Peter Parker, You’re My Hero! 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Features A Hilarious Homage To A Famous Hollywood Film

New details about Spider-Man: Homecoming seem to dropping onto the internet every other day! Alongside progressively terrific trailers, Marvel and Sony are certainly gearing up for its release in style. Indeed, each teaser and tidbit is filled with interesting innovations, as well as call-backs to Spider-Man’s comic book history. But it appears that Homecoming will also reference a particularly preeminent movie.

'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Features A Hilarious Homage To A Famous Hollywood Film

Breaking away from the specter of Spider-Man movies past, Homecoming is grounding itself in the MCU with its heavy inclusion of Iron Man (#RobertDowneyJr) as well as its adoption of a particular filmic style.

Certainly, from the start of its production, Kevin Feige and co. have made no secret of the fact that Homecoming will mimic the humor and perspective of teen dramas and comedies, specifically the films of the late and great John Hughes who popularized the sub-genre. Indeed, director Jon Watts revealed that before and during production he, Tom Holland, and his co-stars had “Domino’s Days” where they ate pizza and marathoned Say Anything, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Pretty in Pink and Freaks and Geeks.

Sounds like a damn good day, in my view!

That’s not all; Watts recently revealed that there will be numerous call-backs to Hughes’s back catalog in Spider-Man Homecoming. Though Watts declined to say just how many Easter Eggs there are, or what form they will take, it’s now been confirmed by ScreenCrush that Homecoming has an homage to the ever-famous #FerrisBuellersDayOff, and it's at one very particular position in the film.

Homecoming’s homage to Hughes will reportedly occur as Spidey engages in a crazy chase through “the neighborhood,” and fans of Ferris will no doubt be grinning already. There’s only one sequence that matches that description. Certainly, it is the climax of Ferris Bueller where, after spending his day off school due to “sickness,” Ferris (Matthew Broderick) realizes that his parents are due home any second and that his cover will be blown. What follows is a hilarious race through the gardens of suburban Chicago, as we track Ferris’s madcap attempt to get back before they do.

It's a very famous scene, which, like the rest of the movie, has been parodied and references countless times, including in a recent Dominoes ad featuring Joe Keery from #StrangerThings.

“So how is #Homecoming replicating that?” I hear you ask. Well, the brilliant thing is that we may have glimpsed Homecoming’s copy of this cool scene already.

Remember that moment early in the second trailer when #SpiderMan bombs into the pool and splashes those families? This funny scene is interspersed with darkened shots of a Spider-Man who seems to be frantically web-slinging across Queens. Could the fledgling superhero be about to break his curfew? Or is he at risk of revealing his vigilante ways to his Aunt May (#MarisaTomei)? We won’t know until July this year, but we’re sure that seeing it in its entirety is going to be an entertaining experience. But what’s the significance of scenes like this in Spider-Man: Homecoming?

Setting The Scene For A Refreshed Spider-Man

Merging Spider-Man and Ferris Bueller is a pretty smart and comic book-accurate move on the filmmakers’ part. The two characters have long been associated in the comics, thanks to the mastermind of Ultimate Spider-Man, writer Brian Michael Bendis. Indeed, Bendis has included neatly packaged Easter Eggs references to — and riffs of — Ferris Bueller throughout the majority of his run on Spider-Man.

But why is there all this love for Ferris Bueller? Well, it’s so beloved in the eyes of many moviegoers because it captures the spirited melodrama of adolescence in a witty and entertaining way. Indeed, Ferris and his friends have a great deal of fun skipping school, but they also obsess over their relationships in the face of their impending and somewhat foreboding graduation.

These highly formative years are great fodder for any movie, but how much more wacky and interesting would the film be if it also featured youthful super heroics? This question is what drew Jon Watts to the project:

“When you’re in high school...everything seems like the most important thing and everything bad seems like the end of the world. So if you have a zit or a girl doesn’t like you or you have to fight a super-villain, those things when you’re 15 are all at 11.”

So in this sense, the light-hearted but sensational tone of Ferris Bueller is very suitable to Spider-Man as a character, especially in his younger days as a high school student, who not only worries about his peers but also has fun with the freedom his powers bring.

Indeed, #TomHolland said that this was very important to him when making the film:

“For me it’s just making sure... [he’s] the kid that everyone wants to be...[when you] see a superhero really enjoy having his powers.”

And this is the crucial point; after watching Ferris Bueller, who doesn’t want to skip school and have a day of recreation like he does? This decision to mimic Ferris Bueller is a savvy move on the part of Watts, #Marvel and Sony. After all, it's always great to reward eagle-eyed viewers with fun call-backs to the industry's past. Also, by mimicking the tropes and ideas of another film, the new movie becomes more and more like it. And it’s very important that Homecoming succeeds in this way.

The massively successful #Logan used many characteristics of the Western genre to ground its story. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, one of the most beloved films in the MCU similarly cherry picked from conspiracy thrillers. Both are standout superhero films, and in this way, #Homecoming’s adoption of teen movie traits will help to make it a unique and powerful superhero movie. By innovating and pushing the boundaries of the genre, filmmakers can perpetuate the prevalence of superhero movies and ensure that Spider-Man: Homecoming is truly a special part of the #MCU, as well as a fun and fantastic film overall.

[Poll Image Credit: Sony & Marvel Studios.]

(Sources: CBR, ScreenCrush)