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Film is perhaps the most technological of artforms, and it relies increasingly on computers for its simulations of the real world. Not surprisingly, films have also expressed concern over the directions in which our technology is taking us, and these days, as spyware snoops around our hard drives and governments assume more powers unto themselves, the issue that crops up repeatedly in films is that of control. Who has it? Who uses it? And to what degree have the devices we created to serve us become our masters?

The dangers of blurring the line between man and machine are touched on in Spider-Man 2, one of several sequels this past summer that improved on their predecessors. Spidey's nemesis this time is Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), a.k.a. Doctor Octopus, a formerly warm and sympathetic scientist who is consumed by his own pride after he attaches four artificially intelligent tentacles, or "smart arms," to his spine. Octavius, who is developing a new fusion-based source of energy, needs these virtually indestructible limbs to perform tasks too hazardous for human flesh, and he assures the people observing his experiment that the "inhibitor chip" built into the tentacles will protect his "higher brain functions" from being taken over by the arms. But then the experiment goes horribly awry, the inhibitor chip is destroyed, and the mechanical arms take on a life of their own—first killing the surgeons that try to remove them, and then pushing Octavius into a life of crime so that he can try his flawed experiment again in an even bigger, grander form.

Octavius is horrified, at first, by what the arms have done, and he recognizes that his own hubris is ultimately to blame; stricken with remorse, he even considers suicide. But then the tentacles, hovering like serpents near his face, tempt him to a different course of action. Octavius tries in vain to resist the voices in his head—"No, no, I'm not a criminal!"—but then his face changes to a wicked grin, and we know that the tentacles have won.

While all this is happening, Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire), too, is losing control of his body, and this, too, is connected to his uncertainty about his own identity and purpose in life. But Peter Parker's struggle is more spiritual than mechanical. He feels obliged to live up to the moral standards encouraged by his late Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson), and he is convinced that, in order to do so, he must reject the opportunity of a relationship with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), the girl he has had a crush on since grade school. But the news that Mary Jane is now engaged to another man causes Peter to doubt his priorities, and the psychosomatic effect of this is that his ability to climb walls and spin webs vanishes at inopportune moments. Eventually, he takes his problems to a physician, who tells him that the problem is in his head, not his body, and who casually remarks that a person's "soul disappears" if they don't know who they are. Peter then decides he cannot be Spider-Man any more.

Peter Parker doesn't get his powers back until Doctor Octopus kidnaps Mary Jane and threatens her life, thus bringing together the personal and heroic threads of Peter's life. And in the end, Spidey saves the day not through sheer force, but by urging Octavius to take back control of his body, which he does; the tragic doctor then saves New York City from his newest experiment-gone-amok by pulling it down into the river, like Samson bringing the Philistine temple down upon himself.

Interestingly, Spider-Man 2 ends with a couple of epilogues that touch on issues of control and free will. Harry Osborn (James Franco), an embittered former friend of Peter's, is haunted by an image of his late father (Willem Dafoe), who he discovers was the villain of the previous film. "You will always be weak until you take control!" says the angry dad, and the viewer is left to speculate that Harry may follow in his father's psychotic footsteps. Contrast this with how Peter does not get his powers back until after he comes out from under the shadow of the guilt he feels over the death of his Uncle Ben; Peter is beginning to truly own the virtues that his uncle and aunt have instilled in him, whereas Harry, it seems, will be owned by his father's vices.

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