Spider-Man 2 is a 2004 American superhero film directed by Sam Raimi and written by Alvin Sargent from a story by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar and Michael Chabon. A sequel to the 2002 film Spider-Man, it is the second installment in the Spider-Man trilogy based on the fictional Marvel Comics character of the same name. Tobey Maguire stars as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, alongside Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Alfred Molina, Rosemary Harris, and Donna Murphy.
Set two years after the events of Spider-Man, the film finds Peter Parker struggling to manage both his personal life and his duties as Spider-Man, which affects his civilian life dramatically. Meanwhile, Dr. Otto Octavius becomes a diabolical villain after a failed experiment kills his wife and leaves him neurologically fused to mechanical tentacles. Spider-Man must stop him from successfully recreating the experiment, which threatens to destroy the city, while dealing with a subconscious desire to stop being Spider-Man that is stripping him of his powers.
Principal photography began in April 2003 in New York City and also took place in Los Angeles. Spider-Man 2 was released in both conventional and IMAX theaters on June 30, 2004 and grossed $789 million worldwide, becoming the third highest-grossing film of the year. It won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and was also nominated for Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing; it also received five awards at the Saturn Awards, including Best Fantasy Film and Best Director for Raimi. It is considered as one of the most influential and best superhero films of all-time. Its success led to Spider-Man 3 (2007).