Spider-Man: Far From Home
has been out for a month now. The final installment of the Infinity Saga concludes Marvel’s third MCU phase, while simultaneously teasing what may be in the works for MCU Phase 4. The film is entertaining and delivers plenty of epic Spider-Man scenes and action sequences that fans of Spider-Man will adore. It also does a great job of helping audiences move past the tragic end of Avengers: Endgame, and leave that emotional rollercoaster behind. However, all those post-Endgame feelings do bubble up and burst when it comes to Peter Parker.
We see the teenage superhero evolve well beyond his role of friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to something a lot more important. And yes, the film does explore the bigger picture of Endgame’s aftermath, giving us a brief glimpse of what the future looks like in 2023. But make no mistake, as light-hearted and fun as Far From Home is supposed to be, it does have a few huge plot holes when you take a step back to look at that bigger picture. And it turns out it might be all Marvel’s fault for not sharing the Endgame script with the Spider-Man 2 writers. If you haven’t yet seen it, beware because some major Far From Home spoilers follow below.
While the Far From Home writers were given the gist of Avengers 4, they weren’t allowed to see the details of the Endgame plot, and it really shows. “We weren’t privy to reading the script to Endgame,” writers Chris McKenna told Backstory Magazine (via ComicBook).
“Marvel keeps everything very close to the vest, but they told us what we needed to know in terms of the main plot points. We knew we were coming off an ending that would have huge repercussions for Peter. And as much as the mandate was, ‘Hey, we’re coming off a very serious, emotionally draining one-two punch of Infinity War and Endgame, let’s try to keep this fun,’ we also couldn’t deny that Peter had just lost his mentor and surrogate father and there would be a lot of questions about what kind of hero he’s going to be in this new landscape.”
Furthermore, Far From Home editors Dan Lebental and Leigh Folsom Boyd saw Endgame late in the process of making Spider-Man 2, which led Boyd to believe initially that everyone had died.
“They did show us Endgame early, but way into the process on this film,” Lebental revealed to The Hollywood Reporter in late June, forcing the Far From Home production team to make several adjustments.
Walking out of Far From Home, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed about the overall plot of the film, and particularly the fact that it does a poor job of fully addressing the implications of Endgame.
The first major issue I have with Far From Home is the existence of EDITH and the drones. Those drones could have played whatever small role in trying to fight Thanos’s army in Endgame. If not, there could have been a way to explain why the drones weren’t active at the time of the battle, and who took charge of developing the project without Stark. This is a huge plot hole for the MCU that deserves some retconning.
The other thing Far From Home fails to deliver is the reality of this brave new world. The blip brought everyone back and caused some seriously hectic problems, both on a personal level and when looking at the bigger picture.
With that in mind, we’re presented with a future that looks too similar to our own present time. The writers could have done a better job explaining this is 2023, but they might not have known how far ahead the MCU would move.
And you know what would seriously change in those five years? The way governments respond to threats. After what Thanos did in Infinity War, I’d like to believe that people on Earth would try to cook up defense mechanisms well beyond what was available in 2018. Think Tony’s drones. Think Wakanda’s tech mixed with state-of-the-art human-made weaponry. Think army forces always on standby and ready to intercept future threats.
By the way, I’ve been thinking about the same thing when it comes to Endgame. That final battle could have used whatever kind of army forces would have been available near the Avengers compound, and especially 2023 fighter jets. They may have been late to the game, but they would have proven that authorities around the world are ready, more than ever, for action against extraterrestrial forces.
But the authorities in Prague refuse to evacuate a city even when there’s a massive, credible threat looming. Forget the light show and run for the hills. Great Britain’s leadership doesn’t dispatch a fleet of fighters to shoot everything they have at Mysterio’s ultimate monster simulations. They’d be scared and they’d have no way of knowing if their missiles and bullets would work. But they would actually kill several of the drones generating the augmented reality BARF simulation. And they’d kill Mysterio’s sleight of hand as a result. Yet nobody other than Spider-Man tries to do anything.
Finally, there’s the whole Quentin Beck situation. Even if Maria Hill and Nick Fury aren’t the real deal, Mysterio’s real name should have raised a flag with others. “Wait, we also have a Quentin Beck on Earth-616; he worked with Tony Stark and was then fired. Was Tony a hero on your Earth too?” I mean, how is nobody paying attention to these details? This is a massive oversight from an intelligence force led by the resurrected Nick Fury. They’re building SWORD up in space, but can’t even perform background checks?
Just a few days ago I explained that an Avengers 5 might not drop in the next couple of years, but that movie is coming down the road. The Avengers are the glue that keeps everything in the MCU together, and that’s why all these plot and continuity issues matter. And while we do want Spidey to be on the lighter side of things — not that it can too light now that the world knows who Peter Parker is — these Spider-Man films should also help paint a bigger picture that’s a bit more realistic. Yes, we want a break from the Endgame heartache and suffering, but can we have some reminders about what just happened to the planet? You know, on top of all those Iron Man memorials.
What really got me thinking about all of this is Amazon’s The Boys TV series (trailer above), which explores a fictional Earth where superheroes are commercialized to the extreme, turning many of them into narcissistic, cynical people. But regular humans still try to stop the bad ones, in spite of not having a chance against them on paper. And that’s what seems to be missing from Far From Home: regular humans who’re ready to take action, in whatever small capacity, against a bigger threat than they can handle. You know, “Whatever it takes,” but without superpowers. Because as Thanos proved, superheroes can vanish with a snap of a finger. And then what do you do?
Had the writers of Far From Home known the entire Endgame plot, they might have considered making a few changes to the plot. But that didn’t happen, and that’s why Far From Home is ruined.
