Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

image for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Short takes

Not suitable under 8; parental guidance to 10 (violence, themes, language)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
  • a review of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 8 June 2023.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 8 Not suitable due to violence, themes and language.
Children aged 8–10 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, themes and language.
Children aged 11 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild science fiction themes, animated violence and coarse language
Length: 140 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Gwen Stacey’s (voice of Hailee Steinfeld) life imploded with the death of her best friend. When her father discovers her true identity as Spider-Woman, he chooses to put his work before his daughter and is about to arrest and turn Gwen in when she takes matters into her own hands and joins an elite group of Spider-People who work across the multiverse keeping the Spider-Verse intact. Meanwhile, Miles Morales (voice of Shameik Moore) is struggling to juggle the various facets of his daily life; trying to be a good son and uphold school and family responsibilities, while at the same time secretly shouldering all the demands of being Brooklyn’s friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. A villain called Spot (voice of Jason Schwartzman) is determined to strengthen his power and destroy Spider-Man, whom he initially blames for ruining his life as he was in a reactor room when it exploded, turning him into a white, faceless creature covered in holes. When Gwen briefly returns to Miles’ world, they immediately reconnect and Miles follows her into the multiverse to find out what she is doing. His actions inadvertently set events in motion that threaten to destroy the fabric of the Spider-Verse and lead him to Spidey Headquarters, where he encounters Spider-People from every dimension, including the Spidey leader Miguel O’Hara (voice of Oscar Isaac) and his old mentor Peter B. Parker (voice of Jake Johnson). Despite similarities and experiences, Miles is not as welcomed as he had hoped and will soon have to discover the strength within himself to stand up for what he believes in and for what he knows to be true, and find the courage within to save the ones he loves.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Crime; Death of a loved one; Good versus evil; Power and the weight of responsibility that comes with it.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • There are numerous flashbacks that show different versions of Spider-People losing those they love.
  • A character is shoved down and his glasses break.
  • A character turns into a lizard monster and is crushed under falling debris after crashing a high school prom.
  • A bomb blast is set off in the middle of police officers.
  • A vulture creature knocks Gwen down and throws arrows at her.
  • A creature pins Gwen against a wall and looks like he is about to fatally stab her head with his talons when Miguel appears. He then attacks Miguel and destroys an exhibition at the art museum.
  • A vulture creature deploys and detonates numerous ninja bombs that explode everywhere.
  • A creature stabs at Spider-Woman with sharp, fishy scales.
  • A creature is knocked down by a character on a motorbike.
  • A creature releases bombs that impact a helicopter. Spider-Woman and others stop the helicopter from crashing into hundreds of people, moments before it is too late.
  • Police shoot guns at Spider-Woman.
  • Spot uses a baseball bat to hit an ATM.
  • A shop owner chases Spot around the convenience store, trying to hit him with a baseball bat while Spot tries to take the ATM. The store is trashed in the process.
  • There is a car crash. No injuries are shown.
  • Spider-Man and Spot repeatedly fight, hitting, pulling, punching and kicking as they fall in and out of Spot’s holes and Spider-Man tries to trap Spot in a spider web.
  • A ladder is chopped in half and a man falls off.
  • A police car falls into a black hole.
  • A LEGO neighbourhood gets damaged during a fight in another dimension.
  • An armadillo is zapped and kicked away.
  • Spot kicks Gwen in the face.
  • Spot makes people disappear into his holes.
  • Spot hits, punches and strangles others.
  • There is a massive explosion.
  • It is mentioned that when a character is killed and then replaced, that it almost destroys the Spider-Verse.
  • There are versions of Uncle Ben dying.
  • Miles explodes the cage that is containing him with his hands.
  • All the Spider-Mans try to attack Miles and stop him.
  • A bunch of Spider-Men are blasted off a tightrope when it collapses.
  • Spider-Men chase and attack Miles as he flees down the city streets, trying to get back to his world.
  • A bike crashes into a bus.
  • Miles kicks Miguel as he is chasing and trying to restrain him. They fall and fight in traffic, hitting, elbows in the face, slamming, punching, etc.
  • Miles blasts Miguel off the train.
  • Miguel is blasted through a window.
  • Gwen is grabbed from behind by a creepy, tech-spider, creature and is sent home back to her dimension.
  • Miles crashes through a dimension portal into his own world.
  • Gwen throws a shipping container.
  • Gwen tells her dad that she was out murdering her friends.
  • Miles is hit by a bus and knocked into a car.
  • Miles is knocked to the ground where he hits his head and lies unconscious.
  • A character beats and restrains Miles. He smashes into the punching bag that Miles is tied to.
  • A character, referred to as ‘The Prowler’, did a lot of bad things. It is, at one stage or at least in one dimension, indicated that Miles is The Prowler.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • There are a number of evil characters that may be distressing to some young viewers. There is a creepy man in a mask, a dragon-like vulture and, at one point, Spot has a disturbing black hole with black smoke for a face.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Marvel comics.
  • Nike sneakers (Air Jordans) are clearly shown and worn on a number of occasions.
  • The book How to Talk So Your Kids Will Listen is clearly displayed.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Miles and Gwen appear to have an attraction to each other (though they don’t do more than look at each other and hug). Other people, including Miles parents, assume they are in a relationship.
  • On one occasion, it is noted that the romantic tension (between Gwen and Miles) is so palpable that it must be difficult to concentrate.
  • Spot is a white, human-shaped creature, lacking any specific physical characteristics and is covered in holes. He does repeatedly mention his holes, which some may interpret as suggestive.
  • It is noted that Gwen falls for Spider-Man in every universe.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Mile’s is caught changing into Spider-Man. He is taking off his pants and stops with them partially down when he realises someone is photographing him. (He has his costume on underneath.)
  • Miles’ parents embrace on a couple of occasions.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Shut up!
  • Nosy
  • Ass
  • Kicked his own butt.
  • Dumb Dumb
  • Hell
  • Crap
  • Shoot
  • Damn.

In a nutshell

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the sequel to 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The film features a diverse cast and a fast-paced plot that may be confusing to some young viewers but is likely to appeal to older kids and fans of Spider-Man.

The main messages from this movie are to trust yourself; that if you remember where you come from you will never be lost; that you should never listen to those who tell you that you don’t belong; and that bad things are going to happen, they make us who we are, but that good things happen too.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Teamwork
  • Courage
  • Responsibility
  • Empathy
  • Persistence.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Using violence as a means to solve conflict.
  • The notion of putting one life above countless others.
  • Leaving without telling others where you are going.
  • Lying to those you love.