Exact Moment Every Character Knew Peter Parker Was Spider-Man

Spotlighting every time the cinematic Web-head's identity has been revealed.

by Andrew Pollard
Spider-Man 2 Harry Osborn James Franco
Columbia Pictures

Regardless of which actor is under the mask, it seems as if Spider-Man can't help but let the cat out of the bag with his secret identity each and every time the famed Marvel Comics hero swings to the silver screen.

Whether it's Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield or more recently Tom Holland, ol' Web-head has a habit of revealing his secret identity to more people than he likely should. Not just that, though, for there are also those characters who have the smarts to be able to work out the Wall-crawler's real identity without having to have it spelled out for them.

Taking into account the three aforementioned Spideys, here it's all about breaking down the exact moment that characters realised that Peter Parker and Spider-Man were one and the same. Despite knowing about the Web-slinger's identity, there are some names omitted here - see: Happy Hogan - purely for the fact that they were merely told of Spider-Man's identity by other people; in the case of Happy, that'd be info passed onto him by Tony Stark.

With that in mind, then, here are each and every person to have found out who these trio of cinematic Spider-Men really are.

21. Spider-Man - Peter Parker

Spider Man 2002 Peter Parker Tobey Maguire Wall Crawl
Sony

Of course, the first person to realise something was up with Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, was Peter himself.

Feeling a little woozy after being bitten by a radioactive spider, ol' Web-head goes for a lie down and wakes up the following day without the need for glasses and also looking exceedingly more buff. The real fun starts when, out in the wild, Peter notices spider-like hairs coming from his pores, then excitedly climbs a nearby building and starts jumping across rooftops.

20. Spider-Man - Norman Osborn

Spider-Man Norman Osborn Willem Dafoe
Columbia Pictures

The moment where Norman Osborn discovers the truth about Spider-Man's identity is one of the greatest moments in any superhero movie to date.

Attending a Thanksgiving dinner at Peter and Harry's apartment, Willem Dafoe's Osborn first notices a rogue blood splatter on the floor, before then soon discovering a slice on Parker's arm that matches up with a wound caused to the Wall-crawler by the Green Goblin in their prior battle.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.