Plot
High-school senior Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) lives in Forest Hills, a quiet suburban neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, with his Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) and Aunt May (Rosemary Harris). He secretly loves Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), a warm-hearted girl next door, but is too shy to approach her. His best friend Harry Osborn (James Franco) is the son of Dr. Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe), president of the Oscorp manufacturing corporation, which is working to win a contract to supply weapons to the United States Army. On a field trip to a genetics laboratory, Peter is bitten by a genetically engineered spider. He passes out in his bedroom at home, and wakes to find that his vision is perfect, he has developed superhuman strength, his wrists emit web strings, and his reflexes are super-quick. At school, he saves Mary Jane from a split-second fall and easily defeats her bullying boyfriend Flash Thompson (Joe Manganiello) in a fistfight. Realizing that the spider's bite has given him spider-like powers, he trains himself to scale walls, jump between rooftops, and swing through the city.
Peter enters a wrestling tournament, hoping to win $3,000 so he can buy a sports car to impress Mary Jane. On the day of the tournament, Ben gives Peter some fatherly advice, most importantly the message "with great power comes great responsibility", but Peter lashes out at him. Peter easily defeats his opponent, Bonesaw McGraw ( Randy "Macho Man" Savage), but the fight promoter only gives Peter $100 for winning a match 1 minute earlier than he had to. When a thief robs the man, Peter takes his revenge by allowing the robber to escape. Later that night, Peter finds that his Uncle Ben has been shot by a carjacker. As his uncle dies, Peter learns of the thief's whereabouts through the police radios and pursues him using his powers. Peter catches up with the thief, only to discover that it was the man who robbed the wrestling arena earlier. Feeling responsible for Ben's death, and guilty for rejecting his advice, Peter dedicates himself to fighting crime as Spider-Man. He makes money by selling pictures of himself as Spider-Man to Daily Bugle newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons), who declares Spider-Man a menace to New York.
Meanwhile, under pressure from the military, Norman tests Oscorp's dangerous new performance-enhancing chemical on himself. The chemical manages to make him much stronger, but he quickly develops a maniacal alter ego, and immediately murders his assistant. Later, he has no recollection of the murder, and learns that a piece of Oscorp hardware, a small flying weapons platform called a "glider", along with a special suit to control it, were stolen. Soon afterwards, a costumed figure armed with the suit and glider attacks, killing the military liaison that pressured Norman, as well as several scientists working for Quest Aerospace, a competitor for Oscorp, allowing Oscorp to become the main supplier to the U.S. Army. Norman proudly announces this to Oscorp's board of directors, only to become enraged when told that they have fired him in lieu of a merger deal they've accepted with Quest Aerospace. At an Oscorp-sponsored fair, the same costumed figure attacks again, killing the directors. He almost kills Mary Jane, but Spider-Man manages to drive him away. After being saved by the superhero, Mary Jane begins to develop a crush on him and also becomes weary of her relationship with Harry.
Jameson dubs Norman's alter ego the "Green Goblin". After Spider-Man refuses the Goblin's offer to work together, Norman secretly discovers that Peter is Spider-Man. The Green Goblin attacks Aunt May's house, hosplitazing her. As they watch over May in the hospital, Mary Jane tells Peter she loves Spider-Man, and Peter expresses his own feelings for her. Harry sees them holding hands, and in an act of jealousy tells his father about their love for each other, revealing that Peter has feelings for Mary Jane. The Goblin lures Spider-Man to the top of the Queensboro Bridge by taking Mary Jane and a Roosevelt Island Tramway car full of children hostage. As he drops both Mary Jane and the children, the Goblin commands Spider-Man to choose which one he will save. Acting quickly, however, Spider-Man saves them both, with help from the people on the bridge and a barge on the river below, forcing the Goblin to take Spider-Man to an abandoned atrium. In a final battle, Spider-Man defeats the Green Goblin, forcing Norman to reveal himself. Norman tells Peter he tried to stop the violence the "Goblin" had caused. However, Norman attempts to kill Peter by sending his glider flying towards him but Peter dodges it, causing it to impale Norman. Norman tells Peter not to reveal his true identity to Harry, then dies.
Spider-Man removes the Goblin suit from Norman's body and then drops him at the Osborn's penthouse, but is spotted by Harry, who is left with the impression that Spider-Man murdered his father. At Norman's funeral, Harry swears to Peter that he will make Spider-Man pay dearly and avenge his father's death. Mary Jane confesses her love to Peter and kisses him, but Peter insists that they can only be friends, with him afraid that she would suffer further harm if Spider-Man's enemies knew that he loved her. Walking away from Mary Jane, who is now in tears yet also finds the kiss familiar afterward, he recalls Ben's words, "With great power comes great responsibility," and accepts his new life as Spider-Man.
Read more about this topic: Spider-Man (film)
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—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
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—E.M. (Edward Morgan)