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From NY to Chicago: The Spider-Man Train
By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 6, 2004
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 6, 2004
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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Peter Parker, please. Gothamist can understand artistic license. We can understands leaps of faith necessary to forward a movie plot. But we cannot sit and not comment on the subway problem in Spider-Man 2. Spider-Man 2 is clearly set in New York City: Peter Parker goes to Columbia University, Aunt May lives in Queens... which is why it killed us to see Spider-Man and Doc Ock fight on top of a subway (an R train it seems, from the Bay Ridge sign) that was running amidst city skyscrapers. As anyone, native New Yorker or first-time visitor knows, there are no subways that run aboveground in midtown Manhattan amongst tall buildings. Therefore, this subway could only be the El in Chicago. But not content to keep the subway in Chicago, the train suddenly is in Queens or Brooklyn, with taxi cabs and traffic underneath the elevated tracks, and then is back in Chicago as the action moves back to the roof of the subway car. It was so confusing to Gothamist that it hurt our head. And now, this idea that there are elevated trains running through midtown is being perpetuated with the movie's monster box office! We would expect this of some hack job from Roland Emmerich, but not "classy" production like Spider-Man 2. What kind of fools do you think we are? Oh, wait...
Other than that, Gothamist was pretty entertained by the film, aside from the whole "where is Gwen Stacy" scandal and little kids, bored by Peter Parker getting in touch with his feelings, who talked loudly, only to have others yell at them, "Go see Shrek!" And who knew there was a D'Agostino at Lafayette and Astor Place?
Other movies involving the NYC subway: The French Connection, Money Train, Ghost, The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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