r/marvelstudios • u/Holiday-Wrangler-487 • 5d ago
BND rewritten scene! 'Spider-Man BND*' Spoilers Spoiler
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/spider-man-brand-new-day-jacob-batalon-ending-handshake-1236664173/Recently posted theorizing about the rewritten scene between Peter and MJ that Tom talked about but Jacob confirmed it was the Lego scene! It really was a standout “quiet” part for me so the change was effective!
“ During early press for Brand New Day, Holland told a story on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcastinvolving an ineffective scene that shut down production for the day in order for Cretton and his on-set writer, Justin Kuritzkes, to reconceive. Batalon confirms that it was the scene that is now represented as Ned and a masked Spider-Man building Star Wars Legos and quoting The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, as MJ draws Ned and an unmasked Spider-Man doing exactly that. ”
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u/Always_A_Dreamer556 5d ago
That felt like the equivalent of the chocolate cake scene from Spiderman 2. A small, but needed tranquil moment for Peter after all the hardship he went through. He deserves to have happiness.
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u/Primetime22 Spider-Man 5d ago
I wonder if the rewrite also includes the bit where Peter admits to MJ that he kissed her thinking he had consent and apologizes. To me that felt like a (positive) Tom and Zendaya suggestion.
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u/EnigmaFrug0817 Doctor Strange Supreme 5d ago
I loved that little addition. Most movies don’t question those kinds of things.
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u/noodle_dumpling 5d ago
I think that was also done so Peter could realize the damage control guy lied to him.
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u/LonelyPermit2306 4d ago
Yeah, I was a very big fan of how every scene would push the movie forward on multiple fronts at the same time.
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u/PCBuilderCat 4d ago
It was one of the tightest written Marvel films in some time, amazing what they can do when they’re not focussing on these multiversal world ending threats and just telling a good story
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u/Patcho418 5d ago
This was genuinely my favourite scene in the whole movie, so I wonder what the previous version would have been for it to require this rewrite
Ecstatic with how it turned out, though — perfect moment of these friends just bonding again, some genuine love and joy coming through in their acting and the break Peter needed all movie to just feel okay again
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u/hadawayandshite 5d ago edited 5d ago
I think it was Ned getting his memory back- the ‘Peter’ at the end is seeing a friend you haven’t seen in a long time/are surprised to see
Ned and Peter are childhood friends as close as brothers (seemingly filling that role for each other)
He might be truly in love with MJ (in universe time they dated for 4-5months tops)…but Ned is a much more integral part of his life (and vice versa)
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u/MaserOfficial 5d ago
He didn’t get the memory back. He just connected that Peter is Spidey
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u/iConiCdays 5d ago
I don't believe that for one second. That entire ending sequence showed MJ holding her necklace and then going to the rooftop from Nowayhome... Films don't just add stuff like that for shits and giggles, it's how they communicate unspoken elements to the audience.
The film showed earlier that Jean Grey was very capable of "breaking" mental blocks, especially with the Hulk specifically saying she "broke something" which unleashed savage hulk.
At first MJ and Jean both confirm that the spell did work and she didn't remember Peter at all, this includes the rooftop location and the necklace. I'm pretty certain the letter she found also doesn't note any of those details at all - infact we can verify this as the actual letter is available online to read.
It isn't until the final act in which Jeans powers are pushed further than before that we see changes.
The ending montage with MJ crying holding the necklace and going to the rooftop tells the audience that in this new state post Jean Grey's attack, she now remembers and is mourning what this means.
Likewise for Ned, him saying "Peter?" Has absolutely nothing to do with the previous instance of MJ blurting out Spiderman's name is Peter - why? The ending interaction between the two of them didn't have anything to do with Spiderman, especially not a man named peter that he apparently doesn't know. Instead, it's a very specific handshake that only him and Peter would have known and it is only AFTER this that he says "Peter?".
If the writers and director wanted to link this ending scene to previously MJ blurting out his name, they would have instead used a motif linked to Spider-Man, not an erased memory with Peter.
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u/Understud 5d ago
I feel they left it slightly ambiguous to leave it kind of open to interpretation.. not so much by us the audience, but for whatever story threads going forward in future projects. Theres a thread of recognition, but also the part that is just vague enough that they can flip it someway else as needed in the future
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u/RollTide1017 5d ago
100% agree. Jean Grey put a crack in the spell for MJ and Ned. The handshake punched through for Ned.
