IMDb RATING
5.0/10
1.2K
YOUR RATING
Spider-Man swings to the rescue when a nuclear bomb created by three college students falls into criminal hands.Spider-Man swings to the rescue when a nuclear bomb created by three college students falls into criminal hands.Spider-Man swings to the rescue when a nuclear bomb created by three college students falls into criminal hands.
Nicholas Hammond
- Spider-Man
- (archive footage)
- …
Robert F. Simon
- J. Jonah Jameson
- (archive footage)
Chip Fields
- Rita Conway
- (archive footage)
Robert Alda
- Mr. White
- (archive footage)
JoAnna Cameron
- Gale Hoffman
- (archive footage)
- (as Joanna Cameron)
Michael Pataki
- Captain Barbera
- (archive footage)
Randy Powell
- Craig
- (archive footage)
Lawrence P. Casey
- Angel
- (archive footage)
- (as Lawrence Casey)
Simon Scott
- Dr. Baylor
- (archive footage)
Sidney Clute
- Inspector DeCarlo
- (archive footage)
- (as Sid Clute)
Anne Bloom
- Carla Wilson
- (archive footage)
Steven Anderson
- Ted
- (archive footage)
Herbie Braha
- LeBeau
- (archive footage)
- (as Herb Braha)
Emil Farkas
- Karate Thug
- (archive footage)
Leigh Kavanaugh
- Linda
- (archive footage)
Gino Ardito
- Assistant Cameraman
- (archive footage)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
Although this isn't terrible for a low-budget TV movie, it doesn't really work. This is mainly for one reason: Spider-Man hardly gets to do anything! Most of the movie is Peter Parker stumbling into an incident involving a nuclear bomb, and stuttering to people when they ask him about Spider-Man. A good effort was made here, but it just doesn't have a Spidey feel to it. They should have gotten one of the comics' writers to come up with a story for this one. Oh, well.
I am sorry, but this movie was worst the then first one. How can you have a superhero movie without a super-Villain? Where is the web slinging! Why do he need transportation to get around?(helicopter to go the the roof of a building????). With a low budget and boring storyline, this movie is not even worth a rental! Hammond is too old to play Peter Parker, and where is Mary Jane, and Betty Brant? How is it that the Spiderman in the comics can take on Doctor Octopus, but in this made-for-TV movie, he gets his A*S kicked by TWO thugs? My children of 15, 11 an 8 saw this movie and threaten to call Child Protective Services for being cruel for making them watch this joke of a movie...Please, and I do mean please....I am asking all network media bosses only for one thing....If you going to make a Superhero movie for TV make sure that you stick to the original ideal of the comic and make sure that the Superhero has a Super-Villain to fight with.
I have seen a lot of bad reviews for this, but I saw it, and like it. Yeah, Spider-Man strikes back looks low budget, but here's the thing: this "movie" is actually the two-part series premiere of the 1977 series, The Deadly Dust, edited into a movie, so that is why it's so low budget.
After being framed for the theft of a nuclear bomb, made by three students at New York State University, which they made by stealing plutonium in order to do a project on the dangers of nuclear power. Unfortunatly, this news comes to Mr. White, a Swiss arms dealer, who comes to New York City seeking to take the bomb for a ransom plot. Now Spidey has to stop the madman from going through with his plot to detonate the bomb if he is not given one billion dollars, in a mission that takes the web head to Los Angeles.
This is a great movie. Yeah, it's not as good as the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but you have to remember this was made from two episodes of a TV show, made on a TV show budget. Nicholas Hammond deserves the same respect that Tobey, Andrew, and Tom get for playing the wall crawler, as he does a good job separating Peter Parker and Spider-Man, and Robert Alda does a good job as the villainous Mr. White.
After being framed for the theft of a nuclear bomb, made by three students at New York State University, which they made by stealing plutonium in order to do a project on the dangers of nuclear power. Unfortunatly, this news comes to Mr. White, a Swiss arms dealer, who comes to New York City seeking to take the bomb for a ransom plot. Now Spidey has to stop the madman from going through with his plot to detonate the bomb if he is not given one billion dollars, in a mission that takes the web head to Los Angeles.
This is a great movie. Yeah, it's not as good as the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but you have to remember this was made from two episodes of a TV show, made on a TV show budget. Nicholas Hammond deserves the same respect that Tobey, Andrew, and Tom get for playing the wall crawler, as he does a good job separating Peter Parker and Spider-Man, and Robert Alda does a good job as the villainous Mr. White.
"Spins a web any size, catches thieves just like flies"... "these are a few of my favourite things!"
