Spiderman Across the Spiderverse (2023): Cast, Plot and Ending

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse follows Miles Morales, who teams up with Gwen Stacy to stop the Spot, a villain who can travel between universes, and ends up opposing the Spider-Society led by Miguel O'Hara.

Gwen Stacy lives on Earth-65 as Spider-Gwen, cut off from her friends and hunted by her father, Captain George Stacy, after a tragic accident involving her world's Peter Parker. On Earth-1610, Miles is struggling to balance life as Spider-Man with life at home with his parents. When Gwen reconnects with Miles, the two are soon pulled into a fight with the Spot, a scientist turned villain, and the chase pulls them far beyond the New York they know.

If you want the story before it, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse introduced Miles and sits one step earlier in the chronological order. The Spider-Man movies in order guide shows where both Spider-Verse films fit next to the live action sagas.

The full plot of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse runs from Gwen's isolation on Earth-65 to a cliffhanger on Earth-42, with a multiversal group called the Spider-Society in between.

Gwen is isolated and pursued by her father, and she is drawn back toward Miles, who is juggling superhero duties with pressure from his family on Earth-1610. Together they confront the Spot, a villain with the power to travel between universes. Chasing him leads them across dimensions to the Spider-Society, a group of Spider-People led by Miguel O'Hara.

Miguel insists that certain canon events must happen to keep realities stable, and he sees Miles's refusal to let his father, Jeff Morales, die as a danger to the whole multiverse. The Spider-Society imprisons Miles, but he escapes.

Miles then learns that he is on Earth-42, a world where the spider that gave him his powers bit no one, so that world has no Spider-Man. Meanwhile, Gwen returns to Earth-1610 with allies to bring Miles home. The film closes as Miles prepares to break out of Earth-42, while Gwen and a team of Spider-People get ready for the Spot's planned attack on Earth-1610's New York.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse premiered on May 30, 2023 at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles, then opened in the US and UK on June 2, 2023 and in Australia on June 1, 2023.

The film is rated PG in the US, the UK and Australia, and its runtime is 140 minutes (2 hr 20 min). Box Office Mojo also lists a domestic re-release on January 19, 2024.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse earned $690.8 million worldwide on a $150 million budget, according to Box Office Mojo. Of that total, $381.6 million came from the domestic market and $309.2 million from international markets, so the domestic share is a little more than half. For the series level view, see the Spider-Man box office page.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is not on Netflix in the US, UK or Australia as of November 2, 2026. The table shows where it is available instead, based on JustWatch data through TMDB.

The where to watch Spider-Man page covers every film in the series.

The ending of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a deliberate cliffhanger: Miles is stuck on Earth-42, Gwen is rallying allies, and the Spot is about to attack Earth-1610's New York.

What does Earth-42 tell us? Earth-42 shows Miles a world with no Spider-Man, because no one there was bitten by the spider that gave him his powers. That gives him a reason to reject Miguel's canon-event argument. Miguel's case is that canon events must happen, including the one Miles refuses to accept, the death of his father Jeff Morales. In my opinion, it is the cleverest piece of the film's argument, because seeing what a missing Spider-Man looks like lets Miles push back against Miguel instead of simply running from him.

How does the sequence run? The Spider-Society imprisons Miles, he escapes, and only then does he learn where he has landed. Gwen, meanwhile, goes back to Earth-1610 with allies to bring him home, so the closing stretch splits the two leads across worlds, a reversal of the way the film opens, when Gwen is the one cut off on Earth-65 and drawn back toward Miles.

How does it compare with the rest of the series? Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the film that introduced Miles and sits eleventh in story order, with this film twelfth. Spider-Man: No Way Home, released immediately before it, belongs to the MCU line, while both Spider-Verse films form their own separate universe in the series. In my opinion, that makes this the only entry in the series so far that stops mid-story by design, pointing straight at the next Spider-Verse film.

Why does the film end without resolving anything? The film ends unresolved because it is the middle part of a trilogy whose story concludes in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. The Spider-Society has locked Miles up and then lost him, Gwen returns to Earth-1610 to bring him home, and the Spot is set to attack. Perhaps audiences who want a complete story in one sitting will feel shortchanged, though that is a matter of taste.

For the full chronology around it, see the Spider-Man timeline.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was made in Vancouver, Canada, where the animation was produced at Sony Pictures Imageworks, according to Cartoon Brew.

No live-action location photography took place. The Vancouver studio is the production base, and the film's worlds, including Earth-1610's New York, Earth-65, the Spider-Society and Earth-42, exist only as animation.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse premiered on May 30, 2023, three days before its US release.

• Australia got the film first: it opened there on June 1, 2023, a day before the US and UK.
• Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are credited as both writers and producers.
• David Callaham shares the writing credit with Lord and Miller.
• Daniel Pemberton scored both Spider-Verse films.
• Box Office Mojo lists a domestic re-release on January 19, 2024.
• It is the tenth Spider-Man film in release order and the twelfth in chronological order, because Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sits eleventh in story order, a gap that shows how the Spider-Man movies in order lists differ.