In 2004, the year’s biggest blockbuster (outside of Shrek 2) was the perfect superhero movie, full of high-speed combat, will-they-won’t-they romance, and a grab-bag of science fiction concepts that fuel the villain’s rise and push the plot’s breakneck pace. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, one of the most beloved films in the Spiderverse, is pure entertainment. But lurking in the pile of a mad scientist’s work on fusion reactors, sentient AI, and next-gen bionic limbs, there were some very real scientific concepts. Spider-Man 2 dove deep into the idea that we might be more susceptible to the influence of modern intelligent machines than we think.
