Spider-Man: Far From Home is a 2019 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. Produced by Columbia Pictures, Marvel Studios, and Pascal Pictures, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and the 23rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Jon Watts, written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau, J. B. Smoove, Jacob Batalon, Martin Starr, Tony Revolori, Marisa Tomei, and Jake Gyllenhaal. In the film, Peter is recruited by Nick Fury (Jackson) and Mysterio (Gyllenhaal) to help stop the Elementals while he is on a school trip to Europe.
Discussions for a sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming began by October 2016, and the project was confirmed later that year. Holland, Watts, and the writers were all set to return by the end of 2017. In 2018, Jackson and Gyllenhaal joined the cast as Fury and Mysterio, respectively. Holland revealed the sequel's title ahead of filming, which began that July and took place in England, the Czech Republic, Italy, and the New York metropolitan area. Production wrapped in October 2018. The marketing campaign is one of the most expensive for a film ever and attempted to avoid revealing spoilers for Avengers: Endgame prior to its April 2019 release.
Spider-Man: Far From Home premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on June 26, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 2, as the final film in Phase Three of the MCU. The film received positive reviews with praise for its humor, action sequences, visuals, and the performances of Holland and Gyllenhaal. It grossed $1.133 billion worldwide, making it the first Spider-Man film to pass the billion-dollar mark, the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2019, and became Sony Pictures' highest-grossing film and the 24th-highest-grossing film of all time. A sequel, Spider-Man: No Way Home, was released in December 2021.
Plot
In Ixtenco, Mexico, Nick Fury and Maria Hill investigate an unnatural storm and encounter the Earth Elemental. Quentin Beck, a super-powered individual, arrives and defeats the creature. Fury and Hill subsequently recruit him. In New York City, the Midtown School of Science and Technology completes its year, which was restarted to accommodate the students who disintegrated five years earlier due to Thanos's actions; they had reappeared un-aged, thanks to the actions of the Avengers. The school organizes a two-week summer field trip to Europe, where Peter Parker—who is still mourning the death of his mentor Tony Stark—plans to reveal to classmate MJ his attraction to her. Happy Hogan informs Peter that Fury intends to contact him, but Peter ignores Fury's phone call.
Peter and his classmates travel to Venice, Italy, where the Water Elemental attacks. While Peter helps protect his classmates, Beck arrives and defeats the creature. Fury meets with Peter and gives him Stark's eyeglasses. The glasses enable him to communicate with and take command of the artificial intelligence E.D.I.T.H., which has access to Stark Industries' databases and commands a large orbital weapons supply. Beck claims to have entered from an alternate reality within the multiverse, where the four Elementals killed his family and destroyed his civilization. With only the Fire Elemental left to destroy, Beck predicts it will attack Prague, Czech Republic. Peter declines Fury's invitation to join the fight and returns to his class trip, but Fury secretly changes the class's itinerary to divert the students to Prague.
Peter is forced to help Beck fight the Fire Elemental to again protect his friends. Beck manages to destroy the creature with Peter's help. Fury and Hill invite Peter and Beck to Berlin, Germany to discuss forming a new superhero team, but Peter decides that Beck should go alone and transfers control of E.D.I.T.H. to him. Once Peter leaves, Beck celebrates alongside ex-Stark Industries employees, with whom he had been working to masquerade as a superhero. Beck, who was fired from his position as Stark's holographic-illusions specialist due to his unstable nature, uses advanced projectors to simulate his powers and the Elementals. He plans to use E.D.I.T.H.'s orbital weaponized drones to increase the scale of his illusions and fraudulently establish himself as an Avenger-level hero.
After MJ tells Peter she knows he is Spider-Man, they discover that a piece of debris she retrieved during the battle with the Fire Elemental is a projector and the pair realize Beck's deception. Peter travels to Berlin, to warn Fury, but Beck tricks him with an elaborate illusion, forcing him to reveal the names of his friends who know about Beck's plan, and causing Peter to get hit by a train. Beck is unaware that Peter, though injured, has survived. In the Netherlands, Peter contacts Hogan, who flies him to London, England, where his classmates are. Beck uses E.D.I.T.H. to orchestrate a fusion of all the Elementals. He intends to kill Peter's friends during the staged attack, as Beck is concerned that they will expose him with their knowledge. Peter disrupts the illusions and an enraged Beck attacks him with drones. Peter regains control of E.D.I.T.H. and defeats Beck, who is hit by a misfired gunshot from one of the drones. Before he dies, Beck tells his associate William Ginter Riva to retrieve data from the drones. After returning to New York City, Peter begins a relationship with MJ.
