After watching Spider-Man: No Way Home, the third Tom Holland live-action film in the series, I'm befuddled. How do I fully convey its quality without spoiling even a smidge of its contents? As I left the theater, I found myself giddily talking aloud about the film, recounting its delightful surprises. It might have been enough to earn a slap from a spoiler-averse passerby.
Tricky as it may be to convey the film's charm, laughs, excitement, and heart without revealing its twists, I'll do my best to keep most of No Way Home's surprises as hidden as Peter Parker's identity.
Something really wacky happens (shocker)
That simile may make you sweat a bit, however, if you've been following the Holland series that kicked off with Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017. Its 2019 sequel ended with an NYC-rocking reveal of who's been hiding beneath Spider-Man's mask, and NWH picks up at this exact point in time, with Parker (Tom Holland) and his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) escaping an alarmed, newly informed mob via frantic web-swinging.
Exactly what happens from there? Let's review what the trailers for the film have revealed: calamity ensues. Dr. Strange shows up. Something really wacky happens in the city. It involves a few familiar faces—though to be clear, those faces are familiar to real-world moviegoers, not Spidey. He has to save the day—and he gets some out-of-nowhere help.
Depending on what trailer or magazine spread you've seen during the film's promotional period, you may have pieced together at least one or two of the film's surprises. Unless you've dug into the most spoiler-filled corners of the Internet, however, you'll still go in pretty fresh. (I've gone back to some of the rumors and plot claims that made the online rounds a few months ago. If you happened to peek at those, I can assure you they were not exactly accurate—and are kind of funny in light of how things turn out in the film.)