Every Spider-Man 2 Easter Egg: Evil Dead Nods, Raimi Family Cameos and Hidden Comic Callbacks

Spider-Man 2 is filled with Easter eggs, hidden details and things you might have missed, from Evil Dead nods in Doctor Octopus's hospital massacre to Raimi family cameos and callbacks to classic comics. The film is almost 20 years old, but with No Way Home bringing Tobey Maguire and Alfred Molina back, I had to revisit it. There have been plenty of breakdowns of this film, but I guarantee there's a lot in here that hasn't been found before.

Doctor Octopus borrows his origin from Ultimate Spider-Man

Molina's Doc Ock pulls from several of the classic stories the character has appeared in over the years. At the time, though, the filmmakers wanted to modernise him, and they looked at the Ultimate Spider-Man run, which had been released just four years earlier. In that version, Ock tries to turn Norman Osborn into a super soldier, but it backfires and transforms Norman into the Green Goblin. In the explosion, Ock is blinded and the operating arms he wears are fused to his body.

Raimi took big pieces of Ock's recovery from those comics. In the comics, several surgeons stand around him about to operate and place a bandage over his eyes, which is mirrored in the movie. Just before they begin, Ock kills them in a violent, bloody massacre, and that is brought into the film too. It's a scene where Raimi is really allowed to dig into his horror roots. It's reminiscent of the Evil Dead franchise and even features a mini surgical powered saw, which is a nod to Ash's chainsaw. Much in the same way that Ock is possessed, Ash's hand was taken over in the second film, and he replaced it with that weapon. What you might not know is that one of the surgeons is John Landis, a fellow horror director behind Thriller and An American Werewolf in London.

The Ultimate comics might even somewhat explain why Ock wears sunglasses throughout the movie, since we learn there that the explosion damaged his eyes to the point that they became extremely sensitive to light. Standing in front of a miniature sun may also have potentially caused him to walk around like Arnie in The Terminator, though he does remove the glasses in his more humanising moments.

Alex Ross painted the title sequence after his suit design was scrapped

There are a ton of callbacks to the comics in this movie, and that shows early in the intro. As the credits roll, we see several pieces of artwork by Alex Ross that tell the story of the previous movie. Ross was somewhat jilted at the altar, like Mary Jane's fiance, because he actually designed his own version of the suit for Spider-Man 1. It was scrapped in favour of the one that was finally used.

To make good on dropping him at the last minute, Sony reached back out to Ross and asked him to make the title sequence for the film. It features 15 pieces of artwork, and his work also pops up later in the movie in Harry Osborn's documents on Spidey. The credits end on the scene in which Peter walked away from MJ, much like she later walks away from John Jameson, but it's clear that he still thinks about her a lot.

The Emma Rose perfume advert bookends the whole film

The opening scene has Mary Jane's face blown up on a perfume advert for Emma Rose. In the comics, Mary Jane worked as a model, but beyond that, Emma Rose is actually the name of Raimi's daughter. Mary Jane is a very important character in Spider-Man 2, and her relationship with Peter looms over the movie, which the opening shot establishes.

The reason it's used here is symbolic on a number of levels. Just as we open on Mary Jane, we close out on her too, and there are definitely parallels. In the opening, Peter is the one looking at Mary Jane; by the end, she watches over him as he swings through the sky. The advert for MJ is prestigious, white and pristine, whereas Mr. Ditkovich's door has white paint cracking away. MJ also looks somewhat sad in the final shot, because she's now confronted with the reality of how life will be, whereas at the beginning she's smiling in the manufactured advert she's part of. It's really good storytelling from Raimi.

Ted Raimi pitches the name Doctor Strange at the Daily Bugle

After the intro, Peter is late for his job at Joe's Pizza on Bleecker Street. You might know that famous road as the location of Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, and Sam Raimi went on to direct Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. There's another Doctor Strange Easter egg later in the film. At the Daily Bugle, Sam Raimi's brother Ted suggests the name Doctor Strange to J. Jonah Jameson as they brainstorm what to call Otto. Jameson's reply is "that's pretty good but it's taken" and, as I've been saying for a while now, "it's all connected."

Peter then zips through the city trying to deliver Joe's pizza, in a moment that made for some of the best missions in the Spider-Man 2 game. Cameoing in the scene is Donnell Rawlings, a comedian you might recognise from Chappelle's Show. There's also a slice landing on a guy's balcony, and that man is actually Scott Spiegel, one of the writers of Evil Dead 2. Sadly, Peter delivers the pizza late and gets fired, and Jameson fires him too, but Peter ends up handing over photos of Spider-Man against his better judgement to keep their working relationship going.

The trashed Spider-Man suit nods to a real theft and Spider-Man No More

Later in the movie, Jameson is given the Spider-Man suit by someone who found it in the trash, and the guy talks about how he could sell it on eBay. This is a nod to the real-life story of suits stolen from the set of the first film. The thief managed to take three of them and tried to sell them on eBay, which is what this line calls back to.

