Who survives to weave a future and who comes to a sticky end? What connects Cassie’s spider babies to her? And why was Cassie’s mom in the Amazon researching spiders right before she died? (If you’re after my review, it’s here)
I doubt there will be a sequel to Madame Web, considering how poorly it is currently performing at the box office, though I hope maybe one day they’ll reboot it so we can see what happens to the three young spider-women-in-training. Or maybe remake it with an elderly actress in the starring role, as per the comics (my money’s on Judi Dench or Julianne Moore, depending on how long they leave it).
Here’s who survives and who dies in this version:
Ezekiel Sims: crushed under a giant letter which falls from the illuminated sign above the fireworks warehouse on the river wharf. He is killed by a spider-woman but not any of the three girls he has been trying to kill after years of them haunting his visions: it is Madame Web herself who brings about his demise, as she can not only see the future but change it. Using one of her new skills she “splits” herself so she can be in several different places at once, not only saving Julia, Anya and Mattie, but also ensuring Ezekiel is in the right place to die. (Well, we think he’s dead.)
Ezekiel has been taking the spider venom for 30 years and, like Cassie, can see the future and seeks to change it: the whole reason he has been trying to kill Mattie, Anya and Julia. But by doing so, he inadvertently throws himself into Cassie’s web; so he is changing his own future but not in the way he meant to.
Madame Web / Cassie Webb: by now fully aware of her powers and the position she holds for the three girls, she lures Ezekiel to the firework warehouse, instructing the girls to light boxes of them to distract, confuse and waylay him. They head up to the roof to the rescue helicopter, but Ezekiel destroys it and it crashes in flames. With the three girls now separated and helpless, Cassie has to split herself to rescue them all.
With Ezekiel crushed by the falling letter, Cassie is also dragged into the water, and badly injured. She is saved by Mattie, Julia and Anya who perform CPR on her, like she taught them. Cassie starts breathing again and opens her eyes, which are now a milky blue.
In hospital the nurse tells her only close family are allowed in to see her, and Cassie tells her the girls are her family.
Next we see her in a wheelchair, wearing dark glasses, now both blind and paralysed, in a high apartment in the city.
Julia Cornwall / Mattie Franklin / Anya Corazon: all three survive the conflagration in the warehouse, thanks to Cassie’s ability to split herself and be in more than one place at once. In the final scene they come into their new apartment / lair with food, giggling and chatting. They are still just teenage girls at this point.
“Uncle” Ben Parker / his sister-in-law Mary Parker: Mary’s baby, Peter Parker (though we are never explicitly told that), has been born safely, despite an emergency trip to hospital during which they are attacked by Ezekiel.
Why is Constance Webb pursuing her scientific research in the Peruvian Amazon?
At the start of the film, set in 1973, Constance is in the Amazon researching spiders to save her unborn baby (Cassie). She has discovered during her pregnancy that her baby has a condition called Myasthenia Gravis, a serious, incurable auto-immune condition. Rumours about the health-giving properties of the venom of a very rare spider lead her to think this is the best chance of curing her unborn child.
After Constance finally discovers the spider, Ezekiel steals the jar from her, killing her team and also shooting Constance, leaving her gravely injured. As Ezekiel flees she is rescued by members of an indigenous tribe called the Arañas, who have an affinity with the spiders. They take her to a sacred lake in a cathedral-like cave where they place one of the spiders on her. It bites her, and she gives birth to baby Cassie then dies. It is this bite that cures Cassie.
30 years later Cassie returns to the cave and speaks with the man who saved her; he pushes her into the lake where she reconnects with her dead mother and learns the truth about how she was saved, and that her mother loved her. He also tells her “when you take on the responsibility, great power will come”. It is only once she understands this and stops separating herself from others that she can really wield her powers, saving the three girls from Ezekiel (by separating herself into different parts of herself, ironically).
How is Cassie Web connected to the three girls?
Anya lives in an apartment in Cassie’s building. Cassie goes past her earlier in the movie when Anya is trying to get the rent collector at the door off her back. (Anya’s father has been deported, so she is living alone and unsupported.)
Julia meets Cassie at the hospital when the paramedic saves Julia’s stepmother (Julia’s younger step-brother draws a thank you picture for Cassie, who is baffled by the sentiment).
Mattie is nearly run over by Cassie in her ambulance, then turning round to give Cassie the finger.
What’s in a name?
As I said in my review, Cassandra was given the gift of prophecy by the god Apollo, but when she rejected him he cursed her so that her prophecies would not be believed. (In Madame Web where they are first attacked by Ezekiel in the train station Cassie shouts out asking if other people cannot see him – so it appears no one but she and the girls can see him in his spidersuit at that stage.)
In the Bible Ezekiel is also a prophet: he has visions predicting the destruction and then restoration of the Kingdom of Israel.