Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse sends Miles Morales through the multiverse, pits him against other Spider-People, and runs 140 minutes — the longest American animated film by runtime at the time of its release.
Trailer, via Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Gwen Stacy on Earth-65
The film opens away from Miles. On Earth-65, Gwen Stacy has grown isolated from her friends and estranged from her father, George Stacy, who is hunting Spider-Woman for killing Peter Parker without knowing the death was an accident after Peter became the Lizard. When George corners her, Gwen reveals her identity. He tries to arrest her anyway. She leaves with Jess Drew and Miguel O’Hara.
That cold open sets the film’s real subject: what a Spider-Person owes the people who love them, and what the job takes in return. Miles, back on Earth-1610, is grounded after missing his father Jeff’s promotion party. His parents extend the punishment when he runs off with Gwen. The personal cost is not decoration here. It is the plot.
The Spider-Society and the Spot
The Spot — an Alchemax scientist whose body was infused with portals when the collider was destroyed — blames Miles for his mutation. He reveals the radioactive spider that gave Miles his powers came from Earth-42. From there he learns to move between universes and empower himself using other dimensions’ Alchemax colliders.
Miles follows Gwen to Earth-50101, where they team with that world’s Spider-Man, Pavitr Prabhakar, and later Hobie Brown. The Spider-Society is charged with protecting the multiverse’s very existence. When the heroes clash over how to handle the Spot, Miles is pitted against the other Spiders and sets out alone.
The cast carries the weight:
- Shameik Moore as Miles Morales
- Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy
- Oscar Isaac as Miguel O’Hara
- Jason Schwartzman as the Spot
- Daniel Kaluuya as Hobie Brown
- Issa Rae as Jessica Drew
The characters visit six universes, each with its own visual style. That choice is the film’s clearest argument for itself.
| Element | Into the Spider-Verse (2018) | Across the Spider-Verse (2023) |
|---|---|---|
| Runtime | Not given in source | 140 minutes |
| Directors | Not given in source | Dos Santos, Powers, Thompson |
| Universes visited | Not given in source | Six, each with its own visual style |
| Focus | Miles’s origin | Miles and Gwen’s relationship |
What the film gets right
The script, by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Dave Callaham, keeps the emotional thread tight even as the geography sprawls. Gwen’s fear that a Gwen Stacy falling for Spider-Man never ends well is the kind of line that lands because the film has spent an hour earning it. The Spot is a genuinely strange antagonist — a scientist mutating into a joke and a threat at once.
The film’s confidence is its best asset and its one real risk. It trusts the audience to follow where the material goes. That is a bet, not a flaw, and the material is strong enough to justify it.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the rare sequel that widens its world without losing its center. The tagline — “It’s how you wear the mask that matters” — is not just marketing. The film means it.
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