Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro's "Thor" cutscene (lost web-exclusive cutscene from PlayStation action-adventure sequel game; 2001)

Thor meeting Spider-Man; thumbnail found on an archived Activision website.

Status: Lost

Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro is a 2001 action-adventure video game for the PlayStation, developed by Vicarious Visions as a sequel to Neversoft's 2000 video game Spider-Man. The game is somewhat notorious for being recalled from shelves after its initial release on August 26th, 2001, due to the final level taking place atop the World Trade Center, alongside various other references deemed to be distasteful following the events of 9/11.

The Thor Scene Myth

In the years following the game's release, it had been an oft-repeated trivium that there was supposed to be an additional scene in the game's final cutscene after Electro is defeated, featuring a cameo appearance from the Marvel Comics hero, Thor. This would explain the gag later on in the scene showing Spider-Man lamenting a news article that gives Thor all the credit for defeating Electro.

However, despite the ubiquity of the legend, no evidence had ever been found regarding the existence of this scene, or if it was ever in the game at all. Most simply assumed it had been removed amongst the numerous changes made to the post-9/11 version of the game, due to the sequence taking place atop the World Trade Center. However, this theory was complicated when the pre-9/11 version of the game surfaced, and the purported Thor scene was absent.

In 2021, a Reddit post was made by /u/granolademon in /r/lostmedia, discussing the legendary Thor scene and highlighting some YouTube comments in which a user claimed to have seen the scene, and that it was once available to download on Activision's website. Reddit user /u/mr_figi commented on the post and corroborated that they too remembered seeing the scene, providing a summary of its contents. Despite the testimonies of the users in this post claiming that the scene definitely did exist, no evidence had yet been found, and there was a pervading consensus that the scene was a myth.

Scene Details

Most recollections of the scene claim it involved Spider-Man and Thor speaking atop the Twin Towers following the defeat of Electro. The most detailed account of what the scene allegedly contained comes from /u/mr_figi:

"The clip I saw starts with Spidey throwing Electro's harness on the ground and I think he webs it up. At this point Thor randomly flies in and strikes a bolt of lightning down on it, destroying the harness. Then at that point, the 2 of them chit-chat about stuff and the scene ends."

Breakthrough

A screencap of the Activision website backup showing the original download link for the Thor scene, and the date it was uploaded. Note the upload occurring after 9/11, but before the game's re-release on October 18th, 2001

On June 3rd, 2023, Discord user SpiderGlider found via the Wayback Machine a backup of an image called spidey_mov.jpg, on an archived link from Activision's now-defunct Spider-Man video game website. The never-seen-before image depicts a thumbnail-sized view of Spider-Man and Thor, in what is likely a still from the video. The still lines up with previous testimonies that the scene contained Spider-Man and Thor talking atop the game's final setpiece. For the first time ever, definitive proof had been found that the Thor cutscene did in fact exist.

User BungusBungoloid then found that the origin of the image was from a 'Downloads' page on that same website and that the page had been archived and could still be viewed via the Wayback Machine

Viewing the page confirmed finally that not only did the Thor scene exist, but that it was once available to download directly from Activision's website. Further link tracing found that the 4.6MB file was known as small.mov, and was hosted at download.activision.com/activision/spiderman_2/small.mov. Unfortunately, no active download link survives, meaning the thumbnail image found by SpiderGlider is the only material from the scene that is known to exist.

External Link

• /u/granolademon's Reddit thread discussing the existence of the scene