Despite the initial controversy surrounding them, Tobey Maguire’s organic web-shooters have just been vindicated with a high realism score from an expert addressingSpider-Man 2’s iconic train scene in the earlyMarvelmovie. Superhero movies are notoriously replete with pseudoscience to explain away the mind-bending feats that superheroes are capable of. Spider-Man is, of course, no exception - as the web-slinger typically creates a mysterious web fluid which he fires from web shooters to emulate the webbing abilities of a real spider in most interpretations.
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogythen flipped the script on the comics-accurate origins of Spider-Man’s webbing by introducing an organic version in line with his spider-based power set. This interpretation ofSpider-Man’s powerscertainly leans more into thefantastical side of Spider-Man’s origins, pairing it with his super-strength and wall-crawling to emulate a spider’s abilities better. Now, it has additionally been approved by an expert who highlights how accurate this organic webbing is by referencing one of Spider-Man’s most memorable scenes.
Real-Life Physicist Praises Spider-Man 2’s Train Scene And Webbing Strength Realism
Jim Kakalios Knows All About Superhero Science
AnInsiderseries posted toYouTube, entitled “How Real Is It?",is a series in which real-life experts are tasked with assessing the accuracy of various movie scenes. One of these videos delves into the pseudoscientific world of Marvel movies and asks physicist Jim Kakalios to address the accuracy of such features as Ant-Man’s powers and Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir. Kakalios is especially well-versed in this niche, ashe worked as a science consultant on such movies asThe Amazing Spider-ManandWatchmen, even winning an Emmy for his work on the latter, and authored “The Physics of Superheroes.”
In the video, Kakalios addressesthe iconicSpider-Man 2sequencein which Spider-Man stops a speeding train by using his webbing and super-strength. To assess how strong the webbing has to be to achieve this, Kakalios calculates the mass of the train and its velocity as well as the number of web lines and their diameter, ascertaining that the tensile strength of the webbing needs to be 1,000 megapascals to keep from breaking. After comparing this tothe strength of real spider silk, which is 1,200 megapascals, Kakalios gives the scene an accuracy rating of 8/10.
“So here, Peter Paker/Spider-Man needs to stop a runaway elevated train. He shoots out multiple weblines, they stretch a great deal, but they don’t break, and he’s able to stop the train just in the nick of time. How strong does the webbing have to be for this to work?
We can look up the mass of a train. We can estimate its initial velocity by seeing how long it takes to pass city blocks. We can look at the distance over which the webbing stretches. We can estimate its diameter. We can count the number of web lines, and we come up with a tensile strength for the webbing that has to be about 1,000 megapascals, which is equivalent to 145,000 pounds per square inch.
But real spider silk has a tensile strength of 1,2000 megapascals. If Spider-Man’s webbing is anywhere as strong as real spider silk, then this indeed could happen.
He’s shooting it out of his wrists, which is not what a real spider would do, but we’ll just leave that aside.”
What This Means For Spider-Man 2
Kakalios’s Comments Prove That Spider-Man 2 Cared About Realism
Spider-Man 2remains one ofthe most highly-regarded superhero moviesever made, and is often praised as being one of the greatest examples of a sequel done right. Along with its predecessor, 2002’sSpider-Man, it provided a hopeful glimmer at a time when superhero movies were still finding their footing, when other superhero movies likeDaredevilandCatwomanfailed to inspire nearly as much positivity. At the time,superhero movies benefited from moments that helped to ground them as much as possible, and a physicist-approved moment such as this is important to helping make the setting feel more believable.
Sam Raimi also directed the MCU’sDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which is a far cry from this era in terms of realism.
It’s likely, therefore, thatSpider-Man 2’s own scientific consultant, Michael Backes, was on hand to deliver the same verdict as Jim Kakalioswhen this iconic Spider-Man scene was being conceived.Spider-Man 2’s train scene now lives on as one ofSpider-Man’s most memorable movie moments, bolstered by the fact that the spectacle was scientifically feasible once audiences can look past the more fanciful elements of a man boasting the abilities of a spider.
