end, Peter truly does end up succeeding in his effort to not further impact their lives in a negative way or at great cost — especially because it doesn't stop getting harder. Ned and MJ only know each other through Peter. So, after Doctor Strange's second spell succeeds, they no longer have a relationship. At the end of "No Way Home," we see Peter find them both in the diner where MJ works, ready to tell them everything — but they seem relatively happy, heading to MIT as planned. In Peter's mind, he likely reasons that revealing who he is would only make their lives harder, so it's best to keep it to himself for now; they've been through enough.
The farewell proves Tony Stark right about who he knew Peter to be
In "Spider-Man: Homecoming," the first time we see Tom Holland's Peter Parker try to solve problems on his own, he makes plenty of mistakes that require the assistance of Tony Stark. One particular scene sticks in the mind of many fans, and that's the conversation where Tony takes Peter's suit away because, as he states, "If you're nothing without this suit, then you shouldn't have it." Just moments before, Peter explains he is just trying to be like Tony, to which he responds, "And I wanted you to be better." It's incredibly powerful and likely establishes the mindset of Holland's Peter Parker moving forward, all the way through "Spider-Man: No Way Home."
Tony leads by example in "Avengers: Endgame," and it's this example that leaves Peter devastated and fumbling to figure out how he would move on without him throughout "Spider-Man: Far from Home." There's no question that what Peter can do by the end of "Spider-Man: Far from Home" for the sake of those he loves and the world would have made Tony as proud as ever because he is finally able to honor the "I wanted you to be better" line.
By the time this "No Way Home" farewell scene rolls around, Holland's Peter has suffered unimaginable loss. He loses his parents when he is just a toddler, his mentor and surrogate father dies saving the world, his aunt dies at the hands of a villain he was trying to help, he has to say goodbye to the only brothers-in-arms he's ever known, and now everyone that he has left forgets him completely. And yet, he embraces the weight and makes the hard choice because it is right, because he's Spider-Man.