I am here to report that all your memes are the only way one quote from the Madame Web trailer will live on. When you’re watching the actual movie, you’re not going to hear about how her mother was studying spiders in the Amazon. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
A line of exposition that is just very funny to listen to made it into the trailer: “He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before he died.” It explains how Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) is connected to Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson), but the truth of it is that the line is literally just to explain things in the trailer, which is probably why it sounds so forced. Maybe that’s why Johnson was so confused by the memes.
The scene that does feature this information is a back and forth with Cassie and the three girls she ends up having to protect. Julia (Sydney Sweeney), Mattie (Celeste O’Connor), and Anya (Isabela Merced) are all being hunted by Ezekiel when he has visions of his future that include the three of them eventually murdering him when they get their own spider powers.
To try to find answers, Cassie brings her mother’s old belongings to their hideout, and they talk about how Ezekiel is connected to her, with the girls interjecting comments about the situation. So no, that information is not all delivered in a single extremely awkward line. In fact, I don’t think even “He was in the Amazon with my mom” makes it.
It makes us ask: Why did they add that line into the trailer at all? Was it in the movie at one point and then cut? Created by cutting together things that were filmed for the movie, just not all in one sentence? Or was it just recorded specifically for the trailer, to give the audience an idea of what was happening in the small trailers we got? Who decided it was a good idea?
Cut lines aren’t a new thing
There have been plenty of viral moments that were in the trailers for movies but were not actually part of the final product. Most notably, the Rogue One trailer had the quote “This is a rebellion, isn’t it? I rebel.” Many fans (including myself) got tattoos including the final line as part of our Star Wars fandom. When we got to watch the movie, the line was changed to “Rebellions are built on hope,” which is something that Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) says to Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones).
The difference with Madame Web is that we weren’t all cheering for the quote in question. “He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before he died,” became one of the best memes out there because it was just bad.
So maybe it is a good thing that it wasn’t in the movie because despite how low its Rotten Tomatoes score is, I did have fun watching the movie. Maybe if they had leaned into this quote, we’d have upped the cheesy factor, but the truth of the matter is: He WAS in the Amazon with her mother when she was researching spiders right before she died.
(featured image: Sony Pictures Releasing)
