So, does Raimi have a time machine, or is it just a coincidence that makes it look like it’s all been planned out?
Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home has toyed with the idea of the multiverse just enough to both grant the greatest fan service it ever could and spark heated debates on how all these separate timelines are connected. But while there are tons of potential plot holes and inconsistencies, there is also at least one amazing coincidence that makes No Way Home work perfectly… as a sequel to a movie that was made almost two decades ago.
One Reddit theory goes as far as suggesting that Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 is the very timeline that has been affected by the events of No Way Home. And the proof that this theory is offering is just making it all add up.
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“Basically in the end, Doc Ock was about to crush Tobey peter’s neck but he gave him a speech about doing the right thing. Causing Doc Ock to have a change of heart and sacrifice himself,” the theory author, Redditor Skyflakes101, points out, noting that was a bit weird.
“But […] in No Way Home, Otto says that he recalls the exact moment he vanished from his timeline. That when spider man was trying to stop his fusion reactor, he “had him by the throat” before he vanished to this new timeline. So it’s safe to assume that since that was the moment he left, it was also the moment he was taken back to.”
Besides, in No Way Home, Peter (Tom Holland’s Peter) was able to come up with a cure for Doc Ock, and this could explain the sudden change of heart perfectly. Basically, it means that the Spider-Man 2 scene where Ock had Peter by the throat was the very moment when he briefly traveled to MCU.
“You can also kind of see when this happens if you watch the movie closely. When Otto had Tobey’s Peter by the throat, you can see when his face expression just suddenly changed. Perhaps this was the moment he left to Tom’s universe and came back,” the Redditor notes.
We wish it all didn’t add up this easily, but it does — in a way that connects the movies so well that some fans have even come up with a watching scheme that could also be working for other Raimi movies.
“Watch SM1 until GG calls the glider to kill Peter. Pause. Watch NWH to see Norman struggle to be good and ultimately get cured and sent home. Resume SM1 with Norman, now cured, saying “Oh” and getting impaled. Watch SM2 until right before Otto changes. Watch NWH to see Otto get cured and help the Peters. Resume SM2 and see Otto sacrifice himself. Watch SM3. Watch NWH to see Sandman get cured,” Redditor exsanguinator1 suggested.
Now that’s a huge OMG moment. The only thing we now wish is that everything else in the MCU would work just as perfectly as this fan theory!
