‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ Ending Explained: The Spider-Verse Strikes Back

The release of ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ allowed us to see the next phase in the storyline of Miles Morales as a hero and how Gwen Stacy fits into all of this while growing as a hero in her own right. Of course, the stakes are now bigger in ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ because this is no longer just about stranded Spider-People looking to return to their own universes.

Instead, different universes are now in danger due to the actions of different people involved in the larger storyline of ‘Across the Spider-Verse.’ That means that this movie was able to set up the conflicts and the issues that the main characters have to resolve in time for the trilogy’s conclusion. So, with that said, let’s look at the ending of ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.’

We get to see more of Gwen’s background

The story of ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ begins with Gwen Stacy. After all, she is the secondary protagonist of this movie series. And while we met her back in Into the ‘Spider-Verse,’ we didn’t really get to see the kind of life she lived back in her own universe.

Gwen’s story starts with her reminiscing about what happened before she met Miles. She was best friends with Peter Parker, the only person she could ever connect with before she became friends with Miles. However, Peter also wanted to be special, and that was when he decided to drink a formula that turned him into a wild reptile. Not knowing that this reptile was Peter, Gwen fought and accidentally killed him, only to discover that it was her best friend.

Captain Stacy caught Spider-Woman with Peter’s dead body in her harms, and he immediately pinned her as the prime suspect for the murder of Gwen’s best friend. That was why it was so difficult for Gwen to tell her father who she was. And at the same time, Gwen felt lonely because she didn’t have any friends even though she always wanted to be in a band, whether figuratively or literally.

The Avengers of Spider-people

While Gwen was in the middle of a heartfelt talk with her father, a mysterious villain appeared out of nowhere. It was a Renaissance version of the Vulture, which was too strong of a threat for Gwen to handle on her own. That was when Spider-Man 2099, Miguel O’Hara, appeared. And O’Hara eventually called for backup in the form of Jessica Drew’s Spider-Woman.

The trio of Spider-People defeated the Vulture, as Jessica tried to convince Miguel to recruit Gwen as part of a group of Spider-People that defended the multiverse against threats from different universes. Miguel, for some reason, didn’t want to recruit Gwen. But he had no choice when it was clear that Gwen no longer had a home to return to.

When Captain Stacy cornered and tried to arrest her, Gwen revealed her identity to her father so that he would believe that she didn’t murder her best friend. However, Stacy still decided to play the role of a cop and was about to arrest his own daughter without trying to hear out what she had to say. That was when Miguel and Jessica saved Gwen and took her with them back to their HQ.

A new villain rises

Back in Miles Morales’ universe, more than a year had passed since the events of ‘Into the Spider-Verse.’ While he was already a better hero than he was in the first movie, he still had a lot of things to learn. Miles also needed to understand his responsibilities to his family while he was still trying to figure out how to be a better hero to the people of Brooklyn. And he ended up getting entangled with a new villain named the Spot.

Under normal circumstances, the Spot seems like a normal “villain of the week” because he doesn’t have the demeanor and personality of a villain. He couldn’t even properly control his superpowers, which allowed him to take and use different spots from his body and use them as warp gates that allowed him to move seamlessly within his own dimension. For example, the Spot could use a spot to create a gate that leads to a location just a few meters away from him, allowing him to move quickly while fooling Spider-Man.

The Spot, of course, wasn’t a really good villain in terms of his skills, and that was why Miles was able to handle him without too much effort so that he could come to his parent-teacher conference on time. But while he was in school to listen to what the guidance counselor had to say, Miles realized that Spot had escaped his binds. And that was when Miles had to quickly bolt to defeat the Spot again in front of his father, who didn’t even know that Spider-Man was his son.

Family is at the center of it all

Miles, however, was in the middle of a family situation the entire time because his parents were wondering why he seemed so distant, distracted, and always late to family gatherings, including the celebration of his father’s promotion to the position of captain of his police force. But the problem was that Miles had trouble expressing to his parents what he had been up to and what he wanted to do in his life. His parents knew that he was a good boy and that he had his head on his shoulders. They were just afraid of the fact that he was seemingly too preoccupied without them understanding why.

The same issue was prevalent in Gwen’s life because she decided to run away from home to join the Spider-People in their mission to keep the multiverse safe. She felt that her father was too preoccupied with his job as a cop that he didn’t understand the responsibilities on Gwen’s shoulders.

So, when Gwen decided to visit Miles in his universe, she didn’t even try to tell her about her problems at home. On the other hand, she had a good idea of what Miles was going through in his own family situation, as he actually got grounded for talking back to his parents. Still, Miles introduced Gwen to his family, which had mixed feelings about her. Gwen bolted out of the party because she was needed elsewhere, as it was clear that she went to that universe to try to apprehend the Spot.

Even though Miles successfully defeated the Spot, it was clear that he wasn’t down for the count. Instead, he discovered that he could use the spots on his body to open wormholes to other dimensions. And that was because he was the product of the collider explosion that Miles and his allies tried to stop during the first movie’s events.

The Spot was actually a scientist from a different dimension called Earth-42. In fact, the spider that bit Miles was from his universe. But due to the explosion from the collider, his body transformed into a pale-white figure with black spots that acted as dimensional gates. And he discovered that the only way for him to become stronger was to absorb the power of another collider.

