When Octavius' fusion reactor experiment using tritium becomes unstable, resulting in Rosie's death, the harness of powerful robotic tentacle arms equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) which he was using to safely handle the materials is fused to his body, burning the inhibitor chip keeping the arms from controlling his nervous system. After ending up in the hospital and massacring the surgeons attempting to save Octavius by sawing them off, the arms' AI begin influencing his mind and they manipulate him to steal funds in order to attempt the experiment again, over the course of which crime spree the Daily Bugle dubs him Doctor Octopus, or "Doc Ock" for short, regarding him as New York's second effective supervillain. Along the way, he comes into conflict with Spider-Man, with Osborn offering to give Octavius the tritium he needs to complete his experiment in exchange for handing Spider-Man over to him. Ultimately, as the experiment begins to destroy New York City, Spider-Man reveals himself as Peter to Octavius after damaging his arms, and inspires him to regain control of them and destroy his fusion reactor. A now redeemed Octavius sinks the fusion reactor into the East River, but sacrifices his life in the process by drowning.
A past version of the character returns in Spider-Man: No Way Home, being transported into an alternate universe (MCU universe) shortly before his redemption and death, due to a magic spell gone wrong causing a rupture in the multiverse, and ends up clashing with that universe's (MCU) Spider-Man and his allies. After the MCU Spider-Man and his closest friend, colleague and Harry's father Norman replaces his faulty inhibitor chip with a working one, Octavius regains control of his arms and his mental state like he did before his original death, and joins the MCU Spider-Man, his Spider-Man and another alternate version of Spider-Man in fighting other universe-displaced supervillains, including Norman's alter ego Green Goblin. After briefly reuniting with his version of Spider-Man, now older, Octavius is returned to a branched/alternate timeline of his universe. Molina has expressed further interest in reprising the role in the in-development Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) film based on The Sinister Six.
Molina's performance as the character, considered one of the earliest portrayals of Octavius as a tragic villain, has been positively received by critics and audiences, and the character has come to be considered to be one of the most iconic villains in superhero films.
The character of Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus first appeared in print in The Amazing Spider-Man #3 (July 1963), and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko.[1][2][3][4] Lee recounted: "usually in creating a villain the first thing I would think of was a name, and then I would try to think of, 'Well, now that I've got the name, who's the character going to be and what will he do?' For some reason, I thought of an octopus. I thought, 'I want to call somebody Octopus. And I want him to have a couple of extra arms just for fun'. But I had to figure out how to do that".[5] The character soon re-appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #11-12 and then again in #31-33, becoming a fan favorite.
Otto Octavius was originally intended to be the secondary antagonist of Spider-Man (2002), but director Sam Raimi eventually dropped the concept in favor of spending more time with Harry and Norman Osborn.[6] Raimi decided to use Octavius as the main antagonist of Spider-Man 2 (2004) due to being both a visually interesting villain and a character who could be seen as sympathetic.[7] In a draft written by Michael Chabon,[8] a younger Doc Ock becomes infatuated with Mary Jane. His mechanical limbs use endorphins to counteract the pain of being attached to his body, which he enjoys. When he injures two muggers on a date, this horrifies Mary Jane and in the resulting battle with Spider-Man his tentacles are fused together, and the fusion begins to kill him. In the script, Octavius is the creator of the genetically altered spider from the first film, and gives Peter an antidote to remove his powers: this means when Octavius is dying with his tentacles, he wants to extract Spider-Man's spine to save himself. This leads to an alliance with Harry (a detail which made it into the finished film). Beforehand, Harry and the Daily Bugle put a $10 million price on Spider-Man's head, causing the city's citizens to turn against him.[9][10]
Before Alfred Molina was cast in the role several actors were considered for the role, including Ed Harris, Chris Cooper (who would later portray Norman Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man 2), and Christopher Walken;[11][12] In February 2003, Molina was cast as Octavius for the film, undergoing physical training for the role.[13] Raimi had been impressed by his performance in Frida (2002) and also felt that his large physical size was true to the comic book character.[14] Molina was unaware that he was a strong contender for the role, only briefly discussing it.[7] He was excited to get the role, being a big fan of Marvel Comics.[15] Although he was not familiar with Doc Ock, Molina wanted to maintain the cruel, sardonic sense of humor the character had in the comics.[16]
Special effects
To create Doctor Octopus' mechanical tentacles, Edge FX was hired to create a corset, a metal and rubber girdle, a rubber spine and four foam rubber tentacles which were 8 feet (2.4 m) long and altogether weighed 100 pounds (45 kg). The claws of each tentacle, which were called "death flowers", were controlled by one puppeteer sitting on a chair. Each tentacle was controlled by four people, who rehearsed every scene with Molina so that they could give a natural sense of movement as if the tentacles were moving due to Octavius' muscle movement.[13] On set, Molina referred to his tentacles as "Larry", "Harry", "Moe" and "Flo".[17]
For Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), Doctor Octopus' mechanical tentacles were created through CGI instead of puppetry. According to Tom Holland, Molina had to subsequently "relearn" how to act using them.[18]
Return of the character
Molina first expressed interest in portraying the character again in The Amazing Spider-Man series. In an August 2014 interview, while promoting Love Is Strange (2014), Molina expressed his openness to return as Doctor Octopus in a film based on the Sinister Six, then-intended for a 2016 release, after the character's appearance in that film was teased at the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), but reflected that the filmmakers could choose to go for another actor.[19] By September 2019, an untitled The Sinister Six film had re-entered development,[20]Amy Pascal stating the following October that it would feature villains of Marvel Studios' Spider-Man films.[21] By September 2021, the film was confirmed to be in active development, to be set in Sony's Spider-Man Universe.[22]
After The Amazing Spider-Man film series was cancelled, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios announced in February 2015 that Spider-Man would appear in the MCU, with the character appearing in an MCU film and Sony releasing a Spider-Man film co-produced by Feige and Pascal. Sony Pictures would continue to own, finance, distribute, and exercise final creative control over the Spider-Man films.[23] "For the first few films, it was always, 'How do we do things that have never been done before?' It did not occur to us to do a new Goblin story, or to do an Oscorp story, or to do Doc Ock, or anyone that had been done before, which is why Vulture and Mysterio were really the key characters," Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige reflected. Feige conceded "you can't get better than Alfred Molina as Doc Ock" and furthered that if they "were ever going to bring Doc Ock back, it would have to be Alfred Molina and in early development on this third Homecoming movie, we realized that thanks to the MCU, there was a way to do that."[24]
In December 2020, it was reported that Molina would reprise his role as the character in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), which is intended to be set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.[25] In April 2021, Molina confirmed his involvement with film, calling it "wonderful" to reprise his role. He also revealed that Octavius's story in the film would pick up mere moments after the events of Spider-Man 2. Molina was digitally de-aged in the film to resemble how he appeared in 2004, despite his concerns about his fighting style not looking realistic due to his age in a similar way to Robert De Niro's character in The Irishman (2019).[26]
Fictional character biography
Early life
Otto Octavius is a brilliant nuclear physicist, a friend of Dr. Curt Connors, and a scientific idol of Peter Parker, who aims to write his college paper on him. His work is connected to and funded by Oscorp, run by Norman Osborn, whom Octavius knew. Years later, Osborn would become the Green Goblin after an experiment involving super-soldiers gone wrong and die while fighting Spider-Man; Octavius later attended his funeral.[c] Despite this, Octavius continues his work with his wife and lab assistant, Rosie.
Two years later (2004), Parker meets Octavius through Norman's son and the former's best friend Harry Osborn. Octavius initially dismisses Parker until he remembers that Oscorp funds his research and that Parker is the "brilliant but lazy" student of Dr. Curt Connors, after which Octavius takes a liking to Parker because of his intelligence and shared interests. Octavius creates an artificial sun with four mechanical tentacles controlled by a back-mounted harness and a neural inhibitor chip on his neck as part of a fusion reactor experiment using tritium. However, the experiment goes awry, resulting in Rosie's death, the harness being fused to his body, and the inhibitor chip controlling the arms being destroyed. Octavius ends up in the hospital, but the arms', no longer under the control of the inhibitor chip, artificial intelligence (AI) massacre the surgeons attempting to save him and then have Octavius make his escape. While Octavius initially wants to commit suicide and destroy his arms due to him being stricken with guilt over his actions, he is stopped by his arms, who play on his ego, pride and inability to take criticism and accept mistakes, leading them manipulating him to steal funds in order to rebuild his experiment at all costs. Succumbing to the AI's manipulations, he does everything he can to rebuild his experiment and becomes known as Doctor Octopus.
Along the way, he comes into conflict with Spider-Man and offers to bring him to Harry in exchange for more tritium. To lure Spider-Man, Octavius kidnaps Mary Jane Watson and battles him atop an elevated train, which he sends careening out of control. Octavius takes Spider-Man captive, delivers him to Harry, keeps Watson as a hostage, and begins another attempt at the fusion reactor experiment. However, Spider-Man arrives to stop him and damages the arms, before revealing his identity as Parker, and reminding Octavius of how he believed intelligence should be used for good.[d] Inspired by Parker's words, Octavius regains control of his arms and sacrifices his life to sink the fusion reactor into the East River.
In the alternate reality of Earth-616, during the year 2024, Dr. Stephen Strange casts a spell to restore the secret identity of his Peter Parker (dubbed "Peter-One") after it was revealed by Mysterio.[e] However, Peter-One's frequent alterations causes the spell to bring in people from across the multiverse who knew Parker's identity, including an alternate version of Octavius while strangling his version of Parker (nicknamed "Peter-Two"), moments before the latter can redeem Octavius and stop his experiment. After being transported to this new reality, Octavius, still under the control of his AI arms and going by Doctor Octopus, encounters Peter-One on the Alexander Hamilton Bridge. Believing Peter-One is his Spider-Man and that he did something with his fusion reactor, Octavius battles him and steals a piece of his nanotechnologicalIron Spider suit, upgrading his arms. After discovering Peter-One is not his Parker, Octavius loses control of his arms when Peter-One uses the stolen nanotechnology to hack into them. Peter-One interrogates Octavius, but they are interrupted by an alternate version of Green Goblin, whom Octavius recognizes as his late friend Norman Osborn.
Strange teleports the two of them to the New York Sanctum and locks Octavius in a cell next to an alternate version of Curt Connors from another alternate universe. Later, Octavius meets Max Dillon (an alternate version of Dillon from Connor's universe) and Flint Marko (from his and Osborn's universe), and reunites with Osborn; the two learn from Marko that they both died while fighting their Spider-Man, which Octavius angrily refuses to believe, but was convinced, after realizing that his fight with his Spider-Man was the only thing he remembered before being brought to this universe. Strange, however, arrives and locks Osborn in another cell, preparing to send the villains back to their universes, though the villains (sans Marko) are against being sent back to their universes because they don't want to die upon return. Fortunately, Peter-One fights and traps Strange in the Mirror Dimension, intending to cure them. Octavius is surprised at Peter-One's act and tells him he could have let them die, but MJ tells him that it was not who Spider-Man is. Hearing Peter-One's intentions to cure the villains, Octavius is reluctant, believing he does not need fixing.
Despite being unwilling, Octavius was convinced to come with Spider-Man, but protested when Peter-One told him that he was going to be cured first. Nonetheless, Peter-One and Osborn make a new inhibitor chip for him, as Spider-Man administrated it, which gives Octavius his humanity and control over his arms back. Octavius expressed his gratitude to Peter-One for his help, returns the nanites he absorbed back to Peter's suit and offers to help cure the remaining villains, but Osborn's Green Goblin persona retakes control of Norman and convinces the uncured villains to fight back. Octavius attempts to stop them, but is blasted out of a building by Dillon and forced to escape. However, Octavius later assists his universes' Parker, Peter-One and an alternate version of Parker from Dillon's and Connors' universe (nicknamed "Peter-Three") to cure Dillon and fight back against the Green Goblin, while also briefly having an emotional reunion with his universes' Peter (who is much older). Afterwards, Strange returns the displaced individuals to their native universes, with Octavius taking an arc reactor back with him to a branched/alternate timeline of his universe where he would likely be given a second chance at life.[f]
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and its second season, will explore an alternate universe version of Peter Parker's origin story (voiced by Hudson Thames) and early days using the Spider-Man persona as he is faced against an alternate version of Octavius (voiced by Hugh Dancy) in his freshman and sophomore years of high school.[27]
Characterization
David Crow of Den of Geek calls Octavius "a megalomaniacal fiend" who, despite building four mechanical arms, is "still inexplicably searching for a creation that will justify his genius and get him worldwide acclaim." Crow notes that the relationships Octavius has with his wife and Peter "give the accident which welds the mechanical arms to his spine and drives him insane some emotional weight."[28]
Molina reprises his role as Otto Octavius in the video game adaptation of Spider-Man 2 (2004).
The film version of Otto Octavius appears as a playable character in Spider-Man: Friend or Foe (2007), albeit voiced by Joe Alaskey. This version went through similar events, but survived his death and didn't redeem. Octavius joins several of Spider-Man's enemies in an attempt to kill him, but they are attacked by a swarm of symbiote-like creatures called P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s created by Mysterio, which brainwash the villains and teleport them across the world, with Octavius being sent to Tokyo to build a P.H.A.N.T.O.M. generator. After Spider-Man is recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. to stop the P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s, his journey takes him to Tokyo, where he frees Octavius from Mysterio's control. Following this, Octavius reluctantly joins forces with Spider-Man to stop Mysterio.
Reception and legacy
"Hello, Peter" redirects here. For the 1939 Hungarian film, see Hello, Peter!
