Spider-Man No Way Home: Ending Explained
So, the headline here, is that it is not just the villains of the previous Spider-Man movies who have come through the tear in reality... it's the heroes as well.
After months of speculation, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire both arrive in the movie's final act to help Tom Holland repair the damage their former foes have caused to his reality. Damage that, by this stage, includes the death of Marisa Tomei's Aunt May.
It's a surreal moment in cinema, as all three actors to play Peter Parker on screen in the last 20-or-so years meet and bond over their shared histories in the role and, crucially, their differences as well. After some incredibly touching and entertaining moments between the three (that, in truth, the overall movie would have benefitted from more of) the trio are able to pull their powers together to help heal their adversaries and willingly send them back to their respective realities. Rather than "beating" them, the movie's crux is that everybody deserves a second chance, and Parker - our Parker - isn't willing to simply send them back to die.
In the end, it costs him everything. The only solution is for the original spell to be cast and the entire world - from Strange and his fellow Avengers, to the general public, his best friends, and even MJ - to forget everything about him. Peter Parker and Spider-Man can't both exist in the world as one entity, and after finally hearing the old "with great power..." parable, the former decides that he has a responsibility to maintain the anonymity of the latter.
It's a painful burden to carry, but it's one that he's able to share with his two namesakes who somehow receive even more closure to their stories here than they were offered in their final installments. Both critically panned at the time but enjoying some positive revisionism in recent times, Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 were underwhelming ways for these versions of the character to exit that, thankfully, are now merely later chapters of their story.
But, crucially, the ending of this movie is not about them...