How This Scene in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 Movie Inspired a Game Sequence in Okami

Hideki Kamiya revealed that Okami’s main planner took inspiration from a scene in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 movie to shape one particular moment in the highly-acclaimed 2006 game.

If you’ve seen the movie and played Okami, you probably know what moment I’m talking about. If you haven’t, this is your warning that spoilers lie ahead (though, to be fair, both of these things are over 20 years old at this point).

In the unlikely event you haven’t seen the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies, there’s a scene in the second film where he uses his webs to stop a runaway train at the last second. It’s an iconic moment that has sparked endless tributes and parodies over the years — and it apparently inspired a story beat in Okami, of all things.

In the game, players must find a way to cross a massive, raging river in order to progress to another area. A non-playable character is tasked with repairing the bridge that crosses this river, but in the middle of his chore, a log comes flying downstream at top speeds, prompting a timed gameplay segment where Amaterasu is tasked with slowing the log down using her Vine power before she careens off the side of a waterfall.

As told by Okami director Hideki Kamiya on his official X/Twitter account, this segment was created by planner Hiroshi Shibata, who took direct inspiration from Spider-Man 2.

“This scene was planned by Shibata-san, who served as the main planner, drawing inspiration from the train scene in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2,” Kamiya said matter-of-factly in response to a clip from the moment posted to the official Okami X account.

This is one of several insights that Kamiya has given about his games over the last few months, most recently confirming that Leon S. Kennedy was, indeed, named after the 1994 movie Leon: The Professional. Kamiya famously directed Resident Evil 2, creating one of the series’ most iconic characters whose popularity has stood the test of time. (He’s even getting a life-sized statue in Shibuya later this year to celebrate Resident Evil’s 30th anniversary.)

Okami is finally getting a sequel game, produced by the newly-formed Clovers, founded by Kamiya after his exit from Platinum Games. In collaboration with Capcom, it is a direct continuation of Okami’s main story, not a spin-off in the vein of Okamiden on the DS.

“I always wanted to create an Ōkami sequel,” Kamiya told us in an exclusive interview in February 2025. “Thinking back to about 19 years ago when I first created the game, you have to remember that the story itself isn’t really complete, and I always wanted to complete this game.”

For now, not much else is known about the project, with Clovers saying it will be some time before anything further is shown off publicly. However, we do know that it’s being developed in Capcom’s RE engine, which gives us a vague idea of what the sequel’s visual design might look like off the back of its unique art style in the original game.

Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.