20 Greatest Moments From Spider-Man Movies

Uncle Ben's (Cliff Robertson) death in the original Sam Raimi Spider-Man is absolutely brutal, but also vitally important in shaping who this iteration of Peter Parker is.

Peter learns the moral lesson of a lifetime when he lets a thief who robbed the wrestling promoter that ripped him off escape, only for said thief to then carjack and shoot Ben dead.

Peter angrily pursues his killer only to realise the truth, that through his own inaction he "caused" Ben's death.

This is a fact he's forced to carry around with him until it's given an atrocious retcon in Spider-Man 3, that the real killer was in fact Flint Marko, and Marko only did it by accident.

Ben's death in the original movie, however, remains one of the most powerful pieces of myth-making in all of superhero cinema.