The Spider-Man: No Way Home Bridge Fight Was Originally Absurdly Long
Warning: this article contains spoilers for "Spider-Man: No Way Home."
"Spider-Man: No Way Home" slayed at the box office, pandemic be damned. The film is still playing, but now that it's been out for a while, we're getting some of the details behind the making of the film that has been kept as much under wraps as it could be in the age of social media. One fun fact is that the bridge scene where Peter Parker (Tom Holland) as Spider-Man takes on Doc Ock (Alfred Molina) was originally a whole lot longer than the one we saw in the finished film.
If you recall, Peter's identity has been discovered, and he's been blamed for the death of Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) at the end of "Spider-Man: Far From Home." Peter goes to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to get him to do a spell to make everyone forget Spider-Man's identity. He keeps changing who he wants to actually remember him, and the spell goes all wonky on them, opening up the multiverse. This brings in villains and heroes from other universes (and other Spider-Man films), including Doc Ock, who knows that the webslinger is Peter Parker. This is the scene where Doc realizes that this isn't his Peter Parker.
'Hello Peter'
"Spider-Man: No Way Home" visual effects supervisor Kelly Port did an interview with Before and Afters (via The Direct) where the bridge sequence was discussed and it was revealed that it was much longer than what ended up on the screen. Port said:
"Digital Domain was tasked with doing that sequence, which was a few hundred VFX shots. Also, the Digital Domain previs team did the previs for the whole movie, which was really cool, led by Matt McClurg. They just did such a great job. There's so many cool iterations of that sequence that will never see the light of day. It was way longer. At one point in its longest iteration, it was 15 minutes long."
The scene, we learn, was shot in a purpose-built backlot in Atlanta. Port explained:
"We shot in Atlanta at Trilith Studios, which was called Pinewood Atlanta. It was a backlot pad that was made specifically for us. We had 40-foot bluescreens on three sides of that pad, a little bit of roadway with the exit where the assistant vice chancellor was exiting and where most of the action took place."
I'm very much hoping that when "Spider-Man: No Way Home" comes out on Blu-ray, we'll get to see what the original iterations were. "Spider-Man: No Way Home" is currently in theaters.