The Green Goblin's Last Stand
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The Green Goblin's Last Stand is a 1992 fan film by (and starring) Dan Poole, based on the story in Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man #121 and 122, "The Night Gwen Stacy Died".
| The Green Goblin's Last Stand | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Dan Poole |
| Produced by | Dan Poole |
| Written by | Comic Book: Stan Lee Steve Ditko Screenplay: Dan Poole |
| Starring | Dan Poole Jimi Kinstle Allison Adams Bob Tull |
| Distributed by | Alpha Dog Productions |
| Release date(s) | 1992 |
| Running time | 46 min . |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $500 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The film starts off at night with Spider-Man jumping from building to building, following a car stolen by two crooks, late for a date with his girlfriend Gwen Stacy. He finally catches up with the vehicle and, complaining that he is late for his date the whole while, eventually manages to stop, overpower and web up the crooks.
Meanwhile, Gwen Stacy waits at a restaurant, saving a seat for her date, Peter Parker. Just as she concludes that Peter won't come, he arrives with roses and he apologizes for his lateness. After sharing a small kiss, Peter tells her that he was taking pictures of Spider-Man for The Daily Bugle - but before he can continue, Gwen angrily bursts out that she is sick of hearing Spider-Man's name all over (as she believes Spider-Man is responsible for her father's death). Peter - who secretly is Spider-Man - tries to protect his alter ego, but is distracted when he sees Norman Osborn riding in a taxi. Gwen notes that Osborn was in the amnesiac institution for millionaires (in another comic book storyline, Osborn, also the villain known as The Green Goblin, fought Spider-Man, figured out the superhero's secret identity, and got amnesia in the ensuing battle, leading to his institutionalization). Gwen is pleased, but Peter is worried that Norman may know his secret identity.
Norman Osborn returns to his apartment home and calls out through his apartment for his son, Harry (who had left New York out of stress). In his room, he looks at an old newspaper detailing a battle between Spider-Man and The Green Goblin that led to the explosion of one of Osborn's factories and Spider-Man returning to the police with Osborn's unconscious body, claiming that The Goblin seemingly perished in the explosion. Osborn begins to vaguely remember The Goblin, but has trouble remembering the figure. Before he can remember more clearly, he hears the door open - and believing his son has come home, he rushes to the door, only to find Peter Parker. Despite Osborn's irrational anger, Peter remains calm and tries to tell Osborn he was trying to find Harry and get them back in contact with each other. Norman calms down and leaves.
Peter and Gwen confront each other in Peter's apartment, The Darkroom, discussing Norman Osborn's return from the clinic. Peter express his worries about Osborn's return, telling her that Osborn could be dangerous if he remembers everything about his past, getting the feeling that Osborn didn't leave that institution with doctor's permission.
As Osborn glares at the old newspaper, he realizes that the explosion from the factory must have caused his amnesia. Seeing Parker's name on the paper, he descends further into madness, hallucinating that Spider-Man is in his house and chasing him through his house, into the streets of New York, all the way to a destroyed area where three low-lives harass him. Seeing one of them as Spider-Man, he attacks him. A fight breaks out, ending when one of the punks breaks a beer bottle over his head and the three run away. Osborn just lies there with his hatred of Spider-Man still intact.
Back in The Darkroom, Peter brings up Spider-Man in the plot to Norman Osborn's amnesia and Gwen expresses her hatred of the superhero at full blast, mentioning her belief that it was Spider-Man and the other freak (Dr. Octopus, though his name is never spoken) who killed her father. She walks out on Peter, and as he tries to calm her down, the phone rings. Torn between calming Stacy down and picking up the phone, he fails at both, learning from the answering machine that Harry Osborn is coming back to town.
The next day, Norman Osborn wakes up in the destroyed area and realizes it to be the warehouse he last fought Spider-Man in, screaming at him as he gets into one of the other parts of the factory and finds The Green Goblin equipment. His voice becomes more squeaky and sinister as he screams throughout the warehouse he is The Green Goblin once he is fully suited, vowing revenge on Spider-Man as he laughs throughout the destroyed warehouse.
Peter goes back to Norman Osborn's apartment and is shocked to see an old newspaper of a battle between Spider-Man and The Green Goblin. He pieces together that this may have caused Norman to relapse. Just as he is walking out of the apartment, he bumps into Harry Osborn, who still believes his dad is at the amnesiac institution for millionaires. While Harry tries to find the doctor's number at his father's desk, Peter rushes out of the apartment because his spider sense tells him danger will happen in The Darkroom.
