If you’ve played Insomniac’s Spider-Man games and walked out of Spider-Man: Brand New Day thinking some of those action scenes felt strangely familiar, you weren’t imagining things.
A new side-by-side comparison making the rounds online puts the movie and the PlayStation games next to each other, and the similarities are pretty incredible.
The comparison video highlights just how many of Tom Holland‘s Spider-Man’s moves appear to have been lifted straight from Insomniac’s acclaimed trilogy.
From the way Peter launches himself off a New York rooftop early in the movie, flips through the air, and swings into the city skyline, to flashy web-based combat finishers and even a dramatic sequence where Spidey plummets toward the street as a collapsing building crumbles around him, the parallels are hard to ignore.
For fans of the games, it’s a lot of fun spotting these familiar moments recreated in live action. Instead of simply borrowing the look of the games, Brand New Day captures the same fast, fluid energy that made Insomniac’s version of Spider-Man feel so satisfying to play.
Director Destin Daniel Cretton has already confirmed that the development team looked directly at the games while crafting the movie’s action sequences. He previously explained:
“I surrounded myself with people who were obsessive gamers. So a lot of the people in our stunt department loved playing those video games. So they would do screen grabs of their play and bring it in and say like, ‘Can we pull this move off?’ So that was a great inspiration for things.”
That approach clearly paid off. The action in Brand New Day feels dynamic in a way that mirrors the freedom and creativity players experienced while swinging through New York in Insomniac’s games.
Rather than simply recreating iconic poses, the filmmakers translated gameplay into cinematic action that still feels unmistakably Spider-Man.
The movie’s massive success certainly suggests audiences connected with that approach. Spider-Man: Brand New Day has already claimed the biggest domestic opening in U.S. box office history and is now charging toward an astonishing $2 billion worldwide haul.
Of course, fans aren’t only talking about the action. The ending also delivered a major surprise by setting up Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey for what looks like an exciting future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
At the same time, one moment has sparked plenty of discussion, with viewers trying to figure out Ned’s revelation during the final scene. Thankfully, there’s already an explanation out there that breaks down the meaning of that mysterious handshake.
Once you watch this, it’s hard not to appreciate just how much Insomniac’s games helped shape one of the biggest superhero movies ever made.
For longtime fans of both the PlayStation games and the MCU, it’s a pretty awesome example of how great ideas can make the jump from controller to big screen.
