The Touching Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Scene That Came From Real Life
The first official trailer for the highly anticipated animated film "Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse" is centered around a rooftop conversation between Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and his mother, Rio Morales (Luna Lauren Vélez). Throughout the scene, Rio explains to Miles how she's spent her entire life trying to protect him and take care of her "little boy," and it's now his job to take care of that same little boy she's spent so much time on.
This speech is touching and powerful, particularly because it's intercut with scenes from both "Across the Spider-Verse" and its predecessor. Perhaps what truly makes this speech so compelling, though, is the fact that it came from the real-life of director Phil Lord.
"It came from something that a friend of mine told me once," Lord explained during an interview with the YouTube channel Mom the Magnificent. "She had a photograph in her room of her as a very young girl ... when she moved into the apartment, [her mother] pointed at the picture of the little girl and said 'you have to take care of that little girl for me.'"
Phil Lord was struck by how beautiful this story was, and pulled from it when writing the scene
While the actual speech may have been used in a different context than the emotional conversation on the rooftop between Miles Morales and his mother, Phil Lord believes that the heartfelt core of this speech is what makes their conversation so powerful.
"I just thought that was such a beautiful thought," Lord said. "That a parent and their adult child are co-parenting this young person that still walks this Earth. That now you have to share this responsibility with me."
Lord said that he was struck by how beautiful this sentiment was, and he was struggling heavily with how to write this scene until he decided to incorporate this real-life story. Indeed, the trailer makes it clear that this heartfelt speech from Rio Morales is more relevant than ever in the life of her son as his coming-of-age story also coincides with a deadly journey across multiple universes, each with their own, distinct art style.
Rio's speech serves as a reminder to Miles that he owes it to his parents to take care of himself when they're not there to protect him, and his personal growth is something he is also responsible for now that he's entered adulthood. It's a sentiment that made an impact on Lord, and one which makes this scene one of the most powerful moments in "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse."