Tom Holland is the current face of Spider-Man, although he stands on the shoulders of others who came before him, including Tobey Maguire. The actor is an integral part of the MCU, and he quickly became a favorite among comic book lovers. His natural athleticism allows him to pull off stunts very easily.
However, before Holland, Maguire performed his own stunts too. Back when he played the webbed superhero in Sam Raimi’s films, the actor filmed some of the most jaw-dropping scenes ever seen on the big screen. The BTS footage shows the work Maguire put in to execute them to perfection.
Tobey Maguire filmed his own stunts in Sam Raimi’s Spider-man films
Sam Raimi took a chance on Tobey Maguire to play the titular superhero in the 2002 film. Such was its success that it spawned sequels, and the franchise erupted. Maguire’s film ushered in an era of comic book adaptations, and it set the benchmark for filmmakers too.
Raimi’s trilogy put the hero, and by extension, the actor, through the wringer. He underwent rigorous training for it too, bulking up appropriately for the role. Maguire handled the stunts very well, though, even when he was attached to wires and rigs for the most part. In a behind-the-scenes video for Spider-Man 2, Maguire explained how he shot the scenes.
“It can be pretty physical, I mean, you know, it’s like, pretty much divided up in half and half. Like half of the movie, I’m doing scenes, and half of the movie I’m doing his, uh, action stuff. It can be difficult, it can be fun, uh, you know, it’s always fun when you go in to do something, and you don’t really, you’re not sure if you can pull it off or not. And you do it, and you pull it off, and it’s something they can use in the movie, you know,” said the actor.
The films have many memorable moments, and the chemistry between Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, who played Mary Jane Watson, was palpable. The Independent reported that two of them had to film one scene 156 times because it was not shot using CGI. It was the scene where Maguire had to catch the falling tray using just his reflexes.
Maguire’s Spider-Man holds a very special place in the hearts of film lovers. Both his successors, Andrey Garfield and Tom Holland, carried the torch forward in the reboots.
Tom Holland also filmed his own stunts for the MCU films
Holland is a trained gymnast, and he filmed his stunts for the MCU films. Like Maguire, Holland too relied on himself to pull off the stunts.
The No Way Home actor trained with stunt coordinator George Cottle so the scenes could be filmed effectively. He, too, has been dropped from hundreds of feet in the air while being attached to cables. His stunt doubt, Chris Silcox, opened up to the Metro UK about what Holland was like when it came to stunts.
“He was really happy to do all the stunt work. He was really excited. We got about three weeks with him, and so we would put him in wires and set him up in the air and teach him some parkour and some gymnastic stuff. And he was all really adept at that kind of work already. He did a lot of the wire work. He jumped on top of cars, he flipped over people, he went up the ceiling in the ATM [fight], he was on top of the Staten Island Ferry that we had built…climbed up the wall we had set up for the Washington Monument,” he said.
Holland’s superhero is not done with the franchise just yet. He will suit up when he feels that a fourth installment of the franchise will not repeat tropes.
Both Maguire’s and Holland’s Spider-Man trilogies can be streamed on Disney+.
