Does Ned Really Remember Peter Parker at the End of Spider-Man: Brand New Day?

At the end of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Ned and Peter run into each other, do their old best friend handshake, and Ned says Peter's name like he's remembering him for the first time in forever. I think the answer to whether Ned remembers Peter is obvious, but some disagree, so I want to walk through the scene, the mechanics of the spell, and the earlier moments in both Brand New Day and the previous film that explain why I land where I do.

The final scene: Ned and Peter's handshake plays out in full

Ned and Peter run into each other, and Ned only recognizes him as flower guy from the party because Peter is holding flowers again. Peter introduces himself as Peter and extends his hand for a handshake. Ned accepts, but Peter keeps hold of his hand, looks at him like he's about to try something, and then begins their best friend handshake from the previous films, the same one they did when they said goodbye in No Way Home.

Ned looks confused at first, but his muscle memory takes over and he completes the elaborate handshake with his old friend. Then we see Ned shake his head as if snapping out of a trance, look up, and say Peter's name.

To me, that is clear as day. I think the filmmakers' intent is for the audience to now know that Ned remembers Peter and that the spell has broken for him.

My theory: Doctor Strange, a neurosurgeon, may have built muscle memory in as a loophole

If I want to take the theory a bit further, I think it's possible we could learn later that this was a fail safe left in place by Doctor Strange, who was a neurosurgeon after all, and that this flaw left in the spell was a loophole he put there to bypass the barrier the spell created. That loophole, I think, is muscle memory.

I do kind of like this theory, the idea that Doctor Strange cast the spell as a neurosurgeon knowing he was going to put a flaw in the design, similar to how Galen Erso put a flaw in the design of the Death Star, so that there's a loophole to get through via muscle memory. I think that would be a cool revelation later on.

How muscle memory can bypass an amnesia spell

Muscle memory can bypass amnesia because it relies on different brain areas known as procedural or implicit memory rather than conscious memory. It uses the cerebellum, the basal ganglia, and the motor cortex instead of the hippocampus. The hippocampus handles things like facts, life events, and names, and amnesia, which is what this spell is, affects the hippocampus directly, making it hard to recall personal history.

Automatic skill memory, also known as implicit memory, is stored using the cerebellum and basal ganglia, which hold movement patterns like typing, riding a bike, or playing the piano. Amnesia usually spares these deeper brain regions, so even someone suffering from amnesia can still perform learned physical skills without remembering when they learned them. If you have no memory of your childhood, that doesn't mean you've forgotten how to ride a bike even though you learned it as a child.

The spell creates a barrier, not an erasure, and lingering clues prove it

At the end of No Way Home, Doctor Strange casts a spell that makes everyone forget Peter Parker, affecting the hippocampus and conscious memory, the place where knowing a person is stored. But there are things that linger, like MJ continuing to wear her Black Dahlia necklace and having a look of deja vu when she meets Peter in the coffee shop.

The way I understand the spell to work is that there's a metaphysical barrier created in the physical mind that blocks those memories from reaching the conscious surface. That's why even when MJ reads Peter's letter detailing everything, nothing comes back. There's no collection of words that can jog their memory or break that barrier.

Why Jean saying "there's nothing about you up here" doesn't mean the memories are gone

When Jean is in MJ's mind earlier in the film, she says, "There's nothing about you up here," referring to Peter. Some are using that line as intentional evidence that MJ's memories of Peter are truly erased and can never come back. I think if you observe the film in its full context, we're actually learning the opposite, that those memories are there but very deep down.

At that point in the film, Jean has yet to unlock her full power. For most of the runtime her abilities only extend 33 feet and she can't enter Spider-Man's mind for any significant span of time. Later, once her powers are more fully realized, she tells Peter her powers are stronger now and she may be able to enter his mind and control him unlike before, though this time Peter invites her in rather than fighting her off.

It's established by the end of the film that Jean's powers have doubled since we last saw her, which implies they were weaker earlier, and then we see her freeze everyone within a kilometer of the island. That's a jump from a 33 foot range to a kilometer, which by my math is roughly a 9,841.94 percent increase, nearly a hundred times the scaling. A Jean Grey at that power level may very well be able to find her way beyond the metaphysical barrier created by the spell, but the earlier, weaker Jean who was in MJ's mind would plausibly not be able to do that.

My theory on how MJ's memories could eventually return

Really, I don't think Jean has anything to do with breaking the spell directly. Some have theorized that Jean's powers reaching such a high level at the end, combined with Ned and MJ being caught in the freeze and the tears running down MJ's cheek, might be what began to crack the barrier. I don't hate that theory, I'm fine with that, and I like the idea of that barrier being shaken as a reason MJ is seen smiling while holding her Black Dahlia necklace on the school rooftop at the end of the film.

Just like the handshake was the last thing Ned and Peter did before the spell was cast, and I think that's what broke it for Ned, I think the kiss Peter and MJ shared right before the spell was cast is set up to be what eventually breaks it for her, especially with Jean's snide mockery of Peter thinking "true love's kiss" would work. I think MJ is going to fall in love with Spider-Man all over again, initiate a kiss herself, and that's when the barrier will finally break and her memories will come back.

To anyone saying MJ and Peter already kissed in the movie and her memories didn't return, that kiss was Jean using MJ's body. MJ's mind wasn't present, it was dormant, and Jean's mind was the one in control. So no, that scene doesn't disprove anything.

Rebutting the theory that Ned is only remembering MJ's slip of the tongue

Some are arguing that this scene isn't meant to show Ned remembering Peter and their history before the spell, but instead is just Ned recalling that MJ earlier called Spider-Man "Peter." I don't think that holds up, because that would have nothing to do with the handshake, the shaking of the head, the blink, or the cadence in which Ned says Peter's name.

The earlier moment when Ned hears MJ call Spider-Man Peter matters and wasn't accidental, but it isn't the one thing Ned is remembering in this final scene. It's a piece of what leads to the breaking of the dam at the end of the movie. The look on Peter's face, his last ditch effort to see if Ned remembers the handshake through muscle memory, and Ned then confirming he remembers it, is, to me, no argument that Ned is remembering Peter.

Why this small debate has me frustrated about movies in general

This is a silly thing to be upset about, it's a Spider-Man movie about the in universe mechanics of a magic spell. But I think this debate has me frustrated because it feeds my fear that movies, especially ones designed for streaming, are getting less subtle because studios and filmmakers think audiences are getting dumber, and arguments like this one about Ned not remembering risk proving them right.

I worry we're losing the era of using context clues and critical thinking in favor of spelling everything out and repeating the plot so anyone only half paying attention can keep up. I also suspect a lot of the people arguing against this reading online are bots or people baiting for a reaction, and I hope that's more the case than there actually being a large number of people who missed it, even if I think it's a loud minority either way.

What do you think actually broke the spell for Ned, and do you buy the theory that Doctor Strange built muscle memory in as a deliberate loophole?