There’s a stunt piece in the first act of Spider-Man: Brand New Day that took an entire day to set up.
It was a practical explosion – as in, an actual firebomb, not CGI trickery – that would take out the bottom floor of a building. Director Destin Daniel Cretton knew the production would only get one shot on it. Everything was on the line.
“Our pyrotechnics and safety people (had) to make sure everything was right, and then they had to rehearse it over and over with our stunt people because cars were rolling, and it was a giant stunt,” Cretton told The Nightly.
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“When we pulled that off, it’s a huge adrenaline rush.”
The end result of all that work and money, the mind-blowing logistics that required every single person to be in exactly the right place at the right time, for all the equipment to function as it’s meant to, it’s like world’s most elaborate Rube Goldberg contraption. And that’s filmmaking.
But that’s not all that filmmaking is, because at the core of it, of any good film, whether it’s an experimental art piece, a talky, lo-fi indie drama, a grand, bedazzled musical, a riotous comedy or a superhero epic, is the human story.
Tom Holland and director Destin Daniel Cretton on the set of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Credit: Jay Maidment/Sony Pictures Releasing
Perhaps in a gargantuan spectacle where they are blowing up the bottoms of buildings, that emotional connection is even more important. You only care about the expensive action and thrills if you care about the people.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day has no shortage of human stories. It’s the fourth film in the series with Tom Holland’s version of Peter Parker, who we met as an earnest high-schooler 10 years ago in Captain America: Civil War before he was hard-launched in his own franchise, starting with Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017.
Those first trilogy of Spider-Man films culminated in the grand adventure, Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021, at the end of which Peter Parker sacrificed his relationships to save the world. It was a noble act which meant that everyone who ever knew him no longer did, and that included his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and bestie Ned (Jacob Batalon).
Superheroes are interesting not because they can fly, bend time or punch really hard, they’re only interesting when they have relationships that affects how they use those powers. In those first three films, Peter Parker’s choices are based as much as being a good friend as they are on being a hero.
But what happens when he’s removed from those relationships?
“Who is Peter without the context of MJ and Ned?” was a guiding question for Cretton and the screenwriters, Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers.
“In the writers room, we were referring to ‘Spider-Man too much’, that idea of what happens when you neglect your humanity emotionally and psychologically, what happens when you neglect the part of you that really makes you, you.
“That part is often the part that is connection with the people who love you, and who you love for being themselves, and they love you for being your true self.”
Jacob Batalon, Sadie Sink, Tom Holland, Destin Daniel Cretton, Zendaya, and Jon Bernthal promoting Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Credit: Christopher Polk/@polkimaging
As the film starts, four years have passed and Peter has become the consummate Spider-Man, a well-oiled, efficient crime-fighter at the peak of his powers. He can swing to where he’s needed without distraction because this is all that he’s doing.
It’s like he’s been “severanced” except the personal part of him doesn’t exist at any point, locked in a metaphorical box.
That’s going to have consequences, or in Cretton’s words, “major repercussions”, and that’s part of what Spider-Man: Brand New Day wants to explore.
The watchword is balance, and acknowledging and servicing both aspects of your life, much like the balance in a film where quiet moments are just as important as the loud ones.
“Yes, it’s about spectacle and creating action that feels like it’s a gut punch and makes your heart drop, and gives you a big adrenaline rush,” Cretton explained. “But really it’s about the scenes that make you feel connected to the emotions of that character, that makes you feel like you’re seeing a reflection of yourself.”
Cretton took over directing on the Spider-Man films from Jon Watts, who helmed the first three, but he’s practically a veteran of the Marvel fold by now. He was the director of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and the set-up helmer, executive producer and co-creator of the well-received streaming series Wonder Man.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in cinemas on July 30. Credit: Jay Maidment/Sony Pictures Releasing
Like many of his Marvel compatriots, Cretton started off in independent film, most notably his 2013 feature Short Term 12, which featured a cast of then up-and-comers who went onto to be big deals, including Brie Larson, LaKeith Stanfield, Rami Malek, Kaitlyn Dever and Stephanie Beatriz.
The production budgets have multiplied in significant ways, and there are hundreds more people on set, but Cretton said the fundamentals remained the same.
“Every movie feels so different and also exactly the same,” he said. “It was bizarre being on this movie with this amount of talent, this amount of support, this amount of equipment and people on set.
“But I was shooting it the same (director of photography), Brett Pawlak, that I did my first $US60,000 feature with, and he also DP’d my short film that I did in film school. There are so many people working on this movie and they’re all amazing, and it feels like an army but when it really comes down to it, it’s just me, Brett, our actors and a camera, and we set it up and we get the shot that we need.”
Those intimate moments when it’s just Peter, MJ and Ned, Cretton feels the same adrenaline rush as when there’s an enormous stunt that took a day to set up.
“They create a moment that just feels so human, a moment that is specific to (those characters), a moment that somehow feels like you one you have lived before.”
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in cinemas on July 30
