The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel Entertainment, Arad Productions, Inc., Matt Tolmach Productions, and Ingenious Film Partners, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, the film was directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Jeff Pinkner, based on a story conceived by the three alongside James Vanderbilt.

It is the fifth theatrical Spider-Man film, the sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), and the final film in The Amazing Spider-Man series.

The film stars Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, alongside Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Campbell Scott, Embeth Davidtz, Colm Feore, Paul Giamatti, and Sally Field.

In the film, Peter Parker tries to protect his girlfriend Gwen Stacy as he investigates his parents’ death while also dealing with the supervillain Electro and the return of his best friend, Harry Osborn, who is dying from a deadly genetic disease.

Development of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 began after the success of The Amazing Spider-Man. DeHaan, Giamatti, Felicity Jones, and Chris Cooper were cast between December 2012 and February 2013.

Filming took place in New York City from February to June 2013. The film was released in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D on May 2, 2014, in the United States with two international premieres being held between March 31 and April 10 of that year.

It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the chemistry between Stone and Garfield, action sequences, visual effects, and Hans Zimmer’s musical score, but criticized the screenplay and overabundance of plotlines.

Foxx’s portrayal of Electro was met with mixed responses. Critics also deemed it inferior to its predecessor. It grossed $709 million worldwide, making it the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2014.

The Amazing Spider-Man series was originally intended to continue with at least two more sequels and several spin-offs, most notably films centered on Venom and the Sinister Six.

In February 2015, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios initiated a deal to share the Spider-Man film rights and reboot the character within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), cancelling future projects in The Amazing Spider-Man film series.

Tom Holland would succeed Garfield as Peter Parker / Spider-Man beginning with Captain America: Civil War (2016), while a new standalone film titled Spider-Man: Homecoming would release on July 7, 2017, followed by its sequel Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 2, 2019, both as part of Phase Three in the MCU.

Both Garfield and Foxx reprised their roles in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), linking this film to the MCU using the concept of the multiverse.

He and his wife Mary Parker try to flee aboard a private jet but is hijacked by an assassin. The jet crashes, killing the couple.

In the present, two years after his battle with Dr. Curt Connors, Richard and Mary’s son, Peter, continues to fight crime as Spider-Man and apprehends Russian criminal Aleksei Sytsevich.

Due to Peter’s reservations about his relationship with his girlfriend Gwen Stacy since making a vow to her late father to stay away from her, Gwen ends their relationship after their high school graduation.

Peter’s childhood friend, Harry Osborn, returns home to see his terminally sick father, Norman Osborn, CEO of Oscorp. He explains that his illness is genetic and Harry is at the age where it first develops.

Norman dies, and Harry is appointed the new CEO. While working in an Oscorp laboratory, mild-mannered electrical engineer Max Dillon accidentally shocks himself and falls into a tank of genetically engineered electric eels.

They attack him and he mutates into a living electric generator. Meanwhile, Gwen tells Peter that she may move to England if she earns a scholarship to Oxford University.

Unaware of the extent of his power, Dillon wanders into Times Square, accidentally causes a power outage, and is stopped by Peter, as Spider-Man. Dillon is taken to the Ravencroft Institute, where German scientist Dr. Ashley Kafka studies him.

Meanwhile, the first symptoms of Harry’s illness are showing, and he uses information Norman gave him to deduce that Spider-Man’s blood could save him.

He asks Peter, who has been selling photos of Spider-Man to the Daily Bugle, to aid him in finding Spider-Man. Peter is unsure of what effects the transfusion would have and is wary of the possibility of Harry suffering a mutation similar to Dr.

Connors. He later refuses Harry as Spider-Man, angering him. Oscorp vice president Donald Menken frames Harry for covering up Dillon’s accident, removes him as CEO, and takes control of Oscorp.

Harry proposes a deal with Dillon, who now calls himself “Electro”, to get back inside the Oscorp building. Electro agrees and kills Dr. Kafka. Upon returning to Oscorp, Harry finds the venom from the now-destroyed genetically altered spiders.

However, after he forces Menken to inject him with the venom, it accelerates his illness and turns him into a goblin-like creature, but the built-in emergency protocol in an armored suit restores his health.

Meanwhile, Peter finds his father’s secret lab in an abandoned subway station and learns that he had to flee because he refused to cooperate with Norman’s plans to make biogenetic weapons with his research.

He also discovers that his father used his own DNA when he made the spiders, so Oscorp cannot recreate them without his blood. After leaving the lab, Peter discovers that Gwen was offered the scholarship.

He professes his love for her, and they agree to go to England together. When Electro causes another power outage, Peter and Gwen restore power and overload Electro’s body, killing him.

Harry, as the Green Goblin, arrives equipped with Norman’s weaponry. Upon seeing Gwen, he deduces Spider-Man’s secret identity and swears revenge for being refused the blood transfusion, taking her to the top of a large clock tower.

Peter manages to subdue the Goblin but is unable to save Gwen, who falls to her death. Guilt-ridden and depressed, Peter ends his career as Spider-Man.

Five months later, Harry is coping with the aftereffects of his transformation while being imprisoned at Ravencroft. His associate, Gustav Fiers, visits him and the pair discusses forming their own team.

Harry orders Fiers to start with Sytsevich, whom he helped escape from prison. Equipped with an electromechanical suit of armor, Sytsevich dubs himself the “Rhino” and rampages through the streets.

Peter, re-inspired after watching Gwen’s graduation speech, returns to confront him as Spider-Man.