Arguably the two greatest on-screen Spider-Men are Tobey Maguire and Tom Holland. Andrew Garfield had the chops in The Amazing Spider-Man, but he was let down by Coldplay, spider-stalking, and a needless conspiracy surrounding Peter’s parents’ death. Maguire’s stint in Sam Raimi’s groundbreaking trilogy and Holland’s stint in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have given Spider-Man fans the two most satisfying takes on the role.
Nailing Peter’s personality as a sweet, naïve kid who just wants to do the right thing is much more crucial to playing Spider-Man than any of the physicality, but both Maguire and Holland’s movies have brought fans plenty of great action sequences.
Maguire: The Bank Heist In Spider-Man 2
In the middle act of Spider-Man 2, Doctor Octopus robs a bank to pay for another experiment. At the same time, Peter coincidentally happens to have brought Aunt May to the bank to discuss her finances. Peter quickly changes into his Spidey costume to thwart the heist, but Doc Ock takes May as a hostage.
After Doc Ock gets away with the cash, he tosses May from a skyscraper when he fights back. Spidey catches her and says, “We sure showed him.” She quips back, “What do you mean, ‘we’?”
Holland: The Staten Island Ferry In Homecoming
While Peter is investigating one of the Vulture’s arms deals on the Staten Island Ferry, some alien tech malfunctions and cuts the boat in half down the middle.
Spidey does everything in his power to hold the ferry together, but his webs start snapping and he’s barely holding on. Then, seemingly miraculously, the boat is saved. It turns out Iron Man has sent a bunch of robots to weld it back together.
Maguire: A Trolley Car Full Of Kids In Spider-Man
When Harry Osborn tells his dad that Peter is in love with Mary Jane, the Green Goblin figures out the perfect way to exploit Spider-Man. So, he kidnaps Mary Jane and also takes a Roosevelt Island trolley car full of kids hostage, then forces Spidey to choose which one to save.
Spidey manages to save both Mary Jane and the kids, then all the New Yorkers who support their local hero start taunting the Goblin.
Holland: Taking Down The Drones In Far From Home
Mysterio’s illusions turn out to be created by drones in Spider-Man: Far From Home. When Quentin Beck touts himself as a hero protecting London from a large-scale attack, Peter has Happy fly him over there in Stark’s jet.
He jumps from the plane in his new suit, having to remind himself that the chaos he’s soaring into is all make-believe, and takes down all the drones.
Maguire: Fighting The Green Goblin In Spider-Man
In the climactic scene of Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man movie, Spidey faces the Green Goblin for a final showdown. After the Goblin viciously beats Peter to within an inch of his life, Peter is shocked to discover that under the Power Rangers mask is Norman Osborn, his best friend’s dad and one of his own father figures.
Even after all the brutality inflicted on Peter, he refuses to kill Osborn, because that’s who Peter is. Ultimately, Osborn kills himself when he activates his glider to kill Peter, but Peter senses it just in time to jump out of the way.
Holland: Fighting The Vulture In Homecoming
Despite incessant urges to just leave the Vulture alone and let him keep running alien weapons, Peter ditches Liz at the homecoming dance to bring him down.
As the Vulture hijacks one of Tony Stark’s planes, Peter crashes it on the beach. Even after the Vulture has repeatedly tried to kill him, Peter still saves his life.
Maguire: Crane Malfunction In Spider-Man 3
The final battle in Spider-Man 3 is kind of an overstuffed mess thanks to the forced inclusion of Venom, although it has some surprisingly brutal moments, like Venom holding Spidey’s neck against a steel beam with a symbiote web.
The greatest action scene in Spider-Man 3 sees a crane malfunctioning and crashing into a skyscraper where Gwen Stacy is doing a photo shoot. Gwen falls from the office and Spidey traverses plummeting chunks of debris to save her.
Holland: Mysterio’s Mind Games In Far From Home
Some CGI-laden sequences in the MCU, like T’Challa’s fight with Killmonger in the vibranium mines in Black Panther, have been criticized for having lackluster effects. An example of truly impressive, state-of-the-art CGI in the same franchise is when Mysterio messes with Peter’s head.
Mysterio’s drones create a whirlwind of illusions around Peter, including being trapped in a giant snowglobe and attacked by a zombified Iron Man flying out of his grave to eat his brains.
Maguire: The Subway Fight In Spider-Man 2
The subway fight in Spider-Man 2 isn’t quite the climax of the movie, but it is the moment that best defines Peter Parker as a character. He does everything in his power to stop the train, no matter how much agony he has to endure, and when he can finally rest, he collapses and the passengers carry him into the train.
They get a look at the unmasked face of New York’s webslinging local hero and one of them says, “He’s just a kid. No older than my son.” It requires some suspension of disbelief, because Tobey Maguire was pushing 30 at the time, but the sentiment, that this anonymous superhuman with the weight of the world on his shoulders protecting an entire city is just a teenager driven to do the right thing, makes Spider-Man 2 the quintessential Spidey movie.
Holland: The Washington Monument Sequence In Homecoming
As Ned unwittingly takes volatile alien weaponry into the elevator of the Washington Monument, Spidey desperately races across the state to prevent a deadly explosion killing all his friends. He scales the side of the Washington Monument and faces down a police helicopter as he tries to break through the window and save his friends.
The whole sequence has a suspenseful ticking-clock element, while the shots from the top of the monument giving perspective to Spidey’s altitude are nail-biting (despite being almost entirely CG).