The suit being left in the trash is also a reference to Spider-Man No More, a storyline in which Peter stepped away from being the web head. The mask was dumped in the rubbish and could be seen hanging out of it as Peter walked down an alleyway, much like he does in this movie. No Way Home somewhat gave a nod to this too: when Norman Osborn seemingly quits being the Green Goblin, he smashes the mask at a dumpster before fleeing down an alleyway.

Around this point, Peter asks Betty Brant for money as if he's going to the bank, and she's played by Elizabeth Banks. In the comics, Betty worked as a secretary for the Daily Bugle, but in Brand New Day she became a reporter. In a neat touch showing different realities and timelines, the MCU's Betty became a reporter for the Daily Bugle in Spider-Man: No Way Home, which is also based on the Brand New Day storyline.

Dylan Baker's Curt Connors was meant to become the Lizard

Peter being late for things is pretty much a running joke in the movie, and he's late for Dr. Curt Connors's lecture at Columbia University. Connors is the Lizard in the comics. Sam Raimi's fourth Spider-Man movie was cancelled by Sony, and Dylan Baker later confirmed to IGN that he was supposed to play the scaly villain in that film. Sony rebooted the franchise, and though they got rid of the entire cast, they kept the Lizard.

The Lizard appeared in No Way Home, and no, we didn't get the snout version from the comics. It's probably unlikely we would have had it in the fourth movie anyway. It probably would have ended up looking like Rex from Toy Story, so it makes sense why they kept that design instead of turning him into something more like a talking alligator.

Mr. Ditkovich is named after Spider-Man cocreator Steve Ditko

Peter then goes to his birthday party, and we discover that he no longer lives with Harry. If you cast your mind back to the first movie, Peter lived with Harry in an apartment paid for by Norman Osborn, but after Norman's death, Peter now has to rent from Mr. Ditkovich. Mr. Ditkovich is named after Steve Ditko, who created Spider-Man with Stan Lee.

Shortly after, Harry introduces Peter to Otto. Connors has already told Otto about Peter, saying he's brilliant but lazy, and Peter replies that he's trying to do better. No Way Home calls back to this when the pair meet again at the Statue of Liberty and Peter says the same thing. Before Peter and Otto ever duel with their tech and powers, they first engage in a battle of wits. Peter mentions Bernoulli and the curve of quickest descent. In the simplest explanation, it's an equation showing that the quickest path between two points is a curve, because on a curve you generate more speed. That's exactly what Spidey does as he swings in an arc, which is probably why it's on his mind at this moment.

A T.S. Eliot reference foreshadows Otto's death in the Hudson

Otto then tells us how he and Rosie met, saying she tried to help him understand T.S. Eliot. Eliot's most famous line is arguably "this is the way the world ends not with a bang but a whimper," from The Hollow Men. It's often used to describe humanity's ending as somewhat unceremonious, but here the line foreshadows Otto's death at the end of the movie, when he drowns the miniature sun along with himself in the Hudson.

Otto arrives from a river in No Way Home, and it's actually the same one he died in during this movie. There's also a nice line hinting at his final scene: after his experiment fails, he says these monstrous things should be at the bottom of the river.

Otto also tells Peter that the way to win a girl over is through poetry, which is the worst advice ever. Peter ends up reading a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with the line "day by day he gazed upon her day by day he sighed with passion." This parallels the relationship between Peter and Mary Jane: much like in the poem, he loves her from afar and she's always just out of reach.

The Importance of Being Earnest and Bruce Campbell's lost Mysterio role

Peter then turns up late for MJ's play, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. The piece is about double lives, and in a bit of an on the nose metaphor, she's asked about forgiving as she looks at Peter's empty seat. Sixty five minutes later in the movie, when Peter rejects his life as Spider-Man, he goes to the play and throws MJ off. The line in that scene discusses living double lives, something Peter has, for now at least, stopped doing by walking away from the role.

The usher at the theatre is played by Bruce Campbell, who appears in all three movies. Much like the Lizard, Campbell had a role lined up for Spider-Man 4, and he was supposed to be playing none other than Mysterio. It kind of makes sense that he has all these different roles, since Mysterio is the master of illusions, but I like to think of him as a Stan Lee sort of figure.

Outside, licking his emotional wounds, Peter hears a terrible violinist playing the Spider-Man theme song. It also appeared in the first film when a busker played it, and it was the theme for the 1967 cartoon. Peter's heart is ripped in two seeing Mary Jane with her new boyfriend, but ignore all that and focus on the poster praising the play, which says J. Frazier is especially effective. John Frazier worked on the special effects, so this Easter egg is particularly effective, because it says effective and special effects.

Peter's lost powers and the advert that haunts him

After seeing the love of his life with another man, Peter loses his mojo. He has problems with his web fluid and loses his sight too. This is very much psychosomatic, brought on by his general feeling of inadequacy. He sees MJ everywhere but can't be with her, and this is quite literally shown when Peter pushes his trashed bike past a wall covered in the same advert we saw at the start.

