Spider-Man: Brand New Day ENDING EXPLAINED

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the fourth solo film starring Tom Holland as the web-slinger. Set after the events of No Way Home, it follows Spider-Man as he goes about his new life as New York City’s protector with no one remembering his existence, including his loved ones.

After a highly secretive marketing campaign, fans are undoubtedly wondering what exactly happened at the end of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and what this could mean for the future of the franchise.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day Ending Explained

At the climax of the film, Spider-Man goes to battle Jean Grey (Sadie Sink), who has taken control of Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) to break into the vault at the Department of Damage Control looking for something known as “V-Max”. When the Punisher (Jon Bernthal) arrives, Jean takes him over, leaving Spider-Man to fight a Hulking out Banner.

After he manages to neutralize Hulk, Spider-Man barely makes it to the vault in time to place an inhibitor he has invented onto Jean, allowing Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman) to shoot her with a tranquilizer dart. As she is losing consciousness, she says, “Sarah.” Metzger tells Spider-Man that Jean briefly entered his mind, and he was thinking about someone named Sarah.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Later, Peter confesses to MJ (Zendaya) that he had kissed her while she was controlled by Jean. When MJ says that she has no memory of what happened when Jean was in her mind, Peter realizes that Metzger must have been lying. He contacts Yelena (Florence Pugh), who tells him that the Department of Damage Control has been scrubbing files, including ones that reveal Jean had a sister, Sarah.

Metzger is holding Jean in a cell, revealing that his true intention is to experiment on her to attempt to harness her powers for the government to use for their own intentions. However, Jean sees a faded label reading “V-Max,” realizing that her sister died in that room and was telepathically warning her. 

While Spider-Man tries to go rescue Jean, she breaks free of her bonds, more powerful than ever, putting everyone within a kilometer’s radius of her except for Peter in a state of suspended animation. Punisher, just outside of this radius, begins to set up his sniper rifle. Jean tries to attack Peter with the Hand, but he removes his inhibitor and embraces his arachnid DNA, allowing him to handily defeat the ninjas.

Peter confronts Jean and lets her inside his head, where she sees Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) giving him a talk about what it means to be special. Jean takes Aunt May’s speech to heart, allowing her to bond more with Peter. Suddenly, Peter sees a light coming from a dark hallway in his head and realizes that it is Punisher shooting. He pushes Jean out of the way and takes the bullet for her.

Frank takes Peter to the hospital, and when Peter wakes up, he apologizes. He also says that Jean helped keep him alive with her voodoo magic. Peter escapes from the hospital without his identity being revealed by putting on plain clothes, as Frank puts on the Spider-Man mask and waves from the window of the hospital room.

Peter calls his contact in the NYPD, Detective DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas), who tells him that he needs to take a break. He sees Ned (Jacob Batalon) in a bodega, and he does their secret handshake, which Ned remembers naturally. Ned then says, “Peter?” implying that his memory has been restored.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

What does the ending of Spider-Man: Brand New Day mean for the future of the franchise?

The end of Spider-Man: Brand New Day has some big potential implications for the future of not only the Spider-Man franchise but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole.

Brand New Day saw the introduction of Jean Grey and Bill Metzger, who are in the comics very important characters in the mutant canon. As the MCU continues to integrate the X-Men characters into the canon, the fact that Jean is on the loose could prove to be influential for the future of the series.

Meanwhile, Ned’s memory being restored could have some very big implications for the future of the Spider-Man universe, as the next film could see MJ have her memory restored as well. This makes Spider-Man: Brand New Day one of the most influential movies in the MCU canon.