The film begins with the FDNY, NYPD, and ambulances rushing to a building. A woman who has recently been in a failed relationship is about to end her life, but Spider-Man saves her at the last minute, to the applause of the crowd below. At the New York State University, Dr. Baylor, one of Peter Parker's tutors announces that they are going to carry out an experiment using plutonium. A group of students, including Peter, are appalled as they think it's too dangerous. Later on, Peter meets an attractive journalist named Gale Hoffman, who is determined to get an interview with Spider-Man following his heroism in the distraught woman's rescue.
Later, three students steal some plutonium from the lab. They want to use the plutonium to build an atomic bomb in order to illustrate about the dangers of nuclear power. Spider-Man appears on the scene in an unsuccessful attempt to stop them but is seen by security guards. When one of the activists faints, the other two realize she has radiation poisoning and terminate their plans in order to rush her to the hospital. As a result, the police blame Spider-Man for the theft, while Inspector Decarlo accuses Peter Parker.
Meanwhile, in Switzerland, villain Mr. White reads a newspaper report of the theft and deduces that it was the students rather than Spider-Man who stole the radioactive material. He plans to steal the plutonium so that he can obtain his own version of the weapon. He departs immediately for the United States with his monstrous henchman, Angel.
White tries to kidnap Peter, in an effort to locate the plutonium, but he manages to escape. Peter then gets arrested by the NYPD, but escapes detainment as Spider-Man. White's henchmen engage in a fight against Spider-Man and hurl him off a twelve-story building, seemingly to his death. He saves himself by forming a net with his webbing, but in the confusion, White escapes with the bomb. Spider-Man is forced to defeat this scheming villain in order to stop him blowing up Wall Street.
J. Jonah Jameson, the owner of The Daily Bugle, discovers that White has fled to Los Angeles and arranges for Peter Parker and Gale Hoffman to travel to the west coast in search of him. Mr. White demands $1,000,000,000 in return for not setting off the plutonium bomb in a heavily populated area. The authorities assume that he means New York City. In fact, White plans to set off the bomb in Los Angeles at the time the President is giving a speech there.
Spider-Man finally tracks White to his lair and learns of his plans. He locates the bomb and defuses it at the last second. However, White escapes and vows that he and Spider-Man will meet again.
The film was theatrically released in European territories on 8 May 1978.[2] It received a VHS release in 1980.[3]
The theatrical version contains alternate edits of some of the fight sequences compared to the CBS television version. Most notably, the use of the nunchaku by martial artist Emil Farkas was edited out due to the weapon's illegality in many overseas jurisdictions. The original theatrical cut contains slightly more body contact in the fight scenes due to the restrictive censorship policy in place at CBS at the time. CBS allowed two pieces of "action" per 30 minutes of running time. An "action" was considered any violent contact such as a single punch or a kick. However, CBS relaxed this policy slightly due to the fantastical nature of Spider-Man, but the TV edit was still limited. However, most home media releases of the film have contained the TV version of the fight scenes.[4]
Critical reception
From a contemporary review, Richard Combs of the Monthly Film Bulletin declared the film was a "cut-price Superman" finding that Nicholas Hammond as Peter Parker was a "good-natured earnestness one associates with Clark Kent, rather than with the gauche, spotty adolescent of the original character" and that the plot concentrates on the stunt-work with "sleek but unexciting villainy of Charlie's Angels is also lacking the stylistic wallop of the comic strip".[5] The film has been noted for its low budget and lack of technical effects.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]
