Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more!
Spider-Man: Far From Home director cites Eurotrip, European Vacation as influences
This summer, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) will be going where no Spider-Man has gone before: abroad. DUN! DUN! DUN! Seriously, though, no live-action Spidey film has ever dared to leave the relative safety of New York, so Far From Home will be a fun little deviation from the norm as Peter heads to Europe with his classmates.
**If you haven't seen Endgame yet, be warned that this story contains plot spoilers**
Speaking to Empire Magazine for the publication's summer issue, director Jon Watts (returning after the success of Homecoming) cited three vacation-based movies that held sway over him while making Far From Home. The first is National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985), the first sequel in the long-running Chevy Chase-fronted comedy film series.
"I did watch that [movie] again. We should have seen if we could get Eric Idle," said Watts, referring to the tourist played by the Monty Python vet, who has several encounters with the Griswold family.
The two other features that influenced the upcoming web-slinging project were Gotcha! (1985), about a veterinary student (Anthony Edwards) who unwittingly becomes embroiled in Cold War espionage after sleeping with a spy (Linda Fiorentino) in West Germany; and Eurotrip (2004), the American Pie-era's answer to National Lampoon with the old classic diddy, "Scotty Doesn't Know."
"In my mind, I thought there were more European high school road trip movies," continued Watts. "There aren't, really. We just made up the rules."
Of course, this little trip turns into a working vacation when Parker is recruited by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to fight the Elementals alongside Quentin Beck/Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), a classic Spider-Man villain who, in the MCU, seems to come from a parallel dimension, which was penetrated after the Snaps of Infinity War and Endgame. Speaking of which, Peter's still reeling from the death of his friend and mentor, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), who sacrificed himself for the good of the universe.
With Iron Man gone, Parker has to put up with the mean "stepdad" in the form of Fury, whose grizzled, no-nonsense attitude is a far cry from Tony's wisecracking, laissez faire demeanor. That's why Spidey will most likely be projecting his feelings of loss onto Beck in an effort to recapture the relationship he had with Stark.
"You get to see two people become really quick friends, and teammates essentially," Holland told Empire. "It's kind of like a two-hander between Jake and I. It's a pretty fun ride to see this kind of back-and-forth banter between these two superheroes, fighting these crazy monsters."
And while we're on the subject of "these crazy monsters," Hydro-Man and Molten-Man aren't exactly cream-of-the-crop Marvel baddies, but that's exactly how Watts wanted it to be.
"It opens up new styles of combat for Spider-Man when you have bigger creatures, or a creature that's so hot, he can't get close to him because it melts his webs," the director said. "Or a water creature that you can't punch because you go right through it."
It worked really well when the MCU gave more obscure properties with Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man, so there's no reason why can't it work in reverse with villains.
Spider-Man: Far From Home slings into theaters Tuesday, July 2.
