In Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the cast of antagonists is by no means sparse, ranging from Scorpion portrayed by Michael Mando, who reappears in several scenes, to the criminal boss Tombstone, and culminating in the film’s true opponent: Jean Grey, played by Sadie Sink.
In a pivotal moment of the film, Spider-Man is forced to confront The Hand, the skilled ninja faction at the service of Damage Control that fans will recall from Daredevil, and, manipulated by Jean Grey, turns its assault on Spider-Man, delivering one of the most choreographed battles of the movie. “What better enemy to pit against him than a group of magical ninjas,” said Destin Daniel Cretton, the director, revealing a few more details about the inspiration behind that fight.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day and that choreographed scene with The Hand, from the acrobatics challenge to the real prison chosen as the shooting location
Spider-Man realizes he has erred by handing Jean Grey over to Damage Control. To try to fix the issue, he rushes to rescue her, only to uncover more about her history and trauma. The girl, consumed by anger and pain, refuses to listen and manipulates The Hand, hurling them at Peter Parker, blaming him for her captivity.
To bring those action sequences to life, stunt coordinator Peng Zhang received a crucial directive: make the fights as realistic as possible. While Spider-Man taps into a mode that Zhang described as “alien technology,” The Hand relies on traditional martial arts: “There are 20 ninjas controlled by a single person, so their movements, their fighting, and their style had to be coordinated.” He drew inspiration from a show he had seen. As he told Variety: “All the dancers played a peacock, and there were twenty of them. Together, they formed the wings of the peacock. That is how we began choreographing this fight.” Yet he wanted to weave in the essence of Jean Grey within this clash: “I began thinking: ‘Let’s make this fight resemble a bird, a phoenix.’ So the central ninja would embody the head, while the ninjas on the sides would be the wings. We started building the formation around this concept. We kept considering the Phoenix’s shape and how the ninjas’ movements should be synchronized. It’s not only about helping one another, but about being united.”
The director and the stunt coordinator aimed to make that battle engaging for every kind of viewer: “We wanted the fight to resonate with all audiences: fans of Spider-Man video games, cinephiles, animation enthusiasts. We also wanted martial-arts aficionados to enjoy it, so all the martial-arts moves are real. Every ninja move had to feel authentic and the choreography had to be highly captivating.” The chosen location posed its own challenge, as the scene was shot inside the Dorchester Prison, in Dorset, England: “We wanted to film it on the actual site, so we spent a lot of time fine-tuning the setup. The crew arranging the set couldn’t even see the ninjas: they stood on the other side of the prison, separated by concrete walls and bars. We had to install cameras so they could watch what the ninjas were doing. The cables had to snake around bars and buildings. The greater the distance, the greater the delay in triggering, which made filming a real challenge. But everyone was fantastic: the actors, the crew, everyone. We shot that scene for about 12 days.”
Another hurdle? Tom Holland’s acrobatics, because the actor wanted to perform almost all of them personally, especially when Spider-Man removes his mask during the final battle: “We were very fortunate that Tom had already trained for the last three films. His physical conditioning is outstanding, so we weren’t held back. He gave us the confidence to design complex sequences for him,” Zhang explained.
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