Spoiler Alert: Mysterio is a fake news enthusiast.
Marvel’s Phase Three ends with not the heart-wrenching blockbuster hit Avengers: Endgame but, rather, a refreshing Spider-Man movie that stays a little closer to home (and by home, I mean not outer space). Crossing National Lampoon’s European Vacation with a classic Marvel superhero movie, director Jon Watts does well in amping the stakes while maintaining the tone of an ’80s high school movie from the previous film Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Picking up in a post “blip” world, Peter Parker, portrayed by Tom Holland, and the gang are now five years younger than half of their fellow Midtown High classmates, which means they now go to school with people who were in seventh grade at the time of Infinity War. Peter, still dealing with the events of Avengers: Endgame, cannot escape reminders of the death of his mentor Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man, seeing memorials for him everywhere. Airports, art class, video production In Memoriams, everywhere. Fans and press even ask Spider-Man if he is “the new Iron Man.” Peter feels overwhelmed as Spider-Man, even ditching the mantle to go on a school trip to Europe and woo his crush MJ (Zendaya) and hang out with his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), even though his Aunt May (Marissa Tomei) has secretly packed his suit. But the trip is interrupted on their first day in Venice when a water monster attacks, thrusting Peter back into the life of a superhero. Peter receives a tech-filled pair of glasses, a post-mortem gift from Tony Stark, and is introduced by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Maria Hill (Colby Smulders) to a new hero: Quentin Beck a.k.a. Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal). Beck is from another dimension, one where four Elementals have destroyed his Earth. He has come to save this Earth from the same fate.
But we soon learn that Mysterio is deceiving everyone. He’s no hero, just a disgruntled former Stark Industries employee. Beck just wants the keys to the kingdom — E.D.I.T.H. (Even Dead I’m the Hero), a state-of-the-art augmented reality drone system that lies in the hands of a 17-year-old kid — to make everyone believe he is the greatest superhero the world has ever seen. And Peter hands over this technology feeling that he is not ready for such power and trusting Beck as a new father figure. MJ and Peter discover Mysterio’s lies, leading to an awkward reveal to MJ that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Peter goes to Berlin to inform Nick Fury that Beck is a liar but instead is tricked by Beck’s holograms to give up the names of his friends and is hit by a train.
Peter wakes up in the Netherlands, broken down and not knowing who to trust. He calls Happy Hogan (John Favreau) to help him. Hogan, who was once Stark’s best friend, sheds some light on the situation, telling Peter not to be Iron Man but to be himself. Peter, realizing that his friends are in danger, then creates a new suit using Stark technology emulating his mentor’s movements from Iron Man. They go to London just as Beck unleashes a new “monster” to kill Peter’s friends and Nick Fury. Peter ultimately wins, as he uses his “Peter Tingle” to outmaneuver Beck’s drones and see through the holograms. Beck, fatally injured by his own drones, tells Peter in his last words, “People need to believe, and nowadays they’ll believe anything.” Peter then kisses MJ on the London Bridge, goes home and swings into a new and happy ending… Right?
Well, we are led to believe that until the mid-credits scene where J. Jonah Jameson (J. K. Simons) in an InfoWars-style newscast shows doctored footage of Mysterio’s last moments that make Mysterio look like the greatest superhero in the world, and Spider-Man a menace. But he doesn’t stop there, as Spider-Man’s secret identity is revealed to the whole world as Peter Parker! This calls back to the first-ever MCU movie Iron Man, where Tony Stark reveals he is Iron Man to the world and Spider-Man: Homecoming, where both the last words are “What the f***.” The end credits scene has more identity reveals, where it is discovered that Nick Fury and Maria Hill aren’t even themselves but Skrulls, alien shapeshifters from Captain Marvel. The real Fury is on vacation in a spacecraft somewhere. Go figures!
At its core, Far From Home is a movie about beliefs and identity, both of which come into question in many ways. Maybe it is a warning for the new phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to come or an allegory about the current news climate. But the message is clear: Don’t believe everything you see.
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