INT. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY RESEARCH LAB - DAY*
PETER nervously approaches MARY JANE. She’s finally alone, admiring the fourteen genetically modified spiders. He holds up his camera.
PETER
Can I take your picture?
I need one with a student in it.
She’s pleasantly surprised.
MARY JANE
Sure. Where do you want me?
(indicates the spider enclosure)
Over here?
PETER
(agreeing to anything)
Yeah! Yeah, that’s great.
Peter backs up a few steps and begins taking pictures. He’s standing in front of a TELEVISION MONITOR that shows computer animation of the genetic engineering process at the lab. Mary Jane awkwardly gestures toward the spiders as she looks at the camera. Snap. Snap.
Peter’s enraptured at the idea of staring at the girl of his dreams through the lens. At this moment, he need not content himself with stolen glances. She is his. Snap. He keeps taking picture after picture, drawing the moment out.
PETER
Perfect.
CU on: The fifteenth SPIDER, dizzyingly descending on a gossamer thread from a web built directly above Peter. It is red and blue and clearly intelligent.
Mary Jane improvises some stage business, living in the moment of semi-stardom. Peter keeps snapping. Snap. Snap.
The spider keeps coming. We see its POV as it gets closer and closer to the unaware Peter. It touches lightly on Peter’s knuckle as his hand operates the camera, makes its way down his hand.
A female voice calls toward them. Another student.
VOICE (O.S.)
MJ! Let’s go!
Without a cursory glance at Peter, or a word of any kind, Mary Jane turns to leave, looking almost embarrassed at having been caught at the other end of the nerdy photographer’s lens.
PETER
(calling after her)
Thanks.
ANGLE ON the spider, now near Peter’s thumb.
ECU: the spider opens its maw wide and, with violence, plunges it deep into Peter’s hand.
Shock! Peter is stunned and instinctively shakes his hand toward the floor. The spider falls off, and Peter watches it crawl away on the carpet. He examines the WOUND. It lies across a blood vessel and is already swelling, with two red dots indicating fang-marks. Peter looks simultaneously in pain and afraid.
TEACHER (O.S.)
Parker? Let’s do it.
Peter looks up and walks out of frame. We stay on the television monitor just as it switches to animated DNA, showing parts of the double-helix ladder being replaced with different-colored parts, being made into a whole. The helix is wiped away by a picture of the genetically modified spider and these words: NEW SPECIES.
* This script was created as fiction by the authors and is not part of the actual Spider-Man movie or television script.