No Way Home: Moral Responsibility and Healing from Shared Guilt

“With great power comes great responsibility”, but who are we responsible for?

(This is littered with spoilers)

For as lighthearted as being a “friendly neighborhood Spiderman” sounds, every version of the Spiderman story is a tragedy — the kind where the characters question their identities and deal with life-shattering loss and broken relationships. The most recent Spiderman movie, No Way Home, starring Tom Holland, not only continues the tragedy, but asks the audience to confront it and watch as the characters learn how to both accept and heal from it.

A quick summary

When Tom Holland’s Spiderman tampers with a spell by Dr. Strange, all the villains who have ever fought Spiderman in the other movies (starring Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield) enter his universe and try to continue their classic superhero versus supervillain battles. But, thanks to more spells, the other Spidermans also enter Tom Holland’s universe — resulting in a crossover that’s, honestly, just really cool. But amid the fun of comparing web-shooters and learning that two of them dated girls named MJ, they realize that, although they have unique characters and stories, they share in the tragedy of Spiderman. Tobey lost Uncle Ben, Andrew killed Gwen in a failed rescue, and Tom watched Aunt May die in his arms. But none of them are merely victims of tragedy — each death occurred because of Spiderman. To be Spiderman is to realize that your very identity puts your loved ones in danger. Spiderman is haunted by guilt for unintentionally trapping his friends and family in his tragic web.

Shared guilt and healing

The story reminds me of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. Each brother — Dmitri, Ivan, and Alyosha — has a unique personality and life, but each share the guilt of being a Karamazov. Like the Spidermans, the guilt is shared, but not collective — which is important. Collective guilt comes from group identification, not from individual action. For example, “All white Americans are guilty of racism.” Collective guilt is often unjust because it doesn’t give individuals the chance to take responsibility for their own actions. Shared guilt is where individuals realize that they each struggle with the same guilt from their own actions. Each owns (or, should own) their part in the guilt, talk about it honestly, relate to each other, and help each other heal. This allows them to improve their moral choices. Both stories, the Spidermans’ and the Karamazovs’, are about acknowledging guilt, finding healing with others, and embracing moral responsibility.

(Nerdy Aside)

Just for fun, I think there’s resemblance between the three Spidermans and the three Karamazovs. Tobey MacGuire is like Dmitri. He’s not the most emotionally stable, adores his girlfriend, has a good heart, but weaker moral judgment. Andrew Garfield is Ivan. He’s more existential and seems to most deeply feel the emotional weight of his guilt. Tom Holland is Alyosha. He initially comes across as a bit naïve and is irresistibly likeable and people-focused, but later comes to realize his own guilt. (Does this mean that RDJ’s Iron-Man is a sort of Elder Zosima? Both guide their mentees to embrace their identity and find their purpose, and their deaths act as an emotional catalyst for the stories….I’m stopping here because I don’t know if I can conscientiously keep drawing parallels between a rich genius playboy philanthropist and a Russian Orthodox Elder).

Who are we responsible for?

The movie’s most interesting question unfolds as Tom feels a moral responsibility to help each of the villains heal by taking away their evil powers (which usually originated in some sort of failed science experiment). Doing this will require battling, but not killing, each villain. The alternative is to finish Dr. Strange’s spell and kill at the villains at the press of a button. In a court of law, none of the Spidermans (least of all Tom) have any responsibility to help the villains. Each villain made his own moral choice and have faced the consequences. But Tom has the power to help heal them before he sends them back to their own universes and decides to try. Similarly, Alyosha goes out of his way to help each person he meets through the novel heal from whatever brokenness they struggle with. As his mentor, Elder Zosima, says “There is only one salvation for you: take yourself up, and make yourself responsible for all the sins of men” (“Talks and Homilies”).

Bad philosophy alert?

Someone I watched the movie with criticized how the story allowed the villains to “detox” their evil — are the producers implying that evil is nothing more than a chemical imbalance that can be fixed (“fixed like a dog,” as Dr. Octavius even says)? But I don’t think the movie falls into the modern mistake of explaining away evil on the therapist’s couch. We’re given the chance to relate with some of the villains — the one who never felt loved or seen, the one who lived in constant pain — but their actions are never justified. No one tries to say that the Green Goblin’s crimes are merely reactions to a neglected childhood (which, incidentally, is what Dmitri’s lawyer unsuccessfully argues in The Brothers Karamazov). When mercy is paired with justice, extending a second chance comes from acknowledging shared humanity, not minimizing evil.

I think the “rapid detox” that the villains undergo is even a bit like what Flannery O’Connor explained as a violent grace or the “terrible speed of mercy” that occurs when God hits us over the head and makes us realize how broken we are. Why did Jesus appear to Saul? Why did God wrestle with Jacob? It wasn’t because He wanted to overlook their sins, but because He gave them a chance to understand their guilt and be redeemed.

The shared pursuit of redemption

Each Spiderman rises to the challenge and, in the process, finds redemption. Tobey prevents Tom from letting his rage overpower his mercy. Andrew sees MJ falling to her death just as Gwen did, but saves her because he’s learned how to rescue her without hurting her. Tom, after realizing that his revealed identity is ruining his friends’ lives, tells Dr. Strange to cast a spell that makes everyone — even MJ — forget him. As the movie ends, he watches MJ and Ned celebrate acceptance into the school that initially rejected them because of their connection to Spiderman. His guilt is redeemed by his willingness to be forgotten (as Elder Zosima says “A loving humility is a terrible power”), but we don’t get quite as cathartic a conclusion to his tragedy.

Last thoughts

What responsibility do we have to attempt to help broken people who come into our lives — especially when their tragedy isn’t our fault? As we encounter people who we’re tempted to write off because they’re “jerks” or fight because they’re “villains,” do we give them a second chance? The Brothers Karamazov suggests that we do have a responsibility to others because we all share in the guilt of our sinful nature. No Way Home seems to draw a similar conclusion. If Spiderman has the power to extend mercy as well as justice, then it’s his moral responsibility to do so.