Gwen returns to The Darkroom, now empty, looking for Peter and apologizing for her outburst. But when she sees a newspaper of Spider-Man that has the question if Spider-Man is really a friend or foe to New York, she angrily wishes that Spider-Man would just disappear from the world - a sentiment the Green Goblin echoes, appearing from nowhere and knocking her out.
Peter goes into an alley and slips into his Spider-Man suit, swinging from rooftop to rooftop all the way back to The Darkroom, where he finds only a pumpkin bomb, The Green Goblin's calling card. The Green Goblin taunts him from the rooftop as he holds Gwen's unconscious body. Spider-Man climbs to the rooftop, where after knocking the villain out, Spider-Man tries to get Gwen home. But The Goblin regains consciousness, returns to his glider and knocks Gwen away from Spider-Man - off the roof. Spider-Man quickly spouts a web to Gwen, catching her and pulling her back up to the roof. His relief turns to horror, however, when he finds that Gwen died in the fall anyway. The Goblin cruelly continues to taunt him, bringing Spider-Man to vow that he will avenge Gwen and The Goblin in cold blood. The fight is renewed, and Spider-Man nearly kills The Goblin, who barely escapes by throwing a bomb at Spider-Man at point blank range. Spider-Man crawls back to Gwen's body, grieving over her death.
Later, back at the ruins of the warehouse, Norman Osborn recovers from the battle and vows to kill all who underestimated Norman Osborn's intelligence. But before he can continue, he realizes Spider-Man has tracked him down, determined to stop him - and ready to kill him. A long, brutal showdown ensues. Spider-Man eventually smashes The Goblin's glider, which infuriates him; he is utterly apathetic towards Gwen's death and claims that she is just another worthless, pathetic girl. Enraged, Spider-Man pounds the Goblin mercilessly, and finally begins to choke him to death. Just as Goblin seems to pass out, though, he stops himself, truly realizing for the first time that he was actually going to kill someone, even a psychopath like The Green Goblin. Suddenly, The Goblin wakes up, telling Spider-Man he should have killed him, keeping him talking while he secretly activates his glider (which is still functional). Spider-Man pulls The Goblin back to his feet, pinning him against a wall as the glider slowly approaches his back, knives out. Just as The Goblin's glider is about to impale Spider-Man, his spider sense activates, and he quickly rolls out of the way, leaving the glider instead to continue rocketing forward and kill The Goblin.
The movie cuts to a cemetery where Peter Parker, a quarter of his face bandaged, apologizes at Gwen Stacy's grave as if talking to Gwen herself - sorry that he never told her he was Spider-Man and that his life is nothing without her, that the Goblin's death only made the pain worse, that he just wants to retire being Spider-Man all for Gwen - but he made a promise on his Uncle Ben's death that he would keep being Spider-Man, no matter what. The film is then concludes with Spider-Man jumping and swinging around at buildings at night, on the prowl once again.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Dan Poole | Peter Parker / Spider-Man |
| Jimi Kinstle | Norman Osborn / Green Goblin |
| Allison Adams | Gwen Stacy |
| Bob Tull | Harry Osborn |
[edit] Documentary
The Making of The Green Goblin's Last Stand told the story of the film's production. It was honored at the Nodance Film Festival, where it won "Best Documentary" and "Golden Orbs Award for Best Guerrilla Marketing."
[edit] Trivia
- The film was intended as a demo-reel for then Spider-Man director James Cameron.[citation needed]
- Although they never appeared in the film, Mysterio, Bullseye and J. Jonah Jameson appeared in the trailer.
- Strangely, after the credits, there was a "The End" with a question mark at the end, which hints of a sequel but nothing happened so far. However, in the comics, The Goblin died the same death he suffered here in this fan-film but two decades later, it was revealed he survived the impalement due to a healing ability he never realized he had.
- J. Jonah Jameson's appearance in the trailer of the film was at the very beginning where he was complaining as he threw pictures of Spider-Man away.
- Mysterio's appearance in the trailer was when he was fooling around with Spider-Man in his lair by giving him illusions he had to fight through, but Mysterio was defeated when Spider-Man landed on something, presumably that was the main source of the illusions.
- Bullseye's appearance in the trailer was when he was fighting against Spider-Man in a warehouse and Spider-Man escaped him by rolling outside of it when the door he was going through was closing. Bullseye's fate afterwards from that battle was unknown.
