In this section of our Colossus Movie Guide for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, we look at important motifs that help us understand the film.
Cast
- Miles Morales – Shameik Moore
- Jefferson Davis-Morales – Brian Tyree Henry
- Rio Morales – Luna Lauren Vélez
- Aaron Davis – Marershala Ali
- Gwen Stacy – Hailee Steinfeld
- George Stacy – Shea Whigham
- Peter B. Parker – Jake Johnson
- Miguel O’Hara (Spider-Man 2099) – Oscar Isaac
- Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman) – Issa Rae
- The Spot – Jason Schwartzman
- Pavitr Prabhakar (Spider-Man India) – Karan Soni
- Hobie Brown (Spider-Punk) – Daniel Kaluuya
- Ben Reilly (Scarlet Spider) – Andy Samberg
- Written by – Phil Lord | Christopher Miller | David Callaham
- Directed by – Joaquim Dos Santos | Kemp Powers | Justin K. Thompson
Important motifs in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
The Cakes
The opening scene with Miles involves a meeting with the school guidance counselor. Miles is, of course, late. So his parents, Jefferson and Rio, have to awkwardly sit with the guidance counselor. During this lull, the counselor gives a speech.
Counselor: You see, every person is a universe. And my job is to capture your person’s universe on this piece of paper.
Jefferson: That’s blank.
C: Exactly. I have no idea who this kid is. I don’t know if he knows. And he has to decide if he’s going to commit himself to his future or whatever he’s doing instead of being here.” You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Miles: Unless you bake two cakes.
The conversation already plays into Across the Spider-Verse’s themes of fate, expectations, and identity, regarding Miles’s future. But then you have the extra bit of Miles rejecting fate in his smart aleck assertion that in order to have your cake and eat it too, all you need to do is buy two cakes. This mirrors his later debate with Miguel O’Hara who says canon events have to happen. Miles disagrees.
Just after this scene, we have the BBQ celebrating Jefferson’s promotion to captain. Miles is late because he had to fight The Spot so couldn’t pick up the cake he wanted to bring to the BBQ. At the cake shop, he has the baker write a long note to his father. But it’s so long he needs a second cake. It’s comedic that he has two cakes but it’s also purposeful. Miles, in his youthful innocence, was convinced it’s easy to have your cake and eat it too. Just bake two cakes! Yet here we see the reality of things—trying to balance being Miles and Spider-Man is hard. And even when you get both cakes, it doesn’t always work out. By the time he gets to the BBQ with the cakes, they’re beaten up. The thoughtful message to his father? Ruined. All that’s left are the words “I’m” Not” “Proud”.
The matter of the cakes, both the counselor’s metaphoric ones and the literal ones he tries to bring to the BBQ, embodies everything Miles has to confront in Across the Spider-Verse.
Enemy of the Spider-people
When Miles is at the Spider HQ on Earth-928, it’s the payoff on him wanting to belong. He had felt lonely in his universe. Especially after the events of Into the Spider-Verse when he was able to connect with other Spider-people. So being at a headquarters that’s full of other people who are just like him is, at first, extraordinary. Miles is over the moon. But then things go south. Because Miles refuses to abide by Miguel O’Hara’s views on canon events, Miles becomes a target. Miguel instructs every single Spider to apprehend Miles.
Given that part of the story involves Miles confronting his own Spider-ness and what it means to balance being Miles and Spider-Man, the fact he has hundreds of Spiders coming after him, trying to capture him, ends up representing his own internal conflict. It’s that side of him becoming overwhelming and difficult and something he has to struggle against. Which is exactly what we saw with him being late to the counselor session and late to the BBQ and ruining the cakes. His life as Miles is always complicated by his life as Spider-Man.
It’s not a coincidence that Miles goes from having this huge showdown with the rest of the Spiders to ending up in Earth-42 where there is no Spider-Man. Where Miles-42 has gone evil and become the Prowler.
In art, this kind of externalization is common. A basic example is Picasso’s Blue Period where the blue tinge he added to most of his paintings added a morose, somber, depressive tone that reinforced the often hunched, bored, defeated posture of the subjects in the paintings.
There are many ways to go about externalization, like color palette, but, in narrative, one of the more advanced methods is to have the actual external events symbolize internal happenings. For example, say a character is struggling with depression. They’re invited to a birthday party. As they’re trying to decide whether to go or not, the power goes out in their house. They’re left alone in darkness. Do they stay in that literal darkness or turn on a flashlight, find their car keys, and leave the house? Better yet, does a friend show up and step into the darkness and encourage the person to come with them to the party?
It’s a nice technique that’s not often utilized or even recognized but can be very powerful.
Share your thoughts
Are there more motifs you think should be part of the Colossus Movie Guide for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse? Leave your thoughts below and we’ll consider them for the guide.