Not long after, we get Otto's experiment and the classic joke about the rubber band: someone asks if anybody has lost a large roll of 20 dollar bills in a rubber band, because they found the rubber band. Otto is unable to stabilise the sun, and Rosie dies. Otto also says "the power of the sun in the palm of my hand," and later, in No Way Home, Tobey finishes the line, linking back to this moment.

Ock's red eyes, Stan Lee's cameo and a Man-Wolf tease

At the bank, Aunt May and Peter come face to face with Otto. She lies and says she's giving piano lessons once more, and as someone pointed out to me, this explains why Peter is so good at playing piano in Spider-Man 3. She probably taught him to dance as well. When Ock robs the bank, you might notice that the eyes on the tentacles turn red in attack mode but white when Otto is in control. This is referenced in No Way Home during the bridge scene and throughout most of that movie. At one point in the fight, Ock tries to crush Peter's head with the arms, and that moment is echoed on the bridge when he tries the same thing on Tom Holland's version.

The late, great Stan Lee appears outside the bank near a taxi as Ock and Peter fight, moving someone out of the way of falling debris, which he also did in the first Spider-Man movie. At the special gala Peter is asked to cover for the society pages, we glimpse Jonah's son and MJ's fiance, John Jameson. In the comics he became Man-Wolf after coming back from the moon, which is somewhat referenced when we learn he's an astronaut. In the opening of Venom, one of the returning astronauts is called Jameson, which is likely the same character in a different universe.

A hidden Daily Bugle headline nods to Tobey Maguire's back injury

When Peter fully loses his mojo and crashes down, he sees a Daily Bugle front page for a split second. Pause the film and you'll see the article reads: Can chronic back pain equal brain shrinkage. Tobey Maguire sustained a back injury while filming Seabiscuit, which almost led to him leaving Spider-Man 2, and Jake Gyllenhaal was poised to take over the role.

It's referenced again when Peter jumps across buildings, says "I'm back" and then "my back." We know this is down to his lack of focus, and he lands next to a Ford Focus. The back injury was also referenced by Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man: No Way Home; Andrew Garfield and Tobey actually ad libbed a lot of that scene, and it's such a cool callback.

Uncle Ben's Oldsmobile Delta 88 appears in Sam Raimi's other films

Peter then imagines talking through his problems with Uncle Ben, and it has pretty much the same look, setting and clouds as the original car scene in Spider-Man 1. The car is a 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88, which has appeared in every Sam Raimi film. It showed up in The Evil Dead at several points, Darkman and Drag Me to Hell, and it was what Ben drove in the first movie.

I love that most of Spider-Man 1 was about Peter's regret over that conversation and how he wanted to live up to Uncle Ben's lessons. Here, he creates an imaginary purgatory where he has a conversation with Ben again. He even lets someone get beaten up down an alleyway and doesn't call the police.

The building fire, the kiss test and a train fight with family cameos

In a neat bit of returning extras, the man next to Peter when the building is on fire is the same man who was on the bridge when Peter saved the kids in the first movie. The scene calls back to the original film, where Peter faced the Green Goblin in a burning building, but with no superpowers this time it's far more difficult for him. It follows the trope of a hero losing their powers in a second movie, which was used in Superman 2 and more recently Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

In an interesting moment, while discussing whether to invite Peter to their wedding, MJ asks John to put his head back and they kiss. It's similar to how Peter kissed her as Spider-Man, and she seems to be testing whether she gets the same feeling. It's unclear whether MJ knows Peter is Spider-Man, but there's definitely suspicion there. At the end of the first movie she touched her lips like she recognised the kiss, and here she seems slightly let down that her fiance isn't Spider-Man.

In another bit of foreshadowing, when the newspaper flashes saying he's back, there's a mention of L train safety. That's the train where Peter fights Otto later, a really cool setup for that action scene. During the train fight, the two kids who hand Peter his mask back are played by Tobey Maguire's real-life half brothers, and the guy who first stands up to Otto is the comic Joey Diaz, close friend of Joe Rogan.

Harry Osborn's green bow tie signals his fall

Otto hands Peter over to Harry, who has the same delusions as his father, suggesting maybe the tech that drove Norman mad simply exacerbated an existing insanity. Throughout most comic runs, Harry follows in his father's footsteps by becoming the Green Goblin, while Ultimate Spider-Man had him become the Hobgoblin. The family legacy is a dark one, and in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 we hear of the Osborn curse that eventually turns him into the Green Goblin. I definitely think the movie is teasing that being an Osborn means you'll become some kind of monster eventually, and that he was potentially always destined to go this way. After finding his father's hideout, he appears at MJ's wedding wearing a green bow tie, signifying his fall to the dark side.

The movie ends as it began, with a shot of MJ's face, showing the character has come full circle. She says "go get him tiger," a catchphrase that has appeared multiple times in the comics and films. She's had a wild journey in these movies, dating an astronaut, a billionaire and a superhero, plus Flash Thompson in high school. She was about to marry a man who earned several science degrees and trained for years to go to the moon, only to run off with someone living in Mr. Ditkovich's worst apartment.

Do you think Harry was always destined to follow his father, or did the Osborn tech simply bring out what was already there?