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[This story contains major spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.]
With their concluding dap in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Jacob Batalon and Tom Holland have joined Predator’s Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers in the pantheon of cinema’s most iconic handshakes.
Batalon’s Ned Leeds and Holland’s Peter Parker might be at the very top of the list when one considers the narrative and emotional significance behind the trademark gesture they’ve been giving each other since their best friendship debuted in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. However, the exact meaning behind this particular exchange has already been hotly debated by the audience that helped the fourth Holland-led Spidey tale surpass Avengers: Endgame for the biggest domestic opening weekend of all time at $360 million. The Destin Daniel Cretton-directed pic also accumulated a worldwide opening of $941 million, second only to Endgame, which again featured Ned and Peter dapping upon their return from the blip.
After Peter had Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) wipe everyone’s memory of him at the end of Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: No Way Home, moviegoers largely assumed the spell that was meant to protect Earth-199999 — including Ned and Peter’s girlfriend, MJ (Zendaya) — would be broken somehow, someway. But that’s not exactly what happened despite the MCU debut of the telepathic X-Men character, Jean Grey (Sadie Sink). Ned and Peter interact throughout the film as Peter’s faux neighbor persona, “Maynard,” as well as Spider-Man. But it’s not until the final scene at a bodega that Peter finally reintroduces himself to Ned as Peter before shaking hands.
