Tobey Maguire Risking His Life For a Heart-stopping Spider-Man 2 Scene Will Have Both Tom Holland and Andrew Garfield Bowing in Respect
It has already been two decades since Spider-Man 2 premiered. On June 30, 2004, Sam Raimi’s superhero masterpiece was released, and it did leave a mark. Tobey Maguire was back as the webslinger and his villain was the multi-armed Dr. Otto Octavius, aka Doc Ock. This film wasn’t just another entertainer, it changed the game for superhero films.
What made Spider-Man 2 special? Raimi did not just provide cool fighting sequences, although there were plenty of those too. He explored Peter Parker’s hardships, and it made the audience truly care about the man behind the mask. Moreover, the villain Doctor Octopus was a tragic figure, not just a random bad guy.
Sam Raimi Was Not a Big Fan of CGI
Sam Raimi did not just want to make a good film. He wanted to push the production limits, and he certainly did that. What Tobey Maguire had to do for one particular scene seems enough to make even the new Spider-Men, Tom Holland and Andrew Garfield bow in respect.
Raimi is not against CGI completely, but the director loves his practical effects. The iconic scene in the first Spider-Man where Parker catches all the foodstuff on the tray. No computer trickery was used there. It was just Maguire with his dedication, nailing it after 156 takes.
However, Raimi was at his best in Spider-Man 2. There is a scene when Peter Parker has temporarily lost his powers and has to go and save people from a burning building. Most filmmakers would just use visual effects to construct the fire situation, but not Raimi. He built a massive set on the Universal backlot and set it on fire for real.
The film crew used oxygen canisters to make the flames even bigger. It was like a controlled inferno, and Maguire had to run in and out of that burning building. No stunt double, no CGI, just Maguire risking his safety to get the perfect shot. Although there were safety measures in place, a real fire is not a CGI fire. One wrong move and things could’ve gone south real quick.
Apart from that, according to various reports, Raimi even used a real spider for the scene where Parker gets bitten by a radioactive spider and gets his powers. After being disappointed with the CGI of the scene, Raimi hired entomologist Steven Kutcher, who had used insects in various movies.
He picked a perfectly shaped spider and even painted it red and blue to match the Spider-Man theme, and Maguire had to perform multiple takes with it to get a perfect shot.
Stan Lee Was Not Happy With the CGI of Spider-Man
As much as the CGI and special effects of the Spider-Man movies were praised at the time, the creator of Spider-Man, Stan Lee himself was not too impressed at the beginning of the movie. However, there was a good reason for it.
Sam Raimi was very keen to introduce to Lee some footage of early CGI technology showing Spidey swinging around New York City. It really was just a pre-visualization of the scene, and the digital effects were not ready at the time but Lee did not get that. In an interview with Variety, Raimi revealed,
I’m looking at him, and he was like an uncle, you know? And he whispers in my ear, ‘That’s it?’ And then I realized he doesn’t know it’s pre-viz. He was new to the technology side of things. He was so disappointed! I almost cried! I said, ‘Stan, the world’s never seen anything like it.’ ‘Yeah, but it doesn’t look cool.’ I told him, ‘Don’t worry. It will be great.’
Raimi was upset after that. However, when Lee saw the final product, he had tears of joy in his eyes as he saw his creation come to life from comic book pages. It just goes to show how far CGI has come.
These days, viewers are used to seeing mind-blowing special effects. But back then, it was all new territory, and it was certainly new for Lee, as no earlier superhero movies had that level of CGI and special effects used. And credit goes to filmmakers like Raimi for pushing the boundaries that revolutionized the superhero movie genre completely.
This kind of commitment to realism is why Spider-Man 2 still holds up today. It’s got that raw, authentic feel that can’t be obtained with computers alone. That’s the reason that the recent re-release was such a hit, reportedly collecting over $800,000 in just 467 theaters.
The original Spider-Man trilogy is available on Disney+ and Prime Video.
