The Battle Within

 
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Warning: Contains plot spoilers.

At well over two hours in length, and breaking box office records on its release,[1] Spider-Man 3 is a big film by most standards. In keeping with the first two films in the franchise, the action is spectacular and spiritual themes are rife as Spider-Man faces some of his biggest battles yet.

While Spider-Man, a.k.a. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), faces a number of fearsome villains in his third adventure, his greatest struggle is shown to be against the darker side of his own nature. In previous films we have seen Spider-Man learn about the responsibilities that come with his powers, becoming a greater hero through his trials. Now it is time for him to learn that some of his foes are not all bad, and that even heroes are not always good.[2] In Spider-Man 3 we see him mature as a superhero, and face his inner demons. Spider-Man’s battle with his own darkness is externalised in the film as a struggle against a gooey alien symbiote, which happens to fall from space and hitch a lift on Peter Parker’s scooter.

Aside from this unknown guest, Peter’s life at the start of the film is looking fairly good for a change. His narration at the start of the film highlights his optimistic situation: ‘Now people really like me. The city is safe and sound. Guess I had a little something to do with that. My uncle Ben would be proud. I still go to school. Top of my class. And I'm in love. With the girl of my dreams.’ However, as Spider-Man increases in popularity, his girlfriend Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) sees her dreams slip away from her when she loses her starring role on Broadway. Peter is too self-absorbed and proud of himself to pay attention to Mary Jane, though, and she feels unable to share her troubles with him. At the end of a scene where Peter fails to listen to Mary Jane we see the alien goo starting to move around in Peter’s apartment.

Things get worse for Peter when he is told that the real killer of his beloved uncle Ben, escaped convict Flint Marko (Thomas Hayden Church), is still alive and at large. Consumed with hatred and guilt about his part in the death of the man he had previously held responsible for the crime, Peter is determined to make Marko pay for his actions. That night the symbiote makes its move, bonding with Peter’s Spider-Man suit as he lies asleep. Dark Spidey is born. The new black costume gives Spider-Man more power and enhances his darker impulses. Under its influence, Spider-Man hunts down and brutally attacks Flint Marko (who happens to have had his molecular structure altered by an accident involving experimental physics and lots of sand so that he has now become the super-powered Sandman). Dark Spider-Man turns Marko into mud and washes him down the sewer with a satisfied ‘good riddance’.

Peter’s aunt May (Rosemary Harris) expresses disapproval of Spider-Man’s actions, saying: ‘I don’t think that it’s for us to say whether a person deserves to live or die . . . [R]evenge . . . can take you over. Before you know it, turn us into something ugly’, Chastened, Peter removes the black suit for a while, but his situation soon becomes a lot worse. Harry Osborn (James Franco), having inherited his father’s super-villain status as the new Goblin, is out to avenge his father’s death, for which he blames his ‘best friend’ Peter. Attacking his heart, by stealing Mary Jane away from him, Harry sends Peter over the edge. Returning to the black Spider-Man suit, he starts a vicious fight with Harry, ending by exploding a bomb in his face. Taken over by his dark side, Peter ditches his wholesome, nerdy image for an ‘alternative’ look involving black suits, an adolescent hairstyle, eyeliner, and some ridiculous posing. Living for his own gratification, without regard for other people’s feelings, it is not long before Peter hardly recognises the person he has become. However, when he tries to escape the influence of the symbiote, he finds that the black costume has become very difficult to remove.

The alien goo is quite clearly ‘a metaphor for the darkness that comes over Peter’s heart’, as is explained in interviews included on the DVD. However, director Sam Raimi also chose to portray Spider-Man’s inner battle as similar to an addiction. The black suit makes Peter feel powerful, ‘I feel . . . wow. This feels good’, and, once he has embraced it, it is hard for him to give it up: ‘these things in Nature, when they bind . . . they can be hard to unbind’. There are very obvious parallels between Spider-Man’s inner darkness and the biblical idea of sin. While sin is not related to a strange dress-sense, it is rooted in self-love and pride. The Bible says that sin is when we, like Peter, put ourselves at the centre of our personal universes, and push God to the side. Sin doesn’t come from outer space; it comes from inside our hearts and it influences our actions, hurting us and others. Our pride and selfishness destroys our relationship with God and, like the alien symbiote, sin corrupts us. We must all face a battle with our own darkness if we are to be the people we were made to be.

Eventually, shocked by the change he sees in himself, Peter battles to remove his costume and return to his former self. He finally frees himself in a church, where the symbiote finds a suitable new host, ambitious rival photographer Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who bears a vehement grudge against Peter. Having succeeded in rejecting dark Spider-Man, Peter must finish his inner battle by becoming a hero once more. The way back, his aunt May tells him, is through forgiveness: ‘You start by doing the hardest thing – you forgive yourself. I believe in you, Peter. You’re a good person. And I know you will find a way to put it right.’ When events come to a crisis, however, and Mary Jane ends up once again dangling high above the city in the clutches of a villain, Spider-Man finds himself with little time for introspection. Presumably forgiving himself, or deciding that his actions will soon enable him to do so, Peter reaches for his old Spider-Man costume and swings into action.

As the final showdown proceeds, Spider-Man has considerable trouble trying to rescue Mary Jane whilst under attack from two powerful enemies. However, when it seems that all hope is lost, rescue comes from an unexpected source. Harry Osborn, having learned the truth about his father’s death, forgives Peter and comes to give him some support. Because of Harry’s forgiveness, and ultimately his self-sacrifice, Spider-Man is successful as a hero and saves the day. He has achieved redemption. Having fought his own darkness, Peter is also now able to understand and forgive Sandman. By learning to value forgiveness higher than revenge, Spider-Man has become a greater hero. Peter’s journey is echoed in Harry’s story; he also realises that he has been in the wrong, commits to forgiveness and change, and dies a redeemed hero. However, we are shown the consequences of losing the battle within through the fate of Eddie Brock. Eddie embraces the power and evil of the alien symbiote, becoming the villain Venom. At the last, he refuses to turn away from the darkness, saying, ‘I like being bad. Makes me happy’, and chooses to die with it.

Earlier in the story, dark Spider-Man has told Eddie: ‘you want forgiveness – get religion’. However, aside from the presence of a church building, Peter manages to break free of his darkness and find forgiveness without any explicitly spiritual dimension. He chooses to be a hero again, and it happens. Ideas of forgiveness in the Bible are a little different. Because of the pride and selfishness in our hearts, the Bible says, people always end up going back to the darkness. We need God to free us from our sin. However, like Spider-Man, the darkness in us causes us to do bad things. It is not enough simply to forgive ourselves and then get on with being good. We need to be forgiven by the God we have rejected. Only when we accept this forgiveness will we be redeemed and empowered to live the right way.

In the film, we know that Spider-Man is a hero once more when we see him poised for action in his red and blue suit against a backdrop of the American flag. Fortunately, the biblical view of redemption is not about American patriotism or posing. Winning the battle within is about letting God change us. If we are to be heroes, the people we were made to be, then we need allow Jesus to put us right, rather than struggling to do it ourselves. The Christian has a whole new costume, and a new heroic ideal to go with it: ‘as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.’ (Colossians 3:12-13, NIV). Unlike Spider-Man, our reason for forgiveness should not be because we have learned to see the world in shades of grey, but because we have been forgiven a far greater debt already. ‘Nuff said!’

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