In a mid-credits scene, J. Jonah Jameson of TheDailyBugle.net broadcasts doctored footage of the London incident in which Beck frames Spider-Man for the drone attack and his death before exposing Spider-Man's secret identity to the world, much to Peter's shock. In a post-credits scene, Fury and Hill are revealed to be the Skrulls Talos and Soren in disguise, under orders from the real Fury while he is away in space commanding a group of Skrulls.
Cast
Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man: A high-school junior and Avenger who received spider-like abilities after being bitten by a radioactive spider. Director Jon Watts said that, in contrast to Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) in which Peter longs for the responsibilities of an adult, in Far From Home he wants to hang onto his youth, saying, "This film is about the world telling him, 'It's time for you to step up and grow up, kid,' and he's saying, 'But I still want to be a kid and go on vacation.'" Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury: The former director of S.H.I.E.L.D., who is now in a situation where he does not have the level of control he is used to having. Watts describes Fury's relationship with Peter as "the mean new stepdad", contrasting his role with Tony Stark as a "supportive cool uncle" in Homecoming, saying, "Fury sees Peter Parker as an asset that he needs who is too preoccupied with a bunch of high school problems." Watts originally pitched Fury as a mentor to Peter in Homecoming. Zendaya as MJ: Peter's classmate and love interest. Her full name, Michelle Jones-Watson, is revealed in the sequel Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill: A former high-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who works closely with Nick Fury. Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan: The head of security for Stark Industries and former driver and bodyguard of Tony Stark who looks after Peter. Watts noted Happy would be used to explore the idea of "trying to find your place in the world if the center of your world is gone" given his close friendship to Stark. J. B. Smoove as Julius Dell: Peter's teacher and a chaperone on his school trip to Europe. The role was written for Smoove after the writers and director enjoyed his performance alongside Holland in an Audi commercial short film produced to promote Homecoming. Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds: Peter's best friend. His last name is confirmed on-screen in No Way Home. Martin Starr as Roger Harrington: Peter's academic decathlon teacher and a chaperone on his school trip to Europe. Tony Revolori as Eugene "Flash" Thompson: Peter's rival. Marisa Tomei as May Parker: Peter's aunt who is aware of his secret identity and wants him to be Spider-Man more so he can help with charitable causes. Jake Gyllenhaal as Quentin Beck / Mysterio: A former Stark Industries employee and holographic-illusions specialist who masquerades as a superhero from Earth-833 in the multiverse. He is recruited by Nick Fury to help Spider-Man stop the Elementals. Gyllenhaal shared ideas with the writers regarding the character's personality, and was drawn to the idea that Beck is "manipulating everyone's love of superheroes and that need for heroes". Gyllenhaal wanted to play the character's fake backstory as realistically as possible. Regarding Beck's relationship with Peter, Watts says that "If Tony Stark was sort of the mentor in the previous films, we thought it would be interesting to play Mysterio as almost like the cool uncle". Watts was excited to have Beck team with Fury and Peter as it introduced the character to the MCU "in a way that people weren't expecting".
Angourie Rice and Jorge Lendeborg Jr. reprise their roles from Homecoming as Peter's classmates Betty Brant, Ned's on-and-off girlfriend, and Jason Ionello. Peter Billingsley reprises his role from Iron Man (2008) as scientist William Ginter Riva, a former employee of Stark Industries who now works with Beck. J. K. Simmons appears as J. Jonah Jameson in the mid-credits scene, marking the first time an actor has reprised a non-MCU role in an MCU film after Simmons portrayed a different incarnation of Jameson in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy. Ben Mendelsohn and Sharon Blynn make uncredited cameo appearances in the post-credits scene as the Skrulls Talos and Soren, reprising their roles from Captain Marvel (2019); this scene reveals that they have been posing as Fury and Hill during the film.
Additionally, Numan Acar portrays Fury's associate Dimitri, while Remy Hii plays , a popular student whom Peter sees as competition for MJ's affection, and Claire Rushbrook portrays Janice Lincoln, a woman working for Beck. Zach Barack, the first openly transgender actor in an MCU film, portrays one of Peter's new classmates, Zach, while Zoha Rahman also appears as a classmate of Peter's. Dawn Michelle King, an assistant editor on many MCU films including Far From Home, provides the voice for the artificial intelligence E.D.I.T.H. Jeff Bridges and Robert Downey Jr. appear as Obadiah Stane and Stark through the use of archival footage from Iron Man and Captain America: Civil War (2016), respectively. Images from previous MCU films of Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, and Paul Bettany as Stark, Steve Rogers / Captain America, Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, and Vision, respectively, are used in the film's opening "in memoriam" segment.
Production Development