Back in the more innocent and carefree days of my early childhood life as a right young lad, I was properly into comic book-based superheroes (despite me never having read a single one of them). From the '60s Batman (Adam West & Burt Ward) to the '70s Incredible Hulk (Bill Bixby & Lou Ferrigno), I'd watch just about everything that had anything to do with these colourful, costume-wearing icons of pop-culture history. At roughly around the same time as when Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man film began to grow into a viable franchise juggernaut during the early 2000s, I remember having this old video tape of another Spider-Man movie that actually predated the more famous Tobey Maguire incarnation we all came to know and love (but little had I known it was from many, many years prior to when I was born). Yep, well before the immensely-beloved live-action Spider-Men of today's world (including Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland), there was the less-than-popular version played by Nicholas Hammond (of Sound of Music fame).
So now that I've had a chance to unearth and revisit this relic from my youth, was it actually worth rewatching after all these years? Well, yes and no. To my naive juvenile self, this was one of the coolest things ever. But to my now adult mindset, this is quite possibly one of the most laughable things ever. We always tend to take certain things a little more seriously as kids, so I'd say it's probably best-viewed through the eyes of a child (it suffers from what I like to call "Power Rangers syndrome" in that respect, where as a youngster it was really awesome but now as a grown-up it's kind of embarrassing). Seeing as though it was only a made-for-TV movie after all (not to mention, one from the 1970s), I'll cut it some slack on the special-effects side of things (such as with his web-slinging and the compositing shots) as I suppose they really weren't that awful when taking into account the decade in which this came out and the very minimal budget it must've had at the time of its production (you've honestly got to take these factors into consideration when judging a product such as this fairly). The stunt-work is truly enjoyable to watch as every bit of the choreographed fight sequences left me in hysterics, and I'm guessing this was most likely due to the heavier type of bulky TV cameras they were using in the late '70s (which I'm sure had a limited range of motion back then). And to top it all off with the technical details, there's always loads of unintentionally cheesy-sounding music cues which make the dramatic scenes seem more hilarious than anything else (no further comment on that one).
Although he's nothing like the full-fledged Peter Parker from the Raimi trilogy, Nicholas Hammond still does a semi-decent job in the role (Hammond's interpretation of Parker manages to capture that intellectual aspect of his nerdy character fairly well, and he even goes through the typical phase of wishing he'd never become the wall-crawling web-head). The spandex suit they designed is kind of a joke (I don't mean to be too picky here and maybe I've been spoilt by all the newer suit designs, but this one's aesthetic choices just make it look so funny in comparison to those others). Not only does it's very appearance come-off as if to say it was originally a cheaply-made, store-bought Halloween costume, but the mask's eyes are also pretty goofy-looking. And as for Spider-Man's movements, let's just say they're a little odd at best and downright bizarre at worst. Whenever he's lightly-running across a rooftop or crawling up and down the side of a building, it just looks incredibly awkward. Oh yeah, and the "Spider Sense" sequences are a spectacular sight to behold (it's just a dazzling display of strobing colour-effects layered over a choppily-edited scene of whatever the baddies are up to).
I'm very much aware of the fact that I haven't talked about the plot at all, but that's mostly because it doesn't really matter a whole lot, seeing as how it's not very memorable and feels so generically bland (there's something to do with Spider-Man having to stop a bomb from going off during a world peace conference, or at least something to that extent?). Quite frankly, it's just your mediocre '70s self-contained TV plot-line of the week (a pretty forgettable story, all-round). But even after all my harsh criticisms, I still find there's somewhat of an amusement factor to it (I suppose that's just my nostalgic memory doing the talking for me, now). It's a small-screen adaptation that's bound to go down in superhero history as an ironically-entertaining anomaly in the wider Spidey franchise (only for the morbidly-curious of dedicated Marvel Comics fans to seek out).
So now that I've had a chance to unearth and revisit this relic from my youth, was it actually worth rewatching after all these years? Well, yes and no. To my naive juvenile self, this was one of the coolest things ever. But to my now adult mindset, this is quite possibly one of the most laughable things ever. We always tend to take certain things a little more seriously as kids, so I'd say it's probably best-viewed through the eyes of a child (it suffers from what I like to call "Power Rangers syndrome" in that respect, where as a youngster it was really awesome but now as a grown-up it's kind of embarrassing). Seeing as though it was only a made-for-TV movie after all (not to mention, one from the 1970s), I'll cut it some slack on the special-effects side of things (such as with his web-slinging and the compositing shots) as I suppose they really weren't that awful when taking into account the decade in which this came out and the very minimal budget it must've had at the time of its production (you've honestly got to take these factors into consideration when judging a product such as this fairly). The stunt-work is truly enjoyable to watch as every bit of the choreographed fight sequences left me in hysterics, and I'm guessing this was most likely due to the heavier type of bulky TV cameras they were using in the late '70s (which I'm sure had a limited range of motion back then). And to top it all off with the technical details, there's always loads of unintentionally cheesy-sounding music cues which make the dramatic scenes seem more hilarious than anything else (no further comment on that one).