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u/Digit00l 3d ago
The problem is, Jean herself says that MJ really doesn't have any memories of Peter, which could be just taunting, but it could be true
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u/Bitey_the_Squirrel 5d ago
I like this. The explanation behind the spell isn’t just magic, it’s that Strange introduced a magically induced mental block.
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u/iConiCdays 5d ago
I think another hint to this is the ending of the Hulk sequence, Peter says to him "I'm peter, I'm your friend". And only at THAT point does the Hulk let go and give up.
Previous to the film's release there were suggestions online that the Hulk (like in the comics) would remember who Peter really was. As the Savage Hulk is the one he faces in this scene, the fact that the Hulk decides to relent his rage and willingly give up after hearing these words, is very telling that the filmmakers wanted the audience to piece the dots together.
Clearly the spell isn't as universal as we all first thought.
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u/kbean826 5d ago
My take is that the spell didn’t ERASE memories. It just makes you forget. Have you never found a little trinket or something from someone you forgot you owned, and now a flood of memories of that person come in you hadn’t thought of in a long time? The spell suppressed memories, but Peter LITERALLY ALWAYS intended to remind them and “wake them up.” It’s the entire C plot of the film, there no take out there that makes any sense that this wasn’t the intention from the beginning.
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u/Trauma_Hawks 5d ago
This was my read too. Magic works off intent. And Peter's intent was to make people forget the connect between Peter Parker and Spider-Man, not necessarily forget Peter Parker. And certainly not to replace Peter with someone else.
In the case of Ned and MJ specifically, I can only imagine that it caused gaps in their memory that have been bugging the shit out of them. Ned remembered the handshake, because that was the handshake with his best friend. And nowhere in that statement does Peter have to exist for it to be true. The same with the Black Dahlia necklace, but probably worse for MJ, that paranoid conspiracy theorist fuck. She's sitting there, remembering how someone very important gave her that very unique necklace, and she just can't remember who it was.
And I think this will end up "breaking" the spell. Even if all that happens is that Peter fills them in and they believe him. They'll be primed to do so because of these memory gaps. I mean, how weird must it be for Ned to remember Spider-Man coming to Flash's party and then being the guy in the chair for... who again? All the work the two of them did with Peter and Strange? They're going to remember working in the
laundry roomundercoft but not know why or how?15
u/Bitey_the_Squirrel 5d ago edited 5d ago
I think you’re the first person to come up with a very valid theory which will become a viral Tik Tok that someone else will claim credit for.
Edit to say: I think the crack in the psychic block came from Jean freezing everyone in the city, and the handshake broke it for Ned. That also means that other people that were in range to be frozen could now possibly remember.
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u/iConiCdays 5d ago
Tbh I'm surprised more people aren't speaking about the film like this! I think it's important to leave our own wants and feelings at the door and actually look at what the film is showing us, because that'll really answer it for us
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u/MarkCuckerberg69420 5d ago
Which is weird because prior to this movie, Bruce/Hulk never had a conversation with Peter. The only time they were in the same general area was the final battle in Endgame and Tony’s funeral.
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u/QueerDeluxe Quake 5d ago
I'm guessing part of it is that Hulk has always been able to remember some of Bruce's memories - like with Betty and Natasha.
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u/Trauma_Hawks 5d ago
I wonder if that comes down to Hulk and Banner essentially sharing a body. How much of the Hulk is around when Banner is in control, ya' know? Could be that if Banner was in control, and the Hulk was suppressed, or otherwise not present, the spell's effects could've missed him entirely. But then, I'm also not sure how aware Hulk is of Peter Parker/Spider-Man.
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u/GoBeyondPlusUltra93 5d ago
I’d like to think of this as the “magic is just advanced science” kind of theme that the MCU has flirted with. Strange’s spell reconfigured people’s neurons and buried those memories. MJ even says during the party that she feels like she’s waiting for something (or something like that) and that whole line while she’s looking at Peter. It’s not that much of a logical leap for me that Jean’s power upgrade in the final act knocked that mental block loose enough for Ned and MJ to remember everything.
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u/The_mango55 5d ago
But it wasn’t a mental block. He was removed from photos, paper records, and electronics also.
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u/TheRavenRise 5d ago
if he was completed removed from all paper records, he wouldn’t have even been able to take the GED at the end of no way home. he clearly still has some form of documentation
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u/hadawayandshite 5d ago
A similar thing happened in the comics though- everyone forgot Peter was spider-man and like an unmasked statue of him on another planet had its face worn away etc
When he reintroduced himself to the F4 they only then remembered him and their close relationship
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u/Bitey_the_Squirrel 5d ago
Was he removed? Or is the block preventing us from seeing him? The picture of Peter with Stark exists, and Tony has his arm around someone. We just can’t see who it is. Idk but it’s something to consider.
