One Marvelous Scene — Spider-Man: Homecoming

Hi, I’m Michael.

This is Lessons from the Screenplay.

A few weeks ago I was approached by Matt from Nando V Movies— like Nick Fury assembling a team of avengers— to be part of a video series by a group of creators where we all look at interesting scenes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

A link to the playlist of all these videos is in the description below, and will be at the end of the video as well.

As I thought about my favorite scenes in the MCU, my mind quickly went to the car ride scene in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

At first glance, this scene could be straight out of any high school comedy, especially since the film was intentionally modeled after the John Hughes high school comedies of the 80’s.

Peter, a nervous sophomore, is on the way to his first school dance with his date and her father.

"You alright, Pete?"

"Yeah."

But being in a superhero film, and following a huge revelation in the story, it is also a scene of real tension— three characters trapped in car, trying to hide some really big secrets.

So today I want to explore why the twist that sets the stage for the scene is so effective...

To examine how the characters’ secrets are teased out in a way that keeps the scene dynamic...

And to look at the importance of crafting clever obstacles to put in the way of your characters.

Let’s take a look at the car ride scene in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Throughout the first hour and twenty-seven minutes of the film, Peter’s relationship with Adrian—A.K.A. the Vulture—is very clear.

Peter wants to catch the Vulture...

“The guy with the wings is obviously the source of the weapons.

I gotta take him down.” ...Adrian wants to kill Spider-Man.

“I’m gonna kill him.” Superhero, villain.

Simple.

But when Peter arrives to take Liz to the homecoming dance, the simple hero-villain relationship quickly becomes complicated.

“You must be Peter.

I’m Liz’s dad.” This twist is a legitimate surprise, but it’s powerful because the audience immediately understands the implications.

The girl Peter has had a crush on the whole film is the daughter of his enemy.

We know that he is now in a difficult situation, and we immediately wonder what Peter is going to do.

“What are you going to do, Pete?” “What?” There are three characters in this scene, and their differing levels of knowledge is what creates the drama.

First, there is Peter, our protagonist.

Peter knows what the audience knows— that he is Spider-Man and that Adrian is the Vulture.

Adrian, the antagonist, knows that he is the Vulture, of course, but doesn’t know that he’s currently in the car with his mortal enemy.

And finally, Liz knows none of this.

She’s just in the car with her normal dad on the way to the homecoming dance with her normal date.

By the end of the scene, Liz will be unaware of what has unfolded and her role in it, but Adrian will have learned everything.

However his path of discovering Peter’s secret isn’t a straight line.

Instead the tension ebbs and flows, as there are moments when it seems Peter may escape the situation undetected.

Let’s walk through the beats of the scene.

“What are you going to do, Pete?” It begins innocently enough, Adrian is simply asking Peter what he’s going to do after high school.

“You guys that go to that school, you pretty much have your life planned out right?” But Liz’s interjection includes some intriguing information: “Peter has an internship with Tony Stark, so I think he doesn’t have to worry.” “Really?

Stark?

What do you do?” Peter tries to deflect by saying he doesn’t have the internship anymore, but this just creates more problems.

“Yeah. It got...boring.” “It was boring?

You got to hang out with Spider-Man.” “Really?

Spider-Man?

Wow. What’s he like?” Both Peter and the audience know the real reason Adrian is interested.

Peter tries to throw Adrian off the scent, emphasizing that Spider-Man is an adult and definitely not a sophomore in high school.

“Yeah he’s nice.

Nice man.

Solid dude.” The subject is dropped...

but now Adrian is onto an even more dangerous train of thought.

“I’ve seen you around right?

I mean, somewhere we’ve...

Because even the voice…” It’s clear that Adrian is starting to suspect something.

But here, Liz offers information that quells his suspicions.

“He does academic decathlon with me.” “Ah.” - “And he was at my party.” - “Ah.” Liz has given Peter an alibi.

If he was at Liz’s party, he couldn’t have been Spider-Man doing battle with Vulture.

“It was a great party.

Really great.

Beautiful house.

Lot of windows.” But in her innocence, Liz giveth and Liz taketh away.

“You were there for like two seconds.” “I was there for longer than two seconds.” “You disappeared.” “No, I did not disappear.” “Yes you did, you disappeared like you always do.

Like you did in D.C. too.” In any other situation Adrian would most likely confront Peter immediately, but the reason he doesn’t points to the final element of what makes this scene so fun.

“Look, so cute!” Liz is in the car.

Liz is at once the element that provides Adrian with the information to deduce Peter’s secret, and the obstacle that prevents both him and Peter from directly pursuing their goals.

Peter’s very last chance at an alibi in the scene would be to lie and say that he was in the elevator in D.C.

and was saved by Spider-Man, but Liz knows the truth, so he can’t.

“I actually didn’t go up.

I saw it all from the ground.” “Good ole Spider-Man.” We also know that Peter and Adrian care about Liz.

They’re not only hiding their secrets from each other, but from her.

So even once Adrian has figured out that Peter is Spider-Man, he can’t do anything about it in front of Liz.

Which is why in the next scene he sends Liz into the dance, and talks to Peter alone.

“You head in there, gumdrop.

I’m going to give Peter ‘the dad talk.’” In just a few pages, this scene has flipped the story on its head.

The antagonist has discovered our hero’s secret identity, and now has the upper hand.

And the scene is so fun to watch because all of this was revealed via subtext.

The presence of a clever obstacle forces the characters to subtly maneuver around it instead of throwing on their outfits and starting to punch each other.

On the surface it’s simply a father driving his daughter and her date to the homecoming dance, but underneath it’s a hero and villain doing battle while navigating a unique web of obstacles.

“Of all the reasons I didn’t want my daughter to date.” I love this scene because it takes the epic stakes of most Marvel films and squeezes them down to fit inside a single car.

It’s a great example of the tension that can be created when there are clever obstacles put in the way of the characters’ clearly-defined goals.

And in my opinion, it shows what the Marvel Cinematic Universe can be at its best— as this combination of high-school comedy and superhero battle is the kind of scene that could only happen in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

“Dude, you’re almost at a million subscribers!” “What?!” I love being on set, and we had a ton of fun shooting our previous video on Adaptation.

The whole team did a great job, and I learned a ton from spending four days in front of the camera for a change.

One of the most time-intensive aspects of the short was doing a visual effect that hopefully no one thought twice about.

All the computer screens had to be created digitally because we shot all them all with a blue screen on set.

This technique gives you a ton of flexibility in post, and is one of the many things that After Effects is great at.

If you’re interested in learning more about After Effects and what it can do, there are bunch of great tutorials available on Skillshare.

Skillshare is an online learning community with over 25,000 classes in design, film production, gaming and more.

So, for example, if you find yourself thinking, “I should really see what this After Effects program can do,” there are a ton of classes ready to teach you everything you need to know.

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Join the millions of students already learning on Skillshare and start learning today.

Thanks to Skillshare for sponsoring this video.

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