Miles gets in on the action

Because Gwen was too preoccupied with spending time with Miles, she lost track of the Spot, who went to the universe of an Indian-themed Spider-Man. He went there to use the power of a collider from Alchemax so that he could become stronger. And while Gwen was the only one sent there to assist the local Spider-Man of that dimension, Miles used his cloaking powers to use the wormhole that Gwen used to get to that universe.

Even though he wasn’t supposed to be there, Miles tried his best to help Gwen and Pavitr Prabhakar defeat the Spot, only for them to fail to stop the explosion of the collider despite getting help from Hobie, who is also known as Spider-Punk. The explosion allowed the Spot to escape that dimension while giving Miles a glimpse of what he planned to do to his family. The same explosion also caused damage to the surrounding areas as the gang tried to rescue those caught in the middle of the explosion.

Pavitr saw that his girlfriend, who was on a bus, was about to fall from the bridge. At the same time, his girlfriend’s father, Captain Singh, was about to save a child from falling debris. Pavitr was caught in a dilemma, as Gwen was alerted by her watch that a canon event was about to take place.

Miles, however, helped Pavitr save Captain Singh and the child so that Pavitr could save his girlfriend. But the dimension started to implode, as Jessica and a lot of different Spider-People arrived to try to contain the damage caused to Pavitr’s universe. Meanwhile, Miles, Gwen, and the others were called to the headquarters.

The truth behind the canon events

In the headquarters of the Spider-People, Miles got to see different variants of Spider-Man and got to meet Miguel O’Hara in person. Miles wasn’t exactly fond of Miguel’s tough-natured personality, as Peter B. Parker, Miles’ mentor, arrived to tell him that Miguel wasn’t such a bad guy.

Miles, however, learned from Miguel the truth about the canon events, which were events that were common to all of the Spider-People across the Spider-Verse. These canon events need to happen to the Spider-People because they allow their universe to connect with the universes of the other Spider-People within the greater Spider-Verse. And that was when Miles learned that a captain close to the Spider-Man of a certain universe needed to die as part of the canon event.

As such, Pavitr’s dimensions started to implode because Miles saved Captain Singh from certain death. And Miles also learned that his father, who was about to get sworn in as a captain, needed to die as part of a canon event as well

Miguel and the Spider-People tried to restrain Miles so he wouldn’t get to prevent his father’s death. For Miguel and the others, this was part of the sacrifices that a Spider-Person needs to make to keep the Spider-Verse intact. But Miles didn’t want his father to die, so he decided to try to escape back to his own dimension.

While trying to escape, Miles learned from Miguel that he was an anomaly and was never meant to be Spider-Man. That’s because the spider that bit him was from a different dimension. And that was the reason why he wasn’t invited to be part of the group of Spider-People that protected the Spider-Verse.

Nevertheless, Miles found a way to escape by accessing the teleporter that automatically sent a person back to their own dimension by scanning their biology. And that was how Miles was able to get back to a dimension that was seemingly familiar to him.

The Spider-Verse strikes back

Back in his home, Miles told the truth to his mother, who was surprised by the revelation because she didn’t know who Spider-Man was. Of course, this was probably due to the possibility that she wasn’t updated with the things happening all over Brooklyn.

Meanwhile, Gwen Stacy was teleported back to her home, where she could confront her father and have a heartfelt talk with him. He told Gwen that he had quit his job because she was more important to him than being captain of the police. As such, Captain Stacy was safe from the canon event. He also gave Gwen a gift from Hobie, who sent her a watch that allowed her to travel through different dimensions.

Gwen went to Earth-1610 to try to help Miles regarding the situation with his father. Meanwhile, Miles was surprised to see that his Uncle Aaron was alive. That was when he learned that he had been teleported back to Earth-42 instead of 1610 because the scanner recognized his biology as that of Earth-42. After all, the spider that bit him was from that universe.

Miles went to the rooftop with his uncle as it was clear that this universe didn’t have its own Spider-Man and that his father was already dead in this dimension. That was when a mysterious figure attacked and knocked Miles out.

Upon waking up, Miles learned that his uncle wasn’t the Prowler. Instead, it was his Earth-42 version that took up the criminal mantle of the Prowler under the tutelage of Aaron Davis. As such, Miles was surprised to see how different he would have become if his father wasn’t around to guide him to the right path in life.

Gwen’s conviction is renewed

Gwen also realized that Miles wasn’t sent back to his own dimension, as she confirmed this when she went to Miles’ room. She had a heartfelt talk with Miles’ parents to tell them that Miles loved them so much. And Gwen made the promise that she was going to find Miles and bring him back to them.

After that, Gwen decided to form her own elite strike team of select Spider-People that she trusted. She finally found her own band and was going to rescue Miles from the dimension he got stranded in. Her conviction had been renewed as the movie ended with a cliffhanger that set up the events of the third movie, Beyond the Spider-Verse.

As such, the vibes of Across the Spider-Verse is similar to Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, where the heroes suffered a defeat but were not yet down for the count. In that regard, Miles and Gwen suffered losses in Across the Spider-Verse but were still determined to make sure they got to be the good guys who saved the day. As such, we are set to see how Gwen uses her renewed conviction as a hero to save Miles from trouble and help him change history by preventing Captain Morales’ death.

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