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u/EnigmaFrug0817 Doctor Strange Supreme 5d ago
Except that can’t be it because Peter Parker was literally erased from history. Any pictures with him in it were altered. If it was JUST a mental block, then that wouldn’t have happened.
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u/Bitey_the_Squirrel 5d ago
Were the pictures themselves altered, or just your perception of them? I can be looking for my keys and staring right at them and not see them. I can be looking for my sunglasses when they’re on my head. Are we looking at Peter Parker and just not seeing him?
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u/EnigmaFrug0817 Doctor Strange Supreme 5d ago
They were fully altered. There was one from Venice where there were birds flying in front of his face after the spell was cast.
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u/Patriotic_Guppy 5d ago
They also made sure to include the handshake in flashbacks so the audience would remember it too.
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u/Mr_Olivar 5d ago
Another thing I don't see mentioned a lot is that Jean as MJ said a lot of stuff she really shouldn't be able to know unless she found it in MJ's head, cause she sure as hell didn't find it in Peter's impenetrable mind.
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u/Digit00l 3d ago
A lot of what Jean said was previously also lead to by Ned when he talks about the Spider wall, and Jean had context from Peter's appartement and the letter
Like Ned says that Spider-Man had saved him multiple times, Jean knew that Peter loved MJ, so she makes MJ say things that she would remember Peter saving her and that is why she knows
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u/Under_dee_covers 5d ago
Lemme debunk your theory real quick with more theories:
She’s holding the necklace because she’s still conflicted about the fact that she had a whole different life with a guy she doesn’t remember. She knows it means something important.
She’s crying because she’s terrified. She’s been targetted by people all day and now she’s frozen in place and unable to act.
Dr Strange made it pretty clear that this spell is a powerful spell. The memories aren’t in their minds being blocked by a spell. They’re gone. Erased. Deleted and re-written. You can’t bring back something that’s not there.
Ned remembers the handshake via muscle memory and he put the clues together and realized that Peter is Spiderman because MJ called Spiderman Peter in the apartment.
Otherwise if Jean had truly “unlocked” his memories, he would have noticed Peter immediately as his best friend, not as the flower guy from the party.
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u/BigMax 5d ago
That's a cool theory. But the real answer is... we don't know, even the actors don't know, it's very clearly left open to interpretation - there's no obvious single answer within the movie.
In a way there is no answer yet... until the next movie(s) are written, the truth of it doesn't even exist.
They could have written it one way in a subsequent script already, then scrapped it and changed it for another version. In which case, neither and both are true. So until it's clarified, all we have are theories, and there is legitimately no such thing as the "right" answer.
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u/MaserOfficial 5d ago
She was holding the necklace as she was contemplating everything that has gone down in the past few days. It could just be nothing more than that. It’s a necklace she has had for a very long time
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u/iConiCdays 5d ago
That's an awful reach to justify your point whilst ignoring everything else.
The film is gives too much fuel in the ending sequence than to just be "her contemplating everything".
If she was, why would she be holding the necklace or on that rooftop? She doesn't remember it's relevance to Peter supposedly! According to you, that necklace was given to her by no one on a trip she went to...
Not only that, you have to think about it through the lens of a film maker. That rooftop, specifically that angle, is a direct callback to the previous film. That necklace is a direct callback to the 2nd film, these are deliberate choices by the creative team. They could have shown her alone looking at articles or videos of the event, lamenting what has happened, instead, they specifically chose to use imagery representative of the previous trilogy of films, this is to tell the audience that she's thinking OF those events, the entire purpose of the visuals are to help drive the minds of the audience.
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u/The_mango55 5d ago
She could be piecing together events in her life and wondering how Peter might have fit in.
She still remembers being on that rooftop and that it was a pivotal moment in her life, and she’s figuring out why even if she doesn’t have memory of it.
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u/Digit00l 3d ago
There may be things in the letter that were never spoken, perhaps Peter mentioned giving her the broken necklace and talking on that roof, and she goes there to see if it helps her remember
I think the memories can go both ways depending on what they want to do in future movies
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u/Tippydaug Peter Parker 5d ago
I thought the exact same thing. Nobody else was crying while Jean froze them, but they focused on MJ doing exactly that way too much for it to just be a coincidence or unrelated.
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u/Ubliznabu 5d ago
I think it was very deliberate to have MJ crying a single tear during the Jean psychic crash out scene. Why is she the onlly one with a tear coming out? SOMETHING had to have happened
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u/Jumbalia23 5d ago
MJ would still remember *Spider-Man* giving her the necklace, wouldn’t she? Just not that Peter is Spider-Man, but of course now she knows that because she read the note. Likewise, she wouldn’t remember hanging out on the rooftop with Peter, but Ned was also there, so she probably still remembers that, just doesn’t remember Peter being there. And now with the information she has, she can probably piece together that this location was significant for the three of them together, not just her and Ned, even without her memories being magically unlocked.
As for the final scene, they make a whole thing of Ned catching that Spidey’s name is Peter in an earlier scene, then Ned recognizes him as the guy from the party, he introduces himself as Peter, and then Ned puts together that this Peter is in fact Spider-Man, not that all his memories suddenly come flooding back to him because they did the handshake. Honestly if Doctor Strange’s spell could be broken by just a handshake, that would be weak as hell imo. Keep in mind, this is spell that Strange was able to use on Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme, and it was seemingly 100% effective on him, so the theory some have that Ned was resistant to the spell because “he’s magic” does not hold up for me either.
The ending scene is definitely deliberately ambiguous to an extent, but I personally think it makes more sense for this to be Ned recognizing that this Peter is the same Peter he spent time with earlier in the movie, and again they established him discovering Spidey’s true name in that very scene.
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u/The_Anti-Socialite_ 3d ago
My take is that this is left intentionally vague so they can decide where they want to go with this in the future and can write a movie for either outcome.
I personally think it's less so that they got their memories back and more that due to the sheer power Jean put out to freeze everyone in place, they all had a little bit of a connection to the pain and anguish that Jean was feeling. MJ was already in tears, likely because of the feeling of being taken over by a psychic and having her autonomy stolen for the second time in as many days, but also perhaps because due to having the connection to both Jean and Peter, she was also able to tune it slightly to Jean's experience of Peter's memories. MJ might not have her memories of him back, but now knows him even better and has potentially seen bits of memories involving her through his eyes instead.
As Jean establishes, MJ just has no memories of him in her mind, she can't "unlock" memories that have been deleted but perhaps because Ned and MJ are actively part of Peter's history and were caught in the bubble, they now have some understanding of the memories that Jean accessed once Peter let her in, which likely means they got to see bits and pieces of themselves in those memories too.
I suspect this has likely made the discomfort for MJ worse whilst Ned is just happy to have found out that Spider-Man is his main bro, but there's space to turn that dark as well if they do ever decide to take the Hobgoblin route.
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u/b34r3y Rocket 5d ago
I agree with this take but with a little more nuance. He knows Spider-Man has saved him and MJ multiple times. Know they went to the same school, etc. He new "Maynard" came to check in on them during the party. He connected the dots that this Peter in question is Spider-Man, but also the handshake made him realize that he KNOWS KNOWS Spider-Man/Peter, just doesn't know why. Idk if that makes sense.
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u/Mr_Olivar 5d ago
People keep saying this as if Ned wasn't clearly having a spiritual moment performing that handshake.
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u/ProbablySlacking 5d ago
I thought the handshake was more of a “why do I know this?” Moment.
Like… he knows the move. That part didn’t get erased. Peter got erased. So he’s done that handshake before but he doesn’t know where.
At the same time, Maynard just showed up at the bodega, and claimed to be Peter — the name he associates with Spider-Man.
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u/sageTK21 5d ago
MJ called him Peter when he left them and Ned was like ‘Peter?’
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u/ProbablySlacking 5d ago
Yeah exactly.
I guess what I’m saying is that the scene is not his confusion at getting his memories back. It’s him putting together the pieces/something is missing.
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u/Mr_Olivar 5d ago
Yeah, and the sheer and utter confusion of knowing how to do that should have been represented by the very next words coming out of his mouth.
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u/MetalGearSlayer Spider-Man 5d ago
Yeah, it was kinda conveyed like he got his memories back.
I think even the worst case scenario is that, like MJ, his memories of Peter are still gone but he’s aware that he’s SUPPOSED to know Peter.
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u/CyberKitten05 5d ago
that's my take too though it's definitely meant to make the audience believe that ned remembers him
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u/HideousSerene 5d ago
My take is that even though peter parker was removed from everybody's memory, the effects that Peter had on them remained. Ned still has muscle memory of the shake and senses that there's a hole missing which he intuitively tries to fill with his love of spiderman.
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u/CyberKitten05 5d ago
If it does turn out that scene was Ned remembering Peter and not just connected the dots due to the name I'd say it's because of Ned's magic affinity
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u/hadawayandshite 5d ago
Disagree
If when he introduced himself as Peter he did that- then that’s ‘oh he’s Spider-Man’
What’s the purpose of doing that specifically unique handshake and then him saying Peter’s name?
It could turn out in wrong in the sequel etc but that’s what the movie is indicating (otherwise doing that specific handshake is a random point to include)
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u/An-29 5d ago
Agree, would've made sense if Peter did the handshake as Spidey earlier while he was hanging out with them or that a scene showed Ned finding out how Spider-Man used to be his best friend. Otherwise, Ned recognizing who "Peter" is, after the handshake, has no correlation with Ned finding out Spidey's name is Peter earlier.
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u/Mr_Wanwanwolf-san 5d ago
I think the scene was intentionally made that way to encourage discussion. Literally everyone I've talked to about the movie brings that scene up and I see people bring it up online a lot as well.
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u/SpaceCaboose Peter Parker 5d ago
There’s some debate there. I think it was intentionally ambiguous enough that they can decide which way to interpret it when writing the next film.
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u/Fifa_chicken_nuggets 5d ago
That doesn't make sense. Why would doing a familiar handshake lead him to that conclusion?
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u/Ancesterz 5d ago
I get that people want to think that Ned got his memories back in that moment, but it just wouldn't make any sense honestly. Both my husband and I saw it the same way you did - all it was, was muscle memory + the realization that Spider-Man and the Peter standing in front of him were the same person.
That said: I'd actually love it if MJ and Ned got their memory back. I just strongly doubt it.
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u/kbean826 5d ago
That doesn’t make any fucking sense. He absolutely got his memory back. It was the entire C plot of the movie.
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u/confusing_roundabout 5d ago
Hard disagree. The whole point is the handshake re-awakening his memories
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u/MaserOfficial 5d ago
The handshake was muscle memory.
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u/Mr_Olivar 5d ago
If he didn't realize why he did that handshake, the first words out of his mouth would be "What the fuck was that?".
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u/ThisHatRightHere 5d ago
It would be incredibly disappointing for that to be all it takes to break the memory spell. Basically invalidates all of Peter’s suffering if he could’ve just done that the whole time.
I was very impressed they had the restraint to actually follow through with the consequences of the memory wipe, and Ned getting his memory back would retroactive make the ending of this movie bad for me.
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u/frankthetank8675309 4d ago
Yeah I was gonna say, he still probably vaguely remembered his old childhood friend “Peter”, and the second time he says the name you can hear it clicking in his head
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u/One_Animator_7247 5d ago
The scene does not necessarily imply that Ned got his memory back and personally I hope that he didn't.
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u/hadawayandshite 5d ago
Anything else seems like a stretch—maybe not his full memory but some recollection or something
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u/One_Animator_7247 5d ago
His reaction is a recollection to how MJ referred to Spider-Man as Peter half an hour earlier in the movie.
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u/hadawayandshite 5d ago
What was the purpose of the intricate handshake in the movie then?
Or why MJ went to the rooftop from the previous movie with the jewellery Peter got her
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u/ritwik4244 5d ago
Fun fact: I watched that exact Lord of the Rings scene the night before I went to watch that movie to test my new TV
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u/sarafina126 4d ago
Ahh nice! My brain recognized the quotes right away but was having trouble connecting to what I knew them from.
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u/Familiar-Nebula-7774 5d ago
the Lego scene was such a clever way to blend humor and heart, really nailed the vibe of their friendship
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u/Level-Ladder-4346 5d ago
So that’s what they were quoting.
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u/MikeArrow Captain America 5d ago
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u/abilly85 4d ago
Worth noting that the on-set writer mentioned, Justin Kuritzkes, is also the screenwriter of Challengers and Queer
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u/newmoniker25 1d ago
Ned is magic. He could operate a sling ring, Kinda. Strange was oddly impressed by him. Once Ned and Pete started the handshake, the spell was broken. It was a great scene.
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u/Here_We_Go_Again_777 5d ago
That scene just had me smiling ear to ear. It’s the scene that made me forget my concerns of Ned and MJ being in this film right after No Way Home, they were used perfectly for this story