What to Remember From ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Before ‘Brand New Day’

Peter Parker’s life sucks — just how Spider-Man fans like it. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” finds Peter (played by Tom Holland) in a position familiar to comic book readers and unfamiliar to MCU-only fans: he’s broke, he’s isolated and he’s dedicated his whole life to being a wall-crawling, web-slinging crime-fighter. But it’s been a few years since “Spider-Man: No Way Home” became a box office sensation, so you may have forgotten how Peter Parker’s life got in such dire straits. You may have also forgotten some of the details of the very complicated plot. In case you don’t have time for a rewatch, here’s everything you need to be remember about “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” How does “Spider-Man: No Way Home” start? It starts with that pesky, no-good Mysterio. At the end of “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” Spidey thought that things were finally looking up in his life after the death of his bestie/mentor Tony Stark/Iron Man in “Avengers: Endgame.” He was finally in a relationship with the love of his life, MJ (played by Zendaya), and Mysterio (played in a wonderfully manic performance by Jake Gyllenhaal) was seemingly defeated for good. But Mysterio couldn’t leave without twisting the knife. While Peter is on a web-swinging date with MJ, he witnesses a news bulletin (from none other than J.K. Simmons’ J. Jonah Jameson) sharing footage of Quentin Beck (Mysterio) revealing Peter’s secret identity to the world. So the cat’s out of the bag, and Peter’s going to need some help putting it back in. How does Doctor Strange get involved? At first, Peter tries to live with his identity exposed. But then his life as Spider-Man keeps him and his friends from getting accepted into college. Don’t you hate when that happens? Fearing that Ned (Jacob Batalon) and MJ’s futures are in jeopardy, Peter does what any rational young adult would do: He asks a wizard for a wish. At his Sanctum Sanctorum, Peter asks Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to conjure a spell that erases the world’s knowledge of his double identity. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (Sony Pictures) But, in classic Spidey fashion, Peter can’t keep himself from yapping — asking Doctor Strange mid-spell to make amendments so he doesn’t have to re-reveal his identity to those closest to him. This makes the spell go awry, forcing Doctor Strange to contain it before there are dire consequences. With a wish off the table, Peter takes the next most logical step: Asking an MIT administrator if she would reconsider. Classic zoomers. How do the other villains come into play? While Peter talks to the admissions counselor, he is beset by two enemies familiar to Spider-Man fans: Doc Ock (Alfred Molina) and Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe). Peter contains Ock before being whisked away by Doctor Strange, who has already captured the Lizard (Rhys Ifans). Strange explains that Spider-Man’s chattering has caused the spell to draw people from throughout the universe with knowledge of Peter Parker’s identity into Earth-616 (turns out Mysterio was right about that being the name of the MCU’s universe, somehow). He sends Peter, MJ and Ned off to find the other villains: Sandman (“Peter! It’s me! Flint Marko,” says Thomas Haden Church) and Electro (Jamie Foxx in a much-improved interpretation). Norman Osborn, meanwhile, turns himself in to Aunt May in a moment of temporary sanity. While Strange wants to send these villains back to their home dimensions, Peter realizes that they were all pulled to the MCU just before their deaths. Wanting to cure them before sending them home, Peter steals Strange’s spell containment cube and his Sling Ring, trapping him in the mirror dimension (where he’s in control) after beating him in a fight with geometry. Didn’t Aunt May die? Curing all of the villains didn’t exactly go to plan. Though Peter successfully rid Doc Ock of his tentacles’ influence, the Goblin in Green Goblin woke back up before he could cure him. As the Goblin puts it, “Norman’s on sabbatical, honey.” Norman unleashes Sandman, Lizard and Electro, starting a massive fight with Spider-Man in Happy Hogan’s apartment. When Goblin hurls a pumpkin bomb, this leads to Aunt May’s death — allowing her to finally impart the “With great power comes great responsibility” wisdom on the MCU Peter Parker for the first time. Weren’t there other Spider-Men, too? There are a few other people in the Marvel multiverse who know that Peter Parker is Spider-Man: Peter Parker. After May’s death, Peter runs off to be sad in the rain, while Ned and MJ retreat to Ned’s grandmother’s house. There, Ned uses the Sling Ring (because his grandmother said their family is magic, I guess?) to open a portal to Peter Parker. Audiences familiar with their Spider-Man suits will know immediately that this Spidey’s eyes are too big to belong to Ned’s Peter, however. Of course, they belong to Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker, wearing his suit from “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.” Ned tries to summon Peter again, and out walks Tobey Maguire, who gives an awkward little wave. The Spider-Men track down Peter and give him a pep talk, sharing that they too have lost loved ones — Gwen Stacy and some Uncles Ben, primarily. They come up with a plan to cure all of the remaining villains and send everybody home. The Spider-Men use the spell containment box to lure the remaining villains to the Statue of Liberty, which is being remodeled with Captain America’s shield. They then start curing the villains one-by-one, aided by Doc Ock and Doctor Strange (inadvertently released from his mirror dimension Grand Canyon hell by Ned). Sony Pictures Why does everyone forget Peter Parker? As Strange prepares to send everyone home, the Green Goblin returns, destroying the spell containment box with a pumpkin bomb. This causes the spell to break loose, summoning everyone in the multiverse who knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man to Earth-616 (and thus threatening to destroy reality). So Spider-Man comes up with a solution: Make the whole universe forget who Peter Parker is to nullify the spell. Peter says goodbye to his fellow Peters (who, hardcore fans will know, inspired his latest Spidey suit) before returning to tell Ned and MJ the news. He and Ned share one last secret handshake, while MJ tells Peter she loves him — but asks him not to say it back until he reminds her of who he is. They share one last kiss before the world forgets Peter Parker. Peter goes to the coffee shop where MJ works with a letter that explains everything. Before he can read it to her, however, he is overcome with the feeling that she would be better — safer — without him and simply asks for a coffee. He asks MJ if she’s excited for MIT and leaves her to her new life. The film ends with Peter, having kept the coffee cup, living in a crummy apartment. He then whips out a brand-new Spider-Man suit — plain fabric with no glamorous Stark tech — and takes it out for a final swing in the snow. He is ready to face a brand new day.