Alfred Molina's role in Spider-Man 2 was widely well-received. In May 2014, IndieWire ranked him as the 5th greatest film supervillain of all time.[30] Additionally, Abraham Riesman of Vulture.com in his February 2018 list placed the character as number 16 in the rank of his 25 greatest movie supervillains.[31]Den of Geek, Screen Rant, and Collider ranked Doc Ock as the greatest villain in the Spider-Man film franchise.[32][33][34] The special effects used for his robotic arms were also praised, with Roger Ebert calling it the film's "special-effects triumph".[35]Chicago Tribune's Mark Caro stated that Octavius was a "pleasingly complex" villain in Spider-Man 2,[36] with Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times concurring with Caro, opining, "Doc Ock grabs this film with his quartet of sinisterly serpentine mechanical arms and refuses to let go."[37]IGN's Richard George felt "Sam Raimi and his writing team delivered an iconic, compelling version of Spider-Man's classic foe... We almost wish there was a way to retroactively add some of these elements to the original character."[38]Empire also praised Octavius as a "superior villain" in 2015.[39]
The character's revival in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) was spotlighted before the release of the film with a trailer. The reveal was cited as a highlight and inspired various Internet memes of the scene of Octavius saying "Hello, Peter".[40][41]
Looking back at the Sam Raimi trilogy, Tom Holland, who portrays Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, praised Molina's performance in Spider-Man 2, noting that he was initially terrified of the character back when he saw Spider-Man 2 for the first time.[42] Holland later expressed his enjoyment at later working with Molina in Spider-Man: No Way Home, calling Molina "one of [his] favorite people [he]'s ever worked with".[18] Benjamin Lee,[43] Neil Soans,[44] Manohla Dargis,[45] Peter Travers,[46] and Jade King singled out Norman Osborn portrayer Willem Dafoe and Molina for praise, King asserting that the two stole "the show as Green Goblin and Doc Ock" and were "brilliant depictions of these characters".[47]
Awards and nominations
Molina has received many nominations and awards for his portrayal of Otto Octavius.
^Just before he regains control, Octavius (from this point in time in the original timeline) is brought to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). This causes a divergence in the timeline, with the events of Spider-Man 2 continuing as seen, and Octavius is returned to an adjacent universe to his own at this moment.
^More specifically, to the point where they were originally taken in the timeline, in Octavius’s case, this is a diverged timeline occurring during the events of Spider-Man 2 (2004), possibly averting his death as a result.
References
^Manning, Matthew K.; Gilbert, Laura (2012). "1960s". Spider-Man Chronicle Celebrating 50 Years of Web-Slinging. Dorling Kindersley. p. 19. ISBN978-0756692360. One of Spider-Man's most recognizable foes burst onto the scene in this epic tale of the origin of Doctor Octopus.
^DeFalco "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 93: "Dr. Octopus shared many traits with Peter Parker. They were both shy, both interested in science, and both had trouble relating to women...Otto Octavius even looked like a grown up Peter Parker. Lee and Ditko intended Otto to be the man Peter might have become if he hadn't been raised with a sense of responsibility.
^Cohn, Angel (May 20, 2004). "Meet Spider-Man 2's Dr. Octopus". TV Guide. Archived from the original on December 30, 2020. Retrieved December 16, 2020. "[Director] Sam Raimi saw a whole bunch of us character actors," Molina reveals. "It was me, Ed Harris, Chris Cooper and Christopher Walken. We were all actors on a list because we all had movies that made a bit of a splash.
^ abHiatt, Brian (February 13, 2003). "Eight Arms to Hold You". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on August 25, 2007. Retrieved April 30, 2007.
^"Spider-Man: No Way Home review – scattered fun in ambitious sequel". The Guardian. December 14, 2021. The bellow of applause that met their return at the press screening will likely be heard at cinemas, and while some do genuinely work (Molina and Dafoe are the predictable MVPs), there's something a little overused and ultimately a little lazy about using familiarity as a form of surprise.
^Soans, Neil (December 16, 2021). "Spider-Man: No Way Home Movie Review: A tribute to Spidey's fans!". ETimes. Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe return to reinforce why Otto Octavius and Norman Osborn are considered amongst the most heartfelt yet menacing antagonists, not just in Spider-Man films but across the superhero genre.
^Dargis, Manohla (December 16, 2021). "'Spider-Man: No Way Home' Review: Listen Bud, No Spoilers Here". The New York Times. Even at their chilliest and PG-13 meanest, great actors like Willem Dafoe and Alfred Molina, two of a number of series veterans making return appearances, can warm up industrial material just by virtue of their presence. They soften rough edges, sell jokes, break hearts and add to the movie's tonal coherence.