Although he's nothing like the full-fledged Peter Parker from the Raimi trilogy, Nicholas Hammond still does a semi-decent job in the role (Hammond's interpretation of Parker manages to capture that intellectual aspect of his nerdy character fairly well, and he even goes through the typical phase of wishing he'd never become the wall-crawling web-head). The spandex suit they designed is kind of a joke (I don't mean to be too picky here and maybe I've been spoilt by all the newer suit designs, but this one's aesthetic choices just make it look so funny in comparison to those others). Not only does it's very appearance come-off as if to say it was originally a cheaply-made, store-bought Halloween costume, but the mask's eyes are also pretty goofy-looking. And as for Spider-Man's movements, let's just say they're a little odd at best and downright bizarre at worst. Whenever he's lightly-running across a rooftop or crawling up and down the side of a building, it just looks incredibly awkward. Oh yeah, and the "Spider Sense" sequences are a spectacular sight to behold (it's just a dazzling display of strobing colour-effects layered over a choppily-edited scene of whatever the baddies are up to).
I'm very much aware of the fact that I haven't talked about the plot at all, but that's mostly because it doesn't really matter a whole lot, seeing as how it's not very memorable and feels so generically bland (there's something to do with Spider-Man having to stop a bomb from going off during a world peace conference, or at least something to that extent?). Quite frankly, it's just your mediocre '70s self-contained TV plot-line of the week (a pretty forgettable story, all-round). But even after all my harsh criticisms, I still find there's somewhat of an amusement factor to it (I suppose that's just my nostalgic memory doing the talking for me, now). It's a small-screen adaptation that's bound to go down in superhero history as an ironically-entertaining anomaly in the wider Spidey franchise (only for the morbidly-curious of dedicated Marvel Comics fans to seek out).
Spider-Man Strikes Back is nowhere near as good as the movies in Sam Raimi's excellent trilogy. But it's still pretty darn enjoyable.
It doesn't have a lot in common with the comic books, but neither did the Hulk series from the 70s, and that one is considered one of the best shows based on a Marvel comic book.
Nicholas Hammond is good as Peter Parker (the hair is hilarious, though...the 70s was a tacky decade), and aside from the visible web shooter and belt, the suit doesn't look any worse than Christopher Reeve's Superman outfit. J. Jonah Jameson is very funny, and the fight scenes and stunts are exciting to watch. I felt more dizzy watching this than any of the scenes in the new ones.
I can't remember anything offensive in it, the fight scenes are bloodless, and there's no nudity, except for some ladies in bikinis. If you have small kids, it's probably better to show them this than the scary movies in the Raimi trilogy.
It doesn't have a lot in common with the comic books, but neither did the Hulk series from the 70s, and that one is considered one of the best shows based on a Marvel comic book.
Nicholas Hammond is good as Peter Parker (the hair is hilarious, though...the 70s was a tacky decade), and aside from the visible web shooter and belt, the suit doesn't look any worse than Christopher Reeve's Superman outfit. J. Jonah Jameson is very funny, and the fight scenes and stunts are exciting to watch. I felt more dizzy watching this than any of the scenes in the new ones.
I can't remember anything offensive in it, the fight scenes are bloodless, and there's no nudity, except for some ladies in bikinis. If you have small kids, it's probably better to show them this than the scary movies in the Raimi trilogy.
Did you know
- TriviaReleased theatrically across Europe, but on TV in the U.S.
- Quotes
Mr. White: [looking at Gale in a white bikini] Very nice.
Gale Hoffman: Why do I have to dress this way?
Mr. White: Two reasons, one, because I like women in bikinis, and two, I feel safer when I know there's no place for them to hide any weapons.
- ConnectionsEdited from L'homme-araignée: Spider-Man (1977)
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Spider-Man Strikes Back
- Filming locations
- Billy's Restaurant - 112 W. 5th Street, Los Angeles, California, USA(archive, exterior: as NYC, Peter & Gale get into taxi)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
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Top Gap
By what name was La riposte de l'homme-araignée (1978) officially released in Canada in English?
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