Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Final Scene Hits Harder Than a Kiss
To the delight of many masochistic fans, Spider-Man: Brand New Day showcases Peter Parker (Tom Holland) at his best: deeply, heart-achingly miserable.
After making the ultimate sacrifice to save the multiverse, the whole of Earth-616 forgot who Peter Parker was, including his girlfriend, MJ (Zendaya), and his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon). Brand New Day, which is primarily a street-level Spider-Man movie, picks up a few years later, with Peter now accustomed to his lonely way of life. For much of the film, he pines after MJ, and at one particularly cruel moment, is fooled by (spoiler alert!) Jean Grey (Sadie Sink) into thinking that she remembered him after a seemingly ‘spell-reversing’ kiss.
But even when MJ reads Peter’s letter, she doesn't run into his arms in the way he (and us, the audience) hope she will. The sad fact of the matter is that she didn’t love him anymore, and no amount of hoping or letters can fix that. So, Peter is left heartbroken. But amid all this heartbreak, there's another relationship in Peter’s life that was severely overlooked: his relationship with Ned. And that’s what makes their handshake at the end of the movie such a pertinent moment.
Why Does Peter And Ned’s Handshake Matter?
Throughout the first three Spider-Man movies, Ned and Peter are established as the BFF duo to aspire to, with a handshake to match. The handshake, which is so convoluted that Holland and Batalon even did a tutorial for it, is both funny and sweet, serving as a sign of their innocence, bond, and just how in tune with each other they are.
It appears multiple times throughout Peter Parker’s story, and is clearly so important to both of them that it is part of their final goodbye in Spider-Man: No Way Home. That is what makes its recurrence in Brand New Day so important.
For most of Brand New Day, Peter interacts with Ned either as new neighbour ‘Maynard,’ or as Spider-Man himself. In one especially heartwarming moment when Peter is suited up as Spider-Man, they both start doing Lord of the Rings impressions while building Lego. It’s a simple moment, but in that scene, I would argue that the pair share more chemistry than Peter and MJ do in the entire film. The way they bounce off each other in that moment feels so natural that you’d think they’d been best friends forever — which, as we obviously know, they once were.
By the end of the film, after seeing the strength of their natural bond, MJ urges Peter to tell Ned the truth about their previous friendship. And by reintroducing himself to Ned through their handshake, Peter does just that.
Did the Handshake Restore Ned's Memory of Peter?
The fact that Ned recreates their handshake after the spell with ease has led to countless theories. Some claim that the handshake itself was such an important aspect of their friendship that it was, in itself, enough to break the spell. However, I personally prefer the interpretation that the handshake was muscle memory because it reflects just how natural the bond is, and how, despite everything, that bond can persevere through the subconscious.
It reminds me of love stories where people are drawn to the person they previously loved in a past life because they are preconditioned down to their bones to find their soulmate in any lifetime. In turn, I believe that Ned and Peter are also soulmates in the platonic sense, which is why, through that handshake, their friendship continues to persist. And in my opinion, that handshake is really the true love story of Brand New Day.
