We were on the Atlanta set of ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ for the filming of the big twist connecting Peter Parker’s personal and superhero lives.
SPOILER ALERT: The following discusses an important plot point of the movie Spider-Man: Homecoming. Bail now if you don’t want to know how it all goes down.
ATLANTA — The teen superhero encounters all manner of freaky situations in Spider-Man: Homecoming — saving his peers from falling down the elevator shaft of the Washington Monument, trying to keep the Staten Island Ferry from splitting in half — but the worst has to be meeting his girlfriend’s dad.
Thunder in the background on the Homecoming set foreshadows the filming of the movie’s biggest twist: When Peter Parker (Tom Holland) arrives at a large suburban house to pick up his homecoming date Liz (Laura Harrier) , his arch enemy Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) , aka the Vulture, answers the door.
“You must be Peter. I’ m Liz’s dad, ” says Toomes, as Peter’s face turns white with realization.
“It’s a scene a lot of people can relate to, ” says director Jon Watts, noting that the moment is meant to tweak a teen-movie convention . “It’s this awkward thing of meeting your friend’s dad (when) you’ ve been hunting him and know his nefarious plans. You get to make everything really heightened in a way that wouldn’t necessarily work if there were no fantastical element.”
Toomes later puts it together that this kid is also the masked hero who’s been putting a dent in his black-market business of selling high-tech weapons. But when Peter arrives, he’s just trying to make the nervous boy comfortable while doing the dishes.
“Bourbon or scotch?” he asks, followed by a stammering “I don’ t drink, sir” from Peter. “That’s the right answer, ” Toomes responds approvingly, waving a large kitchen knife in his direction.
“One of the things we loved about it is how it really brings to a head the conflict between having a regular life as Peter Parker and being this superhero, ” says co-producer Eric Hauserman Carroll. “Every once in a while, there’s going to be a conflict of interest between the two sides of his life.”
Liz comes down in a red dress and her mom (Garcelle Beauvais) tries to get her and Peter together for a quick picture, though he can’ t help but keep an eye on his fatherly foe.
“This kid is great — really sharp, man. Whip-smart and funny, ” Keaton says of Holland during a break. “He plays it real.”
Toomes has been tapped as the chauffeur for the evening and says, “Come on, Pedro!” — though Keaton asks Watts if he’s grabbing Holland by the shoulder too hard in a playful gesture that ends the scene. “Just a little clamp, ” the director says.
No one’s more geeked out by filming on this night than Watts. “When have Spider-Man and Batman been in the same scene?” he says between takes, a few seconds before a crew member knocks over a set decoration and makes a loud noise.
“That’s what happens when you take Batman’s name in vain, ” Watts jokes.
For Holland, the scene is great because “the audience is going to be freaking out when they see it, ” he says. “You know the moments when people are going to be holding their faces and looking through their fingers, and this is one of those moments.”
