In Spider-Man 3, the titular hero faces his greatest challenge yet: himself. Overtaken by an alien symbiote, his worst qualities shine for all the world to see, both as Peter and as Spider-Man. He becomes a shadow of his former self, only realizing it after he accidentally hits Mary Jane when she tries to stop him from escalating a bar fight. Slinking to a bell tower in shame, Peter decides to remove the suit, discovering its weakness to be loud noises when he bumps into the bell. The discovery allows him to successfully remove the suit, but the symbiote always needs a host. Luckily for it, Eddie Brock — Peter's rival photographer — is just below, and the two fuse to become Venom.
Though it's far from an original stunt the third time around, Venom kidnaps Mary Jane to lure Peter in, and the trap is as effective as ever. Together with Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), they're more than a match for Spider-Man, but Harry — who has embraced his father's legacy as Green Goblin — comes back to lend a hand to his best friend. He sacrifices himself to save Peter, but when Venom throws the body into a stack of metal pipes, the symbiote reacts poorly to the clanging noise. Peter quickly takes advantage, making a racket and webbing Eddie out of the symbiote. But Eddie can't bear to give up the power of the suit, and jumps towards it just after Peter throws one of Harry's bombs at it. His insatiable desire begets his demise, and both man and symbiote go